Elephant Talk #163 (as text)
4 January 1995
Date: Thu, 22 Dec 1994 12:50:50 -0800
From: james dot dignan at stonebow dot otago dot ac dot nz (James Dignan)
Subject: Oblique strategies, RFSQ sound, Shriekback
>Also, about Brian Eno: I have heard about a deck of cards Eno created
>called "Oblique Strategies" that he uses to prompt his mind into other
>creative directions. I want to know more about them. Any information would
>be helpful.
These are covered in mare detail on the Eno list (Nerve Net, c/- Alex Rubli
of Nerve_Net at NOC dot Pue dot Udlap dot Mx), but basically they're a set of cards each
containing a zen-like or cryptic idea. Eno draws one at random, and then
uses it in his interpretation of what he is doing. Examples would be things
like "Turn it Upside Down" or "Think of the Radio", or even "Go Outside.
Shut the Door". They used to be available from Eno's record label, Opal,
but they may no longer be so. I have created my own set, using song titles,
quotes and thoughts transcribed onto small blank cards. This is very easy
to do - look through your records, and find things that could be used to
trigger thoughts or ideas: here are a handful of Fripp-related
possibilities - KC content! ;-)
Fade away and radiate (Blondie)
Cognitive Dissonance (League of Gentlemen)
No warning (KC)
When I say stop - continue (KC)
White Shadow (Peter Gabriel)
Wind on Water (Fripp/Eno)
An unrelated thought...Is it just that I'm listening too late at night,
when I'm too tired, or does some of the RFSQ's music sound remarkably like
Jean-Luc Ponty, around the time of "Individual Choice"?
Merry Crimsonmas, everyone...
Oh, and especially for lray at ucsd dot edu (Lee Ray) from another fan:
Recommended Album for the Day: Oil and Gold (Shriekback) :)
James Dignan, Department of Psychology, University of Otago.
J'habite 50 Norfolk St., St. Clair, Dunedin, New Zealand
pixelphone james dot dignan at stonebow dot otago dot ac dot nz =AB=BB steam megaphone NZ 03-45=
5-7807
* You talk to me as if from a distance
* and I reply with impressions chosen from another time, time, time,
* from another time (Brian Eno)
Date: Wed, 21 Dec 1994 23:19:34 +0800 (PST)
From: chris mahmood <hbpsy022 at huey dot csun dot edu>
Subject: RF dates in So Cal.
Hi toby, thanks for all the work.
I haven't noticed anything mentioned so I thought I would: RF has three
dates scheduled in Southern CA coming up--one at the Coach house in San
Juan Cap. on the 22nd of Jan. and two at the House of Blues in LA on the
26th.
-ckm
From: Nadav Noah Caine <nadav at leland dot Stanford dot EDU>
Subject: Bewitched, Recommendations, Sara Lee
Date: Thu, 22 Dec 1994 00:04:46 -0800 (PST)
1.
>Yes, I like "I Advance Masked" quite a bit also, but don't really dig
>"Bewitched".
Little surprise. If I remember the press correctly, Fripp was caught under
extreme time pressures and ended up flying in to the studio for only a
brief period to lay down some tracks for "Bewitched", mostly some solos.
"Bewitched", therefore, is really an Andy Summers album, whereas "I Advance
Masked" is more of the collaborative effort (and therefore a million times
better).
2. One of the greatest pleasures for me of the list is when people
recommend other bands or music. May I request, however, that people use
their descriptive talents to be more specific about what kind of music
their recommendations represent? Perhaps a few analogies. Anybody second
this motion?
3. I almost went nuts when Fripp got Sara Lee from the Gang of 4 (the best
of the bitter, ironic, leftist post Sex Pistols bands, certainly among the
finest first albums of all time: "Entertainment") to play in the League of
Gentlemen. I thought the League was not the greatest of successes (though a
WORTHY experiment), and so this leaves me with two questions. First, does
anybody know what became of Sara Lee after the League? And second, does
anybody have any comments that might help me to appreciate the League
--does Fripp ever retrospect about it?
Thanks as always, Nadav
"We ignore the gods and fill our heads with trash." -Rilke
Date: Thu, 22 Dec 1994 12:24:58 +0600
From: ellis at mario dot ses dot com (Michel Ellis)
Subject: Re: KC live etc..
> Date: Fri, 16 Dec 1994 15:45:53 -0600
> From: Glenn Astarita <gastarit at comm dot net>
> Subject: KC live etc..
>
> Someone in the previous digest mentioned if any of us experienced old KC
> live.
The first time I saw KC was in fact the first rock concert I went
to. It was a free concert in Hyde Park (London), I believe back in 1971.
(which may make me "the grandpa of the list" !)
What I remember most about this show was also a stunning version of 21st
Century Schizoid which immediately turned me into a long-time fan. I
remember hanging out in the park on a warm, sunny Saturday in the midst of
the crowd, generally being more concerned with goings-on in the crowd than
the music (as it often turned out to be at big outdoor gigs) when KC came
on and the opening to 20th Century Schizoid Man came ripping threw,
demanding my attention. Unfortunately the haze of the years has obscured
the rest of the show, but that moment remains with me. Shortly after the
concert, I picked up the 1st album with it's distinctive and mysterious
cover and gatefold (the cd just doesn't do it justice !), evocative, mystic
lyrics and brillent music -- and it is still probably my favorite KC album.
- mike
Date: Thu, 22 Dec 1994 13:29:28 -0500 (EST)
From: JROBINSON at zodiac dot rutgers dot edu
Subject: King & King Crimson
First of all Happy Holidays to all.
I am in the midst of reading "Insomnia" by Stephen King. ( a little candy
after a grueling semester) King is a big rock fan. So, in true form he has
given a nod to King Crimson. At a point early on in the story the crazed
charecter starts quoting the bible and then saying that we will all have to
answer to the crimson king. And again a little later on says we will all
be judged in the court of the crimson king. Now I went to check for
biblical references to the crimson king, ( I work in a University library)
nothing ! So i am now safely (I hope) assuming that this is indeed a nod
to the band. It is Kings style to do this type of thing.
peace, Jim R.
Date: Thu, 22 Dec 1994 13:59:27 -0700
From: lantz at PrimeNet dot Com (Bill Lantz)
Subject: re: CMJ New Music Monthly 1/95
In my transcription of the CMJ New Music Monthly January 1995 I made the
unforgiveable mistake of naming the author as Neil Zink when in actuality it
is Nell Zink. My apolgies go to Nell. Thanks for your kind letter to me, Nell.
Bill
Date: Thu, 22 Dec 94 13:35:40 PST
From: charly at hal dot com (Charly Rhoades)
Subject: Fripp in Santa Cruz, CA in January 1995
A SCruzian friend informed me that The Catalyst, a nightclub in Santa Cruz,
CA, has announced a Robert Fripp concert. Although the Catalyst's recorded
message only mentions a Fripp concert "coming up in January," according to
my friend Chris the date is 1/31/95.
I suppose this is a solo Frippertronics event, and must be a continuation
of the dates I've seen mentioned here in Elephant- Talk in Southern
California for earlier in January.... So far, I've not seen any
announcements for appearances in San Francisco -- it would be too much to
expect a show here in San Jose or perhaps a bit closer in Palo Alto :-{(
This absence seems odd however, as he usually performs in both locations
(c.f., the RFSQ tour, and a previous tour with the Crafties).
Eagerly awaiting the delicate experience of "2000"
unfolding live before my ears....
Charly Rhoades The Black Djinn Curse represents only a first
HaL Computer Systems step in the campaign of poetic terrorism which
charly at hal dot com -- we trust -- will lead to other less subtle
http://www.hal.com/~charly/ forms of insurrection. - H. Bey (T.A.Z)
From: tlkalka at mailbox dot syr dot edu (Terrance L Kalka II)
Date: Fri, 23 Dec 94 00:54:58 EST
Subject: KC in Rolling Stone
This was in the "On The Edge" section (p 174) in the year-end issue of
Rolling Stone.
..Back In The Red: You blinked - and probably missed it. KING CRIMSON
have returned with all the promo clatter of a stealth bomber. No megatour.
No MTV special. Just Vroom (Discipline [GM], CD), a mini-LP of recent
rehearsals issued as a prelude to next year's full-lenght blast. Still,
this Crimson - a double trio (two guitarists, two bassists, two drummers),
half of which features alumni Robert Fripp, Adrian Belew and Bill Bruford -
are already a lethal beast: part Larks' Tongues In Aspic (diamond-drill
riffing, avalanche percussion), part Discipline (Belew's full-moon croon)
and no pulled punches. A reunion, for a change, with a future...Hard Wares:
He would rather choke on his next porducer's check than admit it, but Steve
Albini's SWAT trio, SHELLAC, make an astonishingly Crimson-like noise -
wind-shear guitar distortion, intense rhythim math - on At Action Park
(Touch and Go, LP.)
Oddly enough, I suspect that if MTV did push King Crimson the way they
pushed Plant/Page (or even Tony Bennet!), the group's popularity would
shoot up. It still wouldn't be top 10, but I bet a KC video would get some
play on "120 Minutes" and "Alternative Nation" (the US- MTV shows that
specialize in "alternative" music.)
Peace
Terry
Date: Fri, 23 Dec 1994 07:58:52 -0500
From: Keelo at aol dot com
Subject: Re: Elephant-talk digest v94 #161
Re: Zeppo's discography
I was most impressed, as I'm sure were other ET readers, with Zeppo's
exhausting KC alumni discography. I was also more than bored while
scrolling through it to get on with the rest of the newsletter. Mr. Zeppo,
we understand your strong opinions and remain impressed with your
collection, but please leave some space for others.
From: draco at garden dot com
Subject: Low Flying Aircraft
Date: Sat, 24 Dec 94 12:40:33 MST
> Am I the only person on the face of the entire planet that remembers
> a group or album called "Low Flying Aircraft"? As I recall, it was
> from the late 1970's/early 1980's, and featured members of KC. Just
> curious.
I just saw a copy of Low Flying Aircraft in the used bins the other day. In
addition to Keith Tippet, the group also included David Cross on violin. I
think John Jung was the guitarist, but I can't recall who the drummer
was. Is this album worth purchasing?
-Gary-
Date: Sat, 24 Dec 1994 17:01:29 -0500
From: BMomchilov at aol dot com
Subject: Elephant Talk Post for '95
Reflections of Another King Crimson Grandpa
Reading Glenn Astarita <gastrarit at comm dot net> and his remembrances of old KC
stirred memories of my first KC concert experience. We were counting down
the last two months of our High School careers and were excited as hell at
the prospect of seeing our favorite band live in concert.
On a cold blustery April evening in downtown Detroit, KC played at the Ford
Auditorium. Robin Trower opened the show and blew us away with his "Bridge
of Sighs" stuff. After a short intermission the house lights went down and
my heart rate went up.
I paid $6.50 to sit main floor, Aisle 3, left center, Row D, Seat 11.
Today $6.50 barely pays for the parking fees. A friend had smuggled a
cassette recorder into the show, and despite our warnings, never made a
copy of the tape. About ten years ago his car tape player ate that sucker
and he had to throw it out (THE HORROR!!).
Anyway I digress, with Robert Fripp at stage left on guitar, mellotron and
stool, David Palmer at stage right alternating between violin and
mellotron, our heads must have moved back and forth like fans at a tennis
match. Serious neck wrenching was prevented by long gazes to center stage
to watch Wetton/Bruford (with BB in his famous Boston Bruins logo - white
coveralls). We left the show shaking our heads and chuckling to
ourselves... how could musicians be this good?? We climbed into Wes' van
(with the hand painted screaming Schizo' Man on the side) and drove up
Woodward smoking pot and talking until 4:00 AM about the show.
The blue album Glenn refers to is obviously "USA" and I remember that on
Side 2 the album would play all the way to the paper label (if the "auto
return" was shut off) at the end of "Schz oid Man" and you would hear the
crowd cheering "More!!" over and over again until you walked over and shut
it off. When we discovered this we also found: "King Crimson - R.I.P."
etched in the vinyl right near the label.
Be stong and True
-Brian
Date: Mon, 26 Dec 1994 23:35:21 +0800
From: kbibb at arastar dot com (Ken Bibb)
Subject: Re: Van Der Graaf Generator/Hammill/Eno
On Sun, 18 Dec 94 01:20:33 PST JWalters at eworld dot com said:
> This is off the subject, but are there are Van Der Graaf Generator/Peter
> Hammill fans on this list?
Yup. And there is a mailing list for them at ph7-request at arastar dot com (send
a message of "subscribe ph7 yourname" with a blank subject or "asdf" as the
subject). If you run into problems trying to reply, contact me
(kbibb at arastar dot com)--I'm the list manager.
Discussions of Peter Hammill, Van Der Graaf Generator, and related
bands (like Random Hold) are welcome on that list.
> Also, about Brian Eno: I have heard about a deck of cards Eno created
> called "Oblique Strategies" that he uses to prompt his mind into other
> creative directions. I want to know more about them. Any information would
> be helpful.
There's a version in "fortune(6)" format available via Elephant Talk email
archive. To retrieve send:
get elephant-talk oblique.strategies
to listserv at arastar dot com and the server will send a copy to you. If you
have the bsd unix fortune command available, you should be able to say:
fortune oblique.strategies
to receive a random "card" once the file has had a .dat file generated, and
once its installed in the proper directory.
Since this file is in ASCII format, it's of use to those who don't have bsd
unix fortune(6) (the % lines separate the cards).
--
Ken Bibb "Upon a wave of summer
kbibb at arastar dot com A hilltop paved with gold
jester at crash dot cts dot com We shut our eyes and make the promises we hold"
David Sylvian--"Wave"
Date: Tue, 27 Dec 1994 08:13:26 -0600
From: Glenn Astarita <gastarit at comm dot net>
Subject: 1999..etc.
Hi,
I just picked up Fripp's 1999. It's ambient, although it has a rough edge
which I think makes it work. I haven't seen much feedback on this CD from
the list. Also, Is the new KC reunion intended to be a one shot deal ? Does
anyone know ?
Thanks,
Glemm
Date: Tue, 27 Dec 1994 21:45:14 -0500
From: Peter Prisekin <dusty at access dot digex dot net>
Subject: Trey's Plea, Stick, RFSQ Live Video, Recent Recording Opinions
Regarding the unavailability of Trey Gunn's album in stores: yes, this
hurts sales, in spite of (the wonderful) Possible Productions. I suspect
everyone reading this is a big enough fan to go searching, but place
yourself in the mindset of a recording that you are not hell-bent on
getting. You probably won't get it until you see it in the store. That is
why it is so important that the stores actually stock and display them. So
go and ask for it, even if you already have it...Regarding Stick (TM) --
see the videos! They are excellent, I have Frejus, 3/Pair, and RFSQ:Live
in Japan. You will get a very good idea of "what it is." If you are
familiar with Stanley Jordan's playing style, you're off to a good start:
the staple way of playing is with hammers- on, but strumming and picking
are not forbidden. Add to this the range of a piano (is this an
exaggeration?), and you have one very appealing instrument, even to someone
coming from a keyboard background...Regarding RFSQLiveVideo, I appear to
have a version that is not Hi-Fi, does anyone else have this problem?
Please respond in private email if you do not feel this is the list's
business...VROOOM -- like it, 1999 -- like it, 1000 Years -- like it ...you
get the idea To the list owners, tx! But to the rest of you, too, there is
rarely a post I wish I had not read.
Date: Tue, 27 Dec 1994 22:49:37 -0500 (EST)
From: Jed Levin <jlevin at panix dot com>
Subject: RE: Shriekback
In Elephant Talk #162, Lee Ray asked for Shriekback info. Lee, I don't
know how much info I can supply, but I know I sure love their 2nd album,
"Jam Science!" There are two different mixes I know of: the UK mix and
what I think was a German album, or maybe Dutch. I much prefer the UK
album, and that has long topped my CD-release wish list. There's a
Shriekback compilation with some cuts off "Jam Science," but I think
they're from the non-UK album. I don't remember for sure.
I didn't care for their 1st album, but from "Jam Science" through "Big
Night Music" I really loved them. The last two kind of lost me.
Especially the very last one! "Gunning for the Buddah," from "BNM" is a
great song!
BTW, perhaps I should take this opportunity to introduce myself briefly to
the list, as I just subscribed. Me name's Jed, and I'm a regular on Ken
Bibb's brilliant Freaks list. I'm in the midst of something of a KC revival
right now, as I received both "Frame by Frame" and "The Great Deceiver" for
Christmas. Lucky me! I'm about half way through the "Frame by Frame"
book(let) now, so my head is way back in 1974! It's great reading.
Well, I'm glad to be here for the beginning of a new volume!
Oh, one last thing, and I hope it's not a controversial topic here for any
reason (than again, who cares!), but I recently saw the Swedish band
Anekdoten perform at Progscape in Baltimore, Maryland. Their "reminiscent
of KC, yet unique" sound (it's true) really impressed me, and it was really
their performance, especially their cover of "Starless" as an encore, that
convinced me to ask Santa for the boxed sets. Check 'em out!
Jed Levin <jlevin at panix dot com>
Date: Wed, 28 Dec 1994 08:48:31 -0500
From: Keelo at aol dot com
Subject: Re: Vrooom/LTIA/Discipline
Having sat back and read VROOOM reviews for the last month, I thought I
might add my own 2c. I saw Crimson in Argentina and loved the show. My
thoughts on the new music then, and after hearing the EP, are about the
same. I like it. I think its intense, purposeful, creative, and a bit
scary. Like good King Crimson. On the other hand, I'm not on the bus with
many on this board who are thrilled that the new KC sounds more like the
LTIA band. In fact, I'm a little disappointed that the "new" sound reckons
of the 70's or 80's at all. To me, LTIA and Discipline were watershed
albums because they broke the mold, both for King Crimson and for rock
music of the period. Nothing sounded the same before or after. So what if
someone likes the LTIA sound more than the Discipline stuff? Why would we
want VROOOM to sound like either? I personally like the Discipline period
more, but I don't want to hear it rehashed, by Crimson or anybody else.
ELP, Yes and the like might do it, but retreading music is not KING
CRIMSON. Unfortunely, VROOOM does sound like a mix between the 70's and
80's Crimson. After a ten year wait, that's not as good as Crimson can be.
When I was in the crowd awaiting the new CRIMSON, a guy from Chile
pronounced to me that we were about to see the next wave, the next turn for
rock music was about to be presented in the form of KING CRIMSON and I
agreed enthusiasticly. After hearing VROOOM, I'm still hoping but not so
sure.
From: M dot Balzer at pluribus dot wupper dot de (Michael Balzer)
Subject: The Court of the Crimson King
Date: Wed, 28 Dec 94 16:43:34 CET
Organization: B&B Computersysteme
Hi fellow Crimsonists,
let me first introduce myself, as I'm new to Elephant Talk. I'm a 26 year
old 'computer freak'. I like psychedelic and surrealistic art. I like
science fiction and fantasy literature. I have been playing classic
trumpet since I was 6. German is my native language.
The mask on my face reads "ratio inside", a friend says I am a "classic
mind" -- I think he is right, but there's more.
I'm a music addict, there are sounds and songs that make me trip. Among
the makers of these are of course King Crimson, but also early Genesis,
Oldfield, Emerson Lake & Palmer, Tangerine Dream, Klaus Schulze, Pink
Floyd, ... so more or less what they call Art Rock, Progressive Rock and
Experimental. My musical initiation was Oldfield's "Tubular Bells". I
like complex compositions and innovative sounds.
I don't like digital synthesizers, I think they hold musicians from
experimenting with sounds. And I don't like the modern percussion sound, I
prefer the soft drums from early seventies productions.
That's me. Well, sorta. Hi. :-)
And now for something completely different. Perhaps this theme is one of
the attractors on this mailing list, but remember, I'm a newbie.
I'm stuck with understanding the lyrics of this masterpiece named "The
Court of the Crimson King".
What a wonderful, musical, mystical language! But what does it mean? Where
is the key to the world of the Crimson King?
TCOTCK> The rusted chains of prison moons
TCOTCK> Are shattered by the sun.
TCOTCK> I walk a road, horizons change
TCOTCK> The tournament's begun.
Level 1 -- outside? Real world?
Prison moons -- moons as prisons or should it be read as "prisoned moons"?
I'd say the latter, better fit.
Now to the tournament place:
TCOTCK> The purple piper plays his tune
TCOTCK> The choir softly sing;
TCOTCK> Three lullabies in an ancient tongue,
TCOTCK> For the court of the crimson king.
Level 2 -- inside? Dream world?
TCOTCK> The keeper of the city keys
TCOTCK> Put shutters on the dreams.
TCOTCK> I wait outside the pilgrim's door
TCOTCK> With insufficient schemes.
Trying to break through to level 2?
Beginning to dream?
TCOTCK> The black queen chants the funeral march,
TCOTCK> The cracked brass bells will ring;
TCOTCK> To summon back the fire witch
TCOTCK> To the court of the crimson king.
This is very intense. What does the black queen stand for, and what the
fire witch? Death and Destruction?
TCOTCK> The gardener plants an evergreen
TCOTCK> Whilst trampling on a flower.
TCOTCK> I chase the wind of a prism ship
TCOTCK> To taste the sweet and sour.
Is this right: *prism* ship? What is a prism ship? My first impression
was that of some unreachable, mystical goal. Chasing, but never getting
there -- longingly?
TCOTCK> The pattern juggler lifts his hand;
TCOTCK> The orchestra begin.
TCOTCK> As slowly turns the grinding wheel
TCOTCK> In the court of the crimson king.
What does this grinding wheel grind? Memories?
TCOTCK> On soft grey mornings widows cry,
TCOTCK> The wise men share a joke;
TCOTCK> I run to grasp divining signs
TCOTCK> To satisfy the hoax.
This is perhaps the strangest part: How does he satisfy a hoax by grasping
divining signs? Divining signs show the future, right? This hoax gets
fulfilled by the actor taking the signs seriously... so the signs are
faked? By whom?
Or does this express the opinion that trying to
read the future is always foolish?
TCOTCK> The yellow jester does not play
TCOTCK> But gently pulls the strings
TCOTCK> And smiles as the puppets dance
TCOTCK> In the court of the crimson king.
Finally the yellow jester. Does he control only his puppets as part of the
show or are all the people in the court his puppets? What are the puppets?
By the way, what is the special meaning of crimson in this context? There
are purple, black, red, green, yellow, grey and crimson... and a prism
ship?!
Is this song sort of a self portrait of the musical entity named King
Crimson? Telling stories, using all emotional flavors and colours in
mystical, lyrical pictures?
This would fit. I always thought of this song as expressing the *essential*
King Crimson. What do you think?
Michael
Date: Wed, 28 Dec 1994 17:03:01 -0800
From: tntmusic at halcyon dot halcyon dot com (Kevin J. O'Conner dba Tinty Music)
Subject: fwd: Sylvian/Fripp laserdisc
>Date: 28 Dec 94 18:06:43 EST
>From: Mitchell Bratton <75321 dot 3401 at compuserve dot com>
>To: Kevin <tntmusic at halcyon dot com>
>Subject: FS laserdisc
>X-UIDL: 788662456.000
>
>To get that Fripp Sylvian laserdisc, send a request to: billabcd at aol dot com.
>He'll be taking preorders when he gets more certain information about it with
>price and exact arrival date. He told me he thinks it will cost about $85.
>
>Would you do me a favor and post that info to Elephant Talk digest? I'm not
>actually a subscriber - a friend E-mails it to me.
>
>Thanks, Mitchell
I've already ordered this disc for myself directly from Japan, but I'm
passing on this info anyway.
Happy New Year!
Kevin
Kevin J. O'Conner d.b.a. Tinty Music
P.O. Box 85363 Seattle, WA 98145-1363
vox: (206) 632-9369 fax/modem: (206) 545-2868
e-mail: tntmusic at halcyon dot com tintmeister at pan dot com
k dot oconner at genie dot geis dot com zzs32874 at pcvan dot or dot jp.
"Without deviation (from the norm), 'progress'
is not possible" - Frank Zappa
From: Mark Nowak <mnowak at phc dot com>
Date: Thu, 29 Dec 94 16:15:52 -0500
Subject: Wetton & Cobain
To all Elephant Talkers:
Has anyone ever noticed that sporadically on the Nirvana "Nevermind" album,
Kurt Cobain sounds like John Wetton, most notably on the clean verses to
"Lithium"? If you haven't, then take a listen cause I swear it sounds like
Wetton was in the studio thinking he was hip again, like in his Crimson
years, and trying to replicate "Lament" or something. Who knows? Maybe
Wetton thought he was singing for K.C. again - only it was the wrong
K.C. (ha!) He was then "Exile"ed to Asia (pun intended, obviously).
Since it ain't true, all I can say is that actually, as far as talent goes,
this idiosyncrasy was about the only significance Cobain had on my life
personally.
MAN
From: gt1237a at prism dot gatech dot edu (Charles Stuart Bennett)
Subject: Origin of "Vroo(o)m"?
Date: Sat, 31 Dec 1994 13:25:58 -0500 (EST)
Hello all,
I know this post is a little late, considering the subject, but hell, I've
been sick.
I was rereading the fantastically hilarious and slightly thought- provoking
book _Good_Omens_ by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett (unpaid plug) and
encountered this passage...
"Far below, the tree burst the walls of its brushed concrete
prison, and rose like an express train. Jaime had never
realized that trees made a sound when they grew, and no one
else had realized it either, because the sound is made over
hundreds of years in waves twenty-four hours from peak to
peak.
"Speed it up, and the sound a tree makes is VROOOOM."
Food for thought.
Charlie
"...and bubble, Chuckles Fripp as I'm known in the trade..."
Date: Sat, 31 Dec 1994 16:14:37 -0700 (PDT)
From: "Matthew F. McCabe" <finley at ecst dot csuchico dot edu>
Subject: Fripp in LA on Jan. 22??
Two issues ago someone mentioned that Fripp was going to be at the Tower
Records in Hollywood on Jan. 22th. Does anyone have any info about this?
Thanks!
Matt McCabe
Able Cain
finley at ecst dot csuchico dot edu
Date: Tue, 03 Jan 1995 10:28:05 +1000
From: keens at pitvax dot xx dot rmit dot edu dot au (Jeremy Keens)
Subject: a letter to fripp/KC
The Whyfore of VROOOM
As yet I haven't got a copy of VROOOM, primarliy due to the price - i've
seen it around but baulk heavily at paying full price for what is
essentially a half length (mini) album. An explanation from Mr Fripp or
other members of the band of why the album exists in its current form could
help.
It is the length: cost factor which offends me - these days about 60
minutes is a normal CD length. While some vinyl releases (including some
Crimson) were less than 40, they were also cheaper (about 25%).
I am surprised that only 31 minutes of new/improvised material came out of
the rehersals - if so it doesn't augur well for the next album or current
tour - and if only that amount of new material was available, why not some
doubletrio reworkings of old material which they must also have rehearsed.
I can see only two reasons for the existence of the record in its current
state - to stop bootleggers and/or to rip off fans.
The news that some of the songs will be reworked for the full album
underlines the problem - we are being asked to pay full price for a short
callingcard which will be cleaned up when the love letter comes.
Mr Fripp has himself called us to be cynical about the music business - in
his many interesting comments in liner notes, including the recent
excellent 1999. I am cynical about a cynic who who uses his extensive fan
base to pull in a bit of extra cash to cover the cost of rehersals by
releasing an expensive minialbum. (Although this is not the first time -
there is the minialbum of edited versions which came out with framebyframe
(which was full price here (australia) at least) and the $4 premium for
autographed copies)
Any comments?
That said - i will probably buy the damn thing - i am manipulable :-)
jeremy
Date: Tue, 03 Jan 1995 14:45:42 +1000
From: keens at pitvax dot xx dot rmit dot edu dot au (Jeremy Keens)
Subject: other fripp appearances
does anyone have any info/comment on the other 'soundscape' albums
mentioned in 1999:
no-man: flowermouth
rimitti: sidi mansour
iona: beyond these shores (similar request, et161)
thanks
jeremy
Date: Tue, 03 Jan 1995 17:30:31 +0800
From: DDUDGEON at hkucc dot hku dot hk
Subject: Dart Drug
Anil Prasad asked about DART DRUG which might have been a new Jamie Muir
solo CD; I suspect that this is a rerelease of a recoding that he made with
guitaristDerek Bailey on the Incus label in 1981. It is free improv, and
lacks conventional tunes; worht checkig out but quite unlike Crimson.
David Dudgeon
Date: Tue, 03 Jan 1995 19:48:36 -0400 (EDT)
From: JPRICE at TrentU dot ca
Subject: Fripp interview text
OK, here it is. The interview takes place in a Toronto hotel room the day
after a Frippretronics concert in town during the "Exposure" non-tour. I
don't know the dates as I was touring rather extensively myself at the time
and I was not in town for the show(s). Perhaps some other subscriber can
help fill in this information. It's not quite as long as I thought it would
be, but as my first excursion into transcription, I've discovered it to be
a fairly time-consuming activity. Hence the delay. Enjoy.
Robert Fripp: All right. Well, leave your technology where it is for
the moment and lets get on with it.
Ron Gaskin: Great!
RF: All right, what can I do for you?
RG: Well... since...
RF: Do you want to get it going?
RG: I think that we are rolling right here, right now...
RF: Good.
RG: I think I'm getting levels...
RF: In terms of smelly cheese permeating the essence of your cassette
machine.
RG: (Laughs)
RF: I've found it very interesting, actually, that in supermarkets,
ladies will take pains to make sure that what they naturally sense
as being incompatable, they'll insulate them in some way in the
bag, so you won't have cheese put next to bathroom clenser for
example. They'll first of all stick it in some kind of bag which
they sense will in some way keep the essence of the two from
mingling. I find that quite intrigueing. They wouldn't have cheese
right next to bathroom cleaner.
RG: Excellent. OK, let's start off talking about audio verite. This
(indicates cassette machine) is basically audio verite, is it not? What is audio verite?
RF: Well, if you assume this is, then you assume, explicitly, I would
have thought, that you know. So you tell me what you understand
by audio verite if you believe this to be so.
RG: Well, obviously I'm driving at the production of The Roches and
what I would like to get to is how you actually went about
production and labeled it as audio verite. Obviously it was a
studio project.
RF: Yes, well there's two senses to audio verite. The first is that
it's a commitment to discover whatever the essence of the artists
might be and try and express it on record. And this is done in the
second sense of the term by, as far as possible, not interfering
with the performance by equalization, limiting and so on. So in
the second sense, yes, this is audio verite, though with a whole
battery of technology which has failed, conceived to validate the
main premis of the second aspect of audio verite, that too much
technology gets in the way. All that one needs is a small and
appropriate level of technology. I could do it on a far smaller
and simpler machine than that and probaby get better sound.
RG: Than this one?
RF: Yeah. In fact, most of the voices on "Exposure" were recorded on
my small pocket Sony cassette machine.
RG: I find that the quality of this is quite interesting just because
of the space of it. It's intriguing. As you had mentioned, it's
not necessary to go high tech.
RF: I sense those clicks are going to pick up.
RG: It's on it's most sensitive setting. We'll hear the hallway as
well.
RF: Good. All right. Incorporating enviornmentally generated sound.
Good. So on from audio verite.
RG: How long was the project with The Roches? Was that just a couple
of days in the studio or was that over an extended period?
RF: It was over about two months. We would work four or five days a
week for generally five hour sessions. We would stop for a week
or so in between. It was mainly October and November of 1978.
RG: How did it come about?
RF: Originally, I'd been in..., I visited The Kitchen Arts and Video
Center in Soho and John Rockwell was there, the critic from The
New York Times. He introduced himself and I said... would he
recommend anyone I should go and see? And he said, "Go and see
The Roches." So I went to see The Roches at The Bottom
Line not long aftrewards, they were there a few days later. Fell
in love immediately, remarkably impressed. Since they were
obviously so talented and seemed to be fairly innocent, I sensed
that they were good canidates for being ripped, so I made one or
two phone calls to make sure their affairs were being taken care
of, which they were, and expressed interest in producing them
should this arise. The Roches, for their part, felt that they
needn't look for a producer, that when the producer came along,
he would look for them. So eventually, I was interviewed by them
for the job. They really gave me a grueling two hours, in which
they said nothing. They simply said nothing.
RG: Just drilling you with questions?
RF: No, they said nothing. They just sat there and said nothing.
RG: What did you say?
RF: Well, I talked. I said... I tried to explain my background
generally, in terms of how I approach work, generally outside the
conventional wisdom of the industry, and that I would record them
as they were, substantially without alteration or addition. That
was the first evening that we spent together.
RG: Very refreshing music.
RF: One man said to me... let me see... it was in Canada...he
interviewed me... I think it was maybe in Edmonton, he said how
much he disliked the Roches album and how angry certain people
were that I'd been involved in it at all.
RG: Did he give you a particular reason?
RF: He didn't like it. He thought it was just... not very good.
Lacking in talent. What was the word... he thought it was ...
comic in a sense and I said, " You mean in the same way that
Charlie Chaplin was a comedian?"
RG: Well, maybe he has difficulty digesting something that is light
and bright and energetic all at once.
RF: Whatever. Yes.
RG: Could you give the same basic rundown about why you left the music
industry in 1974 as you did at the concert last night?
RF: If you'ld like me to.
RG: Yes.
RF: All right. Frippertronics is defined as that musical experience
which results at the (intersection) of Robert Fripp and a small
and appropriate level of technology which is my Les Paul, the
Fripple board, the Fripp pedal board of fuzz, wah-wah and volume
pedals and two Revoxes. And it's my attempt to promote human
contact in the performance situation. And when I left King
Crimson in September 1974 there were a number of reasons. On a
professional level a lot of it had to do with my feeling of
frustration of not being able to make good contact with the
audiences and I sense this was from three main reasons. The first
was the scale of the event, that even in a situation of some three
thousand people, the situation is simply too large to make any
real contact, and my feeling on this is expressed in the phrase,
"Some relationships are governed by size." And in response to the
criticism, "Oh, but there are people who would like to come and
see you who can't get in." I respond presumably therefore on one's
wedding night all the bridegroom's old boyfriends should come
along too since it would keep more people happy. So the
proposition is that some relationships are governed by size. And
the second reason is to do with difficulties members of an
audience to feel in any way we can be involved. How can we
participate? And of course we don't expect that we should have to.
We paid our money, we wish to be entertained. We don't expect
going along with having to accept responsibility for our ears and
make the act of attention and listen. And the third reason is this
vampiric relationship between audience and performer where we
humor the performers very worst pretentions and conceits in
return for vicariously enjoying that paritcularly strange
lifestyle for ourselves (garbled) and we expect certain things in
return for tolerating these strange proceedings.
RG: Is anonymity one of these things?
RF: I would say photography, autography, a whole battery of personal
techniques and if we can, steal the sound from the air on small
cassette machines hidden 'round our persons. There are a battery
of other, more insidious personal techniques as well.
RG: Are you opposed to people bootlegging...
RF: Yes.
RG: ...your performances?
RF: Yes. People who turn up to Frippertronics concerts need only bring
their ears.
They need have responsibility to nothing else but their ears. If
they're not prepared to get involved in the spirit of what is
trying to be created there, they really shouldn't come, and I
don't say that in any callous way at all. If the idea is to come
along to take photographs, this is not the idea of amusic concert.
This is a peculiar custom that one should listen to music through
the lense of a camera and I don't like being put in a situation
where the sound, the atmosphere is being punctured by theft . I
understand that on the subject of bootlegging there is this notion
that it's preserving music which is perhaps of some value to other
people and all those other vague notions. When I recieve the
traditional proportion of royalties which a record makes from all
the different bootlegs and notice that the ... whoever wrote the
music is getting their proportion as well, I shall perhaps look on
bootlegging, the... if you like...the so-called public-spirited
bootlegging, in a different way. Were I a bootlegger, I would
deduct a portion of the royalties for the artist and the writer
and send them off anonymously. That's what I should do. I know
of no one yet who does that so my suspicions of bootleggers and
their motives remain. In fact I've just obtained the address of
a man who, against all my requests, bootlegged the Kitchen concert
in New York and I'm considering exactly what to do. You see, the
traditional approach is that three very large burly men go around
and inflict a considerable amount of muscular and organic damage
upon the body of the person who's bootlegged this and destroy a
lot of material objects. That's not my approach. But I don't like
having the idea of working through the traditional dinosaur
structure of copyright law and so on but I sense that I may have
to do it because in a situation where normal requests from one
human being to another in a very straightforeward way, where this
isn't met by a decent and honorable response, one is violated and
that situation simply can't go on. And it's such a pity that a
very, very small proportion of people have led, for example, to
increased security at airports throughout the world which make
traveling now, for me, personally, almost intolerableand in terms
of performance situations the point is that within two and a half
years, we shall all be frisked when we go to a rock 'n' roll
event.
RG: That's already the case here in Toronto.
RF: Well, the one response that everyone can do is simply... do not
buy bootlegs... Do not buy bootlegs.
RG: You've obviously been in contact with some of your material which
has been bootlegged.
RF: Yeah.
RG: Has any of it stood up to you as being at all relevant on a
historical basis or any of the other reasonings that are attached?
RF: As I say I can see that in some context this notion of ...there is
worth in a parrallel organization for the distribution of sound,
distribution of music which doesn't carry with it the expectation
of so-called official preformance but I will not accept this
popular notion of bootlegging as being music for the people and
so on, with the bootlegger making very considerable profit for his
labor and absolutely none of it being returned to the artist or
writer. That... when that situation is reached there will be a
more genuine parallell organization for alternative music, which,
in principal, I have no objection to, provided it is equitable.
The so-called excuses of bootleggers simply don't meet up to this
requirement. As I say, I would be an honorable bootlegger. I know,
theoretically, how to do it, and if it ever came to it, I would,
but with the provision that it would be an equitable distribution
of income. Alternatively, it would be a question of giving away at
cost.
RG: I wanted to ask you if you consider Frippertronics to be a form of
Muzak, or to use Eno's term, ambient music?
RF: A lot of Frippertronics is ambient within Eno's definition of the
term, that it's music as ignorable as it is listenable. There are
two categories of Frippertronics, pure and applied. Applied is
where it's used as an alternative to traditional orchestration,
instrumentation, arrangement and so on and pure Frippertronics is
where Frippertronics stands up as music in it's own right. Some of
this is ambient and some of it has an imperative, a demand to be
heard, that one must listen to it in order to catch the sense of
it. So some of it is and some of it isn't.
RG: What have you found to be the most exciting response? You were
speaking earlier about wanting to do the Frippertronics
performances in order to make contact with the audiences. What's
the most exciting response that you get from an audience?
RF: The most exciting response is where there's no excitement. That
excitement is a cheap state of the release of tension, that a
qualitative experience does not involve excitement, that it
involves something quite different. It involves a sense of still,
a sense of calm, a sense which is tangible but quite intangible
and it's very difficult to express rationally. And probably this
poetic lump...
(Knock at door. Maid arrives to clean the room. RF refuses in
deference to the interview.)
RG: I guess I should rephrase my question. What is the most positive
feedback to you personally in giving your individualized
Frippertronics performances?
RF: There was one particular night which stands out remarkably which
was the Saturday night at The Washington Ethical Society and there
were about 450 people there and something happened. There is this
idea that music is capable of opening a door to a completely
different kind of perception or energy. Blake(?) expressed it by
saying, "Music can come from a place more real than life itself"
and on this one night it did and it was remarkable. There was
such a presence in the building which didn't go away when the
show finished. It remained with me and I went back to the hotel
and I didn't know whether to eat my bag of Dr. Braun's Corn and
Sesame Chips since I had no time to eat lunch or dinner for
several days, the schedule was so hectic. I didn't know whether to
do that or watch Vincent Price and Diana Rigg on "Theatre of
Blood" and I decided I would simply sit down quietly with myself
and I did. After sitting down for ten minutes this remarkable
presence... (RF snaps fingers)... like that, left. You know this
expression of Blake, "He who catches joys that flies, learns to
live in eternity's sunrise." It was like that. Remarkable. And for
me it was a validation that music really can enable us to touch ...
a certatn something which is, I think, probably always with us if
we did but know it. One would simply write a poem... I think a
line from the poem I would write about this would be to say that
"Music is the cup that holds the wine of silence."
RG: Whence came the passages on "Exposure" which you said you recorded
on a small Sony machine, Bennett's statements?
RF: No, Bennett's statements came from a series of cassettes, mainly
taken from cosmological and psychological lectures Bennett gave at
Sherborne House, the school I went to in England, the
International Academy for Continuous Education. The passages I
recorded were Eno in the falafel restaurant. Eno introduces the
record and it's Eno finishing talking about the hoax. I recorded
my mother at the beginning of "Disengage", since it's a song about
internalized parental archtypes and since many schools of
personality formation attribute considerable importance to toilet
training, I interviewed my mother on the subject of my toilet
training and included that at the beginning of the song. And also
the argument next door on "NY3" which is a real-life argument next
door when I was living in Hell's Kitchen in New York.
RG: Very intense passage,that.
RF: Oh, terrifying. Terrifying. You should have heard the rest of it.
I recorded about ten minutes and you only heard odd phrases. But
some of the things they were saying to each other... And bear in
mind that I had ten minutes.There had been an
hour-and-a-half before I started recording of equal virulence.
They kept that up for an hour-and-a-half without any abatement.
Terrifying...terrifying. The nuclear family in New York City. The
NY3.
RG: Who'se voice is the passage, "I could easily spend the rest of my
life with you"?
RF: A woman who could not easily spend the rest of her life with me.
She, at the time of the recording, had just left me to live with
another man. Bennett pops up on "Exposure", "It is impossible to
achieve the aim without suffering." and "If you have an unpleasant
nature and dislike people, it is no obstacle to work." These are
both taken from the First Inaugural Address to Sherbourne House,
which is included in it's complete form at the end of "I May Not
Have Had Enough of Me, But I've Had Enough of You". The (RF makes
a loud hissing sound). It's put up some six-and-a-half thousand
octaves, condensed to three-and-a-half seconds from it's original
fourty minutes.
RG: Are you living Bennett's philosophies that you learned?
RF: I try. You can judge an idea by it's efficacy in promoting change,
so any idea, however seemingly high or cosmological or whatever...
if it's, if you like, true, we will be able to find some simple
down-to-earth way of incorporating it in our practical
day-to-day living, and if we can't, then the idea isn't true. Any
seemingly complex idea has, at it's base, a very simple
proposition but we have to work awfully hard to go through the
process of aquiring all the information to examine the complex
idea before throwing it all away and coming back and understanding
it in a simple way.
RG: "It's impossible to achieve the aim..."
RF: "...without suffering." But the point is much suffering is
unnecessary. Greed, for example. All the suffering involved with
greed. It's wholly unnecessary. I'm greedy. If I could give up
being greedy, I would have a lot more energy to suffer in a...
in a more appropriate way.
RG: In what realm do you find you're greedy?
RF: I want everything. That's all. I want everything. I want to live
in New York and Paris and the country and London... and a small
apartment, modern; a large Georgian mansion with antique furniture
and gardeners to keep the lawn impeccably tidy. But I don't wish
to have to go out and work hard to pay for this. Instead I shall
muse and ramble among the trees, that is, when I'm not sitting on
the boulevard cafe in Paris, eyeing and winking at very attractive
Parisian women walking by. But then, I don't need a sexual life,
do I, because I'm spending all my time practicing guitar. Oh, how
it will be nice to be such a tremendous star and have all these
women throwing money and gifts at me but then that would intrude
on me, because, really, I'm so happy in my Georgian mansion or
even my small cottage in Dorset, and so on.
RG: When you were studying for three years at...
RF: Well, it was a year to wind up my affairs, a year to be there and
a year to recover.
RG: So it was the central year that you were actually there.
RF: Yes. It was a ten month intensive course. We left the premises one
day every three
weeks. That was a day off.
RG: Were you actively persuing your guitar at that time?
RF: No.
RG: Not at all?
RF: Very, very marginally. There would be a concert every two or three
weeks, month or so, and occasionally, on three occasions,
actually, I got up and played duets with an art teacher, Don Tate.
RG: On which instrument was Don Tate?
RF: The acoustic guitar. Two acoustic guitars. Peter Gabriel came to
the first, I think. First or second he came. He came on a
visitor's day with his wife and daughter.
RG: How did you arrive at the cycle of three; three albums, three
years?
RF: Well, two is not long enough to do anything and four is too long
to be able to grasp. I can understand three years. I know what
three years is. I know how long it is. It gives me enough time to
achieve what it is I'm setting out to do without being so long
that it's too long for me to grasp. It has a sense of cohesion
which I can work with.
RG: Does that follow through in the idea of the trilogy, the drive
into '81?
RF: Yes, three is the number at the moment, but as I say two is not
enough to do everything and four is too much. Three, the quality
of three... the characteristic of three is something that I'm
working with at the moment.
RG: Could you simply explain the process of Frippertronics?
RF: Yes. I record on the left machine, the guitar is recorded on the
left machine, the signal passes along the tape to the right
machine where it's played back to the left machine and recorded
a second time.
RG: OK.
RF: The signal recorded the second time passes along the tape to the
right machine where it's played back a second time and recorded a
third.
RG: And at what point is it released into the room?
RF: Oh, straightaway. Unless, what I could do if I wanted to be
crafty, would be to build up a chord which no one could hear and
then turn the chord on, but, in fact, that doesn't happen. I've
only done that, I think, on a couple of occasions. You hear it
happening.
RG: Did you consider the audience hard to work with last night
because of the size?
RF: The audience last night were remarkably good. To have 550 people
in that situation is risky. Very risky. It's about twice what I
would consider safe. They were a remarkable audience. There was
only one real problem with a drunk whose friend was so embarassed
that he carried him out. That no one said, "Why don't you piss
off." That the man who was with the drunk was simply so embarassed
he took him away. In fact, in one situation I was working a record
shop in... I think it was Albany, there were two men in front of
me that were brained. The expression, I believe, is space cadet.
These were space commanders. Oh dear. And every other note was a
revelation from the beyond and would invoke applause and
celebration ad so on. After 45 minutes of this, I said "I'm sorry,
I simply can't continue with this" and... they were nice lads.
Because someone is spaced or because they're drunk doesn't mean
they're a nasty person, it simply means they're not in a space
where they can listen. So these two space commanders said, "Would
you like us to go, man?", and I said, "I'm sorry, yes."
So they went. They were very nice about it. Such a pity that they
felt they had to turn up in this oblique fashion.
RG: How do you feel about drugs? Psychedelic drugs?
RF: I don't use them. I never have used them.
RG: Do you find that they interfere with appreciation? That instance
obviously was an interference with you personally and with the
rest of the audience and with the performance in general.
RF: The sense of what I'm trying to convey, something that is possible
with attention and with human beings interacting together, is far
better expressed without drugs. Far better.
RG: You have the same feeling about alcohol?
RF: Substantially, yes.
RG: I'm wondering if that's part of the motivation for this particular
series of performances being in non-traditional music situations
the way we've grown to know it now. You're not playing in bars
where people are...
RF: I have played in one or two. One of them was disasterous.
Disasterous. It involved a certain callousness on the part of the
management. It was actually... not nasty people but very, very
neurotic, and, I think, a little callous, too. They saw an
opportunity to clean up and cleaned up. Eighteen dollars to get
in. There were no tickets sold up in front so everyone can queue
and first come first served. Fine. Unless you have eighteen bucks.
And then it's six dollars to get in and six dollars for food and
six dollars for drink and there's eighty on sale. Guaranteed
seating. That's one situation I ran into. And after that I said
(RF audibly puts foot down), "No." M'buhe(sp?) (Phonetically,
it's M'BOO-HAY) Gardens in San Francisco was very good. They
stopped serving while I was performing. In a rock 'n' roll
situation one has to work to confound the expectations and
traditions of the rock 'n' roll enviornment. In... in... serious,
artistic performance situations, such as concert halls and so on,
I have to work to confound them in a different kind of way. In
rock 'n' roll situations it's a question of how can one... not
formalize exactly, but bring a sense of quiet, bodily quiet, to
the situation. How can one bring order into it. And in terms of
the art (venue), it's a question of how can one disorder that
tradition of sitting there passively thinking all is serious and
gritting one's teeth in an effort of devotion and so on. How can
one informalize that particular situation. And I turn up and do
what I can when I get there. There's no perscribed single means.
One simply has to wing it.
RG: Do you find that one of the major barriers is overcoming that
pretense of, "Oh, well this is arty, this is gallery music"?
RF: Yes, that's one of the reasons why I'm playing in record shops,
pizza houses, canteens and all the rest of it. We have this notion
that art is something that should be locked up in museums and
made available to adults of consenting age, preferably in daylight
hours. That's the implication. So, presenting Frippertronics
in an informal, off-the-cuff situation, just human to human, is a
question of re-invigorating "Ah-rt"; an aphorism which popped up
from yesterday. Art is the capaity to re-experience one's
innocence. Ooh, that was a nice phrase.
RG: Do you feel that what you're doing now is rock 'n' roll?
RF: Some of it is finding that. Rock 'n' roll is characterized by an
energy which works from below the navel. Some Frippertronics has
that. Funny enough, it's generally only the women that recognize
it. 'Cause it's not often crass and straightforeward. (RF makes
loud drunken animal noises)
RG: More sensual?
RF: Well, it varies, doesn't it? But the point is that generally men
come up and say, "What a remarkably good idea that was, stacking
those fourths one on top of the other. Oh, remarkable. Remarkable
parallell modulation there. Yes, very good, very good." Women come
up and sort of, "Hmmm! Yes!" (warmly). I've had more propositions
from Frippertronics in three months, two months in America, than I
had in six years of rock 'n' roll with Crimson. Yeah, really
astounding.
RG: So how does that affect you? How do you respond?
RF: Oh, generally go home and go to bed and pack my suitcase to be
getting up and in a fit state to go on the road the next day.
That's what I generally do. I see to business.
RG: Your transportation has been primarily by airplane?
RF: I'm afraid so.
RG: You haven't had an opportunity to take a leisurely train ride or...
RF: In this tour one doesn't do anything leisurely. I don't enjoy
travelling. It disturbs my body. My organism is physically
disturbed by travelling the extent that I do.
RG: Are you regularly indisposed as you mentioned in the Washington
performance whereby you would go a number of regular mealtimes
without food? That must affect you.
RF: If you had any idea of my schedule in the past two or three months
you would weep blood vicariously.
RG: Are you going to tour with Discotronics when that comes out?
RF: I doubt that I shall ever tour.
RG: After this?
RF: This is not a tour. It is in a sense but it's not in another
sense. There are certain implications in the word touring that
implies a certain... There is a conventional wisdom about touring.
In that sense I shall never tour again, I hope. I have no plans to
form a band and go out and play music to promote an album quite in
those terms. Darryl Hall and I have agreed to get togeather in an informal and
unofficial fashion to play rock 'n' roll in a group with Tony
Levin on bass and Jerry Marotta on drums, but it won't be an
official touring band. If it's official, we won't be alive to do
it. So it will be unofficial and informal. If it's formal, it will
be inflexilbe, so it will be informal.
RG: You consider this to be an informal... what you're doing right now
is an informal series of performances as opposed to a tour to
promote "Exposure"?
RF: Well, because it's such an organic tour, because it is a small,
mobile tour, it permits some intelligence to enter, and, because
it is intelligently constructed, and works on a number of
different levels simultaneously, (Phone rings. RF continues as he
moves to answer it.) it covers many things, many areas. (To phone)
Hello..... Yes I am.... Thank you. There's my next interview.
Does that answer your question?
RG: Esentially.
RF: Today we only have four-and-three-quarter hours.
RG: You only have four-and-three-quarter hours?
RF: Of interviews.
RG: Can I ask one last question?
RF: Yes.
RG: What's next after the three years? Do you know?
RF: Well, yes. The first three year campaign, the Drive to 1981 ]
completes on September 11, 1981 and on the same day, the second
three year campaign begins. That's the Decline to 1984.
RG: What does that include?
RF: You said you had one more question.
RG: OK, you're right.
(Tape ends.)
exit
Date: Wed, 4 Jan 1995 17:22:47 -0800
From: james dot dignan at stonebow dot otago dot ac dot nz (James Dignan)
Subject: The Other Orb...
Strange but true full circle. Hard on the heels of Fripp's work with FFWD
and the Orb, I read the other day of another Orb, an
art rock band from Auckland, New Zealand of the early 1970s which
apparently used to cover King Crimson at live gigs. NZ's Orb consisted of
Alistair Riddell, Tony (Eddie) Rayner and Paul (Emlyn) Crowther. Rayner and
Crowther later became members of Split Enz, while Riddell formed Spacewaltz
before pursuing a largely unsuccessful solo career.
Musical recommendation for the day: Sometime Anywhere (The Church)
James Dignan, Department of Psychology, University of Otago.
Ya zhivu v' 50 Norfolk St., St. Clair, Dunedin, New Zealand
pixelphone james dot dignan at stonebow dot otago dot ac dot nz / steam megaphone NZ 03-455-7807
* You talk to me as if from a distance
* and I reply with impressions chosen from another time, time, time,
* from another time (Brian Eno)
From: A Suffusion of Yellow <96mat at williams dot edu>
Date: Tue, 3 Jan 95 23:51:19 EST
Subject: Re: Abrasive lyrics
It seems a lot of listeners to King Crimson have made the rather severe
mistake of taking the speaker of the song to be the author. A first person
point of view does not necessarily mean that it is the author's. Would you
not take Belew to mean that he himself thinks "they're a dime a dozen and
they carry guns", for example? You should sense the sneering tone of
"Great Deceiver", conveyed as much in the melody as in the lyrics.
Drew
Richard Palmer-James rocks my world.
Date: Wed, 04 Jan 1995 07:58:19 -0500
From: "Mike . Brown" <ah026 at DAYTON dot WRIGHT dot EDU>
Subject: Psycho video
I have a great video of the Psychodots from March '93. It is pro shot and
about 55 minutes. Would like to trade related/other videos.
set list: Exageration; Livin' In A Lincoln; Open Window; Sad Little Monkeys;
Candy; Creature Of Habit; Death Ranch; Big Love Now; Trust; Shame,
Shame, Shame; I See Thru You; Enough
Mike ah026 at dayton dot wright dot edu
Mike Stok