Posted on 07/10/2025 5:22:50 PM PDT by nickcarraway
With news that a new King Crimson album is in the works, Fripp's past comments highlight the left-field ideas that make him an original
News that King Crimson are at work on a new album has generated a wave of excitement as fans and guitarists thrill to the prospect of fresh music coming from guitarist Robert Fripp.
Rising to prominence in the late ‘60s, when Eric Clapton was deemed a deity and blues guitar was dominating the charts, Fripp separated himself from the pack with a left-field approach to songwriting and what could be achieved on guitar. His talents earned him praise from high-profile supporters, with no less than Jimi Hendrix once hailing King Crimson as the best band in the world.
It seems those feelings of adoration weren’t entirely reciprocated.
Mark Knopfler says it's “awkward” to be called a guitar god and tells who deserves the title A look into the influences that shaped the now 79-year-old Fripp's daring sound reveal how little he cared for his peers and his instrument of choice back in his heyday.
“I've never really listened to guitarists, because they've never really interested me,” he told Guitar Player in 1974.
It was a year that yielded Starless and Bible Black and Red, two of King Crimson's landmark albums. Fripp was at the top of his game.
At that time, Clapton was two albums into his solo career after the demise of Cream. Hendrix was four years gone, but a raft of stellar players had risen to take his place as guitar gods for the 1970s
By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. Still, the players that were getting raves left Fripp nonplussed.
“I think the guitar is a pretty feeble instrument,” he continued. “Virtually nothing interests me about the guitar.”
I saw Cream live once and I thought they were quite awful. Clapton's work since, I think, has been excessively tedious.”
— Robert Fripp
Fripp's contrarian views on the instrument were shaped in childhood, where he was seduced by “the early Sun records with Scotty Moore” before he discovered traditional jazz at the age of 15. By then, he was no longer going with the cultural currents, a bias that helped him forge an identity of his own rather than one based on earlier genres and players. .
“I haven't been influenced by Hendrix and Clapton in the way that most people would say it,” he explained. “I don't think Hendrix was a guitarist. I very much doubt if he was interested in guitar playing as such. He was just a person who had something to say and got on and said it.
“Clapton I think is mostly quite banal, although he did some exciting things earlier in his life with Mayall. I saw Cream live once and I thought they were quite awful. Clapton's work since, I think, has been excessively tedious.”
As guitarist/producer Steven Wilson observes, Fripp's against-the-grain nature often put him at odds with those around him. Having remixed King Crimson's back catalog, he's well informed of the guitarist's genius.
“Every single Crimson record that’s ever come out was a battle,” Wilson states. “A battle between Robert and the rest of the band in some cases, a battle between Robert and the record company or the management or finances or touring schedules. Everything was against them, like the press telling them they were washed up.”
Rather than buckle to the whims of mainstream audiences, Fripp doubled down on his unique approach.
“I learned that a lot of Crimson records were similar to jazz and avant-garde jazz in the British jazz movement in the early '70s,” Wilson continues. “You realize that what made those records thrilling is that fact that the band were flying by the seat of their pants a lot of the time. The music was on the verge of falling apart in some respects.”
It’s interesting, then, that the one guitarist who escaped Fripp’s crosshairs during his 1974 GP interview was a guitarist that similarly challenged the status quo with his music: Jeff Beck, who was making waves at the time with his album Blow by Blow.
“Jeff Beck's guitar playing I can appreciate as good fun,” Fripp said. “It's where the guitarist and ‘poser-cum-ego tripper-cum-rock star-cum entertainer’ becomes all involved in the package. It's good fun, it's quite enjoyable, very exciting. I wish him all the best of luck.”
As the sands of time shifted and the blues gave way to shred mania in the 1980s, Eddie Van Halen became the new Clapton, the new poster boy of the electric guitar, and the next player that every other guitarist aspired to be like.
Jeff Beck's guitar playing I can appreciate as good fun. It's quite enjoyable, very exciting. I wish him all the best of luck.”
— Robert Fripp
Reflecting on the impact that had on the guitar scene last year, Wolfgang Van Halen theorized that his Dad “kind of ruined the musical landscape” during that period.
“Because,” he explains, “instead of everybody wanting to find out who they are, they wanted to be that.”
Today, it's easy to point to players like Tosin Abasi as the guiding light for imitators. Fripp has never succumbed to such worship, and the fact that he didn't allow his unique, timeless voice on the instrument to sustain.
News of a new King Crimson album, their 14th in total and their first since 2002, brings light relief following Robert Fripp’s recent heart attack. Jakszyk believes that might hinder any future touring plans, but Fripp is at least taking his feeble Fernandes Goldtop into the studio at least one more time.
I saw that video. Is Fripp even playing lead?
Holy carp, that is something else! And yes, she does pull it off.
Pete Townshend does a great job with the ukulele on “Blue Red and Grey”
“I confess I can’t recall a single King Crimson song at all.”
IMHO, “Starless” and “Epitaph” are two of the best songs in rock history.
This is the best version of “Here Comes The Flood”
Robert Fripp & Peter Gabriel - Here Comes The Flood
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wS8V8vCUqw
Absolute lunacy. I saw Cream maybe 10 times including taking my vacation to NY to see the start of their first tour of the US there.
And saw Jimi Hendrix set fire to his guitar.
I would hate this guy and his slanders but I want to husband my hate energy to use against the MSNBC, CNN and anti ICE protesters someday.
Absolute lunacy. I saw Cream maybe 10 times including taking my vacation to NY to see the start of their first tour of the US there.
And saw Jimi Hendrix set fire to his guitar.
I would hate this guy and his slanders but I want to husband my hate energy to use against the MSNBC, CNN and anti ICE protesters someday.
Fridd’ered his life away on this?
“A feeble instrument”? Not in the hands of El Kabong.
King Crimson “Red” is in my top ten faves, and imho is the best of KC’s output by quite a bit.
Mark K? AFAIC his reputation is due to a runaway train of critical drama queens. Also, his two best known hits are both on my “never want to hear again, and if I had a time machine, never wanted to hear them in the first place” list.
Clapton — he thought his early work is best, but he also so admired some of Cream’s opening acts so much that he sat in with them before Cream came on. Most of his best work was as a solo artist, and he had a great deal of success, some of it due to real crap (e.g. “Lay Down Sally”? What a POS), which is ironic because he quit The Yardbirds (so he said) because he thought their recording of “For Your Love” was too commercial. One of my favorite guitar solos of all time is Clapton’s on the YB’s recording of “A Certain Girl” — it’s not some pyrotechnic thing, it’s just very simple, basic, and perfect. Nearly the only other things I listen to once in a while are “The Core”, “Let It Rain”, and “Let It Flow”. “Layla” just gets tedious.
Hendrix wasn’t well thought of by plenty of people, some of it sour grapes. A former coworker who grew up in Chicago knew a lot about music I’ve never much cared for, but one group I’ve been a fan of for a long time is The Isley Brothers — the coworker once said that playing with the Isley guitarist is where Hendrix really learned to play, and one can hear that. There’s probably old footage of Jimi’s time in the Isleys on YouTube.
Zappa was pretty dismissive of Hendrix, pointing out just one great song (in his opinion), “Manic Depression”.
This is Fripp’s wife’s channel, they just have fun. I don’t think he’s distinguishing himself in a good way with this, but it is fun.
https://www.youtube.com/@Toyah/videos
Where were you playing?
Oh, just one of our local bars... No huge venue. Just a couple of hundred maximum. I’m too close to Nashville to think I’m a big shot star. I do a lot of SRV, Chris Stapleton, Eagles, and Zack Brown Band, along with a bunch of other older country stuff and blues covers. I sing a couple of times a week.
If you get down to Chattanooga ping me. We get up there from N. GA some. It’s about the same as driving to Eddie’s Attic in Decatur for us.
Where in N. Georgia are you located? I’ve got family in Kennesaw...
Ditto
Stevie Ray played a couple of Hendrix songs. One of the best was “Little Wing”. Both versions were great.
One of Jimi Hendrix’s best to me was Red House.
The theme of that song is universal!
We have all felt that way before.
Mark Knofler makes magic just like Carlos Santana.
The rest are good but not even close.
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