Robert Fripp Interview - Progressive Rock Music Forum

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Adams Bolero View Drop Down

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Topic: Robert Fripp Interview
Posted: August 10 2012 at 09:21

Here is an interesting interview with Robert Fripp in the Financial Times:

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/f588e100-d7ee-11e1-9980-00144feabdc0.html#axzz239T5eWuR

''Nobody realizes that some people expend tremendous energy merely to be normal.''

- Albert Camus

KingCrInuYasha View Drop Down

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Posted: August 13 2012 at 00:15

Interesting interview, but I feel Fripp has romanticized the whole art vs. business thing a bit. Forgive me for sounding like a cynic, but hasn't the industry always been parasitic?

He looks at this world and wants it all... so he strikes, like Thunderball!

tamijo

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Posted: August 13 2012 at 07:32

He is right by saying, that from having a commercial side to it, it seems that today media/art, have become all buisness. But on the other hand, I dont know why he cares that much, you are still allowed to do whatever and charge nothing, if you dont like the money. Im sure he is not starving.

Prog is whatevey you want it to be. So dont diss other peoples prog, and they wont diss yours

cstack3

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Posted: August 13 2012 at 12:26

Thank you for posting, it is interesting reading. I heard Fripp make the same basic rant during his "Drive to 1984" mini-tour of record stores, when I had the chance to meet him and get a bit deeper into his thinking.

Fripp said "I could make more money by selling records (vinyl LPs) out of the back of a lorry." Possibly, but that's been a roadblock... the recording industry has controlled not only the intellectual property aspects but also the supply chain of bringing music to the masses (pressing vinyl, distribution, PR, record stores etc.) until very recently, with the advent of the Internet, i-Tunes etc. Quite honestly, I've never seen the musician have so many options for controlling and selling the end product.

All of my friends in music tell me that these are "difficult times" due to piracy, reduced spending, increased costs etc. Many potentially viable prog projects such as the rebirth of Brand X and the release of the new Flash CD are on hiatus due to the economy.

Poor Bob! He should simply be a public motivational speaker at corporate events, as his sister, Patricia Fripp, does.

For your amusement: http://hootingyard.org/archives/7131

Edited by cstack3 - August 13 2012 at 13:19

HackettFan View Drop Down

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Posted: August 16 2012 at 23:04

Fripp's right, but the eighties were worse.

silverpot

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Posted: August 17 2012 at 14:20

cstack3 wrote:

For your amusement: http://hootingyard.org/archives/7131

KingCrInuYasha View Drop Down

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Posted: August 18 2012 at 02:29

HackettFan wrote:

Fripp's right, but the eighties were worse.

Not that the second half of the seventies were any better. Daryl Hall's Sacred Songs, which Fripp produced, was rejected by RCA and wasn't released for three years, due to the company not thinking it was commercial enough. Yet, around the same time as that debacle, RCA (assuming Wikipedia got its facts straight) thought that this was a more promising act:

So let me get this straight: RCA rejected a solid pop album written by one-half of a rising pop act and produced by one of the best guitar players on the planet in favor of a fourth-rate Dio-era Rainbow knockoff?

What in the court of the crimson king were these guys thinking?

Confused

Edited by KingCrInuYasha - August 18 2012 at 02:40

He looks at this world and wants it all... so he strikes, like Thunderball!

Terra Australis View Drop Down

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Posted: August 24 2012 at 06:20

cstack3 wrote:

.

For your amusement: http://hootingyard.org/archives/7131

This is very funny. However, what is with the photo? What was it really about?

Allomerus. Music with progressive intent.

http://allomerus.bandcamp.com

cstack3

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Posted: August 24 2012 at 23:21

Terra Australis wrote:

cstack3 wrote:

.

For your amusement: http://hootingyard.org/archives/7131

This is very funny. However, what is with the photo? What was it really about?

Christ, I have no idea!! I've met the man, he has a very wry sense of humor, so he had something in mind!!

Terra Australis View Drop Down

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Posted: August 25 2012 at 05:31

cstack3 wrote:

Terra Australis wrote:

cstack3 wrote:

.

For your amusement: http://hootingyard.org/archives/7131

This is very funny. However, what is with the photo? What was it really about?

Christ, I have no idea!! I've met the man, he has a very wry sense of humor, so he had something in mind!!

I thought he was very serious. Interesting to know that he can be funny/quirky.

Allomerus. Music with progressive intent.

http://allomerus.bandcamp.com

NickHall

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Posted: August 25 2012 at 10:44

A truly great guitarist, but a very off-the-wall person

rogerthat

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Posted: August 25 2012 at 11:49

It is strange to hear him defend complete artistic licence when it was he who predicted the collapse of excess in the 70s, even claiming he would turn into a small,self-sustaining, mobile unit to survive. Also, the market society that he speaks of is just another byproduct, logical conclusion of the laissez faire economy that afforded him the room to experiment in the first place. A socialist regime would likely have endorsed some form of censorship and control and Fripp wouldn't have been allowed to play whatever he wanted. Market society is just another celebration of an individualistic, self centred attitude, as is artistic indulgence. If you want money, you have to make a deal one way or the another and that necessarily involves another party to the transaction, can't be just about you all the time.

moshkito

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Posted: September 17 2012 at 18:08

cstack3 wrote:

...All of my friends in music tell me that these are "difficult times" due to piracy, reduced spending, increased costs etc. Many potentially viable prog projects such as the rebirth of Brand X and the release of the new Flash CD are on hiatus due to the economy.

I really think that it has always been like that ... with the one small difference that 40 years ago, if someone didn't like something, the next person liked it, and more folks would go see it ... today, if one friend says I don't like it, it's almost like everyone else follows suit! And of course, if you like flowers in your hair, you always went to one place in America!

In those days, let's say that the whole "drug", "sex" and "clothing" thing was about a lot of individuality and freedom, that today, many folks are not getting on with. We have a certain amount of independence, as witnessed here, and yet, we have to agree with our friends agreeing to what we like to make sure ... it is good. Or as John Cleese used to say, in America when people do not agree, they have to make a committee to make sure that they agree that they are disagreeing! Just like PA!

If that were the case, 40 years ago, I do not think that a lot of this would have happened, and this is the part that we forget.

But I also think that folks like Robert have gotten somewhat stuck in a time and place ... and getting repetitive, and maybe we should just accept that his time is gone, and now it is time for someone else. And, today's music and sound, will be different, and not anything like those bands then!

Check out some of the videos around the Prog Awards. It will give you an idea ... but today, if you do something different, your roomate will say ... weird man ... which gets you to be self-conscious and then you go listen to Rush or Genesis! ... and in those days we used to say ... "far out, man" (if we were really stoned!) ... "wow, man, what a trip" (if it was really long!) ... or ... "I really tripped on that costume, man ... " (you were so high on the costume and never heard the music, anyway!) ... today, you go to ProgArchives and if Mosh likes it, no one else does!

Addon -- 09/26/2012

It's specially important to note how Steven Wilson convinced Robert that there was one other way to "hear" his music ... for something that he did not see or understand before, that helped him allow the stuff to be remastered. I imagine that this is a very good lesson for Robert, to realize how times change, and people change and perceptions change ... but in all honesty, it also tells you how KC came to be and WAS ... all along ... with a very specific style or way to record things, so the sound was completely different from the usual garage band idea of recording things.

Edited by moshkito - September 26 2012 at 16:31

Music is not just for listening ... it is for LIVING ... you got to feel it to know what's it about! Not being told!
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DiamondDog View Drop Down

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Posted: September 18 2012 at 11:54

He always was a true eccentric, and a bit amusingly snooty with it, but at least he is true to his own soul.

moshkito

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Posted: September 19 2012 at 12:55

DiamondDog wrote:

He always was a true eccentric, and a bit amusingly snooty with it, but at least he is true to his own soul.

The history of the arts, in almost all of its aspects, is full of strange, odd ball folks ... that created different things.

Why should it be different just because of an electric guitar?

My concern is that a "social" state of mind, has a way of telling people they can not be individuals and independent and eccentric, without us labelling them out in left field! These people see things in a different light and they work in a completely different light but our predilection for a social'ist definition by "fans", prevents the man (woman or person!) from being who they are ... and do good work ... how many more women hiding in male names in writing do we need, or women hiding in male names in painting ... do we need to punish ... because they are "eccentric"?

Sometimes the populist thing is off its rocker, and I think that we have to realize where "progressive" came from ... and it wasn't from a "populist" concept, idea or design!

Remember that!

Edited by moshkito - September 26 2012 at 16:44

Music is not just for listening ... it is for LIVING ... you got to feel it to know what's it about! Not being told!
www.pedrosena.com