Robert Fripp's Diary

Bredonborough Richard Parker Crook has

12.11

Bredonborough.

Richard Parker Crook has just visited to weigh three P.J. Crook paintings that are being loaned to a Tallinn gallery for an exhibition, organised by Dr. Margus Laidre, that is opening in October. Afterwards, over tea, discussions on the life of the artist.

Meanwhile, Sister tells me there is a favourable review of Exposure in Rolling Stone. I visited the RS website & checked the original review, by Michael Bloom…

Exposure, Fripp’s first new album in five years and first ever under his own name, is brimming with good ideas and experimental intentions. Regrettably, all the cleverness boils away, and the music seems slapdash and thin — more like a session player’s first tentative record than the work of a ten-year-plus veteran of demanding progressive music. The disappointment is all the keener for the elusiveness of Exposure’s short-comings, and the considerable respect this reviewer holds for the artist. MICHAEL BLOOM (Posted: Aug 23, 1979)

Michael Bloom also demonstrated comparable insight in a pratty posting to ET during the early 1990s, the Endless Grief years, on the proper role of management: stay in the office doing deals. Michael attributed my managerial discontent to the fact that EG Management did not go on the road with KC, thereby managing to completely miss the points of dispute (non-payment of royalties, misleading advice, conflict of interest & exploitation).

Jon Pareles review of Exposure, in the Village Voice, was also inclined to the negative. Jon Pareles is, however, a critic whose opinions I respect…
http://www.rockcritics.com/interview/jonpareles.html…
and who worked at the Village Voice when Robert Christgau…
http://www.rockcritics.com/interview/robertchristgau.html while RC was working on his Consumer Guide… http://robertchristgau.com/cg.php… who attended the first Frippertronics performance at the Kitchen in Soho, and who described me as a jerk… http://robertchristgau.com/get_artist2.php?id=1161.

Anthony de Curtis…
http://www.rockcritics.com/interview/anthonydecurtis.html
http://www.rockcritics.com/interview/anthonydecurtis2.html
didn’t like Lester Bangs…
http://www.rockcritics.com/interview/lesterbangs.html
… who didn’t like any of my work other than that with Eno, and told me so (on the Talking Heads’ session for I Zimbra).

My favourite English music writer of his generation was Richard Williams…
http://www.rockcritics.com/interview/richardwilliams.html
http://www.rockcritics.com/interview/richardwilliams2.html.

The Canadian Alan Neister was reliably negative & sarcastic…
http://www.rockcritics.com/interview/alanniester.html… and several of his reviews are excerpted in the Scrapbooks of KC releases.

During my NYC period, I met Dave Marsh…

http://www.rockcritics.com/interview/davemarsh.html

http://www.rockcritics.com/interview/davemarsh2.html… whose wife worked as a publicist for Tommy Mottola… http://uk.askmen.com/men/business_politics_60/61_tommy_mottola.html… with whom I developed an acquaintance while working on Exposure with Daryl Hall… http://www.hallandoates.com/index.php.

And I note with interest that, 27 years later, reviews of Exposure tend to be more favourable now than at the time of release. I wonder why.

17.18  A day in front of the computer & an e-flurry done, I am beginning to dribble…

In the e-post, a selection of Exposure reviews. Those in Classic Rock, Mojo & Uncut are mostly positive; that in Record Collector mostly negative & reminiscent of the witlessness that I associate with the English music press. Taken together, positive & negative, I reflect that in pre-internet days, music comics & mags were the main interface between performer & audience. How terrifying is that?

A contemporary approach… http://www.paristransatlantic.com/magazine/monthly2006/08aug_text.html#3.

22.54  Well. And here’s another approach to downloading…

http://blogs.pcworld.com/techlog/archives/002665.html.

The current statistics estimate that the ration between paid & “illegal” downloading is 1:40. Universal seems to figure that content is free, so get money from advertising. I wonder how much the artists will share in the advertising revenue.

Director Bill called this evening, to check in & touch base on various arisings. We discussed our perceptions of the life of a professional player, a frequent source of dialogue between us.

Another Seattle pal, Steve Ball, is a news item on KNews http://www.krimson-news.com/ regarding Vista.

And, a bona hoot, is this… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6b0Y7DyRPwE.