crimson book
2002-03-13 by ferrograph@aol.com
<< Crimson book?? Do tell! >>
the "toxic tome", as fripp calls it, is by sid smith and published by helter
skelter, who run a little shop and mail order operation from the middle of
denmark street, amongst all the guitar shops in tin-pan-alley in london's
west end. smith has been working on this thing for a few years with-
astonishingly- the full cooperation of pretty much everyone who had anything
to do with the gileses, mcdonald, fripp, wetton, bruford, muir, burrell,
haskell, cross, lake, sinfield, palmer-james, collins, charig, tippett,
belew, levin, mastelotto, gunn..... you get the idea. they all get to say
their bit. what emerges is that the only thing fripp (or anyone) is certain
of is that the band exists almost despite fripp's best efforts to dismantle
and analyse the processes behind it.
(m/o details: helter skelter publishing, 4 denmark street, london WC2H 8LL.
sorry- there's no electronic contact detail for them. isbn number
1-900924-26-9)
the heartbreaking awful breaks in the crimson history are all detailed-
really, they were doomed from that first US tour which took the youngsters
away from home for the first time. only lake and fripp really benefitted from
this experience, each adapting to the business in a way that defined the rest
of their careers. the emnity between these two is evident from that first US
tour and is quite surprising. later, it becomes apparent that a similar void
has opened up between fripp and bruford, and probably fripp-and-everyone-else
at some time.
well- for me, it has had more-or-less the same effect as reading wolfgang
flur's "I was a robot". (I haven't listened to kraftwerk since and can't
think about them without some distaste).
I was at one of the projekct one gigs in london and remember some terrific
improv.; what later emerged on disc, from tapes of all four nights, was left
to bruford to assemble, while fripp dashed off to nashville to write with
belew (i.e. move crimson along without bruford...). bruford recalls hating
the whole thing by then, which is why (presumably) the reduction of the four
nights into one cd is so unsuccessful. there are echoes of this resentment of
fripp's control over his fellow "crims" throughout, pretty much from day one.
persuaded to listen to "poseidon" again last night, I may have overcome some
of this distaste, especially since "catfood" has precisely the humour and wit
about it that was so sadly lacking in greg lake's other career of the time
("are you ready, eddy?" I ask you.....). but I will probably sooner get out
"the bruford tapes" or "one of a kind" than any of the post-"red" crimson now.
in a small box- if you are deeply attached to this band and don't normally
read a lot of behind-the-scenes stuff about rock, don't get this book. if
you've ever been in a band with mates and want to see how one of the greatest
albums was wrought by a gang of mates thirty-odd years ago, read 'til the end
of chapter two and chuck the rest- it's too upsetting. there isn't a lot
about 'trons in it, really- the sleevenotes for "nightwatch" probably mention
the thing more often.
this is to give you some context, some insight into my take on the band: I
hated "construkction.." and walked out of the london show after an hour
(seemed like three, so I sort of got my money's worth). I love the first
album, all the wetton stuff, bits of discipline, the entire exposure/league
of gentlemen/sacred songs period and all of the eno collabs. I was turned off
by the non-lake early material and by most of the belew-era stuff, without
blaming belew or anyone else for this lack of appeal. (quite the reverse- the
tracks I liked on "thrak" were the songs). the only thread I can perceive,
and which I touched on earlier, is the humour, or at least some sense that
there is a musical consensus with some humour at the back of it. I can't
really explain it, but one sort of knows when a band is working, musically,
and when it's just plain technically impressive but nothing more. that's the
fine line that crimson have trodden over the years and this book really
shines a spotlight on why this has happened. it might permanently change the
way you hear them, would be my point. that's not a matter of my personal
taste but what a former boss once described as "seeing the electrons move"
(about an opportunity afforded by working for mtv/vh-1 to meet his fave band,
fairport convention)- some things are better left mysterious.
and we still don't know who the cellist was.
duncan/m400 nr1098