Robert Fripp: Exposure (EG)
Purchased new at Quackers in Quakertown while in high school
Chosen at semi-random.
Discovering King Crimson was big deal for me in high school. I've stated previously that I was the high school prog rock kid, eschewing punk rock and favoring what I considered to be complexity. Over four decades later, I now see things in far less binary terms.
KC was a big deal because they had the instrumental prowess of other bands I admired, but were tougher and leaner. I'm thinking of the Wetton/Bruford lineup in particular. They didn't do, as my friend David Throckmorton once put it, "songs about...ice."*
I was excited to find this Fripp-led project new on the shelves of the QMart in Quakertown.** I'm guessing I would have been a high school junior at the time, but it's possible I'm off a year. (The copyright listed is 1979; I graduated in 1981.)
I was both intrigued and confused by this project. It's fair to say I always greatly enjoyed it, even if it wasn't always what I expected. I mean, first of all the lineup: contributing were Daryl Hall, Phil Collins, Peter Gabriel, Brian Eno, Terre Roche, Tony Levin, and those were the names I recognized in high school.
Musically, it's kind of all-over-the-place, but I think I love it all the more because of that. "Preface" with its dense overdubbed vocal harmonies; "You Burn Me Up I'm a Cigarette" a largely straight-forward rocker with odd lyrics (I always liked the line, "I'm getting anxious/I'm franxious"); the Crimson-like instrumental "Breathless" (only played live for the first time on the most recent KC tour), the frantic vocals of "Disengage", the lovely ballad "North Star" delivered by Daryl Hall. That's just the first five pieces of 17.
I can appreciate and sympathize with the idea of Mr. Fripp wanting to not being pinned down to a single thing. Here he is, breaking away from the 60s/70s, creating....an album of excess? That's not fair, but the results could be interpreted as in some ways self-indulgent. I don't think it is though, I think it's more about restlessness, about wanting to do everything you can with as many people possible. And I'm often decidedly in that lane.
It's fun to spin the original vinyl again. It sounds great. There is a wonderful 2CD reissue that collects both the original mix and vocals, but also a second disc with more of Daryl Hall's vocals on more pieces. This is to speak nothing of the 32 disc box set documenting this period of Robert's creative life, including the League of Gentlemen and other albums that followed this. I was tempted, believe me.
I was thinking of Material's Memory Serves (1981) as I listened to this. Not musically, but how projects like this, at this time, with so little commercial potential, could still get bankrolled in some way. Not so much any more. I imagine this album made its money back eventually, but nobody was going to get rich off of it.
*Throck is one of the funniest, cleverest people I've known. He has a gift for non-sequitor and puns, and enjoys when others are able to keep up with him.
**It's nearly impossible to explain the QMart to anyone how hasn't been there, and I'm sure it's not the same place I remember as a kid. Part farmer's market, part flea market, and possibly the closest thing you'll find to a Middle Eastern bazaar in the US. But I'm probably romanticizing it. There was a magazine shop that sold leftover comic books at half price; great when I first went there and the cover price was 20¢. Quackers was a record store next to one of the entrances. It's also the place where I found a copy of The Residents' Duck Stab/Buster and Glen, at a time when I was awaiting for my first order from Ralph Records to arrive (besides the third Buy or Die! loss leader). I still have my original copy of that, too.
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