DGM HQ The Morning Shift

Posted by Robert Fripp
13 Jul 2005
Wednesday, July 13, 2005

DGM HQ.

11.53

The Morning Shift is re-vibrating the running order of KC: Studio 1981-84. The first piece is now Discipline. For this guitarist, Discipline remains a tightrope of terror strung over a minefield. Hearing these Crim thirty-somethings charging forward without fear is both impressive & terrifying to an older guitarist, one who bears scars from falling into Crimson minefields on many battlegrounds. Oh! what memories of counting & cueing as a series of interlocking parts that don't while on public display over four continents. It is, educational, at the very least, to see how players get out of the traps they have laid for themselves. And not.

20.28 The Evening Shift is underway – we have moved onto KC: Studio 1994-2002.

The Afternoon Shift significantly re-ordered KC: Studio 1981-84 which is now a wernoed, squernoed pumped-flat little Beast of Wonderment, Delight, Terror, Suffering & Joy.

And AOL is still refusing to divulge the secrets of my inbox.

21.05 This run-through is entrancing. I am loving it. We have now moved to 1994-2002.

21.20 The stunning Eyes Wide Open. We were unable to translate this to live performance in large venues.

I don't wish to say that you're improving with age but you're improving with age says The Vicar (who has dropped by to pass a glance at our activities) of King Crimson (rather than David & Robert). Which wouldn't surprise any generation but our own.

21.51 A quietly astonishing listen-through. Wow. This might gently re-position recent Crim in the considerations of those who open gatefolds in the privacy of their chambers. And in parts, it is achingly romantic.

Judging by the studio albums, Crim of the 90s & beyond is a stronger beast than the 1981-84 animal, although unfurled Crimson live during 1981-84 remains astonishing… says the Vicar. The Vicar also comments that there has been a change in listening practices since then, and many successful contemporary albums are primarily background / environmental listening. King Crimson remains a foreground experience.

Hesitating to enter a conversation when The Vicar is on a roll, I courageously proffer the comment that, in a BBC Radio 3 interview last Saturday, an opera singer (who had close experience of working with Benjamin Britten) was discussing his concerns with performance life. This in terms that I understood, with which I empathised, and were answers close to those I might have given had my own views been invited. And yet, I would probably not have done.

Rock musicians are not allowed to speak seriously of their concerns, as if they were adults, trained & practised, honoured the injunctions of a discipline, and took seriously (but not solemnly) a life aspiring to artistry. That would be declared pretentious & would go against the prejudices of many rock critics & music comics familiar to me.

The discipline of those who work within popular culture is rarely expressed in formal or academic terms. Much of the information is transmitted orally/aurally between practitioners; although the broad range of current music periodicals for players (rather than audients) convey a vast amount of information & practical advice not available to young players in my formative years. Dr. Lucy Green's How Popular Musicians Learn: A Way Ahead For Music Education (Ashgate Press 2001) is a rare academic contribution to the subject.

http://ioewebserver.ioe.ac.uk/ioe/cms/get.asp?cid=4591&4591_0=4974



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