Prog in unexpected public places.

AFlowerKingCrimson wrote: I know it's not really prog but I want to mention this anyway. I heard Deep Purple's "black night" tonight in a local grocery store. When is the last time you heard that in public? I guess these stores have their own playlist and aren't just playing the radio because that's one I don't think I have ever heard on classic rock radio.

I can answer that. I have a very specific memory of it.

April 1990.

I was lying fatigued and lapsing in and out of consciousness in a medical tent at the finish of a triathlon with a few litres of IV fluids running into my arm. Black Night came on over the finish-line PA. I was hurting like f*ck but in a happy place.

I don’t really think it’s ridiculous at all. For the general masses Toyah Wilcox is the household name. I remember one Christmas with my in-laws, when they were discussing music, and my mother-in-law said she thought Toyah was married to some other musician - and suggested it was one of those more obscure bands my father-in-law listened to (obscure meaning Peter Gabriel, I think, because that is as “far” more mainstream as I can ascertain his musical tastes go). They both looked at me, because everyone knows I love music, ans I had to tell them it was Robert Fripp (blank looks), from King Crimson (blank looks). And he played some of the funky guitar sounds you hear on David Bowie’s “Heroes” and Scary Monsters albums (oh, is that who it is).

To be honest, I’m not sure they knew that Fripp has played on Bowie’s albums, so much as they knew what I meant by the funky guitar sounds. Bottom line, Fripp is definitely Toyah’s wife, and not the other way around, and I wouldn’t expect to see it in any other way - unless it was something prog-specific, where the audience is already familiar with who he is.

That’s my in-laws, but I’m quite sure it would be the same with my own parents. They’d probably recognise Toyah’s name, but not Fripp’s. And they’ve likely never heard of Crimson. I suspect for most people, Fripp, if he exists in their knowledge at all, is known for his association with Toyah and/or Bowie, above all else.