King Crimson were breaking up even as they convened in July 1974 for the album's sessions. David Cross left at the end of the group's summer tour, leaving a pared-down principal trio of Fripp, John Wetton and Bill Bruford to go forward with a few assists from ex-bandmates Mel Collins and Ian McDonald. Red came out on Oct. 6, 1974, heralded by Fripp's rather depressing comment that Crimson were "over for ever and ever" in the New Music Express. (...)

Except the critical estimation of Red has continued to rise over the past four decades. 

Kurt Cobain, for instance, would count Red as a landmark in his brief, but influential career. The album landed on many best-of lists over the years. And McDonald, who'd earlier worked on King Crimson's genre-defining 1969 prog classic Court of the Crimson King, counts this album among the group's most important. "I think Red is the best of the next wave of Crimson," he said in Will Romano's Mountains Come Out of the Sky. "Robert defined the band and found his voice, as far as I'm concerned, guitar-wise."