The King Crimson studio album poll

A lot of their 90's onward technical rock ain't got no mood or atmosphere unless it's a repeat from an earlier song; and a lot of Fripp's work in the Projekcts sounds so similar to his stuff in the other parts of the Projekcts that I wonder if Fripp can branch out at all anymore. A couple years ago I left a guestbook entry on DGMlive stating that Fripp's guitar tone, in particular, could use something new (like a lot more grungy distortion)

To be honest most of the successes King Crimson had after the 70's band broke up should really be credited to Belew. Fripp's come up with some neat concepts but Belew always wrote the songs that made them work - I always found the the more Fripp-centric stuff that the 80's band did like the second side of TOAPP or "Requiem" to be dull, and even TPTB sounds a lot like the subsequent Belew solo albums.

Which is to say, given what I do know of them, I'm pretty fucking certain Frith and Cutler never did a single thing that rocked .02% as hard as "Red" or the breakdown in "Schizoid Man."

Um, please check out the three Art Bears albums and see if you still feel this way. They are monstrously heavy! I mean let's not throw the baby out w the bwater here just because Cutler has some weird hangups about other bands. (FYI I don't like Henry Cow either but Art Bears were a whole different deal).

And as for Cutler, everyone knows that Ubu got good again when Scott Krauss came back.

The Tenement Year is IMO the third best Ubu album after Modern and Dub so I gotta disagree with you there. Cutler is a monster when persuaded into a rock/song-based forum.

He has to talk a bunch of crap, he's a marxist.

/Which is to say, given what I do know of them, I'm pretty fucking certain Frith and Cutler never did a single thing that rocked .02% as hard as "Red" or the breakdown in "Schizoid Man."/

Um, please check out the three Art Bears albums and see if you still feel this way. They are monstrously heavy! I mean let's not throw the baby out w the bwater here just because Cutler has some weird hangups about other bands. (FYI I don't like Henry Cow either but Art Bears were a whole different deal).

Fair enough. I had forgotten about those records.

/And as for Cutler, everyone knows that Ubu got good again when Scott Krauss came back./

The Tenement Year is IMO the third best Ubu album after Modern and Dub so I gotta disagree with you there. Cutler is a monster when persuaded into a rock/song-based forum.

But that's my point -- The Tenement Year is the record Krauss came back for. My memory was he was the guy who made the difference, not Cutler.

He has to talk a bunch of crap, he's a marxist.

True enough. It reminds me of when Robert Wyatt broke w bassist (and brother of writer Ian MacDonald) Bill McCormack when the latter became an MP or something. To understand how personally betrayed Wyatt (a Stalinist and by all accounts a wonderful person) felt by it all, have a listen to the withering "Alliance" he wrote in response.

Anyway, my real point was that I think that the reason a lot of free improv-types like Cutler probably don't care for Fripp is that he went in a decidedly different direction after having probably started in somewhat similar places. And the fact that Fripp remained every bit as intense and dogmatic about his own work as these guys were about theirs probably didn't help matters.

oh yeah, damn I had changed it in my mind so that Cloudland was Krauss + Cutler and Tenement Year was just Cutler. Duh.

For a remarkably un-Marxist Cutler spiel, see his recent statement about the effects of downloading...

Anyway King Crimson! Corking great band!

revive so i could lol at this again

"In fact, I've never seen so many delightful young bodies, both quantity and quality, within such a short space of time as the last month in America. I was overwhelmed. By the end of the tour, I came back unfit for anything, completely exhausted on every level of my being. Oh! Oh!

not even a year later, i am here to revive

this time i will repost the excerpt in its entirety because it is just that good

From Robert Fripp: The Sexual Athlete, by Ian MacDonald:

"What," I enquired, fully expecting a swift back-down, "was the best lay you ever had?"

Fripp stroked his chin, reflectively. "There are about four chicks involved in that – not, in this case, simultaneously. I have to admit. However, return with me if you will to my earliest days as a rock musician. I used to get complaints from Greg (Lake). Not directly, but I used to hear about them.

"You see, we shared this flat which was basically one room divided into two by a thin cardboard screen. It was, as you can imagine, not fit to live in. Anyway, Greg used to complain about the gasps and screams coming from my side of the partition and, I must admit, his women used to get on my nerves too. No comment on Gregory, just his women – but I decided to move out.

"The ensuing period of my homelessness in 1969 was one of the most rewarding of my life. I was continually thrown on the mercies and generosities of tender maidens. Oh those lovely situations. It was quite awful in one way – but quite beautiful in another."

...

"Of course, when one is young one has all these delusions of being the great stud and one is not interested in a harmonious relationship of giving and taking. But, I'm happy to say, those days for me are now long past and I have spent many fulfiling hours, even on this very lawn upon which I now recline, not only copulating but involved in various other activities.

"In fact I was lying here naked one day, a young lady in attendance, when my next-door neighbour, the chairman of the Rural District Council, popped his head over yonder hedge to inform me that I had Dutch Elm Disease."

"Of course, when one is young one has all these delusions of being the great stud and one is not interested in a harmonious relationship of giving and taking. But, I'm happy to say, those days for me are now long past and I have spent many fulfiling hours, even on this very lawn upon which I now recline, not only copulating but involved in various other activities.

"In fact I was lying here naked one day, a young lady in attendance, when my next-door neighbour, the chairman of the Rural District Council, popped his head over yonder hedge to inform me that I had Dutch Elm Disease.

"But America is the place for numbers really. We've just done all the sunshine areas. Now sunshine, what ever it does to anyone else, has the most alarming repercussions within me. Things happen to my body. I undergo chemical changes.

"I find myself drooling, my tongue hanging out, my mouth snapping together involuntarily, twitchings – obsessive thoughts – the lewd imagination develops.

"In fact, I've never seen so many delightful young bodies, both quantity and quality, within such a short space of time as the last month in America. I was overwhelmed. By the end of the tour, I came back unfit for anything, completely exhausted on every level of my being. Oh! Oh!

"Nowadays I say to the rest of the lads: Take my name off the list, lads, put me on the reserve list – only to be called up in dire emergency. Then, after an afternoon in the sun by a swimming-pool with all these young bodies hanging in and out of bikinis, I say: Lads, you've got to put me back on the list. And I'll be called up to action. Oh! Oh! The battles that are fought throughout the Holiday-Inns of America! Delightful."

...

AND ENO? What of the man that the groupies of three continents have come to know as The Refreshing Experience?

"Yes," nods Fripp, his glazed expression returning. "We're both incorrigible womanizers, both wonderful examples of young Taurian virility. It may interest you to see a certain picture which will be the cover for our joint recording effort, The Transcendental Music Corporation, featuring us both in a state of undress.

"We were intending to have with us certain similarly unclad females – but, on reflection, decided that this was but a feeble excuse to gaze upon the works of the creator made manifest in the flesh.

"So we decided that it was a far nicer idea to have Eno and myself in the nude as a small way of saying thank you to those ladies who have done what they can in the past to enable us to develop as men – and, hopefully, as an invitation to all those ladies in the future who'd like to help us develop even further."

Oh! Oh!

I can only imagine Fripp having sex sitting on a little stool with a very serious face

LOL

Great thread.

I listened to Fripp's strangely poignant motivational speech this morning ("from good to great") and he tells a story about the VV editor's cats named Fripp & Eno.

listened to starless & bible black and lizards to wash away the eoy traxpoll (lolz) and hey they're rly gr8

especially the former, my god

actually wait no, lizards was equally brilliant in its own way. very surreal, crazy record, elements of weird proto-techno flitting thru the mix too

and then the Fripp String Quartet, whose closing movement, Threnody For Souls In Torment, is a staggering work of pure icy terror

lizard's my favorite and i wish they'd done more cosmic circus music like that

sparkle motion, where did you source the perf of 'Red' on Megaphonium Fanfare from? It's not the one on Absent Lovers which is the only live Belew lineup album I have...

Lizard is underrated, especially the title trak

Jon - That one is from a boot I pulled off the net, Den Haag, NL, 2003. Let me know if you'd like the rest of it.

Is the rest of the gig comparable? (I see where I can download it from).

Am I right that we are getting closer to the live debut of the new line-up?

Logic would suggest that, yes.

No, I mean, there are dates, correct? September?

Meanwhile:

http://issuu.com/samsleiman/docs/mike_giles

In all seriousness, I have no idea.This is the most recent thing I could find, in Uncut:

"The first performance will take place in either North or South America," Fripp told Uncut. "There will be rehearsals primarily in England, and the final batch of rehearsals will most likely be in America in August or September 2014. There is a plan to include the UK in the tour dates, but it depends on a number of circumstances. Right now the primary geographical focus is the United States."

http://www.uncut.co.uk/node/19245#mmsoVdUHJq4rCBS2.99

I'd have to listen to the Den Haag gig again to say whether the rest of it is noteworthy- I remember the mix not being as clean- sounds like a radio broadcast. But if you want a great recording of that band, 'New Haven CT 11/14/03 (KCCC44), is a killer. It's the last gig of that band's life, and in true KC fashion they give their final performance their all.

I gave a listen to the Den Haag show in its entirety. Noteable moments are a good runthrough of Dangerous Curves with a proper climax to the song, and LTIA IV wherein the coda is played without the vocals, making it about a hundred times better than any version in which those lyrics are sung.
Otherwise, it's a pretty typical gig.

The New Haven show is pretty spectacular, particularly Level 5 and Lark's 4. I'm just lately starting to shuffle through the live recordings of this phase of the band (having not been a huge fan of the last two albums on the whole, but having been a fan since 86 or so).

Is new haven still buyable as a download from DGM?

dunno, it is still available on the internet in places.

it's going to be pretty weird to not have Belew in this band, frankly. I wonder if they'll avoid his and the 80's bands songs. I know those have been frankly played to death at this point, but still. That was my entry into KC.

Who's singing? Jaczycjjck?

yes

he can reliably cover earlier KC material but I think it would be stepping on toes and just kind of wrong to do Belew written material, so I assume they won't

After the Den Haag show I've been playing the last KC recording, from '08 with the double drum setup. Funny that they essentially fused the setlists from The Power to Believe tour with the standard Thrak era numbers- generally this gig is more interesting than invigorating- Levin is a lot less muscular than Gunn on the more "recent" stuff, but when it comes to Frame by Frame and the like he can play it in his sleep. Overall I found myself more intrigued than I had in the past by the presence of a 2nd drummer. It's abundantly clear that Fripp loves clattering percussion, and this show has it in abundance.

A little more time together probably would have done them some good, but maybe enough was enough. Truly I never quite got his motivation for that brief incarnation of Crim.

Me either. It's a good lineup and I wish they'd donea record with Harrison, so maybe they will now. Maybe not?

I'm not keen on Jakko but really I can't imagine who in Fripp's world would be a more preferable (to me) frontman etc.

I listened to Fripp's strangely poignant motivational speech this morning ("from good to great") and he tells a story about the VV editor's cats named Fripp & Eno.

― free your spirit pig (La Lechera), Saturday, May 25, 2013 3:55 PM (1 year ago) Bookmark

ok so i listened to this and have thought about it so many times since. it was really good. but the real reason i am posting here is because r fripp's sister is the reason he recorded that speech -- she's really big on the public speaking circuit and does lots of trainings and whatnot. she was featured on "from good to great" briefly.

flash forward to this past weekend. i went home to visit my parents and my mom needed some help with her computer. she received an email from p@tricia fripp and i was like "p@tricia fripp -- is that robert fripp's sister?!" (i didn't remember her name) and my mom was like "how do you know who robert fripp is?" turns out my mom has attended some of p fripp's seminars and she was aware that her brother was a guitar player, but did not know he was someone that i would have any interest in. we loled, we told my dad who these people are, nbd. i played

THEN the next morning i stopped by before i took off i stopped by and my mom went to use the bathroom, but my dad and i heard her giggling. it was kind of weird. she came back downstairs and said that she was talking with p fripp, who had called her to arrange some sort of appt, and she had emailed a link for me (my mom told her about the previous day's lols). apparently robert fripp's next public speaking engagement is also available via live stream, so if anyone wants that -- i've got the link! so weird.

of course the whole time in the back of my mind were fripp and eno humping their way across the usa (i did not mention this to my parents)
Oh! Oh! The battles that are fought throughout the Holiday-Inns of America! Delightful."

the end

i played
oops-- forgot to finish that sentence -- i youtubed some songs so my mom could hear the guitar playing of robert fripp and she agreed that yes, he is a top notch guitar player and very inventive

OMG all of this is most satisfactory indeed!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ftAWA_oUFOA

She was one step removed from a carnival barker at the merch table on the tour.

omg lol

it's really unnerving how their faces look so much alike
they're not twins are they?!

Also how they refer to themselves in the third person.

what if they address one another in conversation as 'brother' and 'sister'?

I think it would be great if she was the variety of motivational speaker that spends her time onstage seated, nearly motionless, staring at a laptop and other devices surrounding her, and thus is reliant on more outgoing American underlings to engage the audience that paid to attend the event and to be motivated (I'm sure someone else has made that funnee on the innuhnet at some point).

she's really nice and ives in the bay area. she worked the merch table at the KC shows here a few months ago; she told me a 'medium' would probably fit me because I was not as 'chubby as some of our fans'.

!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8t4lYNjS0Y#t=80

what do people think of Lizard?

the steven wilson remix is nice