Financial Times Interview With Robert Fripp

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by christopher, Aug 3, 2012.

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  1. christopher

    christopher Forum Neurotic Thread Starter

    http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/f588e100-d7ee-11e1-9980-00144feabdc0.html#axzz22WOzrDRV

    Later, Chris

     
  2. Greg(ory)

    Greg(ory) Some Stupid With A Space Gun

    Location:
    (Massachusetts)
    Good read, thanks Christopher
     
  3. Paul K

    Paul K Senior Member

    Location:
    Toronto, Canada
    Wow...I had no idea that he had really stopped for this. Quite a revealing read...
     
  4. Done A Ton

    Done A Ton Birdbrain

    Location:
    Rural Kansas
    My thanks as well.
     
  5. prof. stoned

    prof. stoned Forum Member

    Location:
    ...
    Thanks. An excellent read. An artist of the calibre like Fripp was not made for corporate times like these and it's sad to see him struggle with himself and the world (once again).
    Fripp not creating and performing is a total waste (unlike Clapton, who, as far as I am concerned, can hang up his Fender in the highest tree and leave it there)
     
  6. DJ WILBUR

    DJ WILBUR The Cappuccino Kid

    thank you.
     
  7. Metoo

    Metoo Forum Hall Of Fame

    Location:
    Spain (EU)
    Thanks for the link, Christopher. Interesting read.
     
  8. oxegen

    oxegen Forum Resident

    Location:
    Dublin, Ireland
    Another Thank You!
     
  9. Music Geek

    Music Geek Confusion will be my epitaph

    Location:
    Italy
    I worship Robert Fripp the artist but the fact that he seems almost proud of having created problems to any bandmate he has worked with does give a certain perspective to his problems with the music industry.
     
  10. Gentle Giant

    Gentle Giant Active Member

    Location:
    Boston, MA
    I sometimes wish that Fripp could just, as the crude joke goes, just lie back and enjoy it. I think he often over-intellectualizes everything, that if music is a language and an energy as he seems to believe it is, that it doesn't require a philosophy around it. God, for example, doesn't need religion, so why does music require so many Frippicisms?

    OTOH, as for the journalist's opinion that Crimson had the habit of imploding at inopportune times, I think each time Crimson broke up it did so at the right time and for the right reasons. In 1974, with Cross leaving and Ian McDonald expressing interest in rejoining, it was inevitably heading towards well-trod ground. And in 1984, any follow-up to Three of a Perfect Pair would have been rather dreadful, as that record made it clear that the 80s quartet had run out of good ideas.

    I do hope that Fripp finds a way to return to active music-making; it would have to be on his own terms, but I've always had a fantasy that he would do a solo acoustic album, where his exquisite technique could be in full display. But far be it from me to make demands on music.
     
  11. Hamhead

    Hamhead The Bear From Delaware

    Many thanks as well for the great read.
     
  12. Cyberhog9

    Cyberhog9 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Quad Cities IA
    I gave up on the Crimson after Thrak.I tried to get it,but I couldn't.Same as my one and only foray into a Tony Levin solo cd.

    Too brutal for me.I always return to the early 80's Disc,Beat&Three Of..That music,I(can understand) still holds up.Just my opinion,cause I still crank the Beat album.

    Cheers.
     
  13. christopher

    christopher Forum Neurotic Thread Starter

    If you can, check out Upper Extremities With Levin, Bruford, Dave Torn and Chris Botti. A very cool album.

    It's kinda like Torn's Cloud About Mercury, but different... :)

    Presidents Day is a fave track...

    http://www.allmusic.com/album/upper-extremities-mw0000039984

    Later, Chris
     
  14. I agree with much of what you said but also feel that Fripp is allergic to success and he also backs away from situations where he is no longer in control of the band. I don't think that the quartet ram out of ideas but that Fripp had reached an impasse working with Belew at the time as front man and very much Fripp's creative equal.

    I think that if the band had taken a brief break they would have been re-energized if they had reformed.
     
  15. gd0

    gd0 Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies

    Location:
    Golden Gate
    Thanks for the link, christopher.

    Meh, see Neil Young. :)

    But yeah, it's easy to visualize RF as being difficult to deal with – even if he is fighting the good fight – and a determined big-biz backlash ensuing.

    It's even easier to visualize the 1%-ers at UMG making it their business to shut up – and shut down – the Fripps of the world, once and for all.
     
  16. willy

    willy hooga hagga hooga

    Come on Bob, strap on the Les Paul and just give us an all-star Exposure 2!!
     
  17. Music Geek

    Music Geek Confusion will be my epitaph

    Location:
    Italy
    I am sure he is 100% right in his battle but I am also sure that anyone who has worked for a large company has come across one of those guys that nobody wants to work with. Large companies usually prefer to lose these people even when they are extremely skilled because they create too many problems.

    Basically it seems that Fripp is comfortable only when he is allowed be totally dictatorial and in full control. It took just a few months for him to move from being one member of a band of 4 (5?) to having King Crimson as his puppet for the next 40 years. I am sure that Lake, McDonald and Giles thought that King Crimson was their creature as much as Fripp's and that's why they had to go.

    Brian Eno seems to be the only person who has managed to create a peer to peer relationship with Fripp. His other collaborations with Andy Summers and David Sylvian were rather painful, and for the rest of his long career he has been either in total control or a sessionman.
     
  18. ranasakawa

    ranasakawa Forum Resident

    Fripp is a true artist. Talented, Tormented, Brilliant, and at times completely impossible to understand his motives. I am a huge fan and enjoy reading his always very philisophical look into life, music etc.
     
  19. Music Geek

    Music Geek Confusion will be my epitaph

    Location:
    Italy
    Or at least he could find a way to re-issue God Save The Queen/Under Heavy Manners in a digital format....
     
  20. Gentle Giant

    Gentle Giant Active Member

    Location:
    Boston, MA
    Even better, their 2-CD live set. might be Bruford's best-ever drumming.
     
  21. Tristero

    Tristero In possession of the future tense

    Location:
    MI
    I have deep respect for Fripp as an artist, but I'm a little baffled as to why he felt the need to do this interview to express his current frustrations. It seems as if he's spent a good deal of his career locked in mortal combat with the big bad record labels and even though he seems to have achieved a fair degree of financial independence, he can't manage to find space to create anymore. I don't doubt that there's plenty of injustice in the music business, but when it gets to the point where someone as talented as Fripp has been ground down like this, you have to wonder if his ongoing crusade hasn't been counter-productive. I hope that he can get beyond this impasse and find new creative outlets.
     
  22. MoonPool

    MoonPool Senior Member

    Location:
    Boston
    Fripp has given the impression in his online diaries that his financial independence came not from his workings in the music business, but from his real estate investments. He was in training to be an estate agent, like his father, when he joined King Crimson. His role in DGM as head of an ethical company is one that puts him on the leading edge of a movement whose time has come. Perhaps his overall role in this life has shifted to something other than just being on the cutting edge of music.
     
  23. Tristero

    Tristero In possession of the future tense

    Location:
    MI
    Well, Fripp has had a long, fruitful career and I certainly don't feel that he owes us anything at this stage (except the rest of those 40th Anniversary reissues!). I just sensed a fair amount of creative frustration in that interview, as if he was unable to make music anymore due to these distractions, and I wonder if he really wants to spend the rest of his years fighting the unending fight. It sounds as if he feels that he has no other choice. I wish him success in any event.
     
  24. ArpMoog

    ArpMoog Forum Resident

    Location:
    Detroit
    God Bless Fripp. The man the band gave me 7 of my favorite albums of all time.
    Im happy I got to see him a few times. May he find peace.
     
  25. gd0

    gd0 Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies

    Location:
    Golden Gate
    From way outside looking in, if I was in a position to criticize RF's demeanor, I'd say he was capricious. It (seemingly) doesn't take much for him to upend his own baby, King Crimson.

    Segue to...

    And that worked out well, as far as I'm concerned.

    If one thoroughly samples all the output of all the Crim alumni, one will will certainly find exceptional, thoughtful music, but none of it has that "otherness" that King Crimson has. And it is fairly evident that the bulk of that comes from its sole surviving founding member – despite, again, substantial input from the other band members. Hard to imagine Fripp/Lake/Sinfield/Giles/McDonald enduring for 40+ years, much less being relevant or influential.

    Fripp's philosophical expression seems like so much psychobabble to me, but it's also evident that all that stuff informs this one-of-a-kind music. Obviously, this all needs to get done on his terms if we are to get the good stuff.

    I really hope he can get this biz-crap behind him, and deliver one last chapter of King Crimson. Even completely re-invent the whole thing, as he's done in the past. I think he's got it in him.
     
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