Robert Fripp - Please make him amazing for me

 

I'd add Blondie - Fade Away and Radiate.

 

 

Cirkus, also.

 

Just get the album "Here Come the warm Jets" ... Robert is all over that album and folks like eno trust him enough to let him do his thing and there are some fine things in there ... and the best one is the bombastic one ... fabulous.

 

I also like his involvement in a couple of other places. In Peter Hammill's album H to He, he also does some really nice things ...

 

A lot of people prefer KC for many reasons, but sadly the discussions of his music and processes are rarely taken on, and some folks would rather consider this "prog" than actually look at what he does ... and he does it well -- and it has a lot to do with something else ... that is "progressive" and widely used in many arts ... but rarely seen in music, specially when too much of it is centered around a concept (like "jazz", "rock" and other styles) that precludes anyone's ability to be creative, original and special in their own way.

 

The sad result of treating it this way is that it brings down the value of the music in the context of the musical history itself, and the appreciation for Robert Fripp's magnanimous work in helping develop the guitar playing into something much more tangible than ... a rock guitar playing rock'n'roll ... and not even the "prog" boards and reviewers credit him on that account.

 

Taking an instrument and "expanding" it, is what Robert is about ... the musical context is less important per se ... and this is widely seen in so many King Crimson albums ... there is an incredible difference between a lot of things in there and styles and experiments over the years. And this is the legacy that the band is not receiving when it is being cornered into being a "prog" band, which even Robert Fripp does not accept and denies.

 

In theater, there are some exercises that are used in acting to help season the actor some ... and improve the quality of the eventual performance. And some of these things could be simple, weird, and crazy, but in the end, it adds to the result some surprising details. Let's say that a scene is stuck and sounds boring. And you are trying to figure out how to make it better. Saying the words differently is not helping. Having you face the wall is not helping. Having the stage colored in blue is not helping ... what do you do?

 

In acting terms, you do not throw the wrench in, but you throw a left curve in the middle of things ... and this often has unexpected results and the acting training is important ... for it to work ... so all of a sudden you have a pause ... and when you re-enter the scene/play/music, it sounds ... slightly different ... because you changed it's procedure. If you apply this to King Crimson, it becomes clear that there are moments when something similar to this happens ... and instead of a chord change you have a song change ... a completely different something that brings a different personna to the table.

 

Now apply this to the 1st album by King Crimson ... and you find that ... there are a couple of open ended pieces (Moonchild for example) ... and then it breaks into a massive anthem ... Epitath ... taken from a poem written by a friend, and a vociferous attack on the warmongering mentality around the world, from Ireland -- not too far away from London and the shameless bombings with or without reason, to VietNam the TV war, to the Cold War also a few miles out from London ... in a town where the arts are its biggest attraction ... no one goes to London for anything else (well ... victorian england writers might say it differently!) ... and a lot of these people sit and drink together ... and ohhh by the way ... his wife was an actress and singer -- like he wouldn't know some of this stuff?

 

It should be said, that King Crimson helped validate the rock music medium a lot more with its expressive and poetic tuning, than anything else ... since at the time, a lot of rock music was still tied to popular music and radio specially ... and its ability to show itself as more intelligent, more classical and more in tune with a higher knowledgable sense and part of ourselves, was its greatest gift to you and I.

 

And a tribute to a giant in that area ... not the only one, mind you ... but a Giant ... and he knows it ... but he is also intelligent enough to know that the media world of stars is fickle (witness fans here demanding that their favorite bands kiss their behinds and not do what they see fit for their art!) and often times brutal, and more often than not folks like Robert Fripp can not deal with that well, and will closet himself and stay focused on the music, instead of what could come across as anger on his part ...

 

You can also tell that he is more "classically minded" with his instrument, when he is playing it sitting down, and trying to get more out of the instrument than otherwise many of us are capable of imagining ... and I think this is important ... some people think that this takes the emotional side of rock music out ... and that is a sin, since we can not imagine that music without it ... but what we are not seeing is ... here is a modern day Paganini ... and I'm not sure that you could EVER ask for more.

 

If you read this far ... I applaud you ... and commend you for being so kind ... the music itself and the artists are much greater than any words I could possibly ever come up with ...

His talent is not trying to compete with steve Vai, thanks god for that.

But try Heroes, by bowie, the hole record is full of playfull fripp Leadguitar.