Everyone is entitled to their own opinion.
I saw KC in concert in June, 1984, right before Bruford left to do other things. Great show.
The opening act was juggler Ray Jason, who was well known on Pier 39 back in the day. I also saw him with Shields and Yarnell at a show at De Anza college, probably in the late 70s.
to me Hendrix was an amazing artist & performer, not unlike Waters being the same. Neither Hendrix’s guitar playing nor Waters’ singing were, in my opinion, virtuosic
I have followed Fripp since the 60s and respect some of his work but not all of it. Much of it is tedious. But to each his own. But i did really love some of it while ignoring much of it.
Fripp is an odd bird and i am not surprised he had no use for blues rock pioneers like Hendrix and Clapton. He was way outside the box so he never understood them.
How did he feel about Tiny Tim?
Every interview I have ever read with Robert Fripp makes me think he is often being tongue-in-cheek, rather post-modern/deconstructionist. Driven by what? Nihilism? I do not know.
I am not sure how the inventor of Frippertronics can call Eric Clapton (of whom I am NOT a fan) tedious.
Sometimes, I get the feeling he is just putting us on, as in the “Drive to 1983”, where he doesn’t state what the point of it is, and the music doesn’t tell us. And he doesn’t tell us. Perhaps it is a mockery of other drives.
So, he is a talented guitarist, but I think like a lot of the modern art guys he doesn’t take the art (by his own admission, really) or much of anything, seriously. Instead, he seems to mock almost everything in that dry English way.
He sounds fine on Bowie’s “Scary Monsters” LP.
Once I heard Leo Kottke, stopped listening to rock guitars until mark Knopfler came along.
“I think the guitar is a pretty feeble instrument”
Stevie Ray Vaughan. Bite my Southern ass.
I think Jeff Beck was the best guitar player in the world especially when he played like Jeff Beck.
Damn. Fripp is so good I’ve never heard of him. He comes across as an ass.
I think he could have reached his true expression on the bongos.
His wife Toyah is a total ham and totally owns the stage in this Black Sabbath cover (with Robert on guitar):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CxbX0XOEApU&list=RDNE6AgfQfflE&index=2
I wouldn’t have thought a woman her age could do Sabbath justice, but, amazingly, she does.
Regarding Clapton, I think he was called God because he was different than people had heard. In the Bluesbreakers he did something new: yes, he had faster than usual licks, but he also had a totally new sound. He tool an old Les Paul (long out of favor) and plugged it into a newfangled Marshall amp, cranked it up to 11 for recording and invented a magical tone that nobody had heard to that point. I think that's why people thought he was extraordinary, partially technical skill but I think a huge part was the tone that he pioneered and which dominated rock and roll for the next 30 years!
Who?
Tommy Emmanuel
I recently saw Beat - King Crimson with Steve Vai replacing Fripp. (Adrian Belew and Tony Levin, along with Steve Vai on guitar and Tool drummer Danny Carey.)
It was VERY interesting to see how Steve Vai covered Fripp’s technical riffs with tapping and other techniques. He did his own take while capturing the soul of all the KC classics.
They do make guitars strong enough to dig holes with.
Three and a half minutes of Justin Johnson Crankin' Up the 3-String Shovel Guitar:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9-ltPsbw9g&list=RDV9-ltPsbw9g&start_radio=1
I once won tickets to see Robert Fripp play a college auditorium in Toronto, in the mid-80’s, with an acoustic band he formed called “The League of Crafty Guitarists”. There were six people plus me in a venue that seated approximately 1,000. We all stayed and he put on the show as if the place was full. I never heard of the League of Crafty Guitarists again..