The Mincer
Date: Thu, 2 Dec 1993 16:15:43 -0800
From: Malcolm Humes <malcolm at wrs dot com>
Subject: The Mincer
mike dot dickson at almac dot co dot uk wrote about this track from Starless & Bible Black:
> 'The Mincer' - live, Parc des Expositions, Zurich (15 November
> 1973) and overdubbed at AIR Studios, London (January 1974)
...
>The tape ran out during the recording of 'The Mincer', hence the
>rather abortive finale.
There are surviving tapes of the entire gig though, and those have the
original improv continue on into some other areas. One friend of mine
claims that the jam falls apart a little bit right after the tape ran out
on the master of concert recording and he wonders if maybe the tape
"running out" wasn't a convenient excuse to end the thing without it
continuing to the point he thought it stumbled. But since Fripp has said
the tape ran out and it sure sounds like it did I'll believe the official
version.
If the musicians really did lose it for a moment there perhaps it was
because Fripp was watching the tape roll out the end of the reel,
fluttering at his feet... 8^0
It's quite interesting to hear the jam continue after the point where your
ears expect it to stop, with the ending indelible in memory from so many
listens to the "studio" version. It also sounds a bit different without
vocals (which were overdubbed in the studio later) and a bit sparser.
- Malcolm
Mike Stok