Elephant Talk
After immersing myself in Talking Heads' Remain in Light all weekend, I started jonesing for more Adrian Belew, causing me to dig out my vinyl copy of King Crimson's Discipline (the only rekkid I ever won from WXYC and handed to me somewhat reluctantly by Bill Burton's own two hands). My first thought on hearing it back then was "this don't sound anything like Court of the Crimson King" and the second, formed during the second track ("Frame by Frame"), was "damn this is some good shit!" Despite owning the obligatory prog albums like Roundabout, Dark Side of the Moon and ELP's Works: Volume 1 (how frickin' pretentious is THAT title?) and make no mistake, I dug them - I just never got into it in the way that the cats that flock to Storybook Farm outside of Chapel Hill every year for Prog Day do.But Discipline and Beat that followed it were new wave prog, if such a thing is possible. Fripp's and Belew's guitar styles really shouldn't work together but they do in some remarkable ways and Belew's vocals manage to sound more geeky paranoid than David Byrne's. Sure, it's thinking people's music as prog is supposed to be, but you can dance to it. Well, some of it. And not that swirly-dancing crap either.
I know I said I wasn't only going to listen to 20+ year old music this year and I'm not - I've got some new stuff that I got for Christmas that I'm working out and some other stuff to pick up in the next couple of weeks, but the Crimson is music that will sound as good 25 years from now as it did 25 years ago.
5 Comments:
I don't know who wrote it--a friend of mine claimed it was in Rolling Stone, but it sounds more like Musician magazine's J.D. Considine in terms of brevity and venom--but I did hear of a review of that particular ELP album:
"Works--but only as a Frisbee."
Neat thing Fripp put on the back of his "Let the Power Fall" album written in 1981:
"The next step is discipline, the first step on the incline to 1984, my second three year campaign in the market place.
Now forget all this."
Of course, "Discipline" came out soon after...
I love living in the past, musically speaking. Over the weekend I went to see "The Matador" and it was fabulous to hear "Town Called Malice" on movie theater speakers. I had to come home and immerse myself in mid-80s Jam and Style Council. I cannot imagine a time when I'll be sick of it. Never apologize for going back to the good stuff.
m.
PC - make no mistake, I like a lot of Works. Experiencing Fanfare for the Common Man and Pirates live on that tour was the highlight of my early concert-going career.
Hey, willr! I took a look at allmusic.com to remind me of the unbelievable output from Fripp during the period up to that album. Work with Bowie, Peter Gabriel, the THeads and Eno was some of my favorite music of the day.
m - Town Called Malice and Happy Together are pretty much constants in my running mix! I just want to make sure I'm not missing the good new stuff that is out there (the good stuff has always been harder to find and sometimes I need to make more effort to go look). Oh, how was The Matador?
Raunchy/offensive but hilarious -- a very unexpected side of Pierce Brosnan. And you can analyze the movie as deeply as you want ... or choose just to take it on its slick surface. I liked the sets and the globetrotting. Quiero ir a Mexico City ahora.
There's a Killers song near the closing credit, too ... wonderful.
m.
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