Reply-To: toby at cs dot man dot ac dot uk Sender: toby at cs dot man dot ac dot uk Precedence: bulk From: toby at cs dot man dot ac dot uk To: toby at cs dot man dot ac dot uk Subject: Discipline #58 Discipline, Number 58 Friday, 2 October 1992 Today's Topics: Eno's My Squelchy Life/discographies Electric Counterpoint/Crafty Guitarists Robert Fripp Interview -- Part 1 Adrian Belew w/ Herbie Hancock Lark's Tongues backwards _Musician_,1984: Crimson Interviews Pt.I Uncle Funk, KC Box Set Sleepless/Fripp disco _Musician_, Aug. 1984 Crimson Interview: Levin [][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][] Date: Wed, 30 Sep 92 10:12:28 PDT From: malcolm at wrs dot com (Malcolm Humes) Subject: Eno's My Squelchy Life/discographies Paul Martz asks about Eno's My Squelchy Life: >I've heard alot of discussion on this album. Sounds like it never made >it completely into print, just demo discs were pressed. I don't think it even ever got pressed on cd, though supposedly a catalog number was assigned. I think it was just a review cassette. After the review copies were sent out and the release was canned the reviewers got letters telling them not to copy or distribute the material. >Does anyone know *any* way I can obtain a legitimate copy of this >disc? Failing that, can someone bootleg me a copy from CD if I mail >them a tape? Nope. Nope. I heard a tape of it a couple of times through a friend who has a copy, but he guards it like a hawk and there's no chance of getting a dub from him. But there are other copies out there somewhere, so someone might help you out. I suspect the material will resurface someday. Regarding the Fripp and Levin discographies - I didn't see the David Cunningham release on Made To Measure (Crammed) that Eric Rutten mentioned recently. This should be added. Eric Rutten (rutten at cwi dot nl) sent me this: >I just bought an album of David Cunningham titled "Water" on the >Made To Measure collection of the Belgian label Crammed Discs. >It is all VERY ambient, extremely ambient, and beautiful at times, >if you like this kind of stuff ... > >And, it features Robert Fripp on Guitar on one track, which he co-signs too; >he contributes a few notes. I though Eric forwarded it to the list too. I think Cunningham might have been in the Flying Lizards. Also: >1980 Daryl Hall: Sacred Songs this really belongs under major collaborations and not just "Productions" as Robert plays all over this release, mixing in Frippertronics in between some tracks and playing guitar on some or all of the lp. One song here, (NYC or is is NYCIC? or something else entirely) is closely related to a track on Exposure that uses the same chord progressions - I think it may be the same tune with different vocals if I recall correctly. RE: Levin, the Charlie Mariano release I mentioned is an LP not a CD. I doubt it's on CD. Also, someone here or on alt.music.progressive said something about Fripp playing on Tippett's Centipede lp. He didn't play on it, though just about every other musician in England at the time did. BTW, some of you folks might get Usenet news but not the alt groups like a.m.progressive. I have some info I can forward to anyone who wants to telnet to a site where they can get an account with access to all the alt groups. Email if you want details. - Malcolm a.k.a. malcolm at wrs dot com [][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][] Date: Wed, 30 Sep 92 10:17:11 PDT From: ee105fef at sdcc15 dot UCSD dot EDU (Paolo Valladolid) Subject: Electric Counterpoint/Crafty Guitarists Long before I became aware of King Crimson, at a time I was barely aware of Robert Fripp ( to me he was just another experimental musician weirdo at the time ;-)), I purchased a recording by Steve Reich called _Electric Counterpoint_. Reich had written other Counterpoint pieces before and classical guitarists had been asking him to write for their instrument. He ended up writing _Electric Counterpoint_ to be played by jazz guitarist Pat Metheny. _EC_ is a three-movement piece and has parts written for eleven guitars and two electric basses. The idea was that Metheny would prerecord the two basses and ten guitars and then the final take of the recording would be Metheny playing live guitar against the layered guitars; not improvising a solo but playing a composed line. What I like about _EC_ is how Metheny's personality somehow radiates throughout the recording even though the composition is not his own. Anybody out there who has heard both _Electric Counterpoint_ and Frippertronics and if so, what are your impressions? This is intriguing since Fripp claims he was not influenced by the minimalist movement ( of which some consider Steve Reich to be a part ) and neither Reich nor Metheny have indicated any awareness of Fripp's work, as far as I can tell. Also, I recently became aware that _Electric Counterpoint_ was/is/will be continued to be performed by classical guitar ensembles. Has anyone out there attended any of these performances *and* heard the Crafty Guitarists? Comparisons would be appreciated... Cheers, Paolo [][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][] Date: Wed, 30 Sep 92 18:24:30 BST From: Toby Howard Subject: Robert Fripp Interview -- Part 1 [[[ Here is part one of an interview with Robert Fripp, by Dave Mandl. The Interview conducted on February 5, 1991, and it originally appeared in Reflex magazine. PLEASE DON'T re-post this interview onto the net, or anywhere else, electronic or other. Thanks for your cooperation. Part two will be in the next issue of Discipline. -- Toby ]]] It would probably be only a slight exaggeration to say that _In the Court of the Crimson King,_ King Crimson's debut album, changed the face of rock music. Appearing (in 1969) at the tail end of the psychedelic era, the record almost single-handedly ushered in the era of British Progressive Rock. King Crimson combined blood-curdling dissonance, spacy free improvisation, and majestic, woodwind-and-mellotron-laced orchestral passages with stunning virtuosity and extremely high volumes; the brains behind the group, guitarist/composer Robert Fripp, coaxed strange and terrifying sounds out of his instrument, and was widely admired for his blinding speed, technical precision, masterful control of feedback and distortion, and studious noncompliance with the blues-based norms of the day. In the band's relatively short but productive lifetime, Crimson recorded eight LPs, survived innumerable personnel changes (famous alumni include Bill Bruford, Mel Collins, Boz Burrell, and Greg Lake), and saw its influence and following grow considerably. In late 1974, Fripp, the only remaining original member, decided to disband the group once and for all. The ensuing nine years saw Fripp participating in a multitude of projects. He collaborated with Brian Eno on the minimalist crossover LPs _Evening Star_ and _No Pussyfooting_ and contributed to or produced records by everyone from David Bowie (most notably the exquisitely understated guitar lines on "Heroes"), to Peter Gabriel, to New York folk group The Roches, to Daryl Hall. He also recorded several albums of his own, developed the tape-loop system "Frippertronics," and (in stark contrast to most other former Progressive Rockers) eagerly picked up on the new energy and musical forms of Punk, forming and touring with the quasi-new wave band The League of Gentlemen (which included former members of The Gang of Four and XTC). Mainly in reaction to the unwieldy beasts that big rock groups had become, he also conducted low-key solo tours as a "small, mobile, intelligent unit" with nothing but a guitar or tape recorder. In the early '80s, he reformed King Crimson, reincarnated this time as a more lyrical, even dancable, ensemble. Several tours and three LPs later, he again split the band. Since 1985, Fripp's time has been devoted almost completely to Guitarcraft, a unique guitar instruction program designed by Fripp himself; he has also performed extensively (and recorded a live LP) with The League of Crafty Guitarists, a group of nineteen students hand-picked from the Guitarcraft courses. After seven years out of the public eye, Fripp is now "returning to public life as a working musician." His return is heralded by no less than three new recordings: _Show of Hands,_ the second League of Crafty Guitarists release (a studio recording this time); _Kneeling at the Shrine,_ by his new band Sunday All Over The World; and _Ophelia's Shadow,_ by Toyah (Fripp's wife, and also a member of Sunday All Over The World), which he contributed to. Far from the dark, aloof, and reticent figure that he has been rumored to be, Fripp was cordial and open when I spoke to him recently . . . DM - I've always liked to refer to King Crimson as the greatest heavy metal band of all time. RF - "Schizoid Man," [from _In the Court of the Crimson King_] for me, was intelligent heavy metal. It was very very hard to play (in its time--technical standards have come forward now, of course). It was so hard to play, and it was so terrifying. In early 1970 I saw Black Sabbath doing _Paranoid_ (and this is without in any way criticizing Black Sabbath--they were excellent in their field), and it didn't frighten me. And I had thought that this new breed of music, with Black Sabbath, would viscerally affect me in the same way that, for example, "Schizoid Man" did. And I was not moved in the same way. I think "Red" [from the Crimson LP of the same name] was a beautiful piece of Heavy metal--in 5 [the unusual time signature 5/8]. I mean, I hadn't heard heavy metal in 5 before, but for me that was it. DM - I always found King Crimson _much_ more terrifying than the music that was supposed to be. RF - The interesting thing about the heavy bands is that the weight is in the volume. For me, the weight is in the structure of the music, the tension in the music as it's written and played. And if you _then_ add enough volume so it's visceral, it doesn't have to be deafening to rip you in two places. DM - The stylistic range of the music you've made is about as extreme as it gets, from New Music and "serious" composition all the way to the "heavy metal." When you first started, at the time of the first King Crimson record--1969, 1970--it's hard to imagine people listening to both genres; they would have been two completely separate audiences. Do you find that there are now a lot of people showing interest in both? q RF - If you go back to 1969, the business was not so much a business, and the audiences were very open to all kinds of music, so if you'd go to a "rock music festival," you would have a number of categories (as they'd now be seen): folk, rock, progressive rock, hard rock--they'd all be there. And what you would now call New Music would then be New Music, and the audience would take the whole gamut--lots of different artists, lots of different backgrounds. In 1969, if you went to a festival and you found them all on there, there would be the same audience. However, rock music [eventually] became more of a profession, more of an industry--between 1968 and 1978, the rock industry had growth charts that no other industry compared with. So things got a little more organized, strait-jacketed. DM - More specialization. RF - But for me in 1981, King Crimson was as eclectic as ever, and my work today is as widely spaced as it's always been. I do believe that we don't give audiences--we don't credit them with the intelligence they have. DM - I was curious about your views on the record industry. You're in the enviable position of doing music that's commercially successful, and then having the freedom to do things like the League or _No Pussyfooting_. RF - I have the same limitations and restrictions as anyone else at all. Part of my return to public life--I'm representing three albums at the moment as a return to public life. The first of them is _Ophelia's Shadow_. If I just briefly tell you what the albums are, we'll then talk about why it's no easier for me than anyone else in the position. _Ophelia's Shadow_ by Toyah: I will express a personal interest in this--this is my wife. I helped her mix it and I played guitar and helped write a couple of the tracks. The musicians on this record are almost the same musicians on Sunday All Over the World, except the guitarist is different. The guitarist on this is Tony Geballe, who is one of the more experienced Guitarcraft students. Which segues us into the third record, The League of Crafties. The difficulties we've had making it--Sunday All Over the World, and this record [Toyah]--are the difficulties any young band faces. The budgets on these things--the budget for this album [Toyah] is the same as a mainstream single. DM - A single? A 45? RF - Right. The budget for this CD is the same as for a single in England right now. DM - So it doesn't matter to them how successful [King Crimson's] _Larks' Tongues in Aspic_ was. RF - No. You would not know that listening to it. It means you have to rehearse more, work quicker, a lot tighter, and the guy that has the studio got in the spirit of things--Tony Arnold--and gave us breaks because he was involved, in a way that you wouldn't otherwise get from most studios. But no, we have the same difficulties and the same restrictions as anyone else. In terms of the record industry, I haven't really been very involved for the past seven years, so I can't give you a detailed, up-to-the-minute concern other than: getting these three records together was not easy for anyone. DM - So you do think that audiences are no more or less open--do you find that having done music that's more accessible, people are more inclined to pick up things like the League, _No Pussyfooting_--more extreme stuff that they wouldn't have otherwise? RF - Would you call _No Pussyfooting_ accessible or not? DM - Honestly? I probably never would have noticed it or picked it up if I hadn't been exposed to your and Eno's more "pop" stuff. RF - The release of _No Pussyfooting_ was delayed for a year and a half by the record company and the management, who thought that Eno's associations with me would damage his commercial credibility, and that the record would spoil his commercial career. It was then released in America on Antilles, which is the next best thing to burying it. So the release of _No Pussyfooting_ was actually delayed for a year and a half, nearly two years, and effectively delayed for nine years in America. In terms of Crimson and so-called accessible music, every album which Crimson brought along we were told "This is not accessible." _Every one_. [The Crimson LP] _Discipline:_ "This is not accessible." Now you look back, and you say "Oh, 'Elephant Talk' [from _Discipline_]--that's accessible, whereas the League of Crafties is not accessible." All I can say is, everything I've ever done I have been told, "This is not accessible," until it's still selling ten years later. DM - So the record companies just generally underestimate the audience. RF - I would say yes. It's not underestimating the band, because generally the people I work with and the work I do have a measure of respect within the industry. But I do believe, yes, the audiences aren't given credit. I will say that Crimson is not going to match the figures of lots of bands, but it's certainly going to be on the high side of professionally respectable. DM - To a certain extent you mix different elements--King Crimson was not a straight "rock band" by any measure--but there does seem to be a pretty clear separation sometimes between your rockier material and your more experimental material. Do you see it that way? Do you consciously focus on one direction or the other? Or do you go out of your way to try to mix elements and blur the lines between the different worlds? RF - It's more to do with "This is what the music demands." It's not a question of sitting down and pre-figuring out a whole potpourri of different styles. It's, "In order to express this idea, that's what it has to have." Some ideas have to have drums and bass, and some ideas cannot have drums on them. You cannot use the League of Crafty Guitarists with a drummer. There may come a time when we can, but the percussion is so built into the instruments that the timbre would [be destroyed]. So it's what the music needs in order to serve the music. Do I miss playing with Tony Levin and a rocking drummer? You bet! That's part of what I need as a player right now. It's not _everything_ that I need as a player, but it's part of it. DM - I'm sure you've heard all kinds of opinions, positive and negative, about the League. The way that the League operates, the way your gigs are organized, seems very unusual, even controversial--no talking to the audience during shows, everyone sitting down in unison. Why have you organized the band the way you have? RF - First of all, Why the League of Crafty Guitarists? The Guitarcraft courses have been running for six years, in America (both coasts) and England, where we had a house for three years. I've just come from the thirty-fourth American course, we've had courses in France, Germany, Holland, Switzerland, Norway, Italy, New Zealand, with more requests to go back and have courses than I can actually deal with. Most of the training of young musicians [normally] is away from the public. But a musician plays an instrument to play music, to play music to people. So in Guitarcraft, learning the instrument, and learning music, and learning to play to people occur simultaneously. A musician's problem is the same as an actor's when finding work: you can't get work until you have experience, and you can't get experience until you have work. So, the League of Crafty Guitarists is a means of gaining performance experience. The League of Crafty Guitarists is a performance vehicle for the students and Guitarcraft in a professional context, which most of them would not be exposed to for a while. So that's [the background]. Why do we not talk to the audience? Well, sometimes we do. It varies. Sometimes, I feel it's helpful or useful to talk to the audience, but generally I would rather not, because I would rather the music spoke. But sometimes, a few words help, so . . . Why stand and sit together? Because a group, a real group, is one individual in a number of bodies. So Guitarcraft training is aimed at developing a sense of the group. Brilliant individuals probably would find this very restricting. But we're very good for people without very much in the way of musical talent. DM - Do you see the League as some sort of model or paradigm? Would you like to see more people doing this kind of thing? Do you see it as a good model for future training or performing? RF - The quick answer is yes. In terms of, would I like to see other people doing it: that one doesn't bother me. So far, about a thousand people have been through Guitarcraft or related courses--- DM - Are you the only person who teaches? RF - Some of the more experienced students help the newer students. But if you said, "Am I the only Guitarcraft instructor?" in the way in which I believe you are the asking the question, yes, although we have Alexander teachers who would have an equal authority in their field, and we have now some experienced Guitarcraft students who in their own background are professional teachers and players, for whom I have considerable respect. But in terms of Do I want to see more people take the courses?, that isn't the question for me. Guitarcraft is a response to a need: When I was first asked to give Guitarcraft seminars, I said No-- DM - So the initial spark for the idea wasn't yours? RF - No. When I was asked six years, seven years ago to give a guitar seminar, I said No. But I was asked again, and this time I said Yes. And the program as such has been a runaway success. It's reached the point now where I don't have enough time to actually go to all the countries that want me to go back and do it. Were I able to, I probably would, but now after seven years of not really being a working musician, I must play music again. DM - So you're just taking a hiatus completely from the League? RF - No, it's not so much that I'm not doing Guitarcraft anymore, but that I'm returning to public life as a working musician. And putting the onus on the Guitarcraft students to continue to practice and develop their discipline, so that with them having greater experience, there may come a time in the future when, if I continue to work [at] my own discipline, perhaps I can help them again. So I'm not leaving Guitarcraft as such; it's just that I'm returning to my life as a public musician for the next period. If there is a need in the future, [I may return to Guitarcraft]. But this isn't something I'm selling. DM - The slogan "Discipline is not an end in itself, just a means to an end" is printed on the back of the album _Discipline_. It seems to me that there's an obvious connection between that and the approach you take with the League. RF - You're quite right. DM - So you place great importance on discipline? RF - The word in our culture can sometimes have a pejorative feel to it. [But] to me, discipline is liberating; it's not constricting or restricting at all. Discipline is the capacity to be effectual in time. That is: we can make a commitment, we can say "I _will_ do this," and know it will be done. And this is a remarkable freedom. Because if you make a commitment, it will be honored; and if you're working with other people who say, "I will do this," and you can bank on it, [a lot] becomes possible and your life takes a quantum leap. So it's liberating, not constraining or restricting. DM - What you're doing with the League seems to be almost the complete opposite of your idea of the Mobile Intelligent Unit, where you sometimes just sat and chatted with the audience and played very little, you played in tiny venues . . . RF - I played in record company canteens, offices, record stores, rock clubs, galleries--just about everything. I would say that the League of Crafty Guitarists is probably one of the smallest, intelligent-est, and most mobile large performance ensembles I know. For the number of people involved in it--generally an entourage of about twenty--it's remarkable efficient. So to me the League of Crafty Guitarists is not a dinosaur at all. DM - Not all that far removed from the Mobile Intelligent Unit. RF - No. It's actually a specific demonstration of that idea. DM - What sort of music have you been listening to lately? What do you find to be some of the most interesting things that are being done now? RF - Because I've been out of public life, and working with the students for so long, I've just come back to listening again. And my preferred listening is always in a live context. I don't _really_ like records. I like to see a musician at work. I like to see what happens when they make a mistake and how they get out of it. And that's when you can tell a [great] musician. It doesn't matter to me that a musician makes mistakes; that can lead somewhere. But how do you recover from the mistake? That's how you see someone really on the ball. But because of where I live in England, my live music capacities are limited. Here's examples of people I've been listening to: Keith Tippett and Andy Shepard (because I've just produced an album for them). [Tippett is a] superb guitarist. Living Color--Vernon Reid and Steve Vai both excite me tremendously. I've been listening to Joe Satriani, Chick Corea's electric band, Bartok Violin Concerto #1, the Bartok String Quartets. What I've also done is buy in CD format the music that excited me twenty years ago, and see how it is now to me. Joni Mitchell _Blue,_ Mayall/Clapton Bluesbreakers, Hendrix _Electric Ladyland_. All that and quite a bit more besides. So my listening is as always fairly eclectic. [[ END OF PART ONE ]] [[ Once again, please do not publish the interview anywhere else. -- Toby ]] [][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][] Date: Wed, 30 Sep 92 15:07:44 PDT From: ee105fef at sdcc15 dot UCSD dot EDU (Paolo Valladolid) Subject: Adrian Belew w/ Herbie Hancock Once again, has any Belewophiles out there heard Belew play with Herbie Hancock on Hancock's _Magic Window_? Any comments/recommendations would be greatly appreciated. *Please* do not answer this question with a Belew discography ;-) Cheers, Paolo [][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][] Date: Thu, 1 Oct 92 09:58:58 EST From: davidh at kau1 dot kodak dot com (David Hodson) Subject: Lark's Tongues backwards - is seugnoT s'kraL (sounds like Klingon to me!) Seriously though, which backwards bit? There's some talking well in the background of the title track (part one) which seems to be from at least two sources, but it's all forwards. There's something that ends in laughter, (which is more likely to be the Goons than the Addams Family) then a piece >from a different source (I think) which goes (rough quote from memory): "Lizzie Borden: it is the verdict of this court that you be taken from this place to a place of public execution and there hanged by the neck until you are dead" - and on "dead", of course, comes the big downbeat (in more ways than one). is this what you meant? Or is this too easy? There is a backwards bit on , though (in , I think - but that's from memory - the one with "you know that I could easily spend the rest of my life with you"). It's a quote from Monty Python: "One thing is for sure; the sheep is not a creature of the air" A totally unrelated point: I read an interview some years ago with either Fripp or Belew in which he talked about visiting the factory where the Roland guitar synthesizers were made. They were shown around, ending at the final testing station, where they were politely invited to play a synth fresh off the line. Apparently Fripp/Belew (or maybe both - my memory is a little hazy) proceeded to blow away the assembled factory workers, who up till then thought they were making toys for one man bands in cheesy restaurants ... [][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][] Date: Thu, 1 Oct 92 07:55:16 PDT From: ee105fef at sdcc15 dot UCSD dot EDU (Paolo Valladolid) Subject: _Musician_,1984: Crimson Interviews Pt.I Just received the above Musician back issue. The article begins with a photo of four relatively unhappy musicians on one page and a full page photo of Robert Fripp in shades seemingly demonstrating how *he* "can't dance";-) The caption under the photo of the unhappy quartet: I'm Tony I'm Belew I'm Billy I'm Bobby We're the King Crimson Band We're the best in all the land So settle back and have some fun And tap your foot in 21 I'll share excerpts from the interviews with each band member in a future posting. I'm leery in reproducing them in their entirety due to legalities and such, so I'll post synopsies. Cheers, Paolo [][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][] Date: 01 Oct 1992 15:47:24 -0500 (EST) From: "Joshua A. Vaughn, DePauw University" Subject: Uncle Funk, KC Box Set The Tony Levin discography posted last issue had a question mark by Uncle Funk because the author was not sure of its existance. I've seen an ad in GUITAR for the Practicing Musician where Mr. Levin was endorsing some bass amps or something that made reference to this band. Apparently it is not an international act or anything, just a group of friends Mr. Levin plays with at small clubs during time off from his session schedule from hell. What is the latest on the new King Crimson? Will it be Fripp, Belew, Bruford and Levin again? Apparently Bruford has quit Yes, so this would be possible. I've never seen the Frame by Frame set in any music stores. In fact, I've only seen three KC albums in stores: _Compact_, _In_th_Court_of..._, and _Red_. Where do you people get KC albums anyway? [][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][] Date: Thu, 1 Oct 1992 19:53:37 -0400 From: Jeremy Weissenburger <07822 at brahms dot udel dot edu> Subject: Sleepless/Fripp disco If anyone happens to have the 12-inch LP of Sleepless, with the 3 different mixes on them, please give me a call. I'm very interested in them. Also, since I can't seem to reach Robert Steinberger about the Fripp discography, I just want to mention two things: 1) Darryl Hall's Sacred Songs: the serial number is - RCA NL-84554 (I thought Fripp played on this as well as produced it, though!) 2) There is a boot LP out called "81-99", released in 1981. It is of the Discipline tour, and subsequently only has the Discipline tracks live, as well as "Red" and "Larks' (Pt. II)". Sorry, I don't know the order... --Jeremy [][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][] Date: Thu, 1 Oct 92 18:35:08 PDT From: ee105fef at sdcc15 dot UCSD dot EDU (Paolo Valladolid) Subject: _Musician_, Aug. 1984 Crimson Interview: Levin "I'd never listened to King Crimson. Wasn't influenced at all by the band and here I am in it." "Crimson live is better...You mean Robert says that too? You mean we *agree*? ...He loves taking pictures while on tour so much that he finally published ..._Road Photos_. He loves the opera so much that...he tried to schedule his tours so that they wouldn't conflict with the season at the Met. He shifts with equal fascination from discussing the joys...of electronic mail, to boxing, to how overwhelming he found his visit to the Rodin...in Paris. ...a growing tension between Bruford and Fripp. That's why Tony is busy programming a (drum machine) to use on the upcoming tour...Clearmountain and Tony wound up creating a whole new drum track for the song ("Sleepless"), by taking the sounds of Bill's snare and bass drums and electronically cutting them back into the track... "We had tried recording that song (Sleepless) before. It was slow and moody. BUt we ended giving up on the song in June...in December, I was in a different mood with my playing, and I did the slapping part instead of using a pick, as well as playing it much faster. It just took off to a different place then...That \ happened with quite a few songs. On this album, more than the others, we would get together and work hard and...fail...we breathed a collective sigh of relief because about half of the album just suddenly, magically came together. ...the band has a mind of its own...we're four pretty intelligent guys and we ca can't push the band in any direction, even though we try. ...But I think he (Robert) feels better about the band than he says he does ...I'm a very strong player, so I...guessed that...I would have counteracted Bill's English style. But I didn't. Instead...I grew. In a sense, I deserted Adrian and left him with the pop element of the band. I went English. I went busy. But that was years ago and I've done a much in that direction as I can so I've fallen back to playing with a strong pulse... Tony's new experiment is in mixing electric and synth bass as tone colors, by playing both at the same time ( me: he should get a Peavey MIDIBase! ). "Both Robert and Adrian, when they create a song, create the whole basis of the song. Which doesn't leave a whole lot of room for the other guitar player. And they usually have bass parts in mind and certainly a drum part, an dits not easy for them to see those go...and sometimes it's not easy to *make* them go... "When we first started rehearsing this album, I was intent on it being more of a dance album...as King Crimson goes, anyway...By the time we were working in England another idea had become popular, of having it be an industrial album. I envisioned at one time doing a whole album like "Industry". Warner Bros. wouldn't have been happy at all." "I've always loved barbershop quartets, ever since high school...I multitracked four vocal parts, and the next day I said "Right guys, seriously, I've got something here I think is pretty good and that we could do"" "And Robert said, 'Let's put it on the record.' Except for that, I think it was a pretty good laugh." Truly a rare insight into Tony Levin the man. Cheers, Paolo [][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][] To join this group or have your thoughts in the next issue, please send electronic mail to Toby Howard at the following address: toby at cs dot man dot ac dot uk The views expressed in discipline are those of the individual authors only.