GILES GILES & FRIPP

Throughout his musical career, Robert Fripp has managed to escape the "bogeyman" of conformity. In the world of progressive rock, it's hard to find a bigger visionary - and a bigger weirdo. An irrepressibly creative spirit must always be balanced somehow. For the first time he made a significant mark on the consciousness of his fans on the debut of King Crimson, one of the seminal progressive bands of the late 60s and early 70s. The first studio recording to feature his name, however, was recorded more than a year before Crimson's debut. It is the only album by the band of brothers Michael (drums, vocals) and Peter (bass, vocals) Giles, who recruited Fripp to join them, though they were originally looking for a singing keyboardist (and Fripp could do neither). Then in the spring of 1968 they recorded a record with the wacky title The Cheerful Insanity of Giles, Giles and Fripp.

It's a definitely unstuffy album - but then, what do you expect from something Fripp co-wrote? In a three-piece (and with a lot of guests, of course), the musicians have managed to produce supremely creative and articulate arrangements that certainly don't bore. The band members were far away to suffer lack of inspiration - but sometimes there was probably so much of it that the motifs on the record run in all sorts of directions and together form a not entirely consistent mix. Well, just consider - some tracks (North Meadow, Digging My Lawn or Erudite Eyes) flirt with jazz quite sympathetically. A strange canterbury-esque melodicism characterises Call Tomorrow and How Do They Know, and alongside these we have again restrained psychedelia-drenched pieces like Newly-Weds and Thursday Morning.

Interspersed with all of the above are 60's cajodle cymbals with strings and poppy girl vocals (One in a Million, Little Children and the particularly awful The Sun Is Shining). On the other hand, there are hints of a future "Crimson" style in The Crukster and Elephant Song. Completely outside the other tracks on the record, then, is the fully instrumental Suite No. 1. combining contrasting guitar and piano-mellotron passages in a pleasing adaptation of classical music techniques. Of the bonus tracks, the punchy and saxophone-tinged She Is Loaded is worthy of particular mention, but the slightly dreamier Under the Sky with its swishing flute has something going for it too.

Probably in an attempt to give the album some sort of unifying concept, the gentlemen have peppered both sides of the record with spoken interludes. The first side was "enriched" by the Saga of Rodney Toady, a fat and ugly boy who was laughed at by the kids and comforted by his mother with the thought that one day he would marry a fat and ugly girl, just as his fat and ugly father once did. Even more demented B-side inserts then report in increasingly distorted voice positions that "They know a man called just George".

How to rate such a gallimace of style and concept? I get the feeling from the album cover that the broadly smiling Fripp is just enjoying the embarrassment of reviewers who have tasted this jazz-pop-rock stew and don't know whether they're sick of it or want more. Given the stylistic inconsistencies and distracting spoken word, I'm going to be strict this time. Since the album doesn't qualify for a four in my opinion and a three-star average is not appropriate for such rebellious content, Giles, Giles & Fripp get two stars from me. And take that as you will.

In 1968, brothers Michael (drums) and Peter Giles (bass and vocals) posted an ad looking for a "singing organist," and Robbert Fripp (neither a singer nor an organist) replied. This trio recorded an album, The Cheerful Insanity of Giles, Giles and Fripp, which is an enjoyable-enough psychedelic folk record. The cover features what might be the only photo of Robert Fripp smiling. (He's on the right, wearing glasses.) The guitar parts clearly presage what would eventually be heard in King Crimson's first incarnation, but this is folkier and more psychedelic than anything that group would put out.

Cheerful Insanity at times reminds me of The Who's psychedelic efforts, as well as other contemporaneous acts, like The Small Faces and Pink Floyd. Organ lends a rich character to the compositions, and the vocals are nice. However, frequent spoken word interludes detract from the experience. These attempts at humor are clunky and feel like a lesser version of Frank Zappa.

Review originally posted here: theeliteextremophile.com/2024/04/15/deep-dive-king-crimson/

Review Nº 630

Giles Giles and Fripp was an English rock group, formed in Bournemouth, Dorset, England, in 1967. It featured brothers Michael Giles on drums and vocals, Peter Giles on bass guitar and vocals, and Robert Fripp on guitar. The band's music showed an eclectic mix of pop, psychedelic rock, folk, jazz, and classical influences. The group eventually evolved into the pioneering and famous progressive rock band King Crimson. As we know, King Crimson was the band that released in 1969 what is in general considered today the first prog album ever, "In The Court Of The Crimson King".

But, in reality, Giles Giles & Fripp, whose name always sounded more like an accounting firm than a rock group, only existed for a little more than fifteen months. They never got to play a single live performance under their own name, never charted a single anywhere in the world, and were so obscure in their own time and their own country that the one album that they recorded, "The Cheerful Insanity Of Giles, Giles & Fripp", sold fewer than 1,000 copies. In reality, "The Cheerful Insanity Of Giles, Giles and Fripp" had been reissued, receiving far more attention than it ever did in 1968.

Brothers Giles were veterans of the rock scene in Bournemouth, having played in several bands in the beginning of their careers. By with lots of gigs, mostly backing other musicians and along with a handful of singles that went nowhere, the two brothers decided to form their own band. In that year, they hooked up with Robert Fripp, an ex-member of groups such as the League Of Gentlemen who was then playing guitar in a hotel orchestra. The resulting trio began rehearsing in earnest and the result of that was an album, "The Cheerful Insanity Of Giles, Giles & Fripp", recorded in 1968 and a pair of singles. The album reflected the times and the members' respective tastes, a strange mixture of light jazz, psychedelic, droll humor, Goon Show and Monty Python style comedy, and a very offbeat balladry.

The style of music of "The Cheerful Insanity Of Giles, Giles & Fripp" is, well, it's all over the place. There's plenty of late 60's psychedelic pop, there are a few tracks that hint at what would become the sound that defined a genre. There are a few serious moments, and there are whacky Monty Python-esque vocal interludes that speak to the album's title. There are hints of Syd Barrett, there are moments that recall The Beach Boys, and there are dozens of The Beatles references. It's a bit eclectic really. Giles Giles and Fripp were trying to be funny. They were trying to be pop. They were trying to be experimental. But, in fact, it seems that they were trying to find themselves. That musical identity would finally settle on them two years later when they grew up into King Crimson, and they launched "In The Court Of The Crimson King".

"The Cheerful Insanity Of Giles, Giles & Fripp" can be divided into two parts. The songs on the first part are tied together thematically by a narrative called "The Saga Of Rodney Toady", a series of between-song vignettes about a fat kid with no friends and dim prospects for a future love life. Trust me. It's funnier than it sounds, although the joke wears thin on repeated listens. The opening track, "North Meadow", is one of the strongest on the album and features some nifty fretwork from Fripp, restrained but tasty drumming and some beautiful vocal harmonies. Besides that, "Call Tomorrow", which is rather light, airy, and yes, cheerful, the rest of the songs on the first part of the album are pleasant, but not necessarily remarkable. Still, there's an undeniable charm to them and they managed to grow on me. A foreshadowing of King Crimson can be heard on "The Crukster", a brief but dark interlude. Side two is held together by the narrative concept "Just George", which is basically a gag where one sentence is repeated in between songs, with the words rearranged each time. The cheeky nature of the album gives way for the final two songs, "Suite No. 1" and "Erudite Eyes". The former of the two is an engaging instrumental piece featuring some superb guitar work from Fripp.

Unless you actually get a vinyl copy of the album, you'll also find six more new bonus tracks. Four of them are simply stereo or mono single versions of previous album tracks, with two originals. The first of these two, "She Is Loaded", is easily the better. It probably most closely resembles Syd Barrett-era Pink Floyd with even more odd lyrics. The opening vocal harmony is pretty stunning to boot. But, this six bonus tracks don't add anything remarkable to the album, really.

Conclusion: Just one year before prog rock titans King Crimson released their first album. Two thirds of that band released their first and last studio album as the erstwhile trio of Giles Giles & Fripp. Released during the height of the psychedelic era, "The Cheerful Insanity Of Giles, Giles & Fripp" promptly sank into oblivion. But, believe me. It's worth revisiting. If I had to surmise a reason why this album tanked, I'd say its oddly eclectic songs are a contributing factor. The album has a generous dose of cheeky Pythonesque humor, but most of the acts at the time were practicing a much darker and substantive form of psychedelic. It's not quite progressive enough to be prog rock, and probably a little too jokey for its own good. If this doesn't sound like a glowing recommendation, it's interesting and insane enough to be checked. It perhaps won't make any Desert Island Disc list, but this is unique and a must for any Fripp or Crimson fan.

Prog is my Ferrari. Jem Godfrey (Frost*)

"The Cheerful Insanity of Giles, Giles and Fripp" is the debut full-length studio album by UK pop/rock act Giles, Giles and Fripp. The album was released through Deram Records in September 1968. The history of the band began in August 1967 when brothers Michael Giles (drums) and Peter Giles (bass) recruited guitarist Robert Fripp. Although the trio were clearly skilled composers and gifted musicians, they only managed to release a couple of singles and "The Cheerful Insanity Of Giles, Giles & Fripp", before disbanding as a consequence of a lack of commercial success. Maybe disbanding isn´t the correct word to use though as Giles, Giles and Fripp more or less just sequed into being King Crimson with the departure of Peter Giles and the addition of Ian McDonald (keyboards, reeds and woodwinds), Greg Lake (vocals, bass) and Peter Sinfield (lyrics, illumination).

Today most listeners probably seek out "The Cheerful Insanity of Giles, Giles and Fripp", because of 2/3 of the lineup subsequently becoming founding members of King Crimson and playing on the iconic debut album "In the Court of the Crimson King (1969)", but of course "The Cheerful Insanity of Giles, Giles and Fripp" deserves to be reviewed on its own merits and without comparisons to what some of the members would do a year down the line.

Stylistically the core of the material is British 60s pop/psychadelic pop and of course contemporary The Beatles are an obvious reference. When that is said there is a quirky, silly, and at times even avant garde tinged edge to much of the material, which makes the title of the album very appropriate (and references to early naive Pink Floyd valid). It´s an extremely eclectic album featuring elements of both pop, jazz, proggy ideas, spoken work sections, and psychadelia.

The tracks feature mellow and pleasant vocals and pop orchestral backing (strings), but as mentioned above the album is quite eclectic, and the elements from other genres and musical styles pop up frequently. The tracks are well written and relatively memorable, but for all its genre blending and eclecticism, "The Cheerful Insanity of Giles, Giles and Fripp" ultimately doesn´t come off particularly unique. Sure some of the guitar chords and melodies used by Fripp are not standard fare on late 60s pop/rock albums, but it´s not so different from the experiments of other contemparies that it´s a standout album from that time.

It´s a well produced, very well performed, and cleverly composed light psychadelic pop/rock album though and it could well apppeal to a lot of listeners, who enjoy mellow and slightly psychadelic 60s pop/rock, with a few silly and quirky moments. It´s no wonder the band didn´t experience major commercial success with the release of this album though, as it probably was too mellow and pop oriented for the rock audience and maybe a bit too odd for the pop audience. Personally I find it a nice relaxing listen, which can be used for both background listening, but also for more in-depth listening sessions (there are definitely enough lefturn ideas for that). A 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.

GILES, GILES and FRIPP were brothers Michael Giles and Peter Giles and Robert Fripp. Presumably, they were lacking inspiration in coming up with an original name for the group, so they used their own names for the bandname, which unfortunately ended up sounding like a city firm of legal eagles. They formed in Bournemouth, Dorset in 1967, when King Crimson was just a twinkle in Robert Fripp's eye. The line-up featured Michael Giles on drums and vocals, Peter Giles on bass and vocals and Robert Fripp on guitar. Their peculiar brand of music can best be described as Psychedelic Pop. Their one and only studio album "The Cheerful Insanity of Giles, Giles and Fripp" (1968) sold poorly on its initial release, but it's now gaining some well-deserved recognition, thanks to the Internet. There were plans for a second album with Judy Dyble (of Fairport Convention) on vocals, but sadly, the album never came to fruition. A compilation album of 1968 demo sessions was released in 2001 as "The Brondesbury Tapes." Robert Fripp & Michael Giles wisely decided to change the name of their firm of solicitors after the release of their sole studio album, when King Crimson emerged to take the prog world by storm. Let's step into the cheerfully insane world of Giles, Giles & Fripp now and give the 13 songs on their 1968 studio album a listen.

It's an album of two halves, with "The Saga of Rodney Toady" occupying the whole of Side One and "Just George" taking up Side Two. The opening song "North Meadow" is nice and cheerful, but definitely not insane. It's just a bright and bubbly, fizzy Pop song that's as refreshing as a glass of lemonade. It also sounds very English in a quaint late-1960's way, with guitar maestro Robert Fripp providing some intricate Jazzy flourishes. There's some cheerful insanity in the opening to the second song "Newly-Weds" with a spoken word introduction to "The Saga of Rodney Toady", featuring some very silly Monty Python- type voices. As for the music, "Newly Weds" sounds as quirky and offbeat as some of Syd Barrett's weird and wonderful Psychedelic Pop excursions with early Pink Floyd, such as "See Emily Play" or "Arnold Layne", for instance. The cheerfully insane spoken word Python-esque intros are a recurring feature of most of the songs on the album and "One in a Million" starts the same way. The music is another cheap and cheerful Pop song to while away a warm and pleasant day spent in an English country garden. It's time to take a pew for the next song "Call Tomorrow", because the music has a rather dour and mournful air to it, with the organist conjuring up an image of a solemn occasion in church. You can really dig the next song though, "Digging My Lawn", because it's a groovy Jazz number, featuring some lovely laid-back drumming and playfully light keyboard and guitar accompaniment. It sounds like the kind of groovy 1960's song you might hear featured in an Austin Powers movie. Next up is "Little Children", a lovely honey-sweet Pop song, featuring some truly gorgeous vocal harmonising from the all-female vocal trio, The Breakaways. It's the highlight of the album so far. Coming along now is the discordant "The Crukster", which is not really a song at all as it's a spoken word poem which has a slightly unsettling and menacing edge to it. The closing song on Side One "Thursday Morning" sounds very Beatle-esque, which is always a good thing in a 1960's Pop album. It's very reminiscent of some of the Beatles' sadder songs, such as "Eleanor Rigby" or "Hey Jude".

Side Two opens cheerfully with "How Do They Know", an upbeat and Jazzy Pop song guaranteed to brighten up the dullest of days, and there's more cheerful insanity on the way with the spoken word "Elephant Song", which is more of a frivolous childrens' novelty song than a serious piece of music. It's time to rub some suntan lotion in now for our next song because "The Sun is Shining". It's a charming song with old-fashioned music hall appeal, featuring the lovely three-part girls choir The Breakaways adding some delightful harmonies to this playful little ditty. We're taking flight next with the classically- inspired "Suite No. 1", which sounds like a Jazzed-up version of Rimsky-Korsakov's Flight of the Bumble Bee. The music has the same kind of manic intensity to it. Finally, we come to the last song on the album "Erudite Eyes", which sounds like a pastiche of the Olde Englishe song "Greensleeves" in the opening, but then quickly transposes into a Jazzy Psych-Pop jam session with all of the musicians going off on an improvisational free-for-all.

This late-1960's novelty album of cheerfully insane English Pop songs won't be to everyone's taste. The album is very much of its time and it's not likely to appeal to Prog-Rock fans generally, because it's not Progressive and it's not Rock. It's more of a curiosity item for inquisitive King Crimson fans who are interested to hear the early musical frivolity and Frippery that Robert Fripp got up to before he ventured forth into the Court of the Crimson King.

I think that the main importance of this album is really of being an immediate antecedent to the formation of King Crimson, but the musical styles of both bands are really very different, because this band was really a strange mixture of Jazz and Rock sounds with bizarre lyrics talking about some strange characters with a good dose of British humour. So, sometimes it is difficult to understand the humour of some of the lyrics being very British in sense. But anyway this album has some funny moments and very good musical performances by a trio of very good musicians. It still has some very good Prog related arrangements and particularly Michael Giles shines in his drums playing, while Robert Fripp`s guitar playing is more oriented to Jazz than to Rock, and the same could be said about Peter Giles`s bass guitar playing. Anyway, with this strange mixture of musical styles and comedy lyrics it is not really hard to understand why this album and this band didn`t have success then. But even in the present, this album is not a very interesting listening, apart from the historical interest and curiosity. Maybe the Britsh fans of King Crimson could be now be more interested in this album and in this band, but for the other fans of King Crimson it could be more of a collector`s interest.

An appropriately named album indeed.

Sort of Monty Python meets King Crimson, even though it predates both by a little.

Out of the two albums that serve as parts of an early Crimson sandwich, this one I like the best (the other one being McDonald And Giles), probably due to the presence of Mr. Fripp. His signature style is pretty well developed at this point. There is a heavy '60's flavor to some of the music that might be off-putting to some, particularly when compared to In The Court Of The Crimson King, which I find has a certain timeless quality to it. So, dated perhaps, but after getting big into KC, this was a nice discovery.

If you don't believe humor belongs in music, then you might want to avoid this one. You will want to check this out if you are interested in hearing something that is foundational to King Crimson.

"And then once again you can hear hell's heat."

Rounding up.

Admirers of Syd Barrett and the more pastoral side of early Floyd will like this. Unfortunately it's not as strange or acid drenched but retains a certain British quirkiness throughout. The songs are sursprisingly catchy and remind me of Bowie's first album from '67.

The Saga of Rodney Toad, which appears more or less at the end of each tune was a terrible artistic decision. You can forget anything you've heard about Monty Python humour. This is straight from the mouth of an eight year old child. It's infantile and uninspired spoken by an uncharismatic Pete Giles. Thankfully the tunes more than make up for this blunder, but still relegates 'The Cheerful Insanity Of Giles, Giles & Fripp' to a three star rating, rather than the four it truly deserved.

King Crimson fans are advised to steer well clear. Although even at the age of 22, Fripp had a superb set of guitar playing fingers on him.

There's also the unlikeliest of bonuses with a smiling Robert Fripp on the front cover, which is something I never thought I'd see! Do you think his face shattered into 1000 pieces immediately afterwards?

For some reason, this album reminds me a lot about the Wilde Flowers album I reviewed many, many moons ago. That too was a compilation of demos and oddities which was a taster for Caravan and Soft Machine. So is this album and it is a forewarning about things to come (King Crimson).

The connection here is the two versions of I Talk To The Wind. Versions who just prove how great this song is. But I still prefer the King Crimson version.

The rest of this album is a mix of female vocals led pop and some eccentric pop/rock in the British vein in the best 1960s tradition. The music is actually not too bad. But I cannot deny that this album is for fans and collectors only. This album does not have enough legs to stand upright on it's own, I am afraid. But it is still worth checking out.

2.75 stars

Once upon a time, before the days of King Crimson, Robert Fripp and original KC drummer Michael Giles were part of a trio (with Giles' brother, Peter) called, appropriately, Giles, Giles and Fripp. Their one and only album, reviewed here, sold a very very small number of copies, and it is definitely quite true that the only reason I should know of its existence is that all of its members would eventually play for the mighty Crim. Despite that, though, it's amazingly enjoyable, and definitely not a chore to sit through or to review.

The greatest thing about this album is that, whereas Crimson albums wouldn't have anything resembling a "national identity," this album is so thoroughly British in so many places that I can't help but grin. First, I must point out that, thanks to this album, I can never ever hold any malice towards Robert Fripp again, if only because nobody who can deliver such a hilarious spoken piece as "The Saga of Rodney Toady" deserves anybody's hatred. This is BRILLIANT straight-faced British humor, and Fripp's delivery is simply perfect as perfect can be - I can't imagine anybody else saying "Rodney's mother was fat and ugly, and Rodney's father was even .... fat-and-uglier" or anything along those lines and doing it better than good ole Robert does here. God Bless Robert Fripp.

The rest of the album, with the exception of a LAME repeated spoken partner to "Rodney Toady," entitled "Just George," is basically a ton of Kinks-style Brit Pop crossed with some jazz ideas and the occasional bit of Moody-Bluesian balladry. Some bits of Crimsonian elements creep in here and there (some of the vocal harmonies in "North Meadow," the brass riff in "Elephant Song," the dissonant guitar lines of "The Crukster," the bits of classical influence in "Suite No. 1"), but for the most part this is just really solid, slightly tweaked pop with elements of music hall. For a Crimson fan, I guess that wouldn't necessarily be the best news, but for somebody like me, who likes the concurrent Kinks albums (not to mention that I consider Between the Buttons one of the best pop albums ever), it's cause to pump my arms up a couple of inches and utter a quiet "woo hoo." Some songs are better than others, to be sure, but after thinking about this album again, I'm quite sure that I won't be able to get the melodies to "One in a Million," "How Do They Know?," "North Meadow" and "Thursday Morning" out of my head for quite a while.

So yeah, even though it's kinda hard to give this an extensive review, this is one of the most worthwhile historical curiousities I've come across in a long time. There's tons of interesting, tweaked and hilarious bits to dig out while listening throughout, and if it weren't for all these ridiculous "Just George" bits, this would have a chance to take quite a significant place in my collection. As is, it's still freakin' amusing.