Errors-To: et-admin at blackcat dot demon dot co dot uk Reply-To: et at cs dot man dot ac dot uk Sender: et at cs dot man dot ac dot uk Precedence: bulk From: et at cs dot man dot ac dot uk To: et at cs dot man dot ac dot uk Subject: Elephant Talk Digest #392 E L E P H A N T T A L K The Internet newsletter for Robert Fripp and King Crimson enthusiasts Number 392 Wednesday, 2 July 1997 Today's Topics: Fripp in _Guitar_ magazine Larks' Tongues interpretation....if anyone actually cares USA: does it matter which show? Fripp at G3 The Gates of Horror Boston Fripp/G3 mini-review RE: USA . AGAIN. Fripp and 3 other guys in Boston - June 22, 1997 Lotsa Stuff Fripp's tour: playing for the unenlightened Re: A Blessing of Tears Re: Bozzio Levin Stevens U.S.A. & G3 Guitar synths RE: silence Early Floyd and Crimson, Too Old To Play? Kennealy & Fripp Fripp Goodies At G3 Shows. Acoustic Ebowing Soundscapes Live in Minneapolis ------------------ A D M I N I S T R I V I A --------------------- POSTS: Please send all posts to et at cs dot man dot ac dot uk To UNSUBSCRIBE, or to CHANGE ADDRESS: Send a message with a body of HELP to et-admin at blackcat dot demon dot co dot uk, or use the DIY list machine at http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/aig/staff/toby/et/list/ to ASK FOR HELP about your ET subscription: Send a message to: et-help at blackcat dot demon dot co dot uk ETWEB: http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/aig/staff/toby/et/ (partial mirror at http://members.aol.com/etmirror/) You can read the most recent seven editions of ET at http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/aig-bin/newslet.pl THE ET TEAM: Toby Howard (Moderator), Dan Kirkdorffer (Webmeister) Mike Dickson (List Admin), and a cast of thousands. The views expressed herein are those of the individual authors. ET is produced using John Relph's Digest 3.0 package. ------------------ A I V I R T S I N I M D A --------------------- Date: Sun, 29 Jun 1997 19:38:56 CDT From: "Dean, Walter Andrew" Subject: Fripp in _Guitar_ magazine Hi all, I'm anxiously waiting for Possible Productions to send my copy of Epitaph. I think it will be a great way for a newer KC fan like myself to get acquainted with the older lineup. Incidentally, has anyone seen the Aug. '97 issue of Guitar? There's an interesting interview w/ RF in there; he hints at some interesting possibilities for the Double Trio's future. (BTW, for those of you who haven't caught G3 yet, don't be alarmed if Fripp is already onstage playing when you enter the theater. According to the article, this is _supposed_ to happen.) Anyway, my face turns ever greener with envy as I read the comments of those who already have Epitaph . . . Cheers, Andy Dean ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 30 Jun 1997 02:29:41 -0500 From: Neal Brown Subject: Larks' Tongues interpretation....if anyone actually cares I was "flipping" through some back issues of ET when I noticed that several ETers were confused by the meaning of the Larks Tongues songs. I didn't look through the whole bloody archive but I don't really think anybody ever pointed out this: a lark, of course is a bird, and a synonym for "whim," and an "asp" is a snake. Seems to me that the idea is of larks' tongues (tongue being a synonym for language, and larks being songbirds) being translated to asps (the word "aspic" sounds like the name of a language). Look at the album cover (a moon embracing a sun), and recall that there are two LTIA songs, both radically different and not all that closely related musically. The bird/snake contrast seems a little like female/male contrast, doesn't it? (Correct me if I'm wrong, but the third of the perfect pair seems to make a little more sense this way.) The language thing makes more sense when you listen to the weird voices in part one. You can go all over with this kind of thinking....so if anyone really cares about interpretation, this may be of some interest =). Or not. Just thought it was interesting. ------------------------------ From: Clive Backham Subject: USA: does it matter which show? Date: Mon, 30 Jun 1997 12:11:40 +0100 There's been alot of debate about whether USA is from the Providence show on TGD. What does it matter if they are or are not the same show? The simple fact is that they sound different. For example, LTiA2: I am quite prepared to believe that this is sourced from the Providence show, but there is a sublime guitar overdub on the USA mix that is absent from TGD. Ok, so it's only a one or two bar fill, but IMHO it's a tiny piece of musical ecstasy that should not be allowed to pass into history. For me, this tiny overdub is far more important than the more obvious Jobson violin overdubs. And the other main reason why USA should be reissued: Asbury Park. What a fabulous improv; arguably the best one ever put out on a legit. KC release. And don't tell me to buy the whole of Frame by Frame just to get this number; I already have all the studio CDs, and am uninclined to drop 50 quid for one the limited extra goodies therein. Clive Backham Capita Managed Services Ltd. (+44) 1442 872121 clive at capita dot nildram dot co dot uk ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 30 Jun 1997 09:05:17 -0700 From: LIBCTR Subject: Fripp at G3 I read some of the experiences of you fans at the G3 concert on #390.Briefly my own: I arrived at 6:45 only to find Fripp had been onstage a full hour. The last 40 minutes were phenomenal. Yes, he played more electronic gadgetry than guitar but for a solo performance I expected no less. What's up with the promotion of this concert and Fripp's starting time on stage? Many refunds were given that night and vouchers for future shows.(I.C.Light Amphitheatre in Pittsburgh)He played minimally during the encore but his one and only solo gave the younger boys a lesson in taste, texture and tonality. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 30 Jun 1997 15:11:00 +0200 From: Margus Laidre Organization: German Internet-Hub Bremen Subject: The Gates of Horror Hello! Here comes some very personal reflections to Robert Fripps latest soundscaping "The Gates of Paradise. Vol. 1 The Outer Darkness". This is probably the darkest soundscapes which has been released to this day. The Guitarist certainly fullfills his aim - to describe the Souls journey after Death in Outer Darkness towards the Gates of Paradise not knowing is it allowed to enter or not. At least this is the impression I got both from cover (which BTW fits perfectly with the music) and from the sculptures of sound. This is also partly very frightening and even unpleasant music which one could easily combine with some horror movie. The bearing themes are Doubt and Fear which through centuries have always been characteristic to Western Civilizations in their connection to something Unknown or Non-Material. This is not something which I wanted nor expected although I like very much "A Blessing of Tears" & "That Which Passes". After reading a booklet to The Young Person's Guide To Discipline - "music for cappucino drinkers; children and newspapers welcomed. Robert Fripp goes ambient?" and listening to the track Sometimes God Hides (extremely beautiful)- TGoP feels like a blow into your face. All three statements are wrong - this is definitly not a music for coffee drinkers and I can't imagine people reading newspapers while listening to that plus don't listen to it without headphones if you have children under the age of 10. I have great understanding that plans might change during the preparational stage of upcoming release but please tell to the audience little bit more what's going on. ET would fit perfectly for this purpose. Regards, Margus Laidre ------------------------------ From: John MacNeill Subject: Boston Fripp/G3 mini-review Date: Mon, 30 Jun 1997 10:27:30 -0400 (EDT) -Robert Fripp Soundscapes... like displaying Monet paintings at a drag race. Verbose: I won't describe the aural environments that Mr. Fripp created at the show (if I could I'd also perform a jig about some neo-classical architecture :) ), but I will say that it was exciting to witness their creation. Although much of the G3 audience was, let's say, unappreciative of the non-4-to-the-bar musical structures, I kept wondering if Mr. Fripp was not only playing off of that vibe, but also inviting the listener to integrate it with the performance. Not trying to get too cerebral, but I imagine the Soundscapes would be quite different in a different venue. I hope Mr. Fripp considers touring smaller venues in the future. The Soundscapes started ~5:30, so if you showed up at show time you missed most of Mr. Fripp's performance; I wish that Mr. Fripp would have notified ET before the tour that Soundscapes will begin about 1.5 hours before the show time listed on the tickets, especially since the inflated ticket price includes the rest of the show. I'm sure most ET readers were there primarily for the Soundscapes and may or may not have stayed for the rest of the show. Many thanks to previous posters notifying us of the early start. -Kenny Wayne Shepard... not bad for 19, or I like him better when he was Stevie Ray Vaughn. I kept hearing "He's good for a 19-year-old," and I agree he seems to have a grasp on the blues idiom, but I didn't feel that the band showed any connection with the music. I was fortunate to see SRV and Double Trouble shortly before his death, and that was a modern blues band. I guess comparisons are hard to avoid with this music...I wish Mr. Shepard luck and look forward to him further developing his musical voice. -Steve Vai... Yes on speed. I expected not to enjoy this set, but I have to say I laughed through most of it. Mr. Vai knows the "guitar hero" role and just pushes it over the top. Yes, much of his playing is guitar-as-phallic-symbol, but he is a great showman and displays some great chops. He looks like he's laughing at himself most of the time. Besides some of the "guitar hero" pap, he does take a few chances with some odd time signature pieces ("Yes on speed"), but then turns around with some behind-the-back hammer-on runs. Particularly amusing was his severe pitch-bending accentuated by appearing to play with his teeth. Hate to tell most of the audience that he does that with a Digitech Whammy pedal... -Joe Satriani... like Steve Vai, except he takes himself too seriously. Not much to say about this set, I didn't think much of it. He played in a similar vein to Mr. Vai, but he has this smug expression that I can't get past. He had Stu Hamm on bass, but unfortunately much of this music calls for ostinato bass over which the "guitar hero" soars. -The Finale a lost episode of "The Twilight Zone," Mr. Fripp as Rod Serling I was disappointed that with 4 guitarists on tour together they didn't come up with some songs that better utilized the instrumentation. But I bet you'll probably never hear Mr. Fripp solo on a 12-bar again... One persons opionion, John MacNeill macneill at shore dot net http://www.shore.net/~macneill ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 30 Jun 1997 11:12:02 -0400 (EDT) From: Steven Sullivan Subject: RE: USA . AGAIN. I *know* we've been here before (around the time the GD box came out inf act, but I'll wade in again... Is most of USA from Providence? I don't know for sure. Lark's, Lament and Exile might well be, with different mixes (but somone cited Brufords drum fills as being different, which I hear too)and obvious Jobson overdubs. Asbury Park is, obviously, from Asbury Park. That it segues 'immediately' into Easy Money is no indicator that that performance too came from AP -- it's seems certainly an edit. But Easy Money from Providence sounds quite different from that on USA so who knows? Schizoid Man (USA) *is* definitely the same one found on the GD box set, (Providence, I think, but I don't have the box handy to be sure). My pet theory has been that much of USA actaully comes from the Asbury Park show, but lacking a boot of that, it remains just speculation. I hope Mr. Fripp, when preparing USA II will 1) clear all this up and 2) provide us with the original album mix, overdubs and all , if not alone then at least as a set of 'bonus tracks'. That 'Larks II' is still the fiercest one I've heard (Wettons seems much more decibelically subdued on the GD Providence mix). ------------------------------ From: jmooney at bigyellow dot com Date: Mon, 30 Jun 1997 13:13:05 -0400 Subject: Fripp and 3 other guys in Boston - June 22, 1997 First, Praise the Maker for the Internet and Toby et al for ET. I'd previously seen one poster state that Fripp was starting "early". Sunday afternoon, I was reading email over lunch. Several posts regarding previous shows, including the Saturday night show in Hartford. In every post , the same message, "Fripp's starting early" or "I got there an hour before the scheduled start and he was already playing". I got to Harborlights about 5:15; Robert was already playing. I don't know how to describe "Soundscapes" (that's what Fripp calls his current solo stuff). Tone pictures ? Tone poems ? Stravinsky meets 90's technology ? In part, sheets of shimmering notes, spiralling up to break over the spires of Harborlights and wash over the audience; in part, the Thunder of the Gods. Very avante garde. Besides the expected guit-synth stuff, it sounded like he had several levels of digital delay/loopback stuff ganged together. In no small part, Fripp was composing, arranging, performing, editting,and mixing an extended work in real-time. I understand why Robert starts "early" - the performance starts at 7:00PM, but the pre-performance starts hours in advance; he needs time to "prime the pump". In a way it was like trying to get a drink from a firehose. Snippets of themes and melodies and harmonies swarming around, surfacing, submerging and resurfacing. An Egyptian/Indian flute sounding melody, a pod of singing whales, rumbles more felt than heard. A honking B3 organ. Unearthly swashes of sound, as if cut from cloth, sound with color and texture: rough red burlap, then green silk, then metallic, then soft and giving and safe. Thick, Frippian chord crunches morph into a flock of twittering birds dispersed by something hungry and loud and swooping through their midst. Totally, fripping amazing. Oh, 3 other guys. Kenny Wayne Shepherd. "The next SRV". Not. Technical blues genius. Give me Buddy Guy with that E string wrapped around back side of the neck. Steve Vai. Zappa once made a comment about "musical mastubation". Not surprisingly, Vai was in Zappa's band at one time. Too hystrionic. Too many notes being played at the same time for no reason. Painfully dull (or was it dully painful ?), like the way a dentist's drill feels through novacaine. Still blissed out from Fripp. Security wouldn't let curl up on the grass to take a nap, so I went home. Too bad, because I wanted to see Satch. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 30 Jun 97 12:04:47 -0600 From: "mmason" Subject: Lotsa Stuff I'm ,15 and I'v been a really big Crimson/Fripp fan for about 2 years now. This is my first time to post on ET. I plan to cover many topics in this letter. "Dinosaur" and Mellotrons: The sound at the beginning of Dinosaur is most definately NOT a mellotron. Mellotrons sound very different than that synthish string sound. However, there are bits of mellotron sprinkled throughout the song. Listen, and you'l hear it. Crimson Unplugged idea: That wouldn't necessarilly (can't spell that) mean performing acoustic rendidtions of electric material. The could write some new songs for that. Hmmmmmm.... Digital vs. Analog: Someone said "Give me Analog or give me death" a while back. Hm. DO any of you analog people out there realize that the King Crimson CDs you listen to are digital? I think both analog and digital are equally great. Morphine and King Crimson: Back in March, I went to a Morphine concert down here in Austin, and after the show I spoke with the drummer, Billy COnway, and the singer/bassist Mark Sandman. When I mentioned that Morphine and King Crimson were my favorite bands, they both told me that King Crimson had been trying to get Morphine to go on tour and open for them. I was like WOWWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOW!!!!!!!!!!!!! But then he said that they weren't going to do it because being an opening act doesn't pay enough. ARRGGGGG!! But at least I learned that Crimson was going on Tour soon. Does anyone know anything about that? Also who in Crimson do you think digs Morphine? Man, I wish that tour would have happened, I would have freaked out. Do any of you out there dig Morphine? Sorry for taking up so much space. P.S.- Fripp/Cale would ROCK!!!!!!! P.P.S.- Where the heck do you find bottlegs?!!???? I want some!!!! I'm hooked on The Great Deciever and I want more!! MORE!!! ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 30 Jun 1997 15:27:30 +0100 From: Art Bingham Subject: Fripp's tour: playing for the unenlightened Last night Robert Fripp played in Chicago; I was not present. The reviews of this web sight convinced me that I would only become angry. I now feel some regret, but I cannot be certain that my attendence at the event would not have caused even more regret. My experience with attending concerts for the "opening act" has not been good: in the case of Mr. Fripp, my respect for his artistry is too great to watch him be ignored or perhaps harrassed. Why is Fripp on this tour? To reach a larger audience? Perhaps. But why not tour with someone whose audience will at least be respectful of Soundscapes--Philip Glass for example? Fripp has said that the audience must "actively listen." He compares audience members to Hershey bars and French confection. Enough of the Hershey bars Mr. Fripp: it is time to return to quality. Michael Flaherty DeKalb, IL ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 30 Jun 1997 19:19:23 -0400 (EDT) From: Zero the Hero Subject: Re: A Blessing of Tears A couple of ET's ago, Chris Mills posted a story about 'Blessing' and his daughter: <> [dialogue snipped] Good God, that brought a tear to me eye! Time to give the disc another spin... Thanks for indulging, Jason ----- jeller at unf dot edu Computing Services, University of North Florida Listen to DREAMS WIDE AWAKE http://www.unf.edu/~jeller/dreams.html Saturday nights from 8 to 12-ish Hosted by Jason Ellerbee Airing from the University of North Florida worldwide via the Internet at http://www.unf.edu/groups/wosp/stream.htm ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 30 Jun 1997 19:30:07 -0400 (EDT) From: Zero the Hero Subject: Re: Bozzio Levin Stevens I am NOT impressed, though I've only heard bits of it. Bozzio and Levin are awesome (natch), but the metal-wankery of Steve Stevens is very annoying. Must be the Magna Carta disease :-) Now Bozzio Levin FRIPP would have been sweet. Or Belew, or Holdsworth, or Torn, or Lozaga, or... (and so on). Jason ----- jeller at unf dot edu Computing Services, University of North Florida Listen to DREAMS WIDE AWAKE http://www.unf.edu/~jeller/dreams.html Saturday nights from 8 to 12-ish Hosted by Jason Ellerbee Airing from the University of North Florida worldwide via the Internet at http://www.unf.edu/groups/wosp/stream.htm ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 30 Jun 1997 17:31:58 -0600 From: "Steven W. Sthole" Subject: U.S.A. & G3 First, I'd like to add my say-so the the USA conundrum (before it becomes off-limits) and agree that no-where on 'The Great Deceiver' do I hear a complete set remniscent of the original USA album. In fact, I seldom hear any one tune (Lark's Tounges , Easy Money, et al) on the box set that bears resemblance to the versions on USA. It would be great if Robert would just break down and re-issue the damn thing anyway, complete with the original hand-with-ticket cover. It was really cool. And then, on this G3 (or is it the summit-of-the-four?). After reading one-too-many reviews of the usual boogie-boy antics at these concerts, I'm convinced I'm not going. Thanks for the updates, et'ers. ************************************************************** * (peace) * * Steven W. Sthole, mailto:sws at indra dot com * * * * * * Check it out! Twin Peaks, 101 Guitar Tunings, Full Metal * * Jacket, the Greatest Band In The Universe and more at: * * http://net.indra.com/~sws/ * * * ************************************************************** ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 30 Jun 1997 13:02:33 -0400 (EDT) From: Terrance L Kalka II Greetings to all from one of your FAQ workers (Hi, Jim). Here's what we have on USA, and what we're working on: 1. It has been claimed by many (including me, at one point) that USA was mostly recorded in Providence, RI - except for "Asbury Park", which\ was recorded in Asbury Park, NJ. 2. This is not the case. It seems that the majority of USA was not recorded in Providence, and that most of the recorded performances are not availibe on either THE GREAT DECEIVER or FRAME BY FRAME. 3. At the moment, we are working to compile an analysis of USA, to to hopefully determine what was recorded when. We hope to have that on the FAQ soon. If you have questions or commentary, please send them to me at: tctak at sparta dot csnet dot net which is my new address, or to Jim at jprice at trentu dot ca peace tErry ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 30 Jun 1997 21:02:54 -0400 (EDT) From: Nameless to the Goddess Subject: Guitar synths >> Okay, say Ade hits an A (A is for Ade). How does the synth understand >> it is an A? What does it look for? >The basic idea is to read the frequency of each guitar string. An easy way >to do this is to read the number of times the guitar string's waveform >crosses the zero line in a certain time interval. The tricky part is in >filtering out the noise introduced by the pick and other harmonics. This suggests two questions. 1) Why special pickups? Anything different about them than the usual pickups? It sounds like one pickup/output per string...a difference...the only? 2) Can you run other signals into the freq analyzer? Obviously, a vibrating string is the simplest waveform, which makes synth guitars/banjos/sticks the perfect form. But can the system handle something like voice, flute, or french horn? The Church of Perelandra: http://www.afn.org/~afn39111 It will end in Faya. <*> babylon5-request at gatekey dot com with body:subscribe ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 30 Jun 1997 21:13:12 -0400 (EDT) From: dumela at nicom dot com (tj) Subject: RE: silence >From: Denis Rodier >Subject: Re: Elephant Talk Digest #383 > >> dumela at nicom dot com (tj) >> >> We have a couple of tunes that start out, sometimes for numerous seconds, >> in complete silence (I include solo work also). Why do we have this? Is >> there a feeling that we are acquiring while listening to musicians holding >> their instruments? Perchance a few crafties could enlighten here. > >That's just it! If you ever tried to start an improv or jam with musicians >you'll notice that rarely they will listen to the others. By starting out >with complete silence it forces them to actually listen to what's going >on. It's a good way to make people react to what the others are playing >instead of them staying in their bubble and playing their "cool riff" >Cheers! Denis Rodier Prog is not dead, it just smells funny. > Thanks Denis. Let us take this a bit further now. Ok? What does this silence do for the listener as she sits on her sofa munching on tamari almonds? "Hmmmm I don't hear anything," she easily thought 47 times during the 12 seconds of silence. Also how does your idea work for a studio recording where splices and dicing is sometimes the case. Is this silent moment a "live" one? How do we know? Do we the listeners know that Adrian (for example) was out of the studio during that recorded silence? Could this recorded silence be sampled? This matters so let us figure it out. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 30 Jun 1997 22:25:35 EST From: Les B. Labbauf Subject: Early Floyd and Crimson, Too Old To Play? Concerning KC69 Reforming and Touring Authur Thomas Andrews mentioned: ATA>> later years would be an embaressment. The innocence of singing about ATA>> "waving silver wands to the night-birds song" is gone. This reminds me of ATA>> an interview I read of Pink Floyd's David Gilmore. The interviewer asked ATA>> David if he would play songs like "Echoes" on the upcomming tour. David ATA>> laughed and said it wouldn't be proper for a guy in his mid-forties singing ATA>> about albatrosses and ambassadors of morning, he now could only relate to ATA> more human things. How's that for a dose of reality? However on that very tour Mr. Gilmore and mates opened up with "Astronome Domine" and sang: Lime and Limpid Green, A Second Scene A Fight Between The Blue You Once Knew Floating Down, The Sound Resounds Around The Icy Waters Underground Jupiter And Saturn, Oberon, Miranda And Titania, Neptune Titan Stars Can Frighten.. Well human did Mr. Gilmore think those lines were :) "The less you know, the more you believe" Bono, Last Night On Earth. "Windows multitasking barely works without destabilizing the system" John C. Dvo rak, PC Magazine Columnist. Les B. Labbauf ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 30 Jun 1997 22:25:38 EST From: Les B. Labbauf Subject: Kennealy & Fripp I was fortunate to see the G3 show in Pittsburgh, PA on 06/27/1997. It was at the I.C. Light Ampitheater. It had the capacity for about 1500 people. The venue is located on the "South Side", right on the Allegheny river bank. To your right was the city skyline, and to the left was a mountainside. The place selled beer, which was cool. There wasn't any obnoxious people that I noticed. My friends and I arrived about 6:20. A sign at the ticket booth showed that Robert started at 5:45, he was playing as we entered. I quickly left my friends and made my way to the front. About five minutes later my friends found me, one handing me a beer. The soundscapes started off soft, reminiscent of "Blessing of Tears". As the set progressed the sounds got louder, harsher, and definitely more dissonant. Several people, including a family behind me, left the seating area as Robert surrounded them with agony/joy/bliss, however the music presented itself to you. At one point during the set, Mike Kennealy joined Robert on stage and added some tasty, Fripp influenced solos to Robert's beatifull aural passages. This lasted about 10 minutes or so, maybe even more, I was quite unaware about the passage of time at this point. When Mr. Kennealy finished his contributions he left the stage saying to Robert "Thank You" (I wonder did this happen at any other shows.) At approximately 7:25 Robert picked up his belongings and walked off stage. There were some cheers, some for appreciation, and some apparently glad it was over. I certainly hope that Robert has been recording during this tour. I especialy would love to hear some of his duets with Mr. Kennealy. KWS (Kenny Wayne Sheppard) took to the stage shortly after Robert. They must of had his equipment ready to go, because they did not even need much of a sound check. Not having heard much of his music, I was pleasantly suprised. Steve Vai played after KWS. Besided Robert Fripp, I was also waiting to see SV set. He played several selections from all his releases. During the "Fire Garden Suite" Vai played a mellow section that leads into a hard driving metal thrash, but as the song built to the crescendo, he ended the song. It left me speechless! Joe Satriani played last, and as usual his set was outstanding. At the end he invited the Steve, Kenny, and Robert on stage to join him to close the show. As described in previous posts the last few songs, and encores were vehicals to allow the G3+1 to trade solos, each time Robert getting the last licks. As we where walking out, my friends and I agreed it was definitely a great show, however a few did not really appreciate Robert's set. But then I expected that, his music definitely effected them, it may have been negative, but they did agree it effected them. Let us hope that some of Robert's performances will be available to us soon!! "The less you know, the more you believe" Bono, Last Night On Earth. "Windows multitasking barely works without destabilizing the system" John C. Dvo rak, PC Magazine Columnist. Les B. Labbauf ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 30 Jun 1997 22:25:42 EST From: Les B. Labbauf Subject: Fripp Goodies At G3 Shows. In ET 390 Robert Hickson Mentioned The Following: RH>> was on the fritz, and Vai held out his guitar for Robert to play. Fripp RH>> waved him off, and I immediately dismissed all of Vai's on-stage excesses and RH>> antics - he is a nice guy. Then I immediately ran to the concession booth RH>> (which was Frippless, BTW) and bought the shirt that said "That Stevie RH>> Vai is such a nice boy."waved him off, and I immediately dismissed all of Vai's on-stage excesses and At the show in Pittsburgh I asked the guy at the goodies table if he had any Fripp stuff, he said no, but then I pointed out two CD's I recognized ("Some Times God Hides" - Discipline Sampler, and "That Which Passes"). So those of you who do not have these ask the concesion guy to look for them. "The less you know, the more you believe" Bono, Last Night On Earth. "Windows multitasking barely works without destabilizing the system" John C. Dvo rak, PC Magazine Columnist. Les B. Labbauf ------------------------------ From: "Stephen P. Goodman" Subject: Acoustic Ebowing Date: Mon, 30 Jun 1997 20:07:27 -0700 Hello Everyone! Mark Jordan wrote in the last ET: On the unplugged line, I believe the tunes from the 80's era Gamelan style and some of the current stuff (like People) would probably translate OK. Maybe the guys I sent the 3 OF a Perfect Pair TAB to could try it. The solo's would be hard though. Note much sustain in an acoustic, but maybe if you had an EBow it would work. Has anyone tried an EBow on an acoustic guitar? To this last, I give a hearty YES. I've been an EBow user since '91, both on acoustic and electric. My acoustic is an Oscar Schmidt 6-string (steel), and resonates really nicely in the mid-neck range; the only time it doesn't is in the presence of low-end percussion (like congas/traditional drums), which really kills it. Otherwise it's good enough to echo off the walls of the tunnels I describe on my page at http://www.primenet.com/~sgoodman/Studios - enough to lead to a 12-song collection of pieces based on themes developed on camping trips up in the San Gabriel mountains. I've tested the resonance on some other guitars like Farrington's to not as good an effect, which, delightfully, keeps other folks from trying to borrow my EBow on those same camping trips. I love my EBow! Stephen Goodman * Download The Loop Of The Week and more! EarthLight Studios * http://www.primenet.com/~sgoodman/Studios *--------------------------------------------------------------------------- *------------------------------ ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 01 Jul 1997 00:26:41 +0000 From: "crash at waste dot org" Organization: crash at waste dot org Subject: Soundscapes Live in Minneapolis Just wanted to drop the mailing list an update regarding soundscapes opening the G3 shows...there was an unexpected surprise at tonight's show. At the Minneapolis show, Robert went on right as the doors opened, first playing quiet little notes into the welcoming coolness of the auditorium (it was very hot here today). The music started serenely and was the perfect volume level.. not too loud, not too quiet. Then the music gradually flowered. As noted in previous digests, he would occasionally put the guitar down and would walk backstage and watch the audience while his rack of what appeared to be FOUR TC 2290 delays and TWO H3000 rack processors burbled away. There were two additional pieces of rack equipment that were unidentifiable. He played a red Les Paul for the entirely of the evening. After a time, a new piece began and as Robert began to piece the soundscape together, Vai guitarist/keyboardist Mike Keneally walked onstage with his green strat and started playing very Fripp-like lead lines over the soundscapes! It sounded a little like "Evening Star Meets Midnight Blue." He would also stop for a time and wait for the music to develop and would just listen. This went on for some time, and the soundscape which had initially been hopeful sounding started to drift into an ominous wave of sound, building louder and louder much as "Threnody for Souls in Torment" built while Keneally stood and belted out more guitar lines, drifting towards the atonal. Eventually the torrent of sound ceased and a new, hopeful, yet ethereal progression began - Fripp was able to generate a bass line via guitar-synthesizer and percussion just from muted clean guitar sounds (pressing his palm on the strings created a bass drum, pressing a finger and muting the higher strings created a kind of techno sounding snare). This is the first time I've witnessed this technique. He then gradually added deep sounding pads, strings, digital chimey bell sounds and clean, chorused guitar fills to build over it while Mr. Keneally created rising lines of singing, crying guitar over the top. Eventually, Fripp added his own keening guitar synth lines over the top..I'd say that the soundscapes portion of the show would be the most memorable due to the fact that it was so unexpected to have a guest musician - and also rare that the guest musician knew completely what was expected and rose to the occasion. I still have the chord progression ringing in my head despite succeeding hours of headbanger fare. Here's hoping that future collaborations can be witnessed in the future. The only downside to this was that Keneally's guitar started to go slightly flat after some killer bends during the tumultuous sections of music I discussed earlier - although he was able to compensate for this valiantly during the performance. The music still shone. The rest of the show I'll leave for others to describe. -Todd. ------------------------------ End of Elephant-Talk Digest #392 ********************************