B-side "Elephant Talk" Recorded 1981 Length 3:47 | Released September 1981 Genre Progressive rock Label Warner Bros. | |
"Matte Kudasai" is a single by the progressive rock band King Crimson, released in 1981. Its tracks are from the album Discipline (1981). "Matte Kudasai" evolved from another song recorded by The League of Gentlemen called "Northa Kudasai", which in turn became "North Star" on Robert Fripp's 1979 album Exposure.
Contents
The latest versions of Discipline contain two versions of "Matte Kudasai". On the original releases, just one version was included. That version omitted a guitar part by Robert Fripp. "Matte Kudasai (Alternative version)" has the guitar part included.
Adrian Belew applies a slide and echo to his guitar to simulate the sound of seagulls twice in the song; once at the beginning, and again near the end.
"Matte Kudasai" means "please wait" in Japanese.
Track listing
- "Matte Kudasai" (special mix) (Adrian Belew, Bill Bruford, Robert Fripp, Tony Levin)
- "Elephant Talk" (Belew, Bruford, Fripp, Levin)
Covers
On 7 February 2011, Kurt Elling released the album The Gate, with a version of the song as the opening track.
Mr. McFall's Chamber covered the song on its 2001 album Upstart Jugglers.
On 20 April 2011, k.d. lang and her band the Siss Boom Bang covered the song as part of her concert at the BBC Radio Theater. The audio and video of that performance were broadcast on 21 April 2011 on BBC Radio 2. Lang noted in her introduction to the song that it was influential on the sound of her fifth album, Ingenue.
In late 2005, Voiceprint released the first Crimson Jazz Trio album, The King Crimson Songbook, Volume One with a well-received instrumental version of the song, featuring fretless bass work by Tim Landers. The Crimson Jazz Trio was a short-lived jazz trio conceived by former King Crimson drummer Ian Wallace and pianist Jody Nardone. The trio's brief existence was prematurely ended by Wallace's death in February 2007.
The Levin Brothers (keyboardist/arranger Pete Levin and King Crimson bassist Tony Levin) included an instrumental version of "Matte Kudasai" on their 2014 album Levin Brothers.