Three Of A Perfect Pair

King Crimson: Three Of A Perfect Pair

With Prog-rocker giants Yes & Genesis u-turning into Top 40 acts battling it out with Duran Duran and Culture Club in the early 1980s, Crimson were still making brave, intelligent music...

We've recorded a great portion of the album already in London, and we've set aside November for finishing it. I have to finish the lyrics to three or four songs.The album seems to be taking on themes of Industrialism at this point. Lyrically, I've been trying to develop a pseudo-language of industrial terms by taking different syllabic phrases and putting them together to create a new vocabulary for some of the songs.

If there's an underlying theme to the album...and I'm only speaking of the lyrics, it would be the passing of the industrial age, and the move into the information age. I feel the industrial age has passed. I mourn that In some ways, and don't in others; of course I'm glad there will be an end to the bad ecological effects. But I think I'll mourn the passing of trains and the rail system (see The Rail Song on Belew's SOLO album, Twang Bar King). 1983 during the recording of Three of A Perfect Pair

With Three Of A Perfect Pair, Crimson's mode of activity was essentially a 50:50 split between:

• tense funk as art-rock songs &
• disturbing instrumentals 

...and if Three Of A Perfect Pair does have a weakness, it's that lyricist Adrian Belew's marriage was obviously in a bad state* and his noble take-it-on-the-chin stance seems to be less er...interesting than the verbal mayhem of Discipline or the passionate beat poetry of Beat.

Note to lyricists: Maudlin is less sellable than Existential.

"...She...
...is susceptible
He...
...is impossible
They...
...Have their cross to share
Three of a perfect pair..."

 Three Of A Perfect Pair

Marital discord doesn't really sit well with Crimson vision for me. Paradoxically, though, Three Of A Perfect Pair then becomes distinct, in that it does have that theme running through it...ah well, six of one, half a dozen of the other. 

"...Not a model man
Not a savior or a saint
Imperfect in a word
Make no mistake

But I'll...
Give you everything...
...I have
Take me as I am..."

      Model Man

Sleepless, is a litle more ambiguous and is all the better for it. Certainly the standout song, it's King Crimson veering ever-so-slightly towards paranoid dance music:

"...In a dream I
...Fall into the sleeless sea
With a swell of
Panic and pain..."

               Sleepless

...with everything clubbed into shape by Bruford while Levin's watchful bass stands like a funky sentinel as Belew's sleeplessness threatens to pull him under.        

Though I'm loathe to admit it Man With An Open Heart** is a bit of a let-down after Sleepless...and though a good song in itself (it's got a really surprising chorus), doesn't lift the album as it should, sounding a little too Talking Heads-ish.

The second half of the album is far more experimental, with all sorts of industrial clanks and thuds, atmospheric bass, strange guitars, often exploring space rather than playing "music" as such.

Stuck in the middle of this metal music is a curio, Dig Me, the lament of a car left to rot. with Belew intoning a corroded monologue:

"...My skin is metallic now, no longer an elegant powder blue...my body unhinged and sleeping in the jungle of motor block manifolds and metal relics...what was deluxe becomes debris. I never questioned loyalty but this dead end demolishes the dream of the open highway.

Dig me...but don't...bury me..."

                                                                                           Dig Me

Hmmm. After the tour to promote the album. Fripp ceased King Crimson activity for ten years. Dig me?

King Crimson: Three Of A Perfect Pair

"...I am a die-hard fan of Crimson in all their incarnations and would be hard pressed to select a single favorite album but if you made me do it, well, this one would definitely be in the running...Three Of A Perfect Pair has a more "poppish" sound than most of their stuff - just imagine the Talking Heads with their musical sophistication increased about ten thousand times...I highly recommend it..." Amazon.com reviewer Gregory Klebanoff

"...This is definitely a must-have for anyone interested in the band, and it's arguably a classic in progressive sound and rock music in general. Please note: the most recent remaster of this and other 'Discipline-era' albums features additional tracks, in this case a ton of remixes..." Amazon.com reviewer Mr. G. Morrison

"...Recommended not only to prog and King Crimson fans, but also to fans of 80s New Wave who prefer their music with a little bit of an edge..." Amazon.com reviewer Kevin Caffrey

There is also a LIVE concert of the Sleepless tour available with two different concerts:

• The Noise, LIVE in Frejus, 1982 shot on film
• Three Of A Perfect Pair, LIVE in Japan, 1984 shot on video