Interview with King Crimson's Robert Fripp

This year marks the 50th anniversary of King Crimson, England's seminal progressive rock band. I was lucky enough to see them in Detroit in 1969, where they almost blew the Jefferson Airplane off the stage (not an easy task!), and in Hamilton in 1973, where they won over an audience that had mostly come to see The Strawbs do Part of the Union.

As a prelude to their 50th anniversary tour, founder Robert Fripp gave a press conference in London, reported on by Rolling Stone. Fripp isn't normally one to open up to the press, but he did here and it's fascinating.

Nothing seemed out of bounds. Fripp was generally patient, genial and up for anything, whether an interrogator wanted to know what he had in mind when he recruited three drummers for the current King Crimson incarnation (“But I’m a guitarist,” he chided, when he heard the writer in question was representing Drumhead magazine); what music he’s been digging lately (he cited Korean composer Unsuk Chin, saying her music “upsets my thinking” in a stimulating way); whether, via one of the few female writers in the room, he felt King Crimson was “too male” (“I agree,” said Fripp) and if he would consider including a woman in the lineup (Fripp said he’s absolutely open to the idea — a statement backed by his non-Crimson discography, which features collaborations with Sara Lee, bassist in his 1980 “instrumental dance band” League of Gentlemen, as well as Blondie and the Roches — but that he never considers gender when he recruits, only what’s needed for his vision of the band at that time); or whether King Crimson might make another studio album (no definitive answer there, though Fripp says there’s already plenty of new material to draw on). There were even several surreal photo ops throughout the day, where Fripp pointed his own lens at the the audience as dozens of camera phones clicked away.

I suspect that many readers of this blog have never heard King Crimson, or have only heard their "hits", particularly 21st Century Schizoid Man.  They'll be releasing all of their studio albums on Spotify in June, but Fripp has always considered their live performances to be the true essence of the band (much like the Grateful Dead).

In Fripp’s terms, studio albums have long been “love letters,” while a live show is a “hot date.” On Saturday, he made very clear which one he prefers. “Performance, for me, is where the juice resides. This is where it is,” he said. “King Crimson has always been a hot date; it’s always been a live event. And however good some of the albums have been, none of them ever quite compared to the power of the band in live performance.”

And the current version of the band is a powerhouse. If you don't believe me, check out their Meltdown album, recorded live in Mexico in 2017. Spotify currently has quite a bit of their music streaming including several other live performances.