King Crimson: THRAK (Virgin)
Purchased used at the Future Zone at Jerry's Records
On a visit with my parents this past June, my father posted the question of whether rock (and by extension pop) music achieved the level of great art.
Now right away, the very idea of great or high art is a tricky one, one that I won't really untangle here. There can be an element of cultural superiority to such designations, something I want to avoid.
Nonetheless, his point of the music being lasting or disposable is valid. He said something about hearing a song and thinking, no, that's not good. Nor this song. Then he'll hear something really good, and it will be followed by garbage. Previously he told me he thought Jimi Hendrix really rose to the top of that generation of musicians, and he also liked the "big band" version of Talking Heads, as seen in part in the feature film. Augmenting that band with great musicians, he said, turned out to be a really good idea.
In yet another conversation, he and I were in agreement that nearly all of the musicians featured on NPR, specifically Weekend Edition, are almost always junk.
Even before all of these conversations, I contemplated how Robert Fripp fit into this scheme. Did his work ascend to the level of great art? There's little question about his dedication. And I'd say, at least some of the time, he achieves a very high level of artistry. No Pussyfooting is a good example.
King Crimson, which now is basically whatever collection of musicians he gathers around him (well, and the repertoire too, to be fair), has had a spotty record. An original and influential first album, an arguably equal or better second album, followed by a mixed bag of albums, and then that powerhouse quartet with John Wetton. They weren't above crass misogyny and sexism ("Ladies of the Road", "Easy Money"), but so great moments from every version of the group to that point, ending with Red in 1974.
And then (really, the point I'm trying to get to) the reinvented quartet in 1981, originally named Discipline. I bought the Discipline album in high school, and saw the band touring on it Halloween 1981. I know some who hated it for not being the Wetton band, some who practically worshipped the album. I fell in the middle but positive side. It was very informative to see them play all that material live, and demonstrated how little production there is on the studio session. Now when I hear those pieces, I know exactly who's playing what. Discipline is pretty much what that band sounded like in performance.
Fast forward several LPs later to 1994, we have this configuration. It's the same four, but augmented by a second drummer and second Stick player; the double trio lineup. Crimson has entered the digital age; the graphics are digital, the sounds are often digital.
I can appreciate the fact that the Mr. Fripp and the band have moved on. The second and third LPs by the Discipline lineup were a bit of a mixed bag. (It's been suggested that's why the third is titled Three of a Perfect Pair. I don't know that to be true.)
But...it's a word you won't often hear with respect to prog rock bands, this lacks the charm of the quartet. Maybe part of that is my generally attraction to doing more with fewer elements. I mean, I've had a saxophone/bass/drums trio for over twenty years now. I think I simply prefer the smaller outfit.
This band sounds more monsterous. And sometimes it works; the instrumental title track probably hits hardest and nastiest. I wouldn't say Adrian Belew's songs have improved since Discipline. Does anyone really listen to these albums for the songs? It's always the instrumentals that shine, and mostly the instrumentals that survive in the band's book since the 70s. The irony of Belew's "Dinosaur" is pretty much on the surface, clearly about critics who would accuse them of being just that. I'm okay with that.
Just a side comment: prog rock as a genre is synonymous with the word pretentious. And often that is thoroughly deserved. That said, my contention is that true pretentiousness is having a shitty band, playing stale, unoriginal music.
I think it was in an early posting to this blog that I wrote about a recent Steve Reich album. My comment was that it didn't sound like anything new to my ears from Mr. Reich, but then, doesn't Steve Reich have the right to sound like Steve Reich? Likewise, despite the juicing of this band by the additional players and digital technology, what did I expect this to sound like? Shouldn't it sound like some version of King Crimson?
So has this been worth the time for a full listening? Sure. Does this rise to the level of great art? Mmmm....not so sure about that.
No comments:
Post a Comment