Toyah and Fripp - The Lady or the Tiger?

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Originally released: 1986

Personnel

  • Toyah Willcox (voice)
  • Robert Fripp (frippertronics, guitar)

Featuring:

  • The League of Crafty Guitarists: Terry Blankenship, Roy Capellaro, Jon Diaz, John Durso, Andrew Essex, Tony Geballe, Claude Gillet, Curt Golden, Mike Gorman, Trey Gunn, Brian Helm, James Hines III, Danny Howes, John Miley, John Novak and Mark Tomacci (more guitars)

Contents

Tracks

  • 29'48 The Lady Or The Tiger?
  • 19'13 The Discourager of Hesitancy

Both texts are short stories by Frank R. Stockton. The short story "The Lady Or The Tiger?" is available on the net via the Gutenberg project. Here are some FTP addresses where one can get it:

For info about the Gutenberg project: http://www.promo.net/pg/.

Reviews

Reviews are listed in chronological order within each section. Please retain a chronological order when adding new reviews.

Entire Release

Date Submitted: 01-Jul-07
By: Cameron Devlin

9 years makes quite the difference.

When I first reviewed this album back in 1998 I was fairly scathing, unfairly so I think. It's certainly a fairly difficult album, and surprisingly one of Fripp's most inaccessible.

The main reason for that is probably Toyah's involvement. She recites an old story called - you guessed it - "The Lady Or The Tiger?", written by Frank R. Stockton in 1882 on Side 1 and a followup called "The Discourager Of Hesitancy - A Continuation Of The Lady Or The Tiger", also by Stockton, on Side 2.

Fripp handles all the music on Side 1 and it's basically the middle-ground between Frippertronics and Soundscapes, whereas Side 2 features the League Of Crafty Guitarists (including Trey Gunn and Tony Geballe) performing The Discourager Of Hesitancy.

Toyah's voice is very soothing and whilst the story itself isn't too fantastic, her recitation coupled with the music has a quality to it that's hard to describe - her voice should be more like an instrument than your main focus.

If you can find it, pick it up - it's not a masterpiece but it's a fine little release that really should get a re-release (or perhaps just a download on DGMLive?)
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