Crimson Commentaries 1991-98

This commentary is on the "Dèjà Vroom" DVD, It is by R.Fripp, I don't know If this is the right forum section but it is the one that seemed more sensible to me.

Line-up One (1969)
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Robert Fripp guitar
Ian McDonaldwoodwind, keyboards, mellotron, vocal
Greg Lake bass guitar, lead vocal
Michael Giles drums, percussion, vocal
Peter Sinfield words & illumination

Introit
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The shock of this group's performances in England, from its debut on April 9th.
1969 at the Speakeasy in London, is difficult to convey 29 years afterwards to someone
who wasn't part of it: something like the explosive impact of punk seven years later. A
considerable influence on the musicians and groups of its generation, it is also the only
Crimson which could have had massive commercial success. Inevitably, it drew as
much hostility as support.
The only studio record from this period - In The Court Of The Crimson King -
failed to convey the power of its live performance but does have the intensity which
characterises classic Crimson of any period. Contemporary ears might find the music
part of another era until they listen THROUGH the music rather than AT it. The sonic
landscape remains as bleak an authentic Crimscape as it gets. Neither heavy metal nor
hard rock have been able to blow me away since I spent nearly all of 1969 playing
"Schizoid Man" and a mellotronic, stroboscopic "Mars".
In 1997 Discipline Global Mobile released Epitaph, a 4 CD set drawn from
bootlegs and archive recordings of (mainly) live performances during 1969. This was the
first opportunity for a new generation of the listening community to access primary
sound sources of Crimson live in 1969; and make their own assessments of the group
and the music.
My own perspective on Crimson is obviously rather different from the other
founder members of the 1969 band. My impression is that they consider their Crimson to
be the only real Crimson, a view with which I have sympathy but disagree. We would
probably agree that this founding Crimson was charmed. There was something
completely other which touched this group and which we called our "good fairy". After
reflecting for several years on how we went from abject failure to global commercial and
musical success in nine months, I eventually concluded that sometimes music leans
over and takes us into its confidence. This was one of those times, these were some of
those people.
But we were also young men, too immature to handle the strains involved in
rapidly moving from local and national failure to international acclaim. The group's
birthday was on January 13th. 1969 at the Fulham Palace Cafe in London. It broke up in
California, December 1969.
This generation of rock (1969) became known as "progressive". Bombast,
exaggeration, excess, self-indulgence, pretension and long solos (by any instrument in
the group) came to characterise the archetypal "prog" outfit. In January 1994 Vox
magazine printed a "Prog Rock special".
This is the letter, dated December 30th. 1993, which I wrote to the Letters
column:
< In the Vox January Prog Rock special your Vox writer suggests that "King
Crimson personified the direction that British rock was taking towards the end of the `60s".
In my view Crimson is a bad example of mainstream Prog Rock (your label) for several
reasons - one being that whenever one particular approach ran its course the group
changed direction and/or personnel. Not the high road to commercial success.
And your writer has drawn a wrong conclusion from a specific Crimson example -
extending a song title into sections. The reason songs and pieces (not "works"!) acquired
separately titled sections (like "In The Court Of The Crimson King" including "The Return
Of The Fire Witch" and "The Dance Of The Fire Witch") was so the group would get paid
full publishing royalties on our American record sales.
David Enthoven and John Gaydon, the E and G of EG Management, told King
Crimson we had to have more than our 5 titles on "In The Court Of The Crimson King" to
get the maximum publishing royalties in the US. So, we added titles to sections until we
had the number necessary to be paid the full rates (by titles, not by running time).
This mundane explanation is much less fun than the one your writer assumes -
artistic pretension - of which there was, in any case, enough to go around.
"The Devil's Triangle" had no singing on it and was not, therefore, a song. Neither
was it "a work", nor "a composition" - it was an instrumental piece. And not a very good
one.
Overall, the article gives a fair impression of the impressive prattiness
surrounding a lot of the scene, but misses some OTT examples of which VOX would
probably have to field libel actions were it to discover and print.
Your general picture - of dopey musicians discovering they are being taken
seriously (fair enough as far as it goes) - is naive, and overlooks the sordid side of what
happens when young men suddenly acquire and are attributed personal, professional and
financial power. Neither does the article adequately explain how the "progressive"
movement became such a flaccid phenomenon. For that, you would also have to
consider the unstoppable growth of the record industry between 1968/78 (particularly in
the US), drug use in general and specifically the widespread adoption of cocaine and
heroin (replacing grass and LSD) by both musicians and executives within the music
industry after 1971 (the consequences were horrific), and the degree to which drugs were
used by certain characters on the business side of the industry to manipulate musicians
(which I saw for myself).
You would also have to take into account the world outside the self-sustaining
Prog world-view of hand-polished landscapes - Vietnam and Watergate, for example.
The original impulse of the "Prog-Rock" genre was the hope that "we (and the
word was a statement of bonding) can change the world". "Sergeant Pepper" and the
outdoor music festivals celebrating community and affirmation, notably Woodstock,
proved it. As a young musician and "hairy" travelling across America in 1969 the
connection was unmistakably clear between the peace movement, rock music as an
instrument of political expression and the voice of a generation. The demarcation between
"straights" and "hairies" equally so.
My personal view is that this impulse failed to carry over into the 1970s and by
1974 the "movement" as a whole had been corrupted, diverted and gone irretrievably offcourse.
Your banner headline - "Jurassic Prog: when dinosaurs ruled the earth" - I believe
I was the first person to use the term "dinosaur" to describe Prog groups: in interviews
during Autumn 1974 explaining why I was then quitting the music industry. Difficult
perhaps to grasp now, but at the beginning the music could be as powerful and overtly
critical as The Clash, Sex Pistols and The Jam a few years later.
I'm not sure Elvis survived the Army but I hope I've forgiven him, so please
forgive me if I seem to fall into the crime of taking your article seriously. But the music
industry was (and is) a microcosm of a particular generation and its concerns. The mess
our elders made of their chances is enough reason to attract the hostility of a succeeding
generation, and not enough reason to forget their real aims.
Musicians, as well as writers, grow up in public. We learn how to do what we do
with all our weaknesses, pretensions, aspirations and ambitions in full view of each other
and the public. By the time punk appeared (a necessary and welcome blast) I had moved
to New York and watched self-importance in personal expression move (mainly) from
young musicians to young music writers.

Afterward One : Prog Rock and Its Criminals.
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I
At the beginning of 1969 Crimson was "Underground" and by the end of 1969
had become "progressive". After 1972, and into the 1980s, Crimson became part of "Art
Rock" and in the 1990s seems to be considered part of a "Prog Rock" revival.
In January 1993 Vox magazine published a Prog Rock special in which its writer
suggested that "King Crimson personified the direction that British rock was taking
towards the end of the `60s".
This, by virtue of the year, can only apply to the first Crimson. And some, like the
original Crimsoids, might argue that there was only one true King Crimson, and no
continuity other than in name.

II
In the aftermath of the 1969 collapse, Peter Sinfield and I agreed to continue
Crimsonising. The 1970/1 period, in Peter's view, was the Fripp & Sinfield Band. I
sympathise with his opinion, but for me this highlights the fundamental difference in aim
between us and which lead to our eventual separation in December 1971. I view 1970/1
as an interim period or, in Crim history, The Interregnum.
At the beginning of 1970 I felt that everything to be done for the next two years
would be wrong but had to be done anyway, to get to the other side. What was on the
other side, I didn't know. (This is Standard Operating Procedure for me). In retrospect,
my sense of the immediate future seen from early 1970 seems justified by the Crimson
and its music, but 1970/1 had its own particular triumphs despite the ongoing and
growing personal bickering, dissension and disagreement between everyone involved.
Fortunately, all the main people now talk to each other. One of my personal
highlights of 1995 was Peter Sinfield's success with a world-wide hit for Celine Dion.
That Peter's triumph might be my triumph strengthens my heart. The only personal
animosity towards myself from this difficult period, and of which I was aware, was from
my old school friend Gordon Haskell. Gordon sang "Cadence and Cascade" on "In The
Wake Of Poseidon" (1970) and played bass and sang on "Lizard" (1970). He felt
cheated out of royalties on "Lizard" which he believed he was promised. I don't, and
didn't, and have sympathy for any dedicated musician of long and hard apprenticeship
and standing. I have no ill feelings towards Gordon. We had a convivial meeting with all
the members of the original 1963-65 League of Gentlemen in the Summer of 1997.

III
King Crimson is not the Robert Fripp Band, this a wearisome subject in dozens of
interviews over two and a half decades. If in doubt, ask the other members.
Nor is King Crimson simply the sum of its members. There has always been
something other, completely outside the operations of the musicians, the business, the
paraphernalia of rockdom, the records, the performances, and everything which gives
rise to the tangible entity of the group/s, King Crimson.
My experience of Crimson is probably very different to the other players, and not
necessarily any more true. Different opinions, based on different experiences, are not
necessarily wrong, or right, merely different. My own experience of the Individuality
which informs the musicians incorporating any particular King Crimson makes me feel a
particular responsibility to the project. Honouring that responsibility has been
educational, stressful, joyful, painful, illuminating and not something I would do to earn a
living (EG made more money from KC than any of its musicians). Neither does it make
me a "bandleader".

A Personal View From The Guitarist
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I
Since 1994 King Crimson has been somewhat rehabilitated from the position of
ignominy it held in the history of rock music for the preceding 20 years.
Nominally, King Crimson has been regarded as begetting characteristics
associated with, even defining, rocks progressive, pomp and art. These characteristics
are often discussed in the areas of:
stage presentation: extravagant, and given to excess
lifestyle: extravagant, and given to excess
music: extravagant and given to excess
lyrics: extravagant and given to excess
So, performances might include a Persian carpet, revolving drum-riser and knifethrowing
(ELP), satin cloak and furry boots (Yes), costumes (Genesis), banks of lights
and speakers (ELP, Yes and Genesis). The lifestyle - personal and professional
entourage, forms of travel (first and second class on airplanes, limousines) - were
governed by the personal tastes of the young musicians and their income streams. The
music - including extended soloing - is sometimes criticised as having a duration
exceeding the attention span available to most audiences, if awake. The lyrics address
subject matters either fantastic or abstruse, or fantastic and abstruse, and of restricted
relevance to the human life form. Often, they are unpronounceable. Frequently, they are
incomprehensible. Always, they suck. Thus, the received opinion.
These three bands were all hugely successful, far more so than King Crimson
with its shifting personnel and repertoire, and all continue to work today, mostly with
original members.

II
"Islands" was the only studio album of the Mel, Boz & Ian version of Crimson,
recorded in mid-1971 at Command Studios, Piccadilly. It contains arguably some of the
most indigestible lyrics sung on a rock album. Not all the words reflected my personal
sensibilities and experience. My professional relationship with Peter Sinfield, already
strained, became more difficult subsequently and, following the return to England from
touring in America during the autumn of 1971, ended.
In fairness to Peter, he was writing largely in response to music offered to him by
myself. This failed to present him with much opportunity to express his own view of the
appropriate, or to fire his enthusiasm. Peter's words have been some of the most
criticised and attacked of that period. Today, he is more successful as a lyricist than at
any time during his 25 years of writing, and was recently a board member of BASCA.
"Islands", for me, contains two Crim classics: the wit and rock reportage of
"Ladies of the Road"; and the guitar solo to "The Sailor's Tale".
"Ladies" was recorded by four musicians who had been out together the night
before. The guitarist, heavily outclassed in the raving arts by the other players and
relatively unpractised in the partying mode, had on this occasion accompanied the other
members to a party.
"Sailor's Tale": the off-set accent on the hi-hat by Ian Wallace is inspired, and
appeared at a rehearsal in the basement of the Fulham Palace Cafe. The Peteneras
flamenco rhythm (a bar of 3/4 alternating with a bar of 6/8), an RF trademark, originated
in my early playing and studying. The echo halo around Boz' voice was produced by
him singing into a BBC brass bucket, several of which had remained in Command
Studios after this former BBC studio changed hands.
The guitar solo was recorded beginning around three in the morning. It was
probably the most powerful solo this young guitarist had played in his life to that point,
and is in the same class as the solo to "Fashion" (1980). Technically, it makes reference
to my guitar teacher Don Strike and his musical background, including banjo music; the
closely related 1930s plectrum guitar music associated with the Clifford Essex
publishing house; my own developed and developing right hand technique; Sonny
Sharrock; the notion of a flailing Pete Townshend; and the desperation of sheer
necessity when exhaustion denied access to coherent strategizing. A leap sideways and
outside was the only solution available. The solo was done in two takes: the opening
flailing is from the first, which defined and established the approach, and the remaining
from the second, which clarified it.
"The Letter" is a development of "Drop In", a live KC feature in 1969 and only
available on record with the release of "Epitaph", a 4 CD box set of live 1969 Crimson
(DGM 1997).
"Prelude" was an orchestration of a guitar solo, a tremolo study played with a
pick, which I had written when first in London with Giles, Giles & Fripp at age 21. The
last week of recording "Islands" was desperate, to hit the deadline before leaving on a
national tour. I would get home from the studio between 4 and 6 in the morning, to my
digs with landpersons Simon Stable and his wife Judy Dyble, and then spend two hours
writing charts for the orchestra before collapsing onto my mattress. Two hours later I
would rise to return to Command for the day's recording. I conducted with a pencil and,
to the orchestra's credit, they ignored me. This was one of the most terrifying
professional occasions of my career. The oboe soloist is the superb Robin Miller, who
was at that time co-principal oboist with the BBC Symphony Orchestra under Pierre
Boulez. Robin also contributed to "Lizard" (1970) and "Red" (1974).

Count In: Four
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The 1973/4 touring version of Crimson was, at the time, mistakenly considered to
be part of the musical arena defined by Yes, Genesis and Emerson, Lake & Palmer.
These three groups were all hugely successful commercially and all influenced by the
first King Crimson, itself the only Crimson threatened by massive commercial acclaim.
This confusion was a mistake easily made by anyone who hadn't seen the "Red"
Crimson in action and were content instead to rely on cliches, careless commentary and
witless associations. For example, the English music press. And a succeeding
generation of journalists and their readers who hadn't seen this Crimson either. (NB Cf
the note on Clinton Heylin above).
All four groups had close personal connections. Greg Lake left Crimson in early
1970 to become a founder member of ELP. At the same time I declined to join Yes to
replace Peter Banks, the job being taken by Steve Howe. Bill Bruford left Yes in July
1972 to join KC, and toured with Genesis in 1975. I declined to join Genesis in 1976
upon the departure of Steve Hackett. Genesis bought a KC mellotron in February 1970
and Phil Collins played on "Exposure" (1978/9). John Wetton worked with Bill Bruford in
UK (1978) and Carl Palmer in Asia (1981). Boz was a founder member of Bad Company
(1973), Ian McDonald a founder member of Foreigner (1978).
Bryan Ferry auditioned for Crimson in late 1970 and I turned him down but
suggested he go to EG Management (a piece of advice which he may well now regret).
He went there with Roxy Music, which was how I met Eno. My work with Eno was an
important alternative line of playing to that offered by Crimson: the release of "No
Pussyfooting" (1973) was held up for nearly two years by EG and Island Records
because they believed that Eno's association with me after his departure from Roxy
Music would damage his commercial viability. Eno's preparation of a backing track for
the Fripp & Eno tour of Spain, France and Europe in May 1975 became "Discreet
Music", the original "ambient" album. I remember drinking tea with Brian in the back
dining room chez Eno while the music was recording itself in the front room. We
recorded "Evening Star" in 1975. My work with Eno extended to working with Bowie and
Eno on "Heroes" (1977) and then to Bowie on "Scary Monsters" (1980).
When Peter Gabriel left Genesis (1974) one of his projects was to write a single
for Charlie Drake, a well known English comedian. The group for this session, at
George Martin's Air Studios over Oxford Circus, was Gabriel (writer & producer), Phil
Collins (drums), Percy Collins (fretless bass and later a founder member with Phil of
Brand X), Keith Tippett (piano) and RF (guitar). This was arguably one of the strangest
sessions of the entire era. I played on the first three Gabriel solo albums and produced
PG II. It is easily forgotten that in the 1970s Phil Collins was known as a drummer who
grasped challenge, and an important contributor to Eno's radical "Another Green
World". Phil's success as a solo singer since the 1980s, and front man for Genesis, has
overshadowed his contribution to important undercurrents of his generation.
This is a small outline of inter-relationships between a generation of musicians.
My point is that among all these musicians and their groups and projects, the live
Crimson in 1973/4 was on its own territory. It drew mainly on a European vocabulary
both for its writing and improvising. Increasingly it needed improvisation to stay alive:
this was its life blood. But that didn't show much in the studio albums. In concert, it
stepped sideways and jumped. It went places where other musicians of that rock
generation mainly avoided. This team looked into the the darker spaces of the psyche
and reported back on what it found. The 1969 Crimscapes were bleak and written; the
1973/4 Crimscapes were darker, and mainly improvised.
This was a secret to nearly everyone until December 1992 and the release of
"The Great Deceiver", a four volume CD box taken from my personal archive of live
recordings - unless they'd had their ears pressed flat against their head by John
Wetton's soaring bass. This would not have been possible before compact disc
technology, nor before the hostility against music of this era subsided sufficiently for the
music to be heard above the din of an often justifiable prejudice.
"USA", a live album drawn from recordings in America during 1974, was released
in 1975. It failed to convey a true impression of the group. After much hustling by myself,
it was deleted in the 1980s. I am now under pressure to re-release it. The four volumes
of "The Great Deceiver" are effectively four stunning volumes of "USA".
In all the Crimsons between 1969 and 1974 we were too young to play well
enough to meet either our aspirations or the challenges of much of the writing. Neither
did we have the maturity to handle the personal strains and struggles of being on the
road for extended periods. In these difficulties I found little support from management.
After all, they were (mostly) at home taking care of business. Or not. But that is another,
and regrettable, story which waits to be told.
At the time of writing we are preparing the Second Edition of USA, remixed with
additional material, for release through Virgin in 1999, as part of King Crimson's 30th.
Aniversary Year.

The Music Of Business.
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The Book of Craft (2017)

There are as many paths to music as there are musicians. So, it is necessary for each
musician to find their own path.
Subjectively, this path is unique. Objectively, each path is the same path as that of others.
Eventually, the individual musician discovers this.
But, there are signposts; there are maps; there are guides.

III
If the young artist today is to succeed in the music industry, a beginning generation of
business people is needed. A new and alternative kind of music industry will probably not yield huge
levels of success. The mainstream industry is set up to address the mainstream. Its apparent success
in achieving the distribution of music is mainly apparent. Outside the industry one doesn't see the
failures, deceit, dishonesty, manipulation and distortion of the lives of artists and industry rank and
file.
Should a reasonable, professional and liberal reader, even one in a position of authority over
others, feel I overstate the case, I regret that I do not. Should a worldly-wise reader, trained in power
negotiation and irrefutable techniques of persuasion, suggest that this is the case in business
generally, I reply that I can only speak with confidence of what is within my experience.

Copyright Ownership
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The phonographic copyright in performances is operated by Discipline Global Mobile on
behalf of the artists, with whom it resides, contrary to common practice in the record industry.
Discipline accepts no reason for artists to assign the copyright interests in their work to either
record company or management by virtue of a "common practice" which was always questionable,
often improper, and is now indefensible.
Currently, a few well-known groups have begun to challenge this practice. Where their cases
have been successful and (discreetly) known to me, these arrangements are subject to gagging
clauses. If we accept the principle of transparency to be one of the canons of ethical business, along
with straightforwardness, accountablility, owning-up, honesty, common decency, fairness and
distributive justice, the gagging orders imply that the practices of certain major players in the record
industry put them outside what DGM considers to be ethical business conduct.
Members of the public not familiar with the norm, might not know this common practice of
the record industry: the artist pays to record the album, generally with an advance provided by the
record company. This advance is then recouped from artist royalties (which are themselves subject
to limitations and reductions in accordance with "company standard policy") while the album is owned
by the record company. The record company owns the artist's work, for which the artist has paid. If
the record company, or owner of the company, sells the catalogue or the company itself, the artist
receives nothing for their work although having created the work and paid for it to be made.
Crimson Music recognises no valid or ethical reason to assign publishing copyrights to
publisher or manager as an inevitable, necessary or useful part of the business of collecting
publishing royalties.
As a point of information for an interested member of the listening community, to someone
probably not commonly involved in negotiations with major record or publishing companies, it is now
a frequent practice for artists to be asked to sign away benefit of their moral rights as the creators or
originators of artworks.