Errors-To: admin at elephant-talk dot com Reply-To: newsletter at elephant-talk dot com Sender: newsletter at elephant-talk dot com Precedence: bulk From: newsletter at elephant-talk dot com To: newsletter at elephant-talk dot com Subject: Elephant Talk #626 E L E P H A N T T A L K The Internet newsletter for Robert Fripp and King Crimson enthusiasts Number 626 Monday, 13 December 1999 Today's Topics: ET a turd? Re: Millennial Inquiries Re: Centipede, BLUE RE: Last Yes Bruford Sheika? Mexico City show Next newsletter inclusion Sylvian/Fripp CDs for sale RE: Tony's Pics About ET 624/West Coast Musings Japanese remasters vs. Fripp remasters Top 10 of the century in Russia red remastered? Rimitti/Fripp/Flea KC and "odd" time signatures More about R.TROWER and R.FRIPP Again about BRAIN Fripp from a Mule Fan Perspective Eating Fripp EYKIW; p2 bass lines; p4 DnB rhythms; ProjeKct X; Lockett; P3 - Masque Help! "prog rock" A kind "thank you" to the band ------------------ A D M I N I S T R I V I A --------------------- POSTS: Please send all posts to newsletter at elephant-talk dot com To UNSUBSCRIBE, or to CHANGE ADDRESS: Send a message with a body of HELP to admin at elephant-talk dot com or use the DIY list machine at http://www.elephant-talk.com/list/ To ASK FOR HELP about your ET subscription: Send a message to: help at elephant-talk dot com ET Web: http://www.elephant-talk.com/ Read the ET FAQ before you post a question at http://www.elephant-talk.com/faq.htm Current TOUR DATES info can always be found at http://www.elephant-talk.com/gigs/tourdates.htm You can read the most recent seven editions of ET at http://www.elephant-talk.com/newsletter.htm THE ET TEAM: Toby Howard (Moderator), Dan Kirkdorffer (Webmaster) 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 system v3.5b (relph at sgi dot com). ------------------ A I V I R T S I N I M D A --------------------- Date: Mon, 06 Dec 1999 08:10:11 +1300 From: Jonathan Newton Subject: ET a turd? Amused to see Belew's comment in Fripp's diary to the effect that ET 'is a turd' or some such thing. And here I was thinking just the opposite. Of late it's struck me just how moderate of tone this newsletter is, and indeed how valuable it is for me as an audient way down under. I've especially enjoyed the reviews of, and opinions on, the Projects Box (sorry, I can't be bothered with the odd upper case 'K' ). Perhaps these reviews in particular narked Adrian 'cause overall P2 has received the lowest ratings. It seems to me Adrian might benefit from Fripp's advice to consider 'place', person' , and 'time' before taking action or reacting. This is a forum for listeners to share opinions and the experience of being part of the community of audients. Within that context, I've not seen anything of late that struck me as turd-like. Were I however, one of the performers whose work is discussed, sure, I'd be a whole lot more sensitive; but then, I doubt whether ET is a place such performers would wanna be. jonathan NZ ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 05 Dec 1999 11:21:34 CET From: "Macahan The Unifaun" Subject: Re: Millennial Inquiries Hi al! Sorry for the not KC-related subject, but I had to respond to this, as it's not true. >I have noticed in the Dome promo page that there's going to be some sort of >Cirque du Soleil aerial show inside, billed as having music "by Peter >Gabriel,"... interesting since he's reportedly going to be playing with >Genesis live for the first time in years (well, Phil's gone!), in Fiji of >all places! (Is it possible that The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway could be >finally produced as a movie, much less performed in toto??) Haha! Yeah, right! Sorry to say this but you either 1) have been fooled or 2) you're joking. Though we'd all (?) love to see old Genesis back on stage, the chance that this is going to happen is extremely tiny, and it's definitely not going to happen soon. Most of the old bandmembers themselves have stated that there are no plans for such a reunion and that it's very unlikely to happen. There has been and will always be rumours about reunions, and recently there were posters for a Phil with Genesis show in Germany next autumn. THIS IS BOGUS! Don't pay to the advertisers! Tony Banks also said in an interview that Genesis have come to the point where they have to decide whether to do another album, and judging from his words, there are many things that hints at them calling it soon (which, on the other hand, could open possibilities for nostalgia projects - a reunion???). /Macahan ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 05 Dec 1999 10:42:32 -0500 From: Gary Davis Subject: Re: Centipede, BLUE At 07:50 PM 12/4/99 GMT, Gustavo wrote: > >For anyone who is interested in the following titles check out Gary Davis at >the Artist Shop web site: > >Centipede-Septober Energy (2CD) $22 something. That's right CD's!!!!!!! >Bruford, Levin-BLUE Night (Japanese Import CD) $40 something. > >Just thought someone might like to know. Later, Thanks, Gustavo, for the mention. However, I have to make an amendment regarding the BLUE Night CD by Bruford and Levin. To clarify, BLUE Night is a double live album with some studio tracks thrown in for good measure. The Japanese BLUE Nights is not out yet, but due out very soon. But shortly after I posted that in my own newsletter I heard from Tony Levin about the US release of BLUE Nights. He anticipated that this would occur around March or shortly after. The US release will be much less expensive than the hefty $40+ price tag on the Japanese release. Also Tony told me that the Japanese release will not have any bonus material that's not on the US release. So my advice is to Levin/Bruford fans is to be patient and wait for the US release. Your wallet will thank you for it. Of course, all this brings up the often asked question as to why Japan gets these earlier releases to begin with. I know there are music collectors in other areas of the world that feel slighted by the fact that Japan gets an earlier release date on many such releases and feel put out that they end up paying the high price of Japanese imports if they want to hear an album as soon as it first becomes available. To find the answer to this question, one must keep in mind a couple very important points. The first is quite obvious, "It's a very expensive undertaking to produce, manufacture and market a CD of the high quality music we've come to expect from these artists." And the second is that, "Japan is a very different market from the rest of the world." And because of that, there are labels like Pony Canyon and sometimes even branches of the big major labels that are more than willing to shell out advances to release this music in Japan. Anyone who knows me well knows I consider the US recording industry to run by a bunch of McDonald's executives (and, of course, I'm referring to the hamburger chain, not Ian McDonald (LOL!)). And because of that, trying to shop an album to the major labels is an exercise in futility for any artist who's work does not conform to what everyone else is doing. ("What's this? Filet Mignon? Don't get me wrong, it tastes great! But with the right producer we could make a damn good hamburger out of this!") Thank God for independent labels and artists like DGM and Papabear who decide to put it out themselves! But that brings us to the first point. It takes a lot of money to do it yourself! And once you've done it yourself, it can be quite a while before that money is recouped if it actually does get recouped. So we're talking some major risk here! "Well, gee, I don't want to put another mortgage on the house to release my music. What's an artist to do? What's that? You say that this record company in Japan actually wants to release my music over there? And they'll pay me an advance to do it? Enough of an advance that I don't need to take out another mortgage in order for me to produce, manufacture and release my music in the US/Europe/etc." So there you have it. The ability to sell music to a Japanese company like Pony Canyon often creates the advance monies required to manufacture and release independently in the US, Europe and other markets! And very likely the artists gets the money after the final product is delivered. So by the time the artist gets that money and can start work on release in the US, Europe and other territories, release in Japan has already happened. So it's not that artists are snubbing the rest of the world in favor of the Japanese market. It's that the Japanese market is actually making possible some of these releases in other areas of the world. I dare say that without the business relationship that DGM shares with a company like Pony Canyon, I suspect their current catalog would be much smaller than the one we now see! I wonder if Monsieur Fripp or anyone else at DGM would care to comment on DGM's relationship with Pony Canyon and the Japanese market. What DGM releases would not have been possible without that relationship? Many will recall the crippling blow to DGM when their previous distributor in the US, Alliance, went bankrupt owing DGM (as well as many other indies) an awful lot of money! How did the relationship with Pony Canyon soften that blow? And is it possible (gasp!) that DGM might have been felled by that blow were it not for the business/financial relationship with Pony Canyon? Gary ************************************************************** Gary Davis The Artist Shop The Other Road http://www.artist-shop.com artshop at artist-shop dot com phone: 330-929-2056 fax:330-945-4923 SUPPORT THE INDEPENDENT ARTIST!!! ************************************************************** Check out the latest Artist Shop newsletter at http://www.artist-shop.com/news.htm ------------------------------ Date: 5 Dec 99 14:16:24 EST From: James Dusewicz Subject: RE: Last Yes Bruford Okay guys. My first post was a little misleading on the subject of Bruford's last Yes appearence. I should've qualified it by saying that his YESSONG'S(1973) appearence was his last of "that era Yes", or more directly--"of that particular band configuration" in that era of Yes' star crossed development. Indeed he was on AWBH(1989), A NIGHT OF YES MUSIC...PLUS(1993?) and UNION(1990). But though AWBH were Yes in all but legality, the fact is they weren't Yes in a brand name/trademark fight. This issue's unresolved-ness produced UNION(1990). And that was a Yes album in the classical sense of the term, even though it was schizoid. It is dangerously underrated and gets much car cassette play, for me. The Orchestral Yes album, though it had Howe, Bruford, and Anderson is not considered by me as a legitimate Yes album. Just as the Orchestral Jethro Tull album could hardly be realistically considered as such. Now that I have qualified myself, I believe I am right as far as my appended definition of "last Bruford Yes" is concerned. jim campaigner at usa dot net James Dusewicz ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 5 Dec 1999 13:49:58 -0800 (PST) From: Brian Burch Subject: Sheika? Actually, the CD with Robert Fripp and Flea, two of my favorite musicians, is not called Sheika, it's called Cheika. As soon as I saw the post here, I ordered it at Buy.com. I looked up Rimitti, and there it was, Cheika. I hope it's good. I'll tell yall how it is when I get it, cool? Brianman3 at yahoo dot com ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 5 Dec 1999 19:40:21 -0500 (EST) From: Terry Kroetsch Subject: Mexico City show Sorry if this has already clogged up the digests but I was very sad not to be able to download the Mexico City show and am dying to hear that line-up do 21st Century. I missed this tour entirely. Can anyone help? A cassette copy or send me the file? I will send tapes, postage whatever is needed. Thanks, Terry ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 6 Dec 1999 08:45:59 -0500 From: "Smith, Bill (R&D)" Subject: Next newsletter inclusion I am offering a copy of UK's Concert Classics CD for trade. It's an open copy, played only once. I will trade for the ProjeKcts Box set or a copy of B.L.U.E and Belew's Coming Attractions (together). Anyone interested, e-mail me at smithb3 at rjrt dot com. Thanks, Bill ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 06 Dec 1999 12:12:27 -0500 From: Kevin Cheli-Colando Subject: Sylvian/Fripp CDs for sale Hello Again, I have a copy of the Sylvian Fripp CDs THE FIRST DAY and the DARSHAN remixes (British import (Future Sound of London and the Grid remixes approx 25 minutes plus original version of Darshan)). I'll sell the pair for $15 postage paid in the US or $10 postage paid for either one (or maybe even a trade, who knows.) Thanks Kevin ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 06 Dec 1999 16:03:52 -0500 From: Travis Flower Subject: RE: Tony's Pics It's nice to see, in Jeff Ward's post, someone drawing a distinction on the photo issue between audience and performer. We (the audience) tend not to think much in terms of the "needs of the performer" who is paid to be amazing, after all, and not to fuss over photographs. I suggest an experiment in auident/performer empathy: 1. All KC fans will go and download the tab for "Fracture" of the tablature page. Learn to play this piece accurately at whatever obscene tempo is on the recording. 2. Congratulations, you are already a better guitarist than I ever hope to be. 3. Now go and perform this piece in stage, perhaps in the local shopping mall, with several hundred enthusiastic fans around you snapping photos. The photo flashes will not coincide in time with any of the meters you are playing. One might respond that pro basketball players are expected to make amazing shots from the foul line even when hundreds of people behind the backboard are flashing photos and waving big foam fingers and screaming and so on. The distinction is that the people going through that much effort to be distracting are trying to help the player to miss rather than make the shot. Tony is welcome to take pictures of me (maybe at the next Gabriel tour). What I'm doing in the audience contributes to the nature of the performance and the collective experience of the show, but it frankly just doesn't require that much effort. ------------------------------ Date: 06 Dec 99 13:37:58 -0800 From: "David Voci" Subject: About ET 624/West Coast Musings Hi KC followers, I would like to comment on comments made in #624 here but feel a bit lazy to do all the copy/paste stuff so if you don't mind..... 1)Per writer who said something about doing away with all the funky spellings of Projekcts and CD titles(Heavy Construkction)...I agree and laugh with you. 2)Rieflin project...this looks like a real winner of a disc...must check it out...seems all key ingredients are there. 3)Someone made mention of Zoom Club show, 1971 or 1972, in where we find a 45minute improv number...holy expletive deleted this is great, again Mr Fripp, when can the general public get these shows that only CC members get? Any more info on that seriously long track would be welcome. 4)Dude who didn't find Fripp notes in Trower CD...the only place those notes appear to my knowledge are the BGO twofer issues and only there...there are probably numerous pressings of Trower material but the only place these notes appear are on the BGO releases. General comments: Does Rob Fripp ever get on here and chat it up? Fred Frith(http://WWW.FREDFRITH.COM) does as there is a live talk group devoted to FF and the great thing is that Mr Frith jumps in and offers commentary quite frequently on subjects Frith/Henry Cow/John Zorn/Material/Mills College etc, basically any thing he's involved in(and there's alot). I love the paradox that Fripp seems to be ensnared in, the one in where he seems to constantly lament about life on the road(see any of his printed diary reports in CD booklets). The other hand has him enjoying himself immensely when a gig goes right so maybe the satisfaction is in that one or two or multiple good shows that come out of an arduous schedule such as he seems to portray. Then again, the years are passing by so some of that irritation could have to do with elder age. Just an observation as he seems to go on and on in his lament when we all know the remedy and we don't want to know the remedy which is to quit the business entirely...So maybe I have answered my own question, MAYBE Mr Fripp really does love us fans and does it all for us. Late, dv ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 06 Dec 1999 21:49:35 -0500 From: Gary Davis Subject: Japanese remasters vs. Fripp remasters Hi, folks: Just a note to let you all know that the Japanese King Crimson remasters which should have been out in November, got pushed back yet again (!), this time to late February/early March. You'll all recall that the exact same thing happened a year ago. The releases were announced, then kept being pushed back and pushed back and finally the releases were cancelled. Then recently they were announced as being back on again! As you can imagine, I looked at that with a suspicious eye and wondered exactly what was going on. And here we are again repeating the same thing over again. But on the brighter side of things, Fripp is keeping himself busy with his own remastering of the catalog. 'Court' came out a few months ago. Soon the special mini-LP packaging will be gone, but the 24 bit remastering will still be available in a regular gem case. And the folks at Caroline tell me that the next three Fripp remasters - In the Wake of Poseidon, Lizard and Islands - will all come out in February! If Fripp keeps this pace and if the Japanese remasters keep getting pushed back, I wouldn't be surprised if he manages to get the whole catalog remastered before any of the Japanese remasters come out. Well, all the better for our wallets I say! Go, Bobby, go! Gary ************************************************************** Gary Davis The Artist Shop The Other Road http://www.artist-shop.com artshop at artist-shop dot com phone: 330-929-2056 fax:330-945-4923 SUPPORT THE INDEPENDENT ARTIST!!! ************************************************************** Check out the latest Artist Shop newsletter at http://www.artist-shop.com/news.htm ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 07 Dec 1999 10:54:33 MSK From: "George Khouroshvili" Subject: Top 10 of the century in Russia Hello friends, One of the Russian FM radio stations organized a survey at http://www.montecarlo.ru/top10/ I was very much surprised to find King Crimson with "Red" among others. There are some other interesting artists including Asia, Pink Floyd, Yes, Genesis, etc. The winners of the survey will be featured in the New Years Eve set-list of the station. Of course, most of the ETers won't be able to listen to that but if the world "solidaruty" means anything for you :-) and you want to help your favorite band to get an airplay at least in my country, PLEASE, GO AND VOTE (www.montecarlo.ru) All the best, George Visit the 1st Russian King Crimson & related news projeKCt at www.agharta.net/providence.html Sorry, temporarily in Russian only. **************************************** |/ | |\ | /_ / |\ | |\ /| /_ /\ |\ | |\ | | \| \/ \/ |\ | | \/ | / \/ | \| **************************************** ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 7 Dec 1999 04:09:13 -0800 (PST) From: Hywel Davies Subject: red remastered? Does the remastered "definitive edition"(89?) of Red say "remastered" on the cover? i.e. if it doesn't say remastered can i assume it isn't the remastered version? ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 7 Dec 1999 16:58:50 -0200 From: Ronald Miklos Vogel Subject: Rimitti/Fripp/Flea Hi all Thanks to all you (many) people who privately answered my question about Rimitti/Fripp/Flea. It proves how usefull this newsletter can be. Ronald ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 8 Dec 1999 05:57:01 +0100 From: Roy_Magne_Indrebo Subject: KC and "odd" time signatures Hi! I was telling my boss about the recording of the new King Crimson album, and the 15/16 sections. Which songs by King Crimson have similar "odd" time signatures? Thanks in advance! Regards, Roy Magne Indrebo Roy at Bra dot no ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 08 Dec 1999 10:04:33 +0300 From: "GENNADI A. ORLOV" Subject: More about R.TROWER and R.FRIPP Hello, In ET # 621 (Nov 3 1999) I wrote about Robin Trower's CDs with sleevenotes by Robert Fripp on them. There are 4CDs: Twice Removed from Yesterday/Bridge of Sighs (BGO 339, England, 1996) For Earth Below/Live (BGO 347, England, 1997) Long Misty Days/In City Dreams (BGO 349, England, 1997) Caravan to Midnight/Victims of the Fury (BGO 352, England, 1997) I have got these 4 CDs and once again I confirm presence R.Fripp's sleevnotes in booklets from CDs. I dont't want to estimate quality of Robin Trower albums now - simply great guitarist. Cheers! Gennadi Orlov Moscow,RUSSIA ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 08 Dec 1999 10:37:42 +0300 From: "GENNADI A. ORLOV" Subject: Again about BRAIN About BRAIN I recently held in hands this single (in Moscow): Nightmares In Red/Kick The Donkey (Parlophone R 5595) 1967 If Robert Fripp it refuses - it is nothing means. He can have reasons. I admit, that it is his work, though absolute precisely I shall not become it to assert... Gennadi ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 8 Dec 1999 10:19:04 -0500 From: "Snow, Rick" Subject: Fripp from a Mule Fan Perspective On the Gov't Mule email list, to which I also subscribe, there was a discussion regarding artists that can be real jerks. The following recent Nashville Fripp sighting was reported thusly: "Robert Fripp who was in yesterday and he's supposed to be a huge asshole but he was the nicest, most polite guy." ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 8 Dec 1999 12:25:50 -0800 (PST) From: Robert Zeien Subject: Eating Fripp Heavy Fripp content in the following column by Jon Carroll of the San Francisco Chronicle: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/1999/12/03/DD82149.DTL While you're there, don't miss the Mondegreens page: http://www.sfgate.com/columnists/carroll/mondegreens.shtml Cheers, Robert ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 08 Dec 1999 17:17:38 -0800 From: "Scott Steele" Subject: EYKIW; p2 bass lines; p4 DnB rhythms; ProjeKct X; Lockett; >Everything You Know Is Wrong The Aztecs invented the vacation! Dogs flew in space ships! >But and am I the only person who caught how the vdrums enabled Belew to >lock in a bass line impossibly tightly into the rest of his one-man rhythm >section in P2? I am sure that was liberating for Mr. Gunn who was playing the upper regions of the stick more than the bass-player regions back then. >Am I the only one who wet my pants when I heard Mastelotto's integration >of DnB rhythms into the P4 show? Probably. I thought it was great but I stopped just this side of wet trousers. > Let me give a hearty here here there, there (where? where?) >A new ball to kick around:How do you want your ProjeKct X? My choice would be as an audio CD. >Pete Lockett's Network of Sparks featuring Bill Bruford. This sounds fascinating. Thanks for calling it to our attention. >The new Rieflin/Fripp/Gunn CD entitled "The Repurcussions of Angelic >Behavior" on First World (FWD 9906) could be called the "lost" ProjeKct in >my singular estimation. Good call Bill. It's a flaming stonker in my singular estimation. >In a nutshell: why does it make you angry that Robert's actions do not >make sense to you? This is one of the best questions I've seen asked on ET for a long time. >Now, after a week or so of my order, I had it for the 1st time: Larks' >Tongues in Aspic (part 1) all alive and with Jamie Muir. The rest is ok, >ELP, Soft, even the Nice all alive. Dudes, I went crazy. No wonder Paulo. Where did you buy this? Thanks Martin for your review of the ESC/Geballe show. I hope they come to the west coast of the US someday. - S. scottst at ohsu dot edu ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 9 Dec 1999 11:28:25 -0200 From: Ronald Miklos Vogel Subject: P3 - Masque Hi all After listening to P3 some mre times with the appriatte time and attention it requires, I have to change a little bit my opinion about it. The music itself is great, despite the fact that I (IMHO) would rather prefer acoustic drums. But Pat uses his VDrums with great talent and skill. The bad thing about the CD is how it was assembled and mixed. Comes a time when listening some tracks that I wanted to know how it was played in the first time before it was cut or not, etc.. Now a request. I know the existance of many bootlegs containing live shows of all Projekcts. So PLEASE I kindly ask all you people who have these boots, write me privately so we can arrange a tape trade (unfortunately i am not able to record DATs or CDRs at the moment). I have lots of boots of all KC incarnations to offer. Projekct cheers to all of you. Ronald Vogel ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 09 Dec 1999 12:38:50 +0300 From: "/IAAEIEO eAIOIEAEEE" Subject: Help! Dear ETers! For my book, containing the russian translations of KC' lyrics, I am looking for the following texts: 1. The first verce and the first line of the second verce of "The Court of the Crimson King" version found on Disc One of the "Epitaph" album (begins with "The Earth is captive to the Moon..."); 2. Donovan's "Get Thy Bearings"; 3. Fripp's (?) "Drop In". Maby somebody of the native speakers can pick up the verses from the recording and send them to me. Waiting for your help Vladimir Kalnitsky, Saint Petersburg, Russia vlad_kalnitsky at mail dot ru ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 10 Dec 1999 16:08:54 -0800 (PST) From: Edgar Kausel Subject: "prog rock" Robert Fripp gets hurt when people tell him that early KC was a "prog" (or "progressive" or "art-rock" or whatever) band. To be honest, I don't know if it's true or not, only i can say is, if you do a little research, you can find that people who love early KC tend to also like 70-75 Genesis, 68-74 Pink Floyd, 69-73 Yes, 69-72 Soft Machine, early ELP, Gentle Giant, Van Der Graf Generator and so on... You could tell me: "the explanation to that is more chronological than musical". Then again, you can't obviate the fact that the environment always have influence on people (including the eccentric Fripp) and the young people's philosophy of early 70 did had an effect on all those bands. It's obvious to me that 80s music also influenced the Discipline band. All this could be crap, but then why Fripp asked, as part of a trivia contest in "Goldmine"-back in `92- who was the only KC member to play in the triunvirat of progressive rock (KC, Genesis & Yes; the answer is Bill Bruford)? Now, if he gets angry with that beacause of the horrible bands that played in late `70 who called themselves "progressive" then I understand him. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 11 Dec 1999 22:35:21 EST From: "Ron Williams, Jr." Subject: A kind "thank you" to the band I recently acquired a copy of the ProjeKcts box set. Having listened to the last track on CD 2, I am amazed at what Mr. Fripp and the other gentlemen in Crimso have to endure from their fans. In past newsletters, much has been written on inconsiderate audients who disrupt concerts by taking photographs of the band. Not only does the band have to put up with troublemakers at their concerts, but they are inundated with trite commentaries in the forms of gig reviews in the mass media and chit-chat in the ET newsletter -- and all this on top of the headaches and ulcers that have arised from dealing with greedy corporate executives in the record industry. It's time for Crimso fans to show the band that we are truly fans. Far more positive encouragement must be given to them because they already receive plenty of the negative. In one of his latest diary entries, Mr. Fripp quoted Mr. Belew as describing the ET newsletter as "a turd." As fans who enjoy the band's work, we should listen to them and offer criticisms constructively or not at all. The best commentary on the situation has been submitted by Mr. Fripp himself in the last track of CD 2 of the ProjeKct box set -- involving the incident with the photographer. No one in the band says anything, but anyone waiting for the last second to cut out listens to well over 7 minutes of audience chatter. Almost all of it entails one or more persons shouting out obscenities. Now really -- is this the best that we fans have to offer? A few months ago, Gene Shalit presented a critique of the then-recently released movie "The Blair Witch Project." His critique was rather poignant: "Because the characters of the story have a limited vocabulary, they resort to swearing." Perhaps Mr. Fripp is thinking the same thing about that particular audience. It's time to cut out the mindless banter and start saying "thank you" to all the gentlemen of Crimso who have so generously provided us with 30-plus years of some of the best music this world has to offer. ------------------------------ End of Elephant-Talk Digest #626 ********************************