Guest Book

“So a question please for interested, innocent audients out there: does it matter to you if the musician/s you love privilege their own performance/career over the group endeavour?” It certainly “matters” but in different and sometimes conflicting ways. If the beloved musician’s group is “The Joe Blow Band” and the beloved musician is Joe Blow himself, I would expect Joe to stand out among the rest of the group and to occupy more musical real estate than the other members, who may be session players or a backup band that accompanies Joe on the road and in the studio. In this scenario, since I am drawn to the music because of Joe, I might be disappointed if Joe were to limit his prominence within the music. But if in addition to being a great oboe player, Joe is also a great band leader who chooses interesting musicians to help him realize his musical vision, I might appreciate being exposed to the talents of the other band members and not mind them sharing the spotlight with my musical hero. Let’s imagine, however, that Joe is a member of a group effort who we’ll call “The Ego Trip,” and I learn after being a fan for several years that Joe is very difficult to work with. He insists on taking 16 measures for a solo when other band members only get 4. After a song is mixed, he returns to the studio when the other band members have left and remixes the material so his oboe is much louder in the mix than all of the other players. Maybe he even erases a tuba solo from a piece and replaces it with another oboe solo. If I became aware that this is how he operates as a member of a band, it would lower my opinion of Joe considerably even if I still happened to like his playing. Great musician, shitty person. In both cases, however, if the recording or the performance moves me, this would also “matter.” With music, painting, literature, etc., if the work resonates aesthetically, processes, personalities, motivations, character flaws, trickery, and so forth would not override this aesthetic appeal. If I were to find out that a composition that I like had been plagiarized or that Joe Blow can’t play the oboe at all and has a studio musician play all of his parts, this would override any initial aesthetic appeal. So there are some boundaries. But great art is great art, in all of its highly subjective glory, and a messy creation process doesn’t necessarily negate this for me no matter how much I agree with the goal of the musician serving the music. But I would not want to play in a band with someone who privileges his or her own performance/career over the group endeavor.

Well Sir, when it comes to team efforts like King Crimson, any other band, or any human group endeavor in general...I like team players. In a proper team environment, each individual gets a chance to shine when it's their turn; in the military, it's a promotion in rank; in a rock band, it's a brilliant solo. Grandstanding, being a "prima donna"...no thank you! Check that oversized ego at the door and prepare for a cooperative exercise in which everyone's part/role is important. If, as we like to say, "the whole is greater than the sum of the parts", well, why mess with just the parts??? My father abhorred arrogance, really couldn't stand people who were terribly egotistical. Not much of a fan of, say George Patton or Douglas McArthur, more of an Omar Bradley or Eisenhower kind of guy. Doesn't talk all about how great he is (if you are thinking of our current American "president"....BINGO!), just gets the job done in a workman-like way but does it the best. I have seen KC twice now, and one can certainly NOT call you a grandstander...seated quietly in the corner of the stage, looking relaxed and focused...yet making the most AMAZING GODAWFUL TERRIFYING (and sometimes breathtakingly beautiful) music (i.e., the "Crimbeast"). It's actually a lovely study in contrasts...calm, peaceful English gentleman making you wonder if Pterodactyls are coming after you, in a musical sense of course. My vote: TEAM PLAYERS! Jonathon

I know I'm not the first to post about this, but is the box still on track to be released this year? Any rough idea on when it can be expected?

Dear Mr. Fripp, you continue to speak about a new book of Crafties Guitarist. Well, only a question: that book Will be translated in italian, yes or not? Thanks in Advance for your answer that I hope definitively clear. Maurizio Lozei

Robert and Toyah, amazing timing with the music from Larks' Tongues In Aspic Part 2, as I always love you.

At last I have done it. Fortunate to have been gifted with the Robert Fripp Unplugged cd set by Fripp the Sister I have now created a 12 CD-R set. This, for personal use only, has RF speaking live tracks interspersed with his Soundcapes. What a beast of a set of 12 it is. Listening back to my amateur collection I have managed the reach cd-r 4. This May has been a particularly special Birthday month sharing in quite a different way.

Excellent jams from this trio during the road to 'Exposure'. Can't help but hear "353 West 48th St" invoking the spirit of the original Tony Williams Lifetime through Fripp's chordal leads and Narada's frantic drumming invoking late 60's TW (not to mention having played with original Lifetime guitarist John McLaughlin in the second Mahavishnu Orchestra line-up).

Thank you, Robert, for bringing such extraordinarily beautiful music into this sorry world.

Very good example of the 1971 tour, Sheffield City Hall is my fave venue for bands, the oval hall has great accoustics which can be heard here. Bought this for the fact it is KC, Sheffield City Hall, and my fave year and LP of the band (Islands)... Very glad i did, worth every penny. Good crowd response as always from Sheffield.

Just put on this show absentmindedly and it has carried me away! The audio quality leaves a lot to be desired, but you can at least hear Robert and David really well, which is unusual to find a bootleg where they both can be heard well. It seems particularly rare for Robert to be so clear in this era, his guitar is the most prominent instrument through much of Exiles for instance. And notes about the recording quality aside, what a performance! You can hear Broof has already come up with some creative ways to make up for the absence of Jamie, filling in some creative Jamie style light percussive flourishes in Larks I rather than the more personal heavy/loud take he starts doing on it later. David and Robert are both on their A+ game with their improvised leads. The proto-Fracture in Improv I is rascinating, David's violin at the beginning of Improv II is so beautiful I didn't want it to end. Overall, if you can get over the sound quality (DGMLive gives it a 3 for quality, I'd say more like 2) then this show is a solid 5* performance for the 1973 band.

Dangerous Curves is one of the Double Duo/ProjeKct family of Crimso pieces that usually kind of bore me, but it works really well as an opener here. I’ve thought before that these songs would function better earlier in the setlist, we’ll see how Deception of the Thrush goes towards the end of the set… Grabbed this show thinking that they’d be playing particularly tight at the end of the tour, and it is mostly true. Fripp’s (I think it was Robert anyway) use of harmonics as a fill under Adrian’s vocals during the bridge was so cool I had to rewind and listen twice. All around, everyone in the band seems to be finding more creative fills like that to add here and there, somehow some of Pat’s drum fills are both tough and sprightly at the same time. It’s interesting here that Adrian messes up the lyrics to ConstruKction (apparently two nights in a row?), because I thought he had a sheet with the lyrics on stage for that song? I remember him getting grief for it. Perhaps he tried going without his safety net as a response to the people giving him a hard time. The other day I watched a video of Tony doing the intro to Elephant Talk, realizing just how absurdly hard it is, and I made sure to make a note to pay attention the next time I hear the Double Duo do it, so as to see how Trey handles it. Well, I have my answer -- he just skips it! Right to the main riff. Hard to tell, but I think he makes up for it in the “solo” section, adding some crazy sounds along with Adrian’s usual elephantosity. Some pretty great soloing from Robert on Virtuous Circle, another one that usually bores me. Pat’s section was particularly inspired as well. Really good night for “new” material. Deception of the Thrush was still pretty boring tho. I don’t think they meant to take Larks IV at the tempo they did, Fripp’s lead section starts out with a near frantic energy as he realizes the pickle he’s in going at that pace. His superhuman powers quickly kick in tho, and it turns into a performance that shreds so hard I think MY fingers have blisters now. Adrian knows he needs to take his own playing up a notch to match, and he does. Eagerly starting his solo a half a measure earlier than normal, he doesn’t waste any time getting to the mindblowing stuff. His solos here are always pretty mindblowing tho. :) Larks IV works great as the last song before the encore. Thela, tho, does not work great as the encore itself. Heroes would have maybe worked better as the last song for the year? In all, solid 4* show for the avid collector, few mistakes, extra bells and whistles, Adrian’s rather unique humor, what more could you want? (That’s a rhetorical question despite the 4* rating -- the qualities that make a show a 5* are largely ineffable and therefore most of the potential answers to that question can’t actually be spoken by human tongues)

Note that it’s been some days since I reviewed the first set, and I’ve listened to a considerable amount of Crimson from this and all other eras in the meantime. My immediate impression is that the audio quality seems a little improved here versus the first set. Double checking the same spot in the first night confirmed my suspicions. I suppose the taper must have moved to a more favorable location in the venue? I saw a quote earlier today from David Cross about how the American West was completely foreign and mindblowing to him, breathtaking on a daily basis sort of thing. David’s playing has always been considered to have taken off in 1973 and to some is the best part of this era. I wonder if some of the magic of Texas is what is causing his playing to be so inspired on this recording? It is, in turn, truly breathtaking. The audience seems to agree with me, giving a response after Larks I long enough that Flip ends up having to ask the crowd to quiet down for him to give his usual announcement! The inspired evening continues, with all four players contributing some inspired solos and/or fills here and there. A nearly 7 minute long Talking Drum starts out weirder than normal, I’m not sure the band had decided whether they were going to play an improv there or not. Larks II after leaves the audience more demanding than begging for more. I’m not sure what they would have done had the guys not come back out to kick out the crowd pleaser 21st Century Schizoid Man. Altogether, I’d give the performance a 4 and the audio quality a 2 (3 for the era), making this a 3 overall?