Starless

Album: Last (2011)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • The first single from North East England folk group The Unthanks' fourth album, Last is a bit of the wild card as it's a cover of a 12 minute jazz-rock odyssey from King Crimson's 1974 LP Red. Stripped down to a piano ballad, the Unthanks' version features vocals by Becky Unthank.
  • The Unthanks' manager, pianist and producer Adrian McAlly, told Mojo magazine why the band decided to reach to Robert Fripp's prog rock group for material: "Chris (Price, Unthanks guitarist and I grew up with a fairly comprehensive prog rock education and we're all to aware of its pitfalls and pomposity. Some bands didn't care about the lyrics, or even having a decent singer, as long as they could play in 9/8 time, but others, like King Crimson, did care.

    I wanted to free a fairly well-written song about depression - well, we think it's about depression - and show it to be something beautiful when not inhibited by prog's trappings."
  • The band's co-vocalist Rachel Unthank, who is married to McAlly, said: "It's not music that me and Becky were grown up with. It was Adrian's idea. He got into his parent's record collection, wide and varied and included a lot of prog-rock. King Crimson's 'Starless' was such a beautiful song, and because the melody is so beautiful.

    When he played it to me and Becky, we fell in love with the melody. Becky loved the words and wanted to sing them. Adrian turned it into a string quartet song. It's something we've enjoyed singing onstage."

    "(King Crimson vocalist) John Wetton came to see us as well. He was very nice about it, very generous, though his singing is slightly different from Becky," she added with another laugh.

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Kristian Bush of Sugarland

Kristian Bush of SugarlandSongwriter Interviews

Kristian talks songwriting technique, like how the chorus should redefine the story, and how to write a song backwards.

Christmas Songs

Christmas SongsFact or Fiction

Rudolf, Bob Dylan and the Singing Dogs all show up in this Fact or Fiction for seasonal favorites.

Alan Merrill of The Arrows

Alan Merrill of The ArrowsSongwriter Interviews

In her days with The Runaways, Joan Jett saw The Arrows perform "I Love Rock And Roll," which Alan Merrill co-wrote - that story and much more from this glam rock pioneer.

Gary Numan

Gary NumanSongwriter Interviews

An Electronic music pioneer with Asperger's Syndrome. This could be interesting.

The Fratellis

The FratellisSongwriter Interviews

Jon Fratelli talks about the band's third album, and the five-year break leading up to it.

Director Wes Edwards ("Drunk on a Plane")

Director Wes Edwards ("Drunk on a Plane")Song Writing

Wes Edwards takes us behind the scenes of videos he shot for Jason Aldean, Dierks Bentley and Chase Bryant. The train was real - the airplane was not.