Several Species Of Small Furry Thoughts - Three Cheers For Robert Fripp!!!

The mousy, bespectacled guitar genius and seemingly indefatigable leader and creative engine behind King Crimson has remained an enigmatic presence for over 40 years, consistently responsible for some of the most eccentric, precise and challenging rock music of the idiom. This month sees Fripp at the helm of two projects, one new and one archival, which just verify his standing both then and now. First is the King Crimson masterpiece Lark’s Tongues In Aspic which is one of the jewels of the already impressive King Crimson reissue campaign. Lark’s Tongues is being issued as a 2 CD or a CD/DVD package on November 27^th or is available now as a super deluxe 15 disc set including CDs, DVDs and a Blu Ray filled with live shows, outtakes, surround mixes and videos compiled into an overwhelming monument to this overwhelmingly monumental album. Released in 1972, Lark’s Tongues finds one of the great Crimson lineups (Fripp, Bill Bruford on drums, Jamie Muir on percussion, John Wetton on bass and vocals and David Cross on violin and flute) at the magical crossroads of youthful creativity and mature instrumental mastery. This beautiful box set includes every note this particular band played together and it is a thrilling ride. Lark’s Tongues has everything that makes King Crimson great; melodic ballads (“Book Of Saturday,” “Exiles”), long, complicated works with tension-filled buildups and cathartic refrains (the title track), and the kind of skronky rawk that so many thick-bespectacled sci-fi nerds fell in love with in the 70’s (“Talking Drum” and “Easy Money”). King Crimson made the waters safer for thinking man’s music in the mainstream and Lark’s Tongues In Aspic is as good an example of this as any they produced.

Robert Fripp has recently produced an album with British jazz/classical horn player Theo Travis called Follow that shows him in a much more contemplative but no less experimental mode. Follow is a series of instrumental duets that have elements of ambient music, new age, electronic, world and jazz. Fripp, once again, shows he can do it all, playing thick textural backgrounds for Travis to solo over, or leading the way with his snakey electric tone and carefully constructing fills. He also revisits his concept of “Frippertronics” (layer upon layer of looped guitar phrases culminating in a literal wall of sound) on a song called, appropriately enough, “1979.” The CD comes with a DVD of surround mixes and video of the duo playing together in a church. This is far from the rock ethic of King Crimson but is a beautifully satisfying addition to the Robert Fripp canon and again shows him to be a master of his instrument no matter what the context.

-by Paul Epstein

I'd Love to Turn You On #66 - King Crimson - Red

Let's talk about this thing called "progressive rock" for a moment.  Like "alternative" and "jam band," it's a term that has lost any real meaning and has come to describe a very particular type of music.  There are plenty of prog bands but how many are truly progressive?  King Crimson was one of the first wave of prog bands whose debut album, In the Court of the Crimson King, practically invented the genre.  Yet Crimson actually progressed throughout the years, often the result of an ever-shifting lineup.  Guitarist Robert Fripp has been the one constant and his distinct playing ties the many eras, sounds and lineups together. 

1974's Red is often cited as a highlight in the Crimson catalog and for good reason.  At this point, the band was officially down to a trio of Fripp, bassist/vocalist John Wetton and drummer Bill Bruford, though the recording is augmented by several additional musicians.  This lineup had developed a sound much heavier than most other prog bands of the time and was also prone to extended improvisation of a sort few other bands of the era would attempt.  Red opens up with the heavily stomping instrumental title track.  While this song was never performed live by this incarnation of the band, it would become a staple of the band's repertoire in the 80s and 90s and is one of the all-time Crimson classics.  This is followed by two relatively straightforward rockers, "Fallen Angel" and "One More Red Nightmare."  Odd time signatures keep them slightly off-kilter as even when they're rocking out Crimson will toss in unusual elements.

"Providence" is the most challenging track on the album, an excerpt of a long improvised piece recorded live in, where else?, Providence, Rhode Island.  This comes from the time when violin/mellotron player David Cross was still in the band and his presence is definitely felt.  The piece moves from a moody, ambient soundscape into a full band rock jam.  While many bands of the time were playing extended jams and prog bands were writing long compositions, Crimson were one of the few, along with the Grateful Dead and Can, who were taking improvisation to such levels, actually creating new compositions out of thin air.  The album concludes with the epic number "Starless," which had been a live staple for well over a year at the time of this release.  While it’s a 12-minute track that moves through three distinct phases, it's very different from the composed, multi-part epics that most prog bands of the time were producing.  It starts off as a nice mid-tempo number with Wetton giving one of his best vocal performances.  Next comes a long passage built around an infectious, repetitive bassline and Fripp's minimalist guitar "solo" where he essentially plays the same note over and over.  Bruford increases the tension by amping up the percussion till it all explodes in a hard rocking frenzy that repeats the musical themes of the first segment.  A pair of former Crimson members, Mel Collins and Ian McDonald, contribute some great woodwind solos.

After the release of Red, Fripp broke up the band and claimed he was retiring from music.  This retirement lasted only a couple of years before he came back with a variety of projects, all of which eventually led to the return of King Crimson in 1981.  Again, there was a new lineup and a new sound.  The band would split up and reform several times throughout the years, but was always moving forward and always progressive in the truest sense of the word.

            - Adam Reshotko