When KC were playing live in Amsterdam, Fripp, David Cross and John Wetton went into a little improvisation and Bruford listened to it for a bit, then came out from behind his kit and sat on the drum riser with his sticks folded and listened, to indicate to the others that he didn't intend to play anything. They got to the end, and it ended up on the next album as a track called 'Trio'. Bruford got a composer credit on it, even though he hadn't played anything, because as Fripp observed, 'He contributed silence.'
In the 70s Fripp was a nightmare to work and be around with but in recent years, he's mellowed out a lot more and is quite laidback these days. I have no doubt he could be acidic at times but when it comes to the music, he's a true genius and always gets results
@fartpoobox ohyeah The example he gave wasn't about his own instrument, but I believe the implications were clear. If you think Fripp has less exacting expectations of his drummers, I think you're missing the point; why would a monster drummer like Bruford call it terrifying if the high standards (which can clearly be heard in all their recordings), didn't apply to him as well? In reality he was merely using the example of Yes members arguing about arrangements as a contrast to working with Fripp who he clearly implied wouldn't tolerate such arguing.
So Fripp would request me to play the blues as this would mean: - No odd time signatures - No exotic scales - No synthetic scales - No strange chords - No polyharmony - No ALL FOURTHS guitar tuning - No improvising
Read Bill’s autobiography if you haven’t yet. Very interesting read. However, Bill has a habit of knocking groups he’s been in who have really helped his profile. He abandoned Yes three days before a massive tour then bitched about being left high and dry by some musician or musicians just before a tour less than ten years later. Great player, no doubt. I just think he’s a bit much.
Yeah, many people forget that Yes didn't start with Roundabout/Fragile. Bill had already been with Yes for several years. Also many people don't see being a musician as educational experience in the quest of becoming a better musician.
I'm glad that he left Yes and go to King Crimson because Alan White is a great drummer who made a wonderful work with Yes and Bill Bruford made a wonderful work with King Crimson, Genesis, UK and his solos bands. Each one in his place was perfect. And both are great friends! Bruford needed more improvisation and was tired of the so-well structured Yes songs that you have to play always on the same way. I'm very fan of both bands and drummers
@@ericarmstrong6540 And then you've got Jon Anderson who, in a lengthy bit of exposition in an interview how he presided over the practice schedule of the band during the glory days of Yes, mentioned the name "Napoleon" about four times
True. That was one of their angles - Schizoid Man, Pictures of a City, Devil's Triangle, Cirkus, LTIA, Fracture, Red, Thrak etc. They also had a mellow and sweet side - I Talk to the Wind, Cadence and Cascade, Lady of the Dancing Water, Islands, Book of Saturday, The Night Watch, One Time, Two Hands. Then the jokey/funky/jazzy side - Cat Food, Happy Family, Indoor Games, Easy Money, Elephant Talk, People. Also epic, ominous build-ups - Devil's Triangle, Bolero, The Talking Drum, Starless, Dangerous Curves. They liked to explore extremes, to push into fresh territory. Sometimes it worked out, sometimes it didn't.
I have trouble saying he was in Genesis. He only played with them on one tour. Granted, it was a fantastic tour but he didn’t play on any studio album with them. There’s a world of difference between the two. If he thought that Yes was too stringent and everything had to be flawless (We should come out with the instruments on “Moon gate climber”. No we need to come out after “Turn round glider”!) then he was going to go absolutely bonkers with field general Phil Collins. No, Genesis was just a port in the storm for him and not really a writing member of the band. He was on lots of other people’s/band’s albums in the recording process.
When I was a student at Western Michigan University, I wrote for the school newspaper and was given the assignment of covering the UK concert held there after the first UK album release. It was a small, intimate venue, the cafeteria, and I interviewed the band in the green room. Jobson had his Hammond C6 modified nearby, and that's why they chose the college for the warm-up gig. They came back the following year after the second album and I interviewed Wetton on my college radio show. The interview went well, but I always wish I could go back in time to spend time with Bruford in that green room. The only thing I remember from talking to the band was making a lame joke about Bryan Ferry being a fairy. With Wetton, I played cuts he played on with Family and KC. I asked him for his favorite track to play, and he picked "Exiles." I acted surprised but should have just agreed that it was a beautiful song.
@@randysmith4331 I also hate it when everything has to be flawless... I mean, i want to hear that the musicians are real people. That's why I like Led Zeppelin so much. Even on the final album tracks are some little human failures to hear, and I think this is more organic and makes more fun to listen to. The thing is, I would also say that Tony Banks is a perfectionist, much more than Phil or Mike or Peter were. Does he ever smile? He is just so stiff and cathartic surrounded by his keyboards...Maybe that's why he didn't like Peter's costumes and all that. Which makes me wonder why he accepted and participated in Phil Collin's jokey approach in the 80s (Illegal Alien, I Can't Dance and so on)? But if Bill Bruford wouldn't have liked such an atmosphere, I wonder why he liked King Crimson at all. They are for me the personally most unlikeable band of all the prog bands. I mean, Fripp is Tony Banks on a double perfectionist control-freak level. And he doesn't not only smile, he scarily glares at you when you don't play how he implies you should know how it should be played. Robert is just plain scary for me. He never ever played a single note wrong...he is a genius, but really strange to me. Maybe the last sentence of this clip explains Brufords decision a bit - that he hated the discussions about music that were usual in Yes.
@@leonardsimonis2376 Bruford fit in King Crimson like a hand fitting in a glove. Forget about how Fripp just sits there without cracking a smile. Bruford even said it best when he said that he was joining a group where it was ok to make a mistake. Mistakes are ok as long as you can make it come off like it was intentional, and Bill was more than capable of that. You mention Led Zeppelin and John Bonham used to be able to do that too. Sometimes that’s how new riffs are created. I used to play drums in a band that wrote our own music and sometimes when I would slip up and play something completely different than what I intended, and the bassist might say Hey that sounded a little off but if I play it off just like you did it might be cool. Fripp might be the unquestionable leader but he likes some free form in his band mates. That is totally not how Genesis played.
Fripp may have been “dictatorish” but Bruford went back. TLev has been there for decades. Gavin Harrison. Belew. Mastellotto. All the great players have KC on their resume.
I'm glad that he left Yes and go to King Crimson because Alan White is a great drummer who made a wonderful work with Yes and Bill Bruford made a wonderful work with King Crimson, Genesis, UK and his solos bands. Each one in his place was perfect. And both are great friends! Bruford needed more improvisation and was tired of the so-well structured Yes songs that you have to play always on the same way. I'm very fan of both bands and drummers.
@@Cobalt985 White is sloppy as fuck. He in no way improved the sound of Yes. After CttE, Yes basically sounded like mush. As a total aside, even from a non-musical POV, I think Bill had he still remained in Yes would have prevented the total cosmic pomposity of Tales, Gates, and so on. I think after his dry cynical ass left, Jon had no-one to drag him back to earth.
Nonetheless, the King Crimson with Bill Bruford epoch brought forward some epic musical stuff, that I still enjoy listening to today. And of course i do like Bill's work with other bands as well. Yes! Guess being in the band, every day, every rehersal, every concert is rather different than pulling out an album from the cupboard and playing it. Still: great stuff on Red and Discipline.
In 74 I met and became friends with Chris Burrows. Chris was friends with Mel Collins and they worked together in bands like Circus etc. When King Crimson was being created Mel joined and Chris was asked if he wanted to play drums. He would have been a great fit. Check out the excellent drums on Circus from 1968 with Mel Collins too... Chris told me he said no because he wasn't keen on Bob Fripp. I thought he was daft but I think I understand now. Chris went on to become a hindu monk. He wouldn't have lasted long.... 😏
@bartley butsford Very cool. Didn't know that much about the back story, other than Anderson's inspiration for Topographic Oceans. Also the album where Wakeman had enough.
Funny the voice and tone Bruford to explain what KC is :) It's exactly how we expected. It's like what Fripp said on the Muir's departure: "there's no much difference between KC and a Bhuddist monastery".
When I first listened Larks I, I p*ssed my pants.... And I liked death metal. This was at another level. It's like watching stuff like "The Conjuring" and then being exposed to "The Shining". Cosmic fear.
Watched this documentary years ago back in highschool, & I remember this clip alone is what made me start to get into King Crimson as they came off as such an interesting band.
Bill could pick 'em. The mad mystic and the quintessential English eccentric, but both of masters of their art who knew a damn good drummer when they heard one.
You don’t get much better than Bill Bruford, not any more-we lost all the greats of his era but Carl Palmer. Lost Ginger, Bonham, Moonie, Phil Seamen, Art Blakey. Great while we had them with us.
I must strongly suggest that Mitch Mitchell ('46 - '08) be added to that list of precedent-setting, significant drummers lost ... Mitch was the engine that propelled Jimi's crazy train
What a great response from Bill Bruford. "In King Crimson, almost nothing was said. You were supposed to know". And that's exactly what all the people who followed King Crimson, understood and cherished; the musicianship/creativity of the participants!
I saw "Prog-Rock Britannia" for the first time in 2014 and eight whole years later, the Berlin Wall analogy is still my favorite single line of documentary narration ever. I swear every time since that I've made a decision that feels kind of necessary but also looks insane on the surface, I think about it and sometimes even quote it out loud.
Bill Bruford has maybe the greatest confluence of talent and timing of any rock musician ever. How he recorded Close to the Edge of all albums, then instinctively knew THAT’S the right time to defect to Team Dionysus is absolutely mystifying to me.
For a period of about 1 year just after being really into Billy Cobham =Spectrum some of you know what I mean, I was discovering as a Yes fan King Crimson's catalog from '69 to '82' At some point in this discovery I could not decide if I was a fan of King Crimson or just liked some of their songs, in about 2003 after seeing a video of them playing "Larks Tongues in Aspic' I realized that they did have great melodies that I liked, but were just too avant garde sometimes.
And this is why without a doubt you are one of the best bands I've ever seen in my life. If not the best? I don't like that word. Partly because it's an absolute. And partly because I believe everyone is the best at what they do and nobody's better than anyone else. However with King Crimson they break all the molds and may be worthy of attaining an absolute? Thank you for the wonderful music.
Thank - you . I heard Then also 1973 " Lark's Tongues In Aspic " (heard here) before " Starless and Bible Black " ( loved : " Trio " ), before " Red " ; Then . 1973/4. I heard Then also " the Heavenly Music Corporation " from : " No Pussyfooting " ; Then . ( also the chemical releases I enjoyed while actively listening to non-repetitive 20 minute electric guitar solos felt exhilarating ! These unrecognizable electric guitar sounds ; including Frizzbox; accompanied Classical music structure familiarity to infer discipline and logic to the artful noise of Mr. Fripp's: ' Soundscaping ' on " No Pussyfooting " and other subsequent jazz including ' Frippertronics ' . Was 'ROCK' JAZZ ? By 1975 I heard ... on AM radio.
This is how Miles Davis ran his sessions. If you asked him what he wanted from you then you would either get dressed down or shown the door. You are supposed to intuit what to do
This "you should know what to play" reminds me of miles davis in early ages of him playing with coltrane. John kept pissing him off by asking what should he play, while miles thought, that professional musicians have to know what and why to play
He can be a bit pompous and supercilious, but he's always very interesting, informative and thoroughly entertaining - and most probably right about everything...
Fascinating how different the underlying attitude/philosophy/approach to music was between these two groups - both stellar examples of that narrow, less-heralded niche called "Progressive Rock" (somewhere between or tangential to Rock 'n Roll and Jazz-Rock/Fusion). Just goes to show you that the universe of music and art and where-it-comes-from is vast and mysterious. There is no single correct or best path or formula to great music. Roundabout and Larks Tongues in Aspic will both stand the test of time - classics in every sense. Some greats (in any/every field) achieve greatness through arduous and endless study, focus, sacrifice and dedication, while others achieve it by seemingly raw natural talent. Most, of course, are a hybrid of both. But whether a detailed, studious, structured approach or an organic, less directed, freer approach - in either case - it takes that internal drive and (aural) vision, a knowing-what-you're-aiming-for and won't-stop-until-I-get-there commitment.
There was also the third peak alongside Yes and KC - Gentle Giant. There the PhD in composition from London Music Academy Kerry Minnear just wrote songs. Nobody bloody knows whether he had doubts about F sharp or not - he simply took any possible sequence of notes and created a memorable, unique, fresh melody out of it. Unlike Yes or KC that created rather shapeless potentially endless compositions, Gentle Giant wrote well-shaped timeless hit songs. To each his own, for sure - but to me personally it is obviously better to have an idea of where to stop...
Fripp is just one of those guys. A privilege to work with, and he knows it, and if you disagree there's the door. Autocracy works if the group is small AND the leader is truly great at whatever it is you're doing together AND the rest of everyone doesn't want the job. I'd have told him "fµck you" on the first day, but then I'm not a master musician either.
In Yes, endless debates what suppose is next to be G# over F or viceversa. In King Crimson, you are supposed to know...it's like you are supposed to know that musical theory.
Yes. And he is significant for two reasons. First, Bill, as many know, played with Yes. Second, Jon sang on at least one track from King Crimson's Lizard album.
Nah, I never bought it, the big-bad mystique of KC, despite of course being fan. Talk about the egos of, say, ELP? -- never stand up to Crimson's Kollective.
I often use Bills comment, "you're just suppose to know" when referring to technology that we have to use to do anything these days but which doesn't have any instructions.
Saw them here in the U.S. Bruford said he left Yes because he didn't want to be stuck in a box, a musical prison. Yet it was Fripps oligarchy and to my ear, Bruford was greatly restrained and in a box, Fripps musical? prison. Shake this, tap that, bang this, basically relegated to a percussionist for the Frippdom. If you want to hear the best of Bruford, this isn't where you find it. You'll find it in One of a kind. The Spyce of life too. The brilliance of "Rain" ever dripping in my mind. 😁 Never cared for Fripp. Always loved Bill.
When KC were playing live in Amsterdam, Fripp, David Cross and John Wetton went into a little improvisation and Bruford listened to it for a bit, then came out from behind his kit and sat on the drum riser with his sticks folded and listened, to indicate to the others that he didn't intend to play anything. They got to the end, and it ended up on the next album as a track called 'Trio'. Bruford got a composer credit on it, even though he hadn't played anything, because as Fripp observed, 'He contributed silence.'
xd
He phrased it as "Admirable restraint"!
“If you don't know what to play, play nothing.”
-- Miles Davis
@@billstrohler "... my models would always be jazz groups. Miles Davis, particularly. Let’s face it, Miles was progressive." - Robert Fripp
Silence is the hardest thing for a musician to play
"Everything you've heard about King Crimson is true, it's an absolutely terrifying place"
A very interesting description 🤔
Apparently Fripp could sometimes be so acidic it could bring Bill to tears! Not a terribly nice guy half the time but an angel the other half.
In the 70s Fripp was a nightmare to work and be around with but in recent years, he's mellowed out a lot more and is quite laidback these days. I have no doubt he could be acidic at times but when it comes to the music, he's a true genius and always gets results
@Jeff Baker Does Bruford strike you as 'an overly emotional type' Jeff?
@Jeff Baker How things may sound & how they are can be very different things Jeff. Beware if hasty assumptions.
@Jeff Baker Yes which may not be what you assume it is.
"You were just supposed to KNOW." classic!
TRUST!
Yeh, and is that good or bad? From BB to always seems, "But of course, simply HIGHER, dear fellow."
@fartpoobox ohyeah Correct. Its a waste of his time. According to Crimson, it was a waste of their time as well.
@fartpoobox ohyeah The example he gave wasn't about his own instrument, but I believe the implications were clear.
If you think Fripp has less exacting expectations of his drummers, I think you're missing the point; why would a monster drummer like Bruford call it terrifying if the high standards (which can clearly be heard in all their recordings), didn't apply to him as well?
In reality he was merely using the example of Yes members arguing about arrangements as a contrast to working with Fripp who he clearly implied wouldn't tolerate such arguing.
@@Gregorypeckory On point exactly. Go talk to Fripp about exacting expectation on drummers when he currently has 3 of them in the band!
"In 1972, this was like going over the Berlin Wall, INTO East Berlin!" What a great line!
"Whatever you do before you join King Crimson, would you please not do it when you're in the band" 🤣
Absolutely Brilliant.
So Fripp would request me to play the blues as this would mean:
- No odd time signatures
- No exotic scales
- No synthetic scales
- No strange chords
- No polyharmony
- No ALL FOURTHS guitar tuning
- No improvising
Bill Bruford left Yes because he had "nothing left to learn from those guys." I totally respect that.
I thought it was because he was too erratic for their sound
@@BrianBattles Too erratic... for Yes.
If you're wandering if you should play something, Yes.
Read Bill’s autobiography if you haven’t yet.
Very interesting read.
However, Bill has a habit of knocking groups he’s been in who have really helped his profile.
He abandoned Yes three days before a massive tour then bitched about being left high and dry by some musician or musicians just before a tour less than ten years later.
Great player, no doubt.
I just think he’s a bit much.
Yeah, many people forget that Yes didn't start with Roundabout/Fragile. Bill had already been with Yes for several years. Also many people don't see being a musician as educational experience in the quest of becoming a better musician.
I'm glad that he left Yes and go to King Crimson because Alan White is a great drummer who made a wonderful work with Yes and Bill Bruford made a wonderful work with King Crimson, Genesis, UK and his solos bands. Each one in his place was perfect. And both are great friends! Bruford needed more improvisation and was tired of the so-well structured Yes songs that you have to play always on the same way. I'm very fan of both bands and drummers
I could listen to BB talk all day long. Entertaining, concise, and dry as a martini. And always speaks what he truly believes to be the truth.
Do read his autobiography.
3 years late, sorry for replying here. But goddammit, what a great nickname to comment on a KC video.
Fripp has also said about drumming in KC that "You don't have to play on the one, we already know where the one is"
That’s not uncommon in the jazz world either.
It isn't what Robert said, it's what he implies!
HA! Awesome.
Unreal 🤣
Goodness, it's so easy to hear his voice saying that.
Steve Hackett described King crimson as musical karate.
I remember reading something about him stealing Robert Fripp’s cheese and never getting invited back for over 40 years.
You need good chops for both.
Jimi Hendrix described them as the greatest band in the world.
@@Yakkymania well i mean if it was a nice wedge of wensleydale...
@@Yakkymaniaif that's true that is fucking hilarious
Bruford said Fripp was (as a leader of King Crimson) a mix between Josef Stalin, Mahatma Gandhi and Marquis De Sade. ;)
And the band was about as much fun to listen to as all 3 combined.
Really ? ! It's so funny. I quite understand why...
He also said that if you told Robert Fripp of this comparison, he would likely agree with it and probably laugh uproariously, too.
@@ericarmstrong6540 And then you've got Jon Anderson who, in a lengthy bit of exposition in an interview how he presided over the practice schedule of the band during the glory days of Yes, mentioned the name "Napoleon" about four times
He reminds me more of a cross between Michael O'Donahue and Wally Cox.
Bill has such a smooth voice, I kept on getting confused watching this video, and thinking that there was a narrator 😂
Lol me too!
Bill Bruford's self-titled autobiography is among the finest music-artist bios I've read. I give it my highest recommendation.
Will ask for it did my bday!
@@Saffy-yr8vo Did you get it? ;)
King Crimson made a conscious effort to sound mysterious, dark & foreboding. The opening to LARKS' TONGUES PT1 or Fracture says it all.
True. That was one of their angles - Schizoid Man, Pictures of a City, Devil's Triangle, Cirkus, LTIA, Fracture, Red, Thrak etc. They also had a mellow and sweet side - I Talk to the Wind, Cadence and Cascade, Lady of the Dancing Water, Islands, Book of Saturday, The Night Watch, One Time, Two Hands. Then the jokey/funky/jazzy side - Cat Food, Happy Family, Indoor Games, Easy Money, Elephant Talk, People. Also epic, ominous build-ups - Devil's Triangle, Bolero, The Talking Drum, Starless, Dangerous Curves. They liked to explore extremes, to push into fresh territory. Sometimes it worked out, sometimes it didn't.
LTIA, one of my faves.
Saw them live but once. The Red album tour, in San Francisco. What you'd expect - terrific.
This perfectly explains why Adrien Belew worked so perfectly, and seemingly effortlessly. He was pure originality.
The only Crimson I can handle is with Adrian and Tony and Bill
@@Timinator62 please try red, it's an awesome album and for many their best
Curiously, I've never seen anything but praise from Belew for KC and Fripp.
@@maximilianodelrio I once felt that way, but now appreciate Red, ITCOTCK and others.
no but seriously, that's their best lineup
Dude was in UK, Yes, Crimson and Gensis...this guy is a total legend!
And Gong, and National Health, etc etc
I have trouble saying he was in Genesis. He only played with them on one tour. Granted, it was a fantastic tour but he didn’t play on any studio album with them. There’s a world of difference between the two. If he thought that Yes was too stringent and everything had to be flawless (We should come out with the instruments on “Moon gate climber”. No we need to come out after “Turn round glider”!) then he was going to go absolutely bonkers with field general Phil Collins. No, Genesis was just a port in the storm for him and not really a writing member of the band. He was on lots of other people’s/band’s albums in the recording process.
When I was a student at Western Michigan University, I wrote for the school newspaper and was given the assignment of covering the UK concert held there after the first UK album release. It was a small, intimate venue, the cafeteria, and I interviewed the band in the green room. Jobson had his Hammond C6 modified nearby, and that's why they chose the college for the warm-up gig. They came back the following year after the second album and I interviewed Wetton on my college radio show. The interview went well, but I always wish I could go back in time to spend time with Bruford in that green room. The only thing I remember from talking to the band was making a lame joke about Bryan Ferry being a fairy. With Wetton, I played cuts he played on with Family and KC. I asked him for his favorite track to play, and he picked "Exiles." I acted surprised but should have just agreed that it was a beautiful song.
@@randysmith4331 I also hate it when everything has to be flawless... I mean, i want to hear that the musicians are real people. That's why I like Led Zeppelin so much. Even on the final album tracks are some little human failures to hear, and I think this is more organic and makes more fun to listen to.
The thing is, I would also say that Tony Banks is a perfectionist, much more than Phil or Mike or Peter were. Does he ever smile? He is just so stiff and cathartic surrounded by his keyboards...Maybe that's why he didn't like Peter's costumes and all that.
Which makes me wonder why he accepted and participated in Phil Collin's jokey approach in the 80s (Illegal Alien, I Can't Dance and so on)?
But if Bill Bruford wouldn't have liked such an atmosphere, I wonder why he liked King Crimson at all. They are for me the personally most unlikeable band of all the prog bands. I mean, Fripp is Tony Banks on a double perfectionist control-freak level. And he doesn't not only smile, he scarily glares at you when you don't play how he implies you should know how it should be played. Robert is just plain scary for me. He never ever played a single note wrong...he is a genius, but really strange to me.
Maybe the last sentence of this clip explains Brufords decision a bit - that he hated the discussions about music that were usual in Yes.
@@leonardsimonis2376 Bruford fit in King Crimson like a hand fitting in a glove. Forget about how Fripp just sits there without cracking a smile. Bruford even said it best when he said that he was joining a group where it was ok to make a mistake. Mistakes are ok as long as you can make it come off like it was intentional, and Bill was more than capable of that. You mention Led Zeppelin and John Bonham used to be able to do that too. Sometimes that’s how new riffs are created. I used to play drums in a band that wrote our own music and sometimes when I would slip up and play something completely different than what I intended, and the bassist might say Hey that sounded a little off but if I play it off just like you did it might be cool. Fripp might be the unquestionable leader but he likes some free form in his band mates. That is totally not how Genesis played.
Fripp at 0:11 : "Ve haff vayz of makingk you play..."
Unt you vill play in ze correct manner. Othervise zere vill be cosequences.
@@markharwood7573 Und only in _zis_ band...
NO BAND FOR YOU! GO!
Oh the joys of playing in King Crimson, must have been a barrel of laughs!
That's why RF smiles so often!
@@johnbuchheid5133 And now that KC is officially OVER, he smiles A LOT! And boy, is it great to see.
This is why I bought Bill's biography. I love his matter of fact presentation with slight undertones. God bless him.
Fripp may have been “dictatorish” but Bruford went back. TLev has been there for decades. Gavin Harrison. Belew. Mastellotto. All the great players have KC on their resume.
I'm glad that he left Yes and go to King Crimson because Alan White is a great drummer who made a wonderful work with Yes and Bill Bruford made a wonderful work with King Crimson, Genesis, UK and his solos bands. Each one in his place was perfect. And both are great friends! Bruford needed more improvisation and was tired of the so-well structured Yes songs that you have to play always on the same way. I'm very fan of both bands and drummers.
Me too. People who hate White haven't listened to Gates of Delirium or similar.
@@Cobalt985 White is sloppy as fuck. He in no way improved the sound of Yes. After CttE, Yes basically sounded like mush.
As a total aside, even from a non-musical POV, I think Bill had he still remained in Yes would have prevented the total cosmic pomposity of Tales, Gates, and so on. I think after his dry cynical ass left, Jon had no-one to drag him back to earth.
Yes was *way* better with Bruford. White really isn't in the same league.
@@rumourhats White has a mushy sound. My impression, too. Howe has more than once said how he missed Bruford's crackin' snare.
@@rumourhats I think your deaf, go to the doctor!
Bill was in the three versions of King Crimson 1972-1975...1981-1984....1994-1997.
He definitely likes that band
It must have been a terrifying place, but perhaps and because of that, they created one of the greatest Bands of all time
Exactly, we all need pushed at times to produce genius!
This is a dangerous place, oh, this is a dangerous place
Nonetheless, the King Crimson with Bill Bruford epoch brought forward some epic musical stuff, that I still enjoy listening to today. And of course i do like Bill's work with other bands as well. Yes!
Guess being in the band, every day, every rehersal, every concert is rather different than pulling out an album from the cupboard and playing it. Still: great stuff on Red and Discipline.
Bruford is the best...ALWAYS AMAZING...his chops are like no other.
" supposed to know"!! I just spent the last ten minutes LOL over all the people I've met with the same mindset who WEREN'T even musical!
In 74 I met and became friends with Chris Burrows. Chris was friends with Mel Collins and they worked together in bands like Circus etc. When King Crimson was being created Mel joined and Chris was asked if he wanted to play drums. He would have been a great fit. Check out the excellent drums on Circus from 1968 with Mel Collins too... Chris told me he said no because he wasn't keen on Bob Fripp. I thought he was daft but I think I understand now. Chris went on to become a hindu monk. He wouldn't have lasted long.... 😏
Or maybe he would have lasted somewhat. Fripp himself nearly did something similar after the Wetton/Bruford era.
@@DavidLazarus That was exactly the thought *I* had! 😂
@Stream of Consciousness Jamie Muir left KC and went on to practice Buddhism in Scotland.
@bartley butsford Very cool. Didn't know that much about the back story, other than Anderson's inspiration for Topographic Oceans. Also the album where Wakeman had enough.
Cirkus wasn't from 1968, it was from 1971, on the Lizard album
Fripp is an excellent player and composer, but has the reputation of being difficult.
You don't say!
Aaaaand I think this is one of the reasons why GoldilocksKindGregLake left the band in favour of WannabeJohanSBachKeithEmerson...
Such a tough person!
I believe the only person who disagree is Toyah, they seem lovely in their sunday videos recently
Is he really? I’ve only just learned of band but does he really have that reputation?
@@metalinyourhead3604 irrc he ALLEGEDLY bullied Andy McCullough, the drummer of King Crimson, so much that he burst into tears
“Going over the wall into East Germany” is dry humor at its best.
Fripp is a fucking amazing guitarist
Funny the voice and tone Bruford to explain what KC is :)
It's exactly how we expected.
It's like what Fripp said on the Muir's departure: "there's no much difference between KC and a Bhuddist monastery".
When I first listened Larks I, I p*ssed my pants.... And I liked death metal. This was at another level. It's like watching stuff like "The Conjuring" and then being exposed to "The Shining". Cosmic fear.
Joining King Crimson was “akin to going over the Berlin Wall into east Germany.”
Truer words have never been spoken!
LMFAO 🤪
“Everything you’ve heard about King Crimson is true... it’s an absolutely terrifying place..“ 💯
Anybody seen Robert Fripps, Post Covid RUclips Channel, with his lovely wife Toyah? Who would have guessed it 50 years ago!!! Lol!
Watched this documentary years ago back in highschool, & I remember this clip alone is what made me start to get into King Crimson as they came off as such an interesting band.
Extreme conditions to produce inimitable music
After seeing many clips of Bill playing King Crimson tunes back in '73, I expected his voice to be a lot higher
You're thinking of John Anderson!
You're thinking of...ALVINNNNN!!!
Bill could pick 'em. The mad mystic and the quintessential English eccentric, but both of masters of their art who knew a damn good drummer when they heard one.
But Bruford always sounds like Bruford.
Agreed
It's that golden "bonk" that is his snare tone.
Thankfully.
I’d like an hour of this.
It's called Prog Britannia, from the BBC. Look it up, it's really good!
Pablo Pycali, thank you! 🇬🇧
You don’t get much better than Bill Bruford, not any more-we lost all the greats of his era but Carl Palmer. Lost Ginger, Bonham, Moonie, Phil Seamen, Art Blakey. Great while we had them with us.
I love how you call them Bonham and Moonie and not the more commonly said Bonzo and Moon.
we lost phil collins too, at least as a drummer 😔
@@yutuberocks22 He was a truly amazing player. His son is following in his footsteps...
I must strongly suggest that Mitch Mitchell ('46 - '08) be added to that list of precedent-setting, significant drummers lost ... Mitch was the engine that propelled Jimi's crazy train
I loved that a video about King Crimson starts with Jon Anderson of Yes waving his hand.
What a great response from Bill Bruford. "In King Crimson, almost nothing was said. You were supposed to know". And that's exactly what all the people who followed King Crimson, understood and cherished; the musicianship/creativity of the participants!
I saw "Prog-Rock Britannia" for the first time in 2014 and eight whole years later, the Berlin Wall analogy is still my favorite single line of documentary narration ever. I swear every time since that I've made a decision that feels kind of necessary but also looks insane on the surface, I think about it and sometimes even quote it out loud.
I thought Bruford's years with Yes was some of their best stuff, but he was really overqualified for that drumming job.
Bill Bruford has maybe the greatest confluence of talent and timing of any rock musician ever. How he recorded Close to the Edge of all albums, then instinctively knew THAT’S the right time to defect to Team Dionysus is absolutely mystifying to me.
British mastery of passive agressive remarks.
King Crimson is a dangerous place, I wouldn't like to play there.
King Crimson was FAR more like North Korea than East Germany.
For a period of about 1 year just after being really into Billy Cobham =Spectrum some of you know what I mean, I was discovering as a Yes fan King Crimson's catalog from '69 to '82' At some point in this discovery I could not decide if I was a fan of King Crimson or just liked some of their songs, in about 2003 after seeing a video of them playing "Larks Tongues in Aspic' I realized that they did have great melodies that I liked, but were just too avant garde sometimes.
Some of Tommy Bolin's best work is on Spectrum
Try Gentle GIant
@@talastra Love Gentle Giant, but, I think they are even less accessible to the average listener than King Crimson
@@ursafan40 That was my point, yes.
Go and listen to some RIO, then come back and suddenly everything Is gonna sound like pop
“……in KC you were just supposed to know” !!! I frakking love that quote !
0:26 “King Crimson… is an absolutely terrifying place”
And this is why without a doubt you are one of the best bands I've ever seen in my life. If not the best? I don't like that word. Partly because it's an absolute. And partly because I believe everyone is the best at what they do and nobody's better than anyone else. However with King Crimson they break all the molds and may be worthy of attaining an absolute? Thank you for the wonderful music.
Another funny fact is that in a recent interview, Mr. Fripp called being
labeled "prog-rock" is a "prison."
Any label is a prison, in a way.
As more frequently (and universally applicably) stated by RF, "Expectation is a prison."
@@ProgRockNerd true
You ALWAYS know when BB is behind the kit.
Thank - you . I heard Then also 1973 " Lark's Tongues In Aspic " (heard here) before " Starless and Bible Black " ( loved : " Trio " ), before " Red " ; Then . 1973/4. I heard Then also " the Heavenly Music Corporation " from : " No Pussyfooting " ; Then . ( also the chemical releases I enjoyed while actively listening to non-repetitive 20 minute electric guitar solos felt exhilarating ! These unrecognizable electric guitar sounds ; including Frizzbox; accompanied Classical music structure familiarity to infer discipline and logic to the artful noise of Mr. Fripp's: ' Soundscaping ' on " No Pussyfooting " and other subsequent jazz including ' Frippertronics ' . Was 'ROCK' JAZZ ? By 1975 I heard ... on AM radio.
I would like to have heard more. It was an interesting time in music. Glad I got to experience it.
It sounds like being in the Fall.
I want more of that interview
That was more than one funny fact.
This is how Miles Davis ran his sessions. If you asked him what he wanted from you then you would either get dressed down or shown the door. You are supposed to intuit what to do
lol the way they portrayed this in the documentary is hilarious
This "you should know what to play" reminds me of miles davis in early ages of him playing with coltrane. John kept pissing him off by asking what should he play, while miles thought, that professional musicians have to know what and why to play
Bill is so very dryyyyyyyy
He can be a bit pompous and supercilious, but he's always very interesting, informative and thoroughly entertaining - and most probably right about everything...
Agreed. In the Yes docs, and in this one, he turns out to be one of hte most entertaining storytellers.
what a band!
Fascinating how different the underlying attitude/philosophy/approach to music was between these two groups - both stellar examples of that narrow, less-heralded niche called "Progressive Rock" (somewhere between or tangential to Rock 'n Roll and Jazz-Rock/Fusion). Just goes to show you that the universe of music and art and where-it-comes-from is vast and mysterious. There is no single correct or best path or formula to great music. Roundabout and Larks Tongues in Aspic will both stand the test of time - classics in every sense. Some greats (in any/every field) achieve greatness through arduous and endless study, focus, sacrifice and dedication, while others achieve it by seemingly raw natural talent. Most, of course, are a hybrid of both. But whether a detailed, studious, structured approach or an organic, less directed, freer approach - in either case - it takes that internal drive and (aural) vision, a knowing-what-you're-aiming-for and won't-stop-until-I-get-there commitment.
There was also the third peak alongside Yes and KC - Gentle Giant. There the PhD in composition from London Music Academy Kerry Minnear just wrote songs. Nobody bloody knows whether he had doubts about F sharp or not - he simply took any possible sequence of notes and created a memorable, unique, fresh melody out of it. Unlike Yes or KC that created rather shapeless potentially endless compositions, Gentle Giant wrote well-shaped timeless hit songs. To each his own, for sure - but to me personally it is obviously better to have an idea of where to stop...
I love this.
no papers required. JUST EXTREME CHOPS
Fripp is just one of those guys. A privilege to work with, and he knows it, and if you disagree there's the door. Autocracy works if the group is small AND the leader is truly great at whatever it is you're doing together AND the rest of everyone doesn't want the job. I'd have told him "fµck you" on the first day, but then I'm not a master musician either.
That's what being a great musician,can you play anything..that is greatness
I always trust the drummers in this type of situation.
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perhaps he was an exception to the rule?
That was awesome!
In Yes, endless debates what suppose is next to be G# over F or viceversa. In King Crimson, you are supposed to know...it's like you are supposed to know that musical theory.
@David Bennett Exactly
that's an argument over tonalities not theory
@David Bennett And there's no major or minor key that normally contains both notes G# and F...which means absolutely nothing of course.
Wait....before you correct me, I realize now F sharp major contains G sharp and E sharp, which is F. A rarely used key. But I was still totally wrong.
It was just what Bill Bruford said...not me..
King Crimson is great and all but I wish they would use more whole tones.
Almost nothing was said, you're just supposed to know if you have angered Robert.
Bruford did the greatest choice ever. Music is thankful.
Fripp is a very odd guy.
You're just supposed to know
Was that Jon Anderson waving at the beginning?
Yup.
Yes. And he is significant for two reasons. First, Bill, as many know, played with Yes. Second, Jon sang on at least one track from King Crimson's Lizard album.
What is this clip from? I’d love to watch more of this
I think it's from Prog Rock Brittania, a BBC multi part doc from the 2000s(?)
adrian belew certainly didn't obey that rule :D
Where can I find the rest of that interview?
A documentary called Prog Britannia
Hilarious
♥️
So... KC was more democratic and liberating than YES.
❤️🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
Nah, I never bought it, the big-bad mystique of KC, despite of course being fan. Talk about the egos of, say, ELP? -- never stand up to Crimson's Kollective.
Did Tommy Saxondale write the narration?
I often use Bills comment, "you're just suppose to know" when referring to technology that we have to use to do anything these days but which doesn't have any instructions.
So they were elite? Yes wasn’t?
What is this from?
do you know where i could watch the full documentary? i can never seem to find the full thing
The way it started I thought it was the BBC" World at War "...lol
King Crimson....
So what's up with the beginning of this vid? how would you interpret that?
And then if you think that's scary or difficult try being a musician in Frank Zappa's group.
Where was the funny fact?
That this guy and the band he played in are both Jojo's references...
King Crimson certainly sounds like there is no communication between any of the members...
Saw them here in the U.S. Bruford said he left Yes because he didn't want to be stuck in a box, a musical prison. Yet it was Fripps oligarchy and to my ear, Bruford was greatly restrained and in a box, Fripps musical? prison. Shake this, tap that, bang this, basically relegated to a percussionist for the Frippdom. If you want to hear the best of Bruford, this isn't where you find it. You'll find it in One of a kind. The Spyce of life too. The brilliance of "Rain" ever dripping in my mind. 😁 Never cared for Fripp. Always loved Bill.
"The moment that anyone sees King Crimson, they are no longer in this world."
-Diavolo