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Topic ClosedIs Robert Fripp Overrated?
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Rednight View Drop Down
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Points: 4807 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 05 2014 at 19:05
Originally posted by LSDisease LSDisease wrote:


Originally posted by Blacksword Blacksword wrote:

^^^ and I'll take an original composer over some "look at me mum" shredder any day of the week. I grew up all excited about long haired guitarists who could play really fast and use classical references in their music. Then I discovered the likes of Lifeson, Gilmour and Fripp and all those 'heroes' just seemed a bit... you know..

Plus they mostly made predictable sh*t music imo...
Lifeson is better than the remaining two.

Lifeson is better? What a maroon! Though respectable, Mr. Zivojinovic is a very talented strummer with an average bag of tricks in store. Long live Fripp.
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Points: 10970 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 05 2014 at 19:46
^ Have you heard Alex's solos?
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Points: 2111 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 05 2014 at 20:01
Originally posted by Rednight Rednight wrote:

Originally posted by LSDisease LSDisease wrote:


Originally posted by Blacksword Blacksword wrote:

^^^ and I'll take an original composer over some "look at me mum" shredder any day of the week. I grew up all excited about long haired guitarists who could play really fast and use classical references in their music. Then I discovered the likes of Lifeson, Gilmour and Fripp and all those 'heroes' just seemed a bit... you know..

Plus they mostly made predictable sh*t music imo...
Lifeson is better than the remaining two.

Lifeson is better? What a maroon! Though respectable, Mr. Zivojinovic is a very talented strummer with an average bag of tricks in store. Long live Fripp.

I don't understand the need to dismiss Lifeson's musical ability. Have you actually listened to one of Lifeson's solos before? Go listen to his solo on Emotion Dector and tell me he's just a 'strummer with an average bag of tricks'. One of the great things about Lifeson, like many of the great prog guitarists (you know the list), is he plays for the song and not his ego. So while he has chops galore, he doesn't need to 'show off' what he knows. What he played was perfect for Rush and no other guitarist could have fit the bill.
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Points: 9 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 05 2014 at 21:06
you know what?

I remember a critic reviewer named "Bill Blynan" or something like that, in a music magazine publication called "The Kite", September 1973, referred to Fripp's playing style as:

 "Star Trek guitar".........

.......I suppose that if Star WARS had been released by 1973, instead of May 1977, Fripp's sound would have been considered "light-saber guitar"...........however, despite this lapse in time by 4-5 years, you get the point.
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Points: 1195 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 06 2014 at 05:50
Originally posted by Mirror Image Mirror Image wrote:

Originally posted by Rednight Rednight wrote:

Originally posted by LSDisease LSDisease wrote:


Originally posted by Blacksword Blacksword wrote:

^^^ and I'll take an original composer over some "look at me mum" shredder any day of the week. I grew up all excited about long haired guitarists who could play really fast and use classical references in their music. Then I discovered the likes of Lifeson, Gilmour and Fripp and all those 'heroes' just seemed a bit... you know..

Plus they mostly made predictable sh*t music imo...
Lifeson is better than the remaining two.

Lifeson is better? What a maroon! Though respectable, Mr. Zivojinovic is a very talented strummer with an average bag of tricks in store. Long live Fripp.

I don't understand the need to dismiss Lifeson's musical ability. Have you actually listened to one of Lifeson's solos before? Go listen to his solo on Emotion Dector and tell me he's just a 'strummer with an average bag of tricks'. One of the great things about Lifeson, like many of the great prog guitarists (you know the list), is he plays for the song and not his ego. So while he has chops galore, he doesn't need to 'show off' what he knows. What he played was perfect for Rush and no other guitarist could have fit the bill.

I never understood the need to dismiss any player's ability relative to another. It's completely fine to have no liking for their music or songs, but skill and musical ability shouldn't be denied simply because of a personal bias or two. I personally never got into Rush that much, but I don't deny their impact, creativity, or songwriting ability. My father and I were actually having a very similar discussion to this at a cookout just this past weekend. Another gentleman who was all about British rock and the punk wave incessantly denied certain bands and player based entirely upon their choice of guitar brand/political affiliation, lol.

Fripp has always been Fripp; he's his own dimension of playing. Very few guitar players have that "it" factor for me; Howe is another one. Both those guys were so ahead of their time in their own era, it's astounding. I admire those levels of individuality in guitar players; I think we could use a little more of it today!
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Points: 4091 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 06 2014 at 08:19
Howe was just described as "the BB King of Prog"---in a recent very interesting interview. I like that.
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Points: 5154 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 06 2014 at 08:48
Fripp, Lifeson or Howe had a special quality beyond their technical ability. Fripp was the most technical of them but they all shared uniqueness and, as somebody already said, they did not just played for the ego (well, Fripp may have sometimes) but for the music.
As good as Gilmour or Latimer certainly were, I see them as more traditional guitarists.
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Points: 1195 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 06 2014 at 08:53
Originally posted by twosteves twosteves wrote:

Howe was just described as "the BB King of Prog"---in a recent very interesting interview. I like that.

Wow, that's a very accurate statement!

Originally posted by Gerinski Gerinski wrote:

Fripp, Lifeson or Howe had a special quality beyond their technical ability. Fripp was the most technical of them but they all shared uniqueness and, as somebody already said, they did not just played for the ego (well, Fripp may have sometimes) but for the music.
As good as Gilmour or Latimer certainly were, I see them as more traditional guitarists.

I couldn't agree more with what's said here.
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Points: 6116 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 06 2014 at 09:35
But BB King is overrated LOL
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Points: 4807 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 06 2014 at 16:45
Originally posted by Mirror Image Mirror Image wrote:


Originally posted by Rednight Rednight wrote:

Originally posted by LSDisease LSDisease wrote:


Originally posted by Blacksword Blacksword wrote:

^^^ and I'll take an original composer over some "look at me mum" shredder any day of the week. I grew up all excited about long haired guitarists who could play really fast and use classical references in their music. Then I discovered the likes of Lifeson, Gilmour and Fripp and all those 'heroes' just seemed a bit... you know..

Plus they mostly made predictable sh*t music imo...
Lifeson is better than the remaining two.

Lifeson is better? What a maroon! Though respectable, Mr. Zivojinovic is a very talented strummer with an average bag of tricks in store. Long live Fripp.

I don't understand the need to dismiss Lifeson's musical ability. Have you actually listened to one of Lifeson's solos before? Go listen to his solo on Emotion Dector and tell me he's just a 'strummer with an average bag of tricks'. One of the great things about Lifeson, like many of the great prog guitarists (you know the list), is he plays for the song and not his ego. So while he has chops galore, he doesn't need to 'show off' what he knows. What he played was perfect for Rush and no other guitarist could have fit the bill.

Hey, I like Lifeson. I was simply responding to the Rush fan's negligent statement about him being better than Fripp. The former has worked hard to attain some technical level of playing equal to or better than the latter, but it's just no contest. Fripp is a prog god. Hyperbole, sure, but that's more true than saying his and Gilmour's playing doesn't rate compared to Lifeson's. Keep up the good work, Alex.
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Dayvenkirq View Drop Down
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Points: 10970 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 06 2014 at 16:47
Originally posted by Imperial Zeppelin Imperial Zeppelin wrote:

But BB King is overrated LOL
Like any other joint.

Edited by Dayvenkirq - August 06 2014 at 16:47
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Points: 104 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 06 2014 at 19:39
Fripp is a completely unique guitarist. He can do some stuff with his picking technique that I've never heard another guitarist come close to. Like his ability to jump strings while playing fast lines perfectly is pretty uncanny. The opening of Lark's Tongues in Aspic III is a good example. That's insanely difficult to play with a pick as accurately as he does.
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Points: 3 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 08 2014 at 18:07
I think he is a little overrated. I mean, is he in, say, Steve Hackett's league?

But, having said that I recently purchased the 40th anniversary edition of Starless and Bible Black influenced by hearing John Wetton perform the tune with 2014 U.K. Version on the Cruise to the Edge tour. The album is excellent. 

Funny anecdote re: Fripp. About 25 years ago, he played a solo concert in a record store in Ft. Lauderdale, FL. The record store (Peaches) got pretty crowded and the fans became somewhat unruly - resulting in much pilfering of albums!
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Cristi View Drop Down
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Points: 43652 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 04 2015 at 14:41
NO
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twosteves View Drop Down
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Points: 4091 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 04 2015 at 16:24
I think he is but he has gravitas and a mystery to him that keeps the legend alive.
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Points: 1413 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 04 2015 at 18:09
Originally posted by Butchband Butchband wrote:

I mean, is he in, say, Steve Hackett's league? 

I would say, the league of Steve Hackett can have one member only: Steve Hackett. In the Progland, he is one of the Mount Olympus dwellers. Of course they are not alike and not mathematically equal to each other, yet, from the point of view of a music historian, can hardly be pigeonholed into "leagues"

Same applies, I should think, to any genre and style. 
Thank you, Fripp, for our daily Prog (Red 39:54)
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SteveG View Drop Down
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Points: 20604 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 04 2015 at 18:13
Good God! I thought this thread was dead and buried. There was not that was much positive on these exchanges at times.
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Points: 7951 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 04 2015 at 18:16
Originally posted by Cristi Cristi wrote:

NO
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Points: 6 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 05 2015 at 00:41
definitely not!
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Points: 2223 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 06 2015 at 12:06

i don't know if this has been posted already (i don't have time to search through 20+ pages of postings) but i never read a new yorker article that made me laugh as much as this one:
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