Matte Kudasai


"Matte Kudasai" is a ballad by the progressive rock band King Crimson. Featuring vocals by Adrian Belew, it was released as the first single from the album Discipline. In the UK, the single just missed the chart. The title means "Wait, Please" in the Japanese language.
"Matte Kudasai" evolved out of a song that had been played during the League of Gentlemen's 1980 tour rehearsals. It was titled "Northa Kudasai" by Discipline Global Mobile archivist Alex R. "Stormy" Mundy who posted the rehearsal recordings for download. The rehearsal song, in turn, was developed from "North Star," which had appeared on Robert Fripp's 1979 album Exposure.
The 30th and 35th anniversary editions of Discipline contain two versions of "Matte Kudasai", the second presented as a bonus track. The first version on these editions is a new release featuring a guitar overdub by Robert Fripp. The bonus track "Matte Kudasai " is the original version from the 1981 LP.
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.

Track listing

  1. "Matte Kudasai"
  2. "Elephant Talk"

    Personnel

In late 2005, Voiceprint released the first Crimson Jazz Trio album, The King Crimson Songbook, Volume One with an 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 folded after Wallace's death in February 2007.
On 7 February 2011, Kurt Elling released the album The Gate, with a version of the song as the opening track.
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 . Lang noted in her introduction to the song that it was influential on the sound of her fifth album, Ingenue.
The Levin Brothers included an instrumental version of "Matte Kudasai" on their 2014 album Levin Brothers.