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.
Agreed...
“in contrast, someone like Guthrie Govan is a virtuoso”
Agreed. And my favorite who died way too soon, the genius of Shawn Lane.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lw474w6jLVo
Any guitar-related thread must reference Rory Gallagher
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CL80jFkLzQ0&list=RDCL80jFkLzQ0&start_radio=1
Fripp seems to me to be a very angular guitar player. His music sounds like geometric patterns — very visual, straight line shapes on the guitar neck, too. He doesn’t make love to his guitar like an SRV. It’s cerebral noodling, like you’re waiting at the doctor’s office and playing Sudoku. Now, if SRV played King Crimson music like 21 Century Schizoid Man then that would be art. That would be like the Book of Revelation opening up one day. It could come close to making love to your woman but there are also a lot of other things going on. It certainly wouldn’t be noodling.
>> I, to this day, *DETEST* Roger Waters.
lol... I do as well
yeah, Shawn Lane was indeed the unspoken genius. When reviewing the videos of his later years, his health struggles seemed to be ignored by the industry
and that reminds me of Gary Moore’s early departure... however, his live immortal cover of Buchanons’ Messiah is bar none the best performance ever
#18 Here is Bugs Bunny.
I’m a Believer - The Monkees - 1967
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNyHix5oY4g
The world’s best guitarist that you never heard of; this is according to both Jimi Hendrix AND Eric Clapton (look up the quotes) - none other than Rory Gallagher.
If you ain’t seen him play live, you ain’t seen ....
The song opens great then skip ahead to approx 4 min mark where it is just playing the instruments. Then skip to 6:45 for the finish.
Eric Clapton - Layla
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fX5USg8_1gA
Only 161M views
In the 60's and 70's he was always acknowledged as one of the top ten guitar players ever and deservedly so. He was a major contributor to the rock music of our time years ago still popular today even with the young guys and gals!
Here he is doing what he did best:
Clapton has extra joints in his fingers.
Robert Fripp always gets great and automatic PR, but I cannot say I have heard any of his tunes. While I have heard hundreds of Clapton and Hendrix. Fripp is less than a pimple on their butts.
Fripp is like Rand Paul. Principled mavericks who have their small cult cheering sections.
I liked KC’s first album but more because of Greg Lake than Fripp.
More like professional jealousy because he never came close to the commercial success of either of them. Ironic he used the word tedious because that's how I find KC and most other prog groups.
Non-entity criticizes icons.
>> IMHO, “Starless” and “Epitaph” are two of the best songs in rock history.
I’ll find and listen. Thanks.
Can he still play while smoking them?
Glen Campbell was acknowledged as a natural guitarists by many artists.
Terry Kath
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