In Guitar Craft this insight would be referred to as a Point Of Seeing. There is a silent click and one finds that one knows. There is a particular kind of resonance involved which is very different to A Bright Idea, which is often accompanied by excitement, or arousal, or an investment in the agreement / acceptance by others of This Lofty Notion Of Mine. The Point Of Seeing, in contrast, is accompanied by a sense of elation.
A point of seeing is direct, instantaneous (a book might be written on creative time, and probably already has been) and substantial. Substantiality is the inverse of materiality: the greater the subtlety, the greater the reality (let's assume we agree to what reality might be). A proviso: this is no way denigrates or qualifies the necessity of materiality (as in an unhealthy asceticism of body-denial). In the point of seeing we connect with / to the subject / object of our contemplation / reflection, and touch its nature. There are degrees, qualities & intensities of "touching"; which simply says that there are degrees, qualities & intensities of seeing; and this implies, also of being seen.
Discrimination is needed to differentiate between A Bright Idea and A Point Of Seeing. Bright Ideas can be delusional, and lead aspirants to adopt wildly unrealistic life-aims that, in their turn, generate waves of repercussions in the aspirants' daily lives. These "delusional repercussions" may take years to still & settle. One Bright Idea I often meet is "I have to be a professional musician - even though I can't play my instrument to any degree of competence, have no experience & can't get anyone to listen to me".
When we see music, face to face, we see that music creates the musician. Then, we consider the question: are we willing to be played by music? If the answer is "yes", there follows a life of suffering. Sometimes music asks us not to be played, but to listen. That is, to give to music a pair of ears through which music may listen to itself. This is as "real" a need as giving music voice. The tragedy of contemporary rock performance (at least) is the extent to which we pack our ears with deafness, & then claim deafness as our right.
Novices & apprentices, beginners in any craft, often experience high states in the initial period of their beginning-practice. Part of this is useful: it confirms to the beginner that their chosen way has something authentic to offer them. This supports their efforts & encourages them during hard times & on dark nights. Part of this is dangerous: some novices are presented with "false" Points Of Seeing to lead them off course. In Orthodox monasticism these are attributed to The Great Deceiver. A "false seeing" may be in the form of an "opportunity" which flatters the egotism & supports the ambition of the novice. This is also a genuine opportunity for the novice to learn, at first hand, that there is a level of intelligence at work that would rather aspirants rowed with the current than against it.
"States" are not "stations". A station is where we live, a state is where we visit. Some drugs open the gates to high states. This may confirm the "reality" of these "places", but can mislead us into believing that we can pay the rent. Drug-free visits may also mislead us: a "real" perception, when translated into words that explain & describe the material world, nails an opportunity & an authentic glimpse of heaven to the earth.
An example of danger, from music: when the power turns on, & music goes into major download, the personality of the young player/s gets fried. The "fusebox" isn't ready to carry the international grid, and something blows. This was particularly the case at the end of the 1960s and early 1970s when a significant & powerful creative current entered popular culture through rock music. The widespread use of drugs rendered the young players more vulnerable: the natural "shields" present in the human being, to protect & limit our openness to "power surges", were taken down by the drugs. In very bad cases brains were damaged; links between the head, heart & hands severed; and functioning in the day-to-day world severely impaired, sometimes irrevocably. "Acid casualty".
Some schools of music training spend the first (long) period of the novitiate preparing their apprentices to deal with the effects of "downloads". Unless the personality is healthy & in its place, and knows its place, the "fuse" blows. For example, the player believes that they are creating the music. The effects of this may then include: delusion, self-worship, subjectivism, identification, fear & waste.
When the power turns on, as if a gift, the sense is of rightness: this is so natural, so straightforward, so effortless. Then, perhaps this "ease" & "naturalness" in our music-making disappears. This is a testing for the aspirant musician: they are entering other stages in the process, where their resolve & commitment are being tried.
Sometimes music hides, sometimes it smiles, but it never goes away. But, we go away. The question is then practical: how may we remain, present & available to welcome our Friend should they call to visit?
And now (hommage to Ian Wallace) for something completely different...
In a blatant attempt to generate personal popularity & swell the uncritical, adulatory cult of Fripp worshippers, I offer these responses to posters...
Responses To The Guestbook:
1. Chris Smith ([email protected]) 11-Aug-2000 12:55 GMT Boscastle, UK
<...one of the things about Crimson seems to be that it is an environment in which every participant gets to try being the best version of themselves that they can be at that time... the careers of some of the Crimson survivors suggest that they've never managed to find a similar environment again... Almost everyone who has played in Crimson seems to have played with more 'personality' in the band than outside it.>RF: Essentially, I agree with Chris' overall view. Crimson magnifies & intensifies what is possible for the individual player, and presents them with opportunities which aren't (it seems) easily available elsewhere. But this places a corresponding demand upon the player: to let go of all that they want for themselves. Dropping all we want ("self-expression") is very hard, and bearable for most only in the short term.
Part of my reflections in the past week has been directed towards an ongoing lack of resolution in several earlier members towards their Crimson years. Some Crims thought Crimson was a great place to be, but only once they'd left; and then it was too late. And some Crims believe that they were responsible for creating the band when, actually, the band created them. When King Crimson's song is available for download, players give it voice & words; that is sufficient, and worthy of respect. But the source of Crimson's power is not the property of its players.
2. matthew smith ([email protected]) 14-Aug-2000 20:15 GMT usa
<To Fripp I only make the observation that balanced implies equal parts A-negative and B-positive comments.>RF: "Balanced" does not "imply equal parts A-negative and B-positive comments".
If Matthew's comment were true, I would be compelled to be as rude to someone as they were polite to me, to form a "balance". What is the value of "balanced" in that situation? Matthew is describing reaction. Reason & rationality are not part of the reactional world, so Matthew's form of "balance" has little of value to offer debate. "Balance" is, in any case, a possible outcome of debate but not its proper aim.
Dialoguing is very different again: dialoguing is not an attempt to present an equal measure of "negativity" to "positivity", with the aim of creating a kind of balance. Matthew's presentation of balance is, at best, a two-legged stool. In Matthew's observation, each leg attempts to cancel out the other. Dialoguing begins in / as response, and moves from there. Balance is not the aim, and whatever degree of "balance" or "imbalance" that develops from / in this process, it is only a "by-product" of the dialogue.
If we were to consider models for supporting / generating balance, the dyadic / polar model Matthew puts forward is primitive. There is a tension, but no resolution. Stable balances require even-term systems; dynamic balances odd-term systems. Relationship (as a form of balance) needs three terms. Order (as a form of balance) requires a minimum of four terms. And so on to a "balanced" society of 12 terms.
<My own observation of both the E.T. website and Discipline website have led me to notice an overwhelming amount of brown nosing on the part of the poster.>RF: Matthew obviously hasn't read very much of either. I've read just about everything of both, plus international press over a period of 31 years. A lot of dopey "positive" commentary and a lot of dopey "negative" commentary, with a handful of insights and a soupcon of impartial clean reportage, doesn't add up to what I understand as balance, nor valuable commentary, nor quite a debate worth having.
<Unless Robert Fripp has made little to no observation, he has obviously blundered in elementary mathematics.>RF: I make no claims for my powers of observation, but adding posters to ET and the Guestbook doesn't require more than arithmetic. And, from what I've read, the "balance" is closer than Matthew suggests.
I comment that flattery ("brown nosing") is not a positive. So, to counter flattery with hostility is a double negative, without quite equating to a positive either. Anyone who mistakes flattery for a positive has not yet ventured far out into what life's rich tapestry has to offer.
<I salute Eddie Kolman, and reitterate the point, get a life posters.>RF: That seems good advice.
< You all seem pathetic and juvenile to me.>RF: I wonder why that might be.
<Buy the albums if you wish, which i may not do after the most recent effort,...)RF: Perhaps Matthew might follow the adage: first thought, best thought? There are artists who deserve his patronage & I encourage him to grant it to them.
<which get this, is a large pile of crap. Signed Matthew Smith Please do not shorten my name to initials, or substitute K for any of the letters, it is frankly cliche) if you find any faults with the wording of this posting or its syntax i ask that you remember that it is the content of what is said, not the quality of the speech.>RF: No worries: the quality of the speech is on a par with the quality of the content.
3. Jesus Rosales ([email protected]) 14-Aug-2000 22:58 GMT Mexico
<I just want to ask you one thing, why you never give autographs?>RF: What value does Sr. Rosales place on an autograph? And why might this be?
Never is too long a time: I often give autographs. But this depends upon the conditions of time, place and person. Who could deny the right person at the right time at the right place?
4. Peter Stone ([email protected]) 13-Aug-2000 10:10 GMT
<A little late in my opinion, but here goes;>RF: No. No. Trust that your timing is as right on as your opinion.
<The London KC gig: Except for the sound coming out of the speakers, I think Mr. Fripp did not participate in the performance at all. So the infamous question becomes be reversed: Can KC exist with only Robert Fripp?>5. George D'Andrea ([email protected]) 14-Aug-2000 21:12 GMT usa
<Discipline is a preparation or resource one uses to reach the end.>RF: It is as true to say that discipline is a way of reaching the beginning, as to say that it is a way of reaching the end. It is, even more than these, a way of holding the middle.
6. Bruce Higgins ([email protected]) Ithaca, NY USA
<Speaking of timely information, when can we expect word on the US tour dates?>RF: When they have been carved in stone.
7. Keith Burns ([email protected]) 14-Aug-2000 12:17 GMT UK
<Would it be possible to make the full archive of diary entries for each diarist accessible...>RF: Of course it would. We could also chew your food and swallow it for you.
<It seems a shame that this hugely entertaining and often insightful and inspiring stuff is effectively lost once it falls off the bottom of the page.>RF: Then what is Keith going to do for himself to stop the "inspiring stuff" being "effectively lost"? As an alternative, that is, to passing his problem back to DGM for solution?
8. Kade ([email protected]) 13-Aug-2000 06:14 GMT USA
<I wish someone would do a day to day process of a CD in great detail to know everything that goes into it. From pre-production to final product.....everything! From signing contracts, securing artwork everything, mixing, etc.......>RF: Who would Kade like to do all this work - and presumably for free?
9. Wade ([email protected]) 14-Aug-2000 17:59 GMT
<If someone could elaborate on Mr. Fripp's words.Discipline
Is not an end in itself,
but merely a means to an end...
I am having trouble with this one.>
RF: Great. I hope this bugs the hell out of Wade.
10. bruce higgins ([email protected]) 16-Aug-2000 13:42 GMT Ithaca, New York, USA
<My wife enquired after the well-being of Beaton the Wonder Bun recently, and I realized I had not seen mention of the beast???Hoping all is well...>
RF: Beaton Bunnerius Bun, a prince of his kind, is currently in lodgings with Toyah's parents. On her dressing table here at Chateau Luvvie there are 3 pictures of Beaton and one of her husband (where I'm sharing the photo with him). Good to know your position in life.
11. Aerial Bear ([email protected]) 14-Aug-2000 17:22 GMT
<Of course I am speaking only for myself and NOT for Mr. Fripp. But you seemed to be speaking to a larger issue than fripp-and-his-alleged-surliness...>RF: But why "alleged"? Surely this is now a confirmed fact: "eccentric" has been replaced by "notorious spikiness" in the national press.
12. Aerial Bear ([email protected]) 16-Aug-2000 04:51 GMT
<I think many people protest or complain simply because its an activity they enjoy.>RF: In a fallen world.
<Hey, sometimes you just need to let off some steam.>RF: This is a very expensive way of achieving a personal "balance", and the repercussions are considerable.
13. Thomas Wingo ([email protected]) 15-Aug-2000 18:34 GMT USA
<Some time ago I remember hearing about DTS re-releases of the soundscapes albums. Has anything further been done with this? I know I'd be one of the first in line to get ahold of those babies.>RF: DGM was faced with more important tasks than delivering enhanced Soundscapes. And the cost of doing this is "unbalanced".
14. Robert Dickey ([email protected]) 13-Aug-2000 23:30 GMT USA
<It's a shame to see a man of Fripp's apparent intelligence quoting Steve Albini's hopelessly one-sided appraisal of the music business.>RF: If Fripp's intelligence is a little worthy of consideration, what might this imply?
<I've never worked in the music industry,>RF: I have, for 33 years, and Steve Albini is also very experienced.
< but having spent a few years in the business world,>RF: I have also spent time in "the business world" (real estate) and continue to have connections with it. The business world is to the music business what real estate is to the sex industry; alternatively, the business world is to the music industry what marriage is to prostitution: both are arrangements / agreements made with regard to transacting a relationship.
<I can easily see several flaws in Albini's arguments.>RF: Steve's article isn't presented as a logical treatise; and I am able to find flaws in almost any argument. Better to get an overall sense of what is being presented, then move to the details?
<The most obvious is his contention that the newly-signed band in his hypothetical case is $14,000 in the hole after moving 250,000 units of their debut album. Albini arrives at his minus $14,000 figure by deducting the band's advance--as if the $250,000 is merely chump change!>RF: This is where Mr. Dickey reasonably applies business practice to the "common practice" of the music industry: it doesn't work that way.
A major record label aims to give the newly-signed group as large an advance as the group is prepared to accept. The larger the advance, the lesser likelihood that it will be repaid. If the advance is not repaid, the group is unable to leave the label. The group & its work is then owned & controlled by the label. Ownership>Control>Exploitation.
Alternatively put, $250,000 is petty cash. The real play begins at 7 figures.
< Albini also conveniently forgets that, as a matter of practice, artists seldom if ever return their advances;>RF: I don't speak for Steve but, no, he hasn't forgotten.
Artists aren't intended to "return their advances". If they did recoup, they would be in a position of greater freedom.
<hence, if his mythical band bombs in the marketplace (as the majority surely do), the record company never comes close to recouping its advance. (I think Mark Knophler described this best, albeit, ironically, as "money for nothing.") That Albini would assume his new band will move 250,000 units is also disingenuous; I suspect one-tenth that amount would be closer to the norm. Finally, in determining the record company's cut, Albini only identifies the direct costs associated with the production and manufacture of the band's album; the record company, like any business (including DGM, I'm sure) has indirect costs it must also cover.>RF: I won't go into details on this, other than comment that Steve is exceptionally well-informed in his field & writes from experience.
<I don't doubt Fripp's sincerity when he speaks or writes of his travails in the music industry, but surely a man as well-read as Mr. Fripp can state his case more eloquently and with a greater sense of balance than one could expect from Steve Albini.>RF: A question of balance, then? And beware silken tongues of eloquence: speaking well or persuasively confers no particular powers of insight, or rightness, or truth.
It is not possible to present the mainstream music industry as balanced: it is profoundly distorted & I have suffered its distortions for 33 years. It is, in its effects, malevolent. Its operations are characterised by these three words:
Control>Exploitation>Ownership
Perhaps best put these on the points of a triangle: they work in six different ways, and not merely a linear sequence. If Mr. Dickey is able to offer persuasive arguments as to why this position is untenable, I am prepared to consider them.
Mr. Dickey seems to be a decent man, and his posting shows that he has put time into considering his position, for which I am grateful. But honest (business) people outside the industry have no sense or feel of how corrupt the industry is. The foundation of the music industry is exploitation. That's it.
As a PS, perhaps this:
http://www.upside.com/Ebiz/399c76f50_yahoo.html
(Excerpt): Whether Napster saves itself with the arguments it submits in federal court today, it is clear that the era of the online music cowboy is over. Far from obliterating intellectual property restrictions and connecting musicians directly with fans, the music-swap program has ushered in hordes of new music-publishing middlemen and attracted huge new swaths of red tape.Never mind that Napster Inc. is now run by lawyers and venture capitalists, or that the 20-year-old programmer who created Napster doesn't have a seat on the firm's board of directors.
Responses To Emetic Trumpetings:
1. Date: Thu, 10 Aug 2000 20:01:07 -0400
From: "Dan B."
Subject: Lizard is a Progressive Rock album
RF: Actually, a 16-track Studer.
2. Date: Thu, 10 Aug 2000 15:38:50 -0400
From: "Brown, Ken"
Subject: What if ET had been around 20 years ago
Alright after 7 years the Crim is back. While I like some of Fripp's solo stuff, it is Crim that I long for. I am really disappointed that John Wetton and Dave Cross are not back in the band, but Billy still being there is good. (Bill rules, he rules) So this Tony Levin guy is a session player, good player, been on tour with Pete Gabriel. And Adrian Belew, didn't he play with Talking Heads and Zappa and tour with Bowie but how is going to be as the frontman? I've been wondering these last few months since Fripp mentioned in his diary that Crim was reforming what a band would sound like with two guitars. I was certainly hoping this Belew guy wouldn't butt in on Fripp's solos. (fripp is a god!)......>
RF: An alternative approach is to read the reviews which were published at the time (eg in the KC Scrapbook to "Frame By Frame"). And pre-internet, posters wrote me letters, which I continue to hold in files marked "Fan & Unsolicited". Briefly, Ken's post is very close to actuality.
It seems that KC continues to divide opinions fairly evenly.
"May we have the clarity to see our work, the courage to embrace it, and the capacity to discharge it."
