The Diary of King Crimson (Part III)

by Robert Fripp

Submitted By: Jean Adams (jadams at mtu dot edu)

-April 18th, 1981; World HQ, Wimbourne.

Today is my sister's birthday - hello Wonderful sister! Last night Bill Bruford and Paddy came around after their dinner at the Hidden House Restaurant, and we had a frank discussion covering all the areas which have been worring me. Bill used a classic Crimson line once used on a duff U.S. audience: "We respond to encouragement." He wants to know the good as well as the bad. Both of us are happy to play music we don't particularly like if we feel it's good. Bill reckons on the next two or three years giving him enough ideas to work on for the following five or six.

There's a wonderful story of Tony at the Horton Inn. The inn is five miles from Wimborne on the road to Cranborne, and a half mile from Horton Village. That is, it's kinda in the country, and small events can take on a relatively large significance. Adrian was at breakfast, reading a book, and Tony joined him. Said Tony of his morning's adventures: "Walked to Horton. A dog barked at me." Adrian continued reading. Three pages later Tony finished the story: "Walked back again." It was only a few pages later that the full impact dawned on Adrian, and the story has been adopted as capturing the essence of band life at the Horton Inn.

The systematics of music life continue to interest me. Stafford Beer's THE BRAIN OF THE FIRM is helping me to understand the theoretical position of strategies which I adopt instinctively, and later rationalise. A good example is where the "boss" collaborates. For me the boss is simply adopting a role to enable a process to take place, and without any implications that the person is special or better in some way. Beer gives the example of a boss collaborating with three subordinates: where each has an average possibility of being right 82.5% of the time, working together the total chance of error is 0.0033. As long as this management group collaborates it will hardly ever make a mistake. The psychological point is impartiality: personal freedom from like and dislike, ambition, and so on. I've found that if everyone gets an equal share of earnings, collaboration increases.

-HQ; 20:00.

Very good rehearsals after a soggy beginning. AB is decidedly blue but perked into life later. He's already missing his family badly. BB intergrated the Simmons electric kit into his regular kit, and tried two tunings on the pre-sets for metallophone parts. Today we changed gear.

-Easter Sunday, April 19th, 1981; World HQ.

Sitting here I'm hearing an interesting contrast between the Minster bells in D major on my immediate left, and the Salvation Army brass band in all manner of flat keys on my right. Each confession is celebrating Easter musically and with vigour. My ecumenical position at HQ can be a harrowing experience, particularly on a Tuesday evening when bell-ringing practice coincides with brass band practice.

-Easter Monday, April 20,1981; HQ; 9:15.

El Paddola called last night and is over the top with excitement after hearing a rough cassette from rehearsals. Our first convert.

-HQ; 14:05

Padulamus Est has just visited to discuss strategies. Basically, he is super-enthused about the music. Strategic Merchandising will handle the merchandising for shows, with our own quality control and pricing. The overall approach is to humanise what is usually a de-humanising activity: it's very important not to try and squeeze the last buck out of this team. Nineteen eighty-three will be the year for this band.

The Americans don't like the name Discipline. For my part I'm happy for it to be King Crimson, because that's what the band is. It would help in the short term but I'm not thinking short term. Paddy is now inclined towards it but not in a hurry to decide.

And Bill is having difficulty relating to being a sideman: this is something he hasn't done before. But he's learning from the Americans, who are used to working within determined parameters. His new style is emerging and he trusts enough to go with it.

-April 21st,1981; Chez Parents; 18:15.

Today's rehearsals were the first of the third stage, very slow, twitchy, and failed to lock in. BB has spent his Easter time off digging. TL visited Peter Gabriel in Bath, and AB spent the time on lyrics but, although today was the promised day for the vocal debut, they weren't ready.

Tony told a great Gabriel story. They begin working together on the next Gabriel album when this venture closes. As usual, Peter has no words and no tunes, but he did have seven percussion tracks recorded for Tony to dub bass. Peter went out of the studio for a moment and returned just as Tony began to overdub, but Tony didn't know about the faulty button which caused all the safety switches to misfunction. So clearing three safe tracks for bass cleared everything else with it. Now Peter has nothing at all towards the fourth Peter Gabriel album. Tony was laughing so hard it softened the blow. Peter has an isolation tank he'll have to spend more time in, floating about and coming up with ideas.

-HQ; 23:15

The success of the day's rehearsals determines my personal state until the next rehearsal. This kind of involvement is a permanent strain and bad for me.

-April 22nd, 1981; HQ; 20:00.

Today was the real begining of stage three. We drew up a running order and played a complete set: 65 minutes. Quite a presentable effort. BB has earned my respect for abandoning so many of his ideas on arrangement, tunes and even drumming. TL wants the rhythm section to come up with their own repertoire and vocabulary so the pieces aren't all based on guitar lines. My concern is for new material to be part of our new style which is emerging, and this is the first time in any group where i've explicitly taken this directing role from the begining. Adrian didn't sing today. We're taking Friday off from full rehearsals so the rhythm section can concentrate on their own ideas. Adrian can button up the vocals.

But the slow beginnings of the days: ouch. Tony and Adrian compared notes on the different styles of their Tai-Chi classes. TL learned his from a little Chinese man in a tiny room of a hotel on Broadway at 92nd.

News from Gabriel: Peter's album isn't being released until January (possibly as a result of Tony's recording activities?) so we have a good chance of time from Tony for touring the U.S. and Japan with an album this autumn.

-Thursday, April 23, 1981; Chez Parents; 18:15.

Today I hurt. A telephone call from New York. My personal life has gone wrong. A lot of my life is spent on the hop, moving from one place to another. The main route is between Wimborne and New York. It was while staying in New York that I began to grow up, and the different parts of me fall into place. And I made a small number of really solid friends. English girls and I have never really had much interest in each other, but across the Atlantic is a different bag of bananas. New York has more women than men, so the odds are favourable for males of a predatory inclination. Of the men that are available few are early thirties, single and vigorous. Turning 33, my approach to the chase changed: it lost its desperate edge. Throughout my late teens and for all my twenties the Fripp brain was in my dick. Early sex in Wimborne was nervously conducted against a background fear of pregnancy, paternal disapproval and possible small town disgrace. Moving to London in 1967 at 21 liberated me externally. I had a room to myself and girls could stay overnight - in a bed: no more grappling about on the front seat of a car, at least, not through necessity. But I remained a shy and introspective young man, short on social graces and approaches; an earnest and shabbily dressed countryman. One girlfriend, who visited me in the apartment Greg Lake and I shared, told me I looked better with my clothes off. She may not have been referring to the qualities of my body. I'll continue this story later.

-Friday, April 24th, 1981; HQ.

The girl who preferred me with my clothes off was a 17-year-old model from Newcastle, where I had met her while playing in Change Is, a new and trendy club. She had come to London to run rings around a musician she had met at the club the week before. He was actually running rings around her: he was married. When she discovered this she slashed her wrist in the bathroom sink and then staunched the flow of blood on Greg's towel, leaving large stains and clots. This angered Greg, who had only allowed the girl to stay in our bachelor flat for a few days as a special favour. At that time, May 1969, Greg Lake and I had an apartment together in Leinster Square, just between Queensway and Westbourne Grove. The flat was one large room with a cardboard partition which made two "rooms".This allowed each to be fully involved in the personal life of the other, and ALL its details, whether wanted or not. Greg had come to London in November 1968 to join Michael Giles, Ian MacDonald and myself in Giles, Giles and Fripp, replacing Peter Giles. Since Greg had nowhere to stay he shared my bed in Brondesbury Road. It wasn't a great arrangement, so we got an apartment. King Crimson began rehearsing on January 5th, 1969, in the basement of the Fulham Palace Cafe, Fulham Palace Road, and for the first week of March went to work at Change Is in Newcastle, the new and trendy club. Our booking was as Giles, Giles and Fripp, the only work GGF were ever given, following a moderately successful BBC2 TV show, COLOR ME POP. We caught the train from London to Newcastle on the day before the gig, Saturday, and checked into our digs at South Shields, right on the North Sea coastline and with a cold that reached all parts. Greg said we should go into the club and line up the birds for the coming week. He looked on me, somewhat rightly, as an inept puller. Once in action I was assured, but to get to that point was a problem. Greg for his part had all the lines down and could charm nearly everyone he wanted, and he took it on himself to give me some help in strategy and manoevres. So, off the team went to Change Is.

This was the last day of the club's first week, with the Paul Williams Set playing, and the crop of the town's young women in mini-skirts as waitresses. We lined up trade for the week. I was wearing my smart Carnaby Street jacket, trousers and frilly white shirt, and felt bold. The character of pulling, I learned, involved being pushy and insincere. The following week, liberated from background in a new town and society, the first time I had ever been further north than London, two waitresses responded. Both visited me in London. The 17-year-old model who made her suicide attempt did so on the night King Crimson played the Van Dyke Club in Plymouth. The band returned by milk train via Bristol and I arrived back at our flat at 7:30 in the morning. Lee Kerslake's girlfriend, a friend of the model, answered the door. Obviously, something was wrong. Just having traveled London to Plymouth, played, returned without sleep, this was just what I needed. The model's wrist was stiched by now, Greg's towel a shade of heavy magenta and a freshly opened razor blade on the sink with only a touch of coagulated blood. I washed it off and shaved on it for a week. We sent her home to her mother.

Her friend, the other waitress, visited from Newcastle shortly afterwards. A very quiet, innocent and pretty blonde. She gave me gonorrhea. The first one gave me trichomoniasis vaginitis, but I didn't know this at the time. Not long afterwards Greg was going to pay a visit to the Willy Shop as a matter of course, and why didn't I go along, too? After all, this was part of my education, Wimborne mud fresh from my recently purchased(with Greg) Anello and Davide boots. So, we went to Gower Street Special Clinic together and the doctor told me I had gonorrhea. Unclean! VD! Unclean! Nice people did't get VD. I had shamed my family. Greg was far more practical and comforting. Then I had to get in touch with the girls, and an embarrassed confession from the innocent blonde returned by mail. I never heard from her again. The first one I saw backstage at the Lyceum two years later, still with the married man, but I haven't seen her since.

At this time King Crimson was beginning to be sucessful, and the new blood we represented began to appeal to the bloodthirsty. Mike Giles, the drummer, was married but then gravitating towards his second wife. Ian MacDonald fell in love for the first time. This left Greg and myself as the band's main singles. Part of the appeal of being a professional musician, particularly in rock, was the freedom of behaviour allowed to young players, particularly young rockers. One expected them to carelessly and frequently rut; ergo one could carelessly and frequently rut. Taking on a persona made pulling much easier: Robert Fripp of King Crimson could proposition with a confidence that Bob Fripp, young thinker of Wimborne, couldn't. And ther was interest coming the other way. David Enthoven, one of our managers and the E of EG, said: "Greg'll get all the dollies, and Fripp'll get the heavies." Certainly, I did come to know one or two women of substance.

Meanwhile, two young women who worked the periphery of the nightclub area had been looking through the MELODY MAKER. One had said to the other: "You should get yourself a pretty rock star" and took her through the music press to find one. A photo of King Crimson showed Greg to have the qualifications:"That's the one for you," said the instigator. Her friend, for whom Greg had just been selected, was a friend of our second manager, John Gaydon, the G of EG. He made the introduction and was sent champagne as thanks. We were recording IN THE COURT OF THE CRIMSON KING at Wessex Studios by now, July 1969, and I was homeless. Greg had moved a Danish blonde into our bachelor flat and I moved out, my share of the rent being taken over by another young bass player, Chris Squire. Chris had the apartment mostly to himself because Greg was spending a lot of time visiting the lady who had selected him. Anyway, at the end of a long day's recording I would set out to find a bed wherever I could. One night Greg asked where I'd be staying and naturally I didn't know. And so it turned out that the first lady, the instigator, had herself taken an interest in a rock musician: me. Said Greg:"You can take pot luck and go on 'round, or come and eat with us and we'll get her over. Have a look and see what you think." I opted for the meal and get-out clause, and went 'round to Chelsea where Greg's wealthy friend had her expensive apartment. Did I like avocados? I'd never had one. Yes please. Excellent meal, and towards the end of it my selector came 'round. She was Danish and worked late evenings as a hostess in a will-known London nightclub. Her job was to help rich men spend a fortune on fortunous drinks, and she helped by emptying her glass on the carpet under the table. She held the men in contempt. Whether or not she turned the occasional trick I never asked: Greg thought she probably did. She took me home with her to a small and comfortable flat in Notting Hill Gate, where she cooked and took care of me. I knew what was required.

About this time, mid-1969, I saw a little of London's swinging set, but it was really beyond me. I couldn't afford it; I wasn't part of it; it had a subtle filth and depravity which attracted and repelled me. I did not swing. It disappointed me that this was a situation I couldn't master: I just couldn't handle it. Sophistication and social graces I lacked. But I began to see how much hookers, strippers and musicians have in common: they sell something very close to themselves to the public. This observation I've confirmed many times. The feeling is of people in the same job who sometimes get together after hours.

-HQ; later the same day.

At yesterday's rehearsals we ran through a set for a mini-audience of Paddy and the soundmen from London to check our needs. We played badly and the running order was all wrong, but AB's wild and weird sounds are well in evidence all over the place now he's using his Fender more.

Bill's family came to visit and the team assembled at the Horton Inn for dinner. Wonderful stories from the Americans about their work with different legends of the music industry. It was during Frank Zappa's 20-minute guitar solo when the band wandered off that Bowie took Adrian for the "Heroes" tour. Adrian went over to say hello to David and Iggy Pop during the break and Bowie promptly offered AB a job at the end of the Zappa tour. Tony had stories of how the New York studio musicians test out producers. Crinkling polythene in front of a microphone sounds like a duff mic lead if you're in the control room, and on two albums TL was doing, ALL the musicians in the band took to doing this, during the countdowns just before the takes. And if the producer gets a bit heavy the musician with strong nerves will leave for a coffee, once again just before a take. The really bold one will go out of the studio and bring back bottles of wine. "Hey, you guys, wanna have a bottle of wine?" apparently will loosen up any structured atmosphere. Tony has just come from the Yoko Ono album with Phil Spector in New York: one hundred run-throughs for one or two takes. Phil sits in a darkened control room, and the musicians set up in the farthest corner of the studio. They weren't allowed to leave for coffee or the bathroom and were told not to look at him. When Phil discovered they were checking out the safe/record lights to see if one of the hundred run-throughs were for real, he wanted to disconnect the signal lights on the 24-track, but technically it wasn't possible.

-Monday, April 27th, 1981; Chez Parents; 1815

Somewhat weary after today's rehearsals. Backtracking to Saturday: we heard Adrian's vocal ideas. Good words, good tunes, particularly "Heat in The Jungle" and "Matte" in the evening we went to Shillingstone Village Hall to see the Martian Schoolgirls and a group from the Tarrant Valley. Both were effective, and Tommy Winstone's PA system from Bournemouth is good, his mixing excellent. This area is getting close to having a musical review. We may not have local groups with new styles likely to change fashion on a world level, but we can go to a village hall and enjoy ourselves to live music enthusiastically played. Shillingstone was full and bopping. Returning to Wimborne we got caught in a blizzard which cut off the electricity at the Horton Inn on Sunday morning at 7:00. So a shivering team came into HQ in the afternoon to warm up, as AB and myself worked on our parts. Continuing to socialise, we went off to Bournemouth to see "The Long Good Friday," which appalled Tony and triggered stories of making "One Trick Pony," which kept him filming for ten weeks.

Late night Pad and I had a heads-together over the prospects of an autumn U.S. tour. September is the seventh anniversary of King Crimson "ceasing to exist," the end of the Drive to 1981 and the beginning of the Incline to 1984, and the release of our album. It would seem to be the moment for Discipline to change its colours. But, we don't have a label. So, Paddy and I had best go shopping in late June when I'll be in New York to cut the record. The distributors in America are Polygram, WEA, RCA and CBS. Given that, what can anyone do? They're all hopeless. Staying with Polygram in Europe is probably okay. One of my aims is to limit record company abuse, like highly expensive and irrelevant meals. It can feel good to have a meal on a personal level with the record company, and sometimes it's even okay that the company pays for it. Usually, I go Dutch. But mostly the process of expense account spending is degrading.

The size of venue is critical. Playing in a 3,000- or 5,000 seater resembles a circus, not a pulling together of people I'd prefer a 1,000- to 1,500-seater for two shows a night two or three nights in a town, to an endless parade of one - nighters, flying every day from one town to another. The problem is the budget. Playing should pay for itself, at least, not be subsidised by records. So where the week's budget is in the red, perhaps play a larger venue to pay the bills and a smaller one in the same town the next night for a different feel. The aim for this tour is to break even. Another problem for me is cameras: photography interrupts the unfolding of the event. One compromise is to let the press take pictures for ten minutes and then leave. But, as a principle, you don't set different standards for the industry and the public. So, everyone has cameras, or no one does.

The strength of this group must be used to find cleaner ways of working, and should be seen to be doing that.

-Tuesday,April 28th, 1981; Horton Inn; 11:15.

All this needs to be discussed with the team. So far my ideas have been taken on trust.

Rehearsals yesterday were hard. The general shape is better but that shows up weaknesses in details. My own musical work at the moment is developing my knowledge of scales. The Bartok string quartets got me going originally. During the 70s different scales were popularised by jazz-rock outfits, primarily the Mahavishnu Orchestra and Weather Report. Persichetti's 20TH CENTURY HARMONY, Schillinger, and an article in GUITAR PLAYER by Joseph Ciprani on "Exotic Scales" are very helpful. The two main ways of finding new scales are by drawing on tradition, for example, the synthetic scales mostly taken from European folk music, and by constructing them mathematically, as with Schillinger. Our culture uses mainly a seven-note scale, some have five, some three, some even a one-note scale. But a one-note scale is only rich if you can listen on the inside of the note. It probably takes about three years before any particular scale is internalised, and the player can "speak" the scale without stopping to think about it.

-Chez Parents; 19:50.

Rhett Davies, who'll be co-producing the album with us, trained from London to see what he's letting himself in for. He seemed impressed. We closed in on details. All the vocals are now together for the first time: Adrian took the lyrics for "Indiscipline" from a letter his wife sent. "Discipline" might be our most successful failure: it's possibly the most difficult tune I've ever played, and I'm still not sure how to play it, but it's quite seductive. Bill found a way of listening outside the part he has with Tony, and loved it. Bill is working so hard to please he has earned my respect. Tony's photography is excellent and his portfolio has some gems. He's coming down with a cold, or flu. Adrian feels this band is pushing him to the limit of what he can do. Working with the Talking Heads began the process, this band is taking it further. He didn't think he was ready for it because he's "out of his league". But if Adrian did know what he was doing he'd be using solutions to old problems, therefore useless for us. Bill is just at the right point for the band, and I've spent seven years getting ready for it. Tony is always on: he doesn't seem to have our concerns.

Currently I'm exhausted, irritable and just hanging in there.

-Thursday, April 30th, 1981; King's Head Hotel, Wimborne; 10:30.

Today we have our first gig, at Moles vegetarian wine bar and restaurant in Bath. I'm just in here for the best morning coffee in town with my mum and her friends, Cynthia Bourne and Edie Steed, and reflecting on the past twenty-four hours. Yesterday before rehearsals I made my debut as an offical "teacher" at an officially constituted instituted institution, the audio-visual department of Bournemouth College, at the invitation of the lecturer John Wrigglesworth. It was a small group of six men and one woman, and their training is mainly directed towards commerce. The morning left me unsettled: not much contact happened. Infinitely more was said in the canteen informally in fifteen minutes than during the entire time in the studio.

Rehearsals were a final tightening up, and discussing the set. A quote from AB: "This group does examine all the small points." A high proportion of this band's music is amazing. And the failures are equally amazing. Paddy and the complete road team arrived. Said Pad: "Indiscipline' is great! It's SO oppressive!"

The feeling of completion at this stage is remarkable: the feeling of letting go that is part of it. My evening was relaxed. But to get the band further as a unit we need a shock. And there's nothing like exposure to public ridicule to concentrate the attention. So, off to Moles. ....TO BE CONTINUED.