"So I unplugged my shirt, and said, listen I am with this band, and we're making a recording..."
From "Thela Hun Ginjeet" - King Crimson - Discipline
I had heard of Robert Fripp, who was the erstwhile leader though not the front man (he hides), because he had played with David Bowie, notably on Heroes and Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps).
King Crimson formed a new iteration after the demise of the 1970s prog-rock, art rock band versions of itself with Adrian Belew, Tony Levin, and Bill Bruford along with Fripp..
Though I just put the album on the turntable to give it a listen, mostly due to its attractive red cover art with the knot design (as seen on both the shirt and the other accompanying image on this page), the effect produced matched hooking myself up to an electroshock therapy machine. The music at times drove forth urgently with galvanic yet very controlled intensity while at other times textures shifted into ethereal and bucolic wonderment. I was captivated. Discipline quickly became one of my favourite albums, and King Crimson became one of my favourite bands.
This is my third King Crimson shirt featuring the art work from the Discipline album. I bought my first shirt when I saw King Crimson live in concert in 1984 at Pine Knob, but that shirt has been lost in time and space for many years (contrary to what this blog may suggest, shirts, especially T-shirts, do not last forever).My second King Crimson Discipline shirt is a polo-style shirt, which I may display if I actually do not have 365 T-shirts. (Do polo shirts count for this theme?) This shirt, the actual T-shirt, was purchased at another live show in 2006 for the Power to Believe tour.
The shirt mirrors the main theme of the album: discipline. Fripp embodies strong discipline with his precise and complex guitar work. I wear the shirt when I have to remind myself of the importance of discipline to achieve a goal, such as when I am buried in work and have a deadline for a huge project. Today, March 27, I am finishing final grades for one of the schools for whom I teach, and I must remember discipline in all things. The shirts helps: DISCIPLINE.
-chris tower
1303.27 10:40
Photo courtesy of Liesel MK Tower
updated 1403.19 because of the video problem has been fixed, apparently. But the video on this page was taken down because of copyright infringement or some such. So I am replacing what I had here originally with the entire album. Take that Fripp!
