King Crimson: The Great Deceiver

Published on Feb 4/2021 by King Crimson
YouTube: King Crimson - The Great Deceiver (4:01)
THE GREAT DECEIVER (Wetton, Palmer-James, Fripp)

Health-food faggot with a bartered bride
Likes to comb his hair with a dipper ride
Once had a friend with a cloven foot
Once he called the tune in a chequered suit

Great Deceiver

In the door on the floor in a paper bag
There's a shoe-shine boy with a gin-shop slag
She raised him up and she called him son
And she canonised the ground that he walked upon

Great Deceiver

Cigarettes, ice cream, figurines of the Virgin Mary
Cigarettes, ice cream, figurines of the Virgin Mary

Cigarettes, ice cream, cadillacs blue jeans

In the night he's a star in the Milky Way
He's a man of the world by the light of day
A golden smile and a proposition
And the breath of God smells of sweet sedition

Great Deceiver

Sing hymns make love get high fall dead
He'll bring his perfume to your bed
He'll charm your life 'til the cold winds blow
Then he'll sell your dreams to a picture show

Cigarettes, ice cream, figurines of the Virgin Mary
Cigarettes, ice cream, figurines of the Virgin Mary

Cadillacs, blue jeans, Dixieland playing on the ferry
[....] hair, Brylcreem, drop a glass full of antique sherry

References

Wikipedia: Starless and Bible Black
Starless and Bible Black is an album released by the British progressive rock band King Crimson in 1974. Most of the vocal pieces on the album are satires and commentaries on the sleaziness and materialism of society. A notable exception to this lyrical theme is "The Night Watch."

The album begins with "The Great Deceiver", which marries a powerful, almost punishing riff to some of King Crimson's most acerbic lyrics, beginning with "Health food faggot", a reference to a vegetarian "meatball"; this is often mistaken for a gay reference due to the well known derogatory meaning "faggot" has (the author himself has stated he meant the meatballs, and the gay connotation didn't occur to him until later).

Wikipedia: King Crimson
King Crimson are a rock band founded in London, England in 1969. Often categorised as a foundational progressive rock group, the band have incorporated diverse influences and instrumentation during their history (including jazz and folk music, classical and experimental music, psychedelic rock, hard rock and heavy metal, new wave, gamelan, electronica and drum and bass). The band have been influential on many contemporary musical artists, and have gained a large cult following despite garnering little radio or music video airplay.

Wikipedia: Robert Fripp
Robert Fripp (born 16 May 1946) is an English guitarist, composer and record producer best known for being a guitarist for, and the only constant member of, progressive rock band King Crimson. His work, spanning five decades, encompasses a variety of musical styles. His complete discography includes more than seven hundred releases. Fripp was ranked 42nd on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time" (published August 2003).

2011-06-19

Site Map - William Quincy Belle

Follow me on Twitter