David Singleton's Diary

DGM Guestbook

I was sitting at my desk, fingers poised to write today’s flame-thrower of a diary, when Robert breezes in. “What are the attributes of stupid and uninformed commentary?” he asks. “That they are stupid and uninformed!” I reply. “And this is precisely why I suggested that we should close the DGM guestbook!”, he adds for good measure.

Those with long memories may recall that the guestbook was saved when I offered to take on the role of online policeman (‘y plisman’ for my numerous Welsh readers). It is not a role with which I am always comfortable, but come on, today has taken “stupid, uninformed and dopey” to new levels.

Firstly, Bill has not “departed”. He is on a sabbatical. He remains a key ongoing member of the band. On the basis of his supposed ‘departure’, Senor ‘Gasmrv’ takes it upon himself to question how much Bill has contributed to the music, while DannyX asserts that Bill seems “the least connected to Crimson”. Based on what intimate knowledge of Crimson exactly? Having been involved in finding ways of temporarily replacing Bill within the band, I can tell you that even though we have found an excellent drummer/keyboard player in Jeremy Stacey, it has still taken two people (one of whom you will never see) to replace the many functions of one Bill. And the band will still not be the same. When Robert said that King Crimson had to be these exact seven musicians, did people imagine that he was making it up?

But Bill does not need me to stand up for him. Had he written me a witty email response he might have said:

it is with great admiration that i comment on gasmrv’s ’random thought’ post of march 08, 2016. it takes incredible bravery to out one’s self publicly as he has done. arrogance is indeed a terrible problem and can take years away from a life.

my regard for him only doubles when he exposes how arrogance continues to act upon his life - demonstrating this with the brilliant ’it takes one to know one’ argument when identifying arrogance in others. against such keen logic, it’s almost impossible to fully respond in a suitable and deserving manner.

i also applaud his "daring and bold" judgment using the "so, what happened?" line of reasoning on fripp’s once remarkable abilities. any reader of modest intelligence could possibly even make the leap of faith, drawing a line between this notion and rieflin’s sabbatical. one could.

his final act of arrogance - no, genius - is to demonstrate firsthand the old saw that if all one has is a hammer, then everything looks like a nail. and so, our friend has brought a hammer to a gun fight. or a saw. hard to tell at this point. either way, i avert my eyes. k-pew! k-pew!

But then again maybe Bill might have said

you little prick. you really wound me up on a night when i desperately needed my sleep. instead, i tossed and turned when i should have been sleeping because i’m not well and i had to get up in the morning to go to the studio for 10 hours to produce a record and now i’m doing this on 3 (maybe) hours of sleep and i’m shaking and feeling terrible. you little prick. if i had my hands on you i’d slam you against a fucking wall. is that vulnerable enough for you?

Or maybe Bill would have said nothing at all.

I shall now switch off my flame-thrower and return to the more pleasant business of making music.