Fallen Angel (song)
Encyclopedia
"Fallen Angel" is a song by progressive rock
Progressive rock
Progressive rock is a subgenre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s as part of a "mostly British attempt to elevate rock music to new levels of artistic credibility." John Covach, in Contemporary Music Review, says that many thought it would not just "succeed the pop of...

 band King Crimson
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...

, the second track on their album Red
Red (King Crimson album)
Red is a 1974 album by progressive rock group King Crimson.It was their last studio recording of the 1970s and the last before the lead member Robert Fripp temporarily disbanded the group....

. The verse is in 4/4 time
Time signature
The time signature is a notational convention used in Western musical notation to specify how many beats are in each measure and which note value constitutes one beat....

 with the chorus in 6/8.

The song is presumably about a boy who gets his younger brother to join in the Hell's Angels with him, and eventually watches him die in a fight in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

.

"Fallen Angel" is the last King Crimson recording to date to feature Robert Fripp playing acoustic guitar. On subsequent recordings, he has played only electric guitar
Electric guitar
An electric guitar is a guitar that uses the principle of direct electromagnetic induction to convert vibrations of its metal strings into electric audio signals. The signal generated by an electric guitar is too weak to drive a loudspeaker, so it is amplified before sending it to a loudspeaker...

. The song began as part of an extended instrumental improvisatory piece performed by the original 1972-74 line-up with Jamie Muir and David Cross. A version of this early piece, also titled "Improv: Fallen Angel" can be heard on the King Crimson Collectors' Club release "Live at the Zoom Club October 1972".

The influence of Bela Bartok is noticeable in the guitar riff.
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK