Responses To The Guestbook:
1. Curt Golden points out that it is Hamlet, not Iago, to whom the attribution "Assume the virtue" belongs. This is not the first time that Curt has indicated the error of my ways. Thank you Curt.
2. David Wilkins presents convincing arguments as to why Fripp really is King Crimson's bandleader, even though he denies it. Ahhh, if only life in Crimson were that simple.
I accept that I have a role to play in King Crimson, but the description "bandleader" doesn't accurately convey the sense or feel of what that role is. And why would Fripp deny, over a period of years, a function which he served if he felt the description were accurate? Self-serving as he is, Fripp is not that perverse. Adrian's description of the role is "vision", which is rather grand. "Navigator" or "pilot" is close, and feels more appropriate, but only to the degree that none of the other members have a strong sense of the next step. "Bandleader" simply doesn't resonate, and never has, with what I do in and for Crimson.
Since Crimson went off the road in 1996, and was effectively no longer a "full-time" operation, my function in the role has changed direction / developed / recalibrated. "Convenor" is now part of the job description. Also "negotiating degrees of participation in Crimson's future". And, finally, accepting responsibility for making the call when it became obvious that, otherwise, Crimson wouldn't work again. To put that slightly differently, it became apparent that unless I took the initiative, the Crimson spirit "would not have had a suitable vehicle for manifestation", if you'll forgive the ponderous prose.
The period between the last Double Trio work (1996), through the ProjeKcts to the about-to-be-becoming Double Duo (October 1999), feels to me very much like the period between the end of the first Crimson in December 1969 and the arrival of the "Larks' Tongues" Crimson in July 1972. Unsettled and unsettling, in process, between stages, on the way to where it's going. Very much an in-between experience known to Guitar Craft students as The Great Divide.
But hey! In Crimson you never know. If I do become Bandleader, the Crimson Kingpin, I'll let you know.
3. Brian Thomson makes clear and clarifying contributions regarding the Microsoft debate, which have helped my own thinking. Thank you , Brian.
An analogy: I am well versed in the operations of major record labels, and the raison d'etre of the record industry. If Brian were to tell me that his new group had developed a "strategic relationship" with Megabucks Music Treasures (Quality In Quantity) Records, he would find my congratulations tempered by expressions of grief, outbreaks of tears & wailing, and fits of hysterical laughter. Brian might intuit from this encouraging response that I held reasonable concerns for his group's future wellbeing.
Emory's post is also germane to the subject. To what degree are we able to engage with the operations of a flawed culture, and involve ourselves with its agents, when we doubt their motives & see their shortcomings? Can we "change the world" by participation? If so, how?
Well, I can't change the world. It's too big for a short guitarist from Dorset. But it's possible I may be able to accept responsibility for the vertically-challenged part of the world I inhabit. So, I direct my attention towards what I may contribute to guitar playing, learning to play the guitar, and how to make music available in the world (to date, mainly through a group and a record company). I am keenly aware of my own failings, which is how I am able to recognise failings in others (for example, life in the basement). But I have not yet elected to set to rights the world of computers & computing.
Meanwhile, our dealings with Microsoft suggests there are good people working there. When I engaged with majors from the inside, where possible I established personal connections with the small people that actually did the work. One of the telling facts I learned was this: a lot of the little people who go to work in the music industry do so initially because they love music. That's also how a lot of professional musicians begin. "Keeping the dream alive" (to quote David Singleton quoting another), in front of all the possible evidence as to why the dream has died, is real work.
"The simplest is the most difficult to discharge superbly."
