Yes, that was really great! It really adds a lot of tension to that last chorus. It's also a nice nod to what Keith Tippet was doing in Cat Food. The mellotron also works really well during the buildup parts with Mel Collins soloing over it. It all sounds a bit like an alternate reality where Red had been recorded by the Poseidon line up... It's not necesarilly better or worse than the original version, but it's different enough to be interesting in its own way as any good live version should be anyway...
Actually I have a personal anecdote about that...
Back in 2009 my band Mahtrak was playing a big Prog Festival in Rio de Janeiro, and we decided to throw a bone at the Prog audience by playing something they might recognize. So we decided to play Red, to which everyone in the band agreed immediatelly. Then everyone set out to learn their parts so we could play it at our next rehearsal. Since I play the keyboards and there are no keyboards in this song, it was very clear to me since the beginning that I simply should not play anything at all. I felt that any keyboards I might try to add would just water it down and make it less powerful. When we arrived at the rehearsal and started playing it, I did not play at all, so the band stopped and asked if I didn't have time to learn it. I said that I did, but there was nothing for me to play on it. They scratched their heads for a while and then someone said:
- But I thought you loved this song!
- Yes, of course I do!
- But you refuse to play it!
- No, there's just nothing for me to play at all!
After some further head scratching, someone suggested:
- Ok then, let's choose another song...
- Why???
- Well, you don't want to play this one....
- I never said that... I think we should keep it, it sounds terrific!
Some more head scratching ensued, then they just shrugged and went on to play the whole thing. And it did sound terrific with just the power trio of guitar, bass and drums. To me that's how it was supposed to sound, and I just felt happy to "contribute silence", to paraphase Fripp. I really couldn't hear any keyboard parts that would work with Red, being such an iconic guitar driven song. You know, don't mess with perfection...
I took 10 years for King Crimson themselves to finally come to Brazil and prove me wrong...
Bookmarks