.
The ritual use of cacophonous sound in the punishment of moral offenders… designed simultaneously to expose, rebuke and humiliate those who had seriously offended…
Christopher Marsh
Music And Society In Early Modern England
(Cambridge 2010).
I
RF: Bringing together several recent threads and postings on this page, inter alia: morning reading - “oppression-induced silencing”, a superb turn of phrase IMO; Endless Grief – time to let it go and enjoy my wonderful life?; the Dear Andrew letters – did they influence “the arc of Mr. Alder’s career”?; St. George’s pesky dragon – and let’s not forget Georgie Boy’s pointy sword; creative imagination descending into delusion; the collective engagement of dissentient views with goodwill; how to engage with a malign and overwhelmingly powerful adversary; and, perhaps key to all of this, the development of a personal discipline. And a PJ Crook artwork, too.
Prof. Sanford C. Goldberg’s term - “oppression-induced silencing” – is an excellent and accurate description of Mr. Alder’s approach to the accurate reporting of how he conducted business, and those details being made public. Bullying and threatening in personal meetings (the last of which with me was on April 17th. 1991) and via his legal representatives, the use of gagging orders, “oppression-induced silencing” is illustrative in describing Mr. SG Alder’s approach to engaging dissentient views when I engaged with him.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E.G._Records
II
Raymond Peck: I'm interested to know how you managed to prevent this from tainting everything that came after for you. This is a burning question, burning white hot for 14 years.
RF: This deserves a longer, considered answer. In the fulness of time, this may well we presented. Certainly, the depth of EG abuse under Mr. SG Alder’s direction marked a turning point in my professional life, with considerable adverse personal / professional consequences (and also to others). The question I held in the fiery times of full-on dispute - How to turn this seeming disadvantage to my advantage? And a question within this - How may I use this opportunity to refine my practice?
Two related “Work” heuristics:
1. We are given the work we need.
2. A reward for good work, honourably undertaken and discharged, is to be given the work we need to currently address.
And there is an adage along the lines of… we don’t fully engage with the interior life until we lose confidence in the “outside” world.
My spiritual Mother, Elizabeth Bennett, said to me at the Red Lion House in Cranborne, Dorset c. 1987: There is no justice in this world. At the time I thought, this is hard. I continue to reflect on Elizabeth’s words today.
My view, as of this sunny morning in Bredonborough: there is some justice in this world. But justice is not a given, a natural quality, that arises from within “this world”. Justice is a property of a more qualitative domain, a world of qualities. So when justice is provided in our here-and-now, it enters from that “higher” world. I infer, the appearance of Justice takes place for specific reason/s. Likely this leads us towards considerations of fate, destiny and karma. But not today.
JG Bennett’s progression of triadic unfolding is sophisticated, and describes how free choices become increasingly constrained, limited and conditioned, and indicates possible outcomes and repercussions. Eventually, this arrives at a place where nothing happens: a null world of experiencing.
One recently contested subject, on this page, is the confusion between “fantasy” and delusion. The triadic approach indicates the distancing that develops between “good” fantasy and “bad” fantasy (my paraphrasing).
“Good” fantasy: illuminates and reveals what is real. The working of Creative Imagination to illuminate / describe / indicate the “real world”, and shine into our everyday world. “Bad” fantasy – as in delusionary imagination, distances us from what is real, and generates negative effects / consequences in the both real and unreal worlds - “acts to separate oneself from the present moment by replacing the present with an imagined one” (Andrew Moyer).
W 96 -(1-2-3) IMAGINATION Substitution of the non- actual for the actual... ‘Building castles in Spain’… that which should be preserved in potency is wasted in actualization… Possibilities are used up to no purpose… ‘Useless imagination’ to be distinguished from the creative imagination… (which opens) the way to the new. Impoverishes existence by wasting even the possibilities that it has.
Andrew Moyer. Quoted with permission.
Similarly with Justice, a higher-order principle which would ideally be present within the legal system. But where the legal system is not directly concerned with the provision of justice, the results become problematic. Cf the advice of McKinsey & Co: Exploit the economics of law. Which was a strategy used by UMG Music in their recent defence against DGM / Panegyric (settled on our terms May 2024 after 4 years of large legal fees and some 28 years of dispute).
“ +(3-1-2) IMPOSITION The operation of ‘Justice systems’ can never give ‘Justice.’ The imposition of rules and systems as the letter of the law always creates unintended and destructive consequences”.
-(3-1-2) DELUSION A very narrow vision caused by the active shutting out of the wider reality.
Andrew Moyer. Quoted with permission.
So, Justice does not arise in this world, but may enter it. The question for me then becomes practical: how may I support the entry and action of “higher-order principles” into our everyday world? From there, we move to establishing a personal practice, one which sustains us in the fluctuations and frictions of (what is only nominally) the real world.
III
Do not concern yourself with driving out the dark.
Concern yourself with bringing in the light.
Rev. Peter Dewey
(personal conversation 1974)
https://besharamagazine.org/remarkable-lives/towards-a-deeper-spirituality-peter-dewey/
One aspect of –
Q: Why publish Endless Grief?
A: To throw light on murky dealings, noting in this particular case I am probably the only person in a position to do this.
IV
Raymond Peck: In my experience, deep betrayals cut so to the core of our heartfelt need for trust in those close to us that they can poison our connection to everyone around us from the moment on.
RF: Mr. SG Alder, and the EG Way as it developed under his control, was as deep a betrayal as I have known.
It re-directed my approach to business.
Trust may be assumed, but has to be earned.
I may only trust others to the extent that I can trust myself.
It has not poisoned my connections to those around me.
Raymond Peck: I couldn't quite reach the end of this post, because I began to feel physically ill... How awful. In my experience, deep betrayals cut so to the core of our heartfelt need for trust in those close to us that they can poison our connection to everyone around us from the moment on. I'm interested to know how you managed to prevent this from tainting everything that came after for you. This is a burning question, burning white hot for 14 years.
RF: A burning question is, where possible, to be answered.
A single go-to overview archive of EG stinkiness is here…
https://www.dgmlive.com/diaries/Robert%20Fripp/2025-03-06-rf-diary.
This was initially compiled for Ludovic Hunter-Tilney to give him a sufficient background for our interview in 2012…
https://www.ft.com/content/f588e100-d7ee-11e1-9980-00144feabdc0.
LH-T: (RF) even has a toehold in rap, through being sampled by Kanye West, who based his single “Power” on Crimson’s 1969 classic “21st Century Schizoid Man”. The “Schizoid Man” sample is a chapter in the story of Fripp’s current professional difficulties. The fact that West’s song notched up 1m hits on YouTube before Fripp was approached about the use of the sample, and that he had to speak directly to the rapper himself to OK it, is one of a number of grievances he has with the world’s largest record label, Universal Music Group…
His complaints stem from Universal’s acquisition of the various labels to which King Crimson were signed. The main contention centres on CD sales, downloads and digital streams of Crimson tracks that he claims Universal had no right to allow. The acrimony has rumbled on for almost five years. ..
“This is very old ground,” says a Universal spokeswoman when I put the claims to her. “We have been working with Robert for some time to try to clear up some issues that he has raised with us and believe we are very close to completing that process.” Fripp, however, has no confidence in Universal’s goodwill…
RF: This “very old ground” was not newly-tilled for a further 12 years after the Universal spokeswoman spoked, when UMG settled the case on our terms.
LH-T: Why, then, squabble over money with the world’s largest record label? The answer causes Fripp to grow agitated. “Music is a language in which we can express our struggle with what it is to be a human being,” he says. “Going back to ’69 and Crimson, this is at the centre of what created King Crimson. And today” – he breathes out heavily, breathes in, his voice breaks a little – “I remain responsible for that. How can I lie, to that? Because if I do, I cease to be human”.
RF: One week following the publication of this FT interview, MCPS launched an audit of Panegyric Records in the mistaken belief that Panegyric was my record company IMO.
Panegyric is the company of Declan Colgan, formerly of Virgin Records, who had been let go by Virgin for being “too artist-friendly”. David Singleton and myself encouraged Declan to set up independently, underwritten by a licence to release the King Crimson catalogue.
So why would MCPS launch an (IMO mischievous) audit when UMG were the company criticised in the FT interview? A good question, addressing the inter-relationships within the music industry and the powerful reach of UMG IMO. But another subject, not for today.
