Robert Fripp - Live at Café Campus, Ste Foy, Quebec, 8/16/79

Awesome bootleg recording of Fripp doing a Frippertronics show in Quebec, 1979. He solos all over the place throughout this set.

I got this show at Dime and it was originally uploaded by kingfrippson, so credit goes to them. I did a little work on the files afterward, putting all seven back together, normalizing the complete show, trimming the cuts between tracks so they're not as obvious and then cutting all the files back into seven individual tracks, but that's all. I've got a lossless version of my edit that I can share upon request, but you can still get the original files over Dime along with tons of other great Fripp shows.

UPDATE: Sorry guys, but Fripp's lawyers are becoming mighty feisty regarding his solo material. With that said, I'm not going to be posting any Fripp for a while, but I may post this again down the road as part of something special. Keep an eye peeled!

Robert Fripp - Live at Café Campus, Ste Foy, Quebec, 8/16/79

01 1756 / Under Heavy Manners
02 1753 To 1755
03 1752
04 1751 To 1752
05 Red Two Scorer
06 God Save The Queen
07 The Zero Of The Signified

Daryl Hall - Sacred Songs

If there was ever an example of people just not getting it, Sacred Songs is it.

Daryl Hall, fearing that his artistic abilities were being smothered by his success with John Oates, decided to record an album on his own. After bumping into his friend, Robert Fripp, it was decided that Fripp would produce the album and off they went. A lot of people were understandably confused regarding what to expect of a supposed Hall & Fripp album. On the surface it certainly sounds like Hall & Oates but once you listen a little closer the differences start to show. Lyrics about two women named Babs that might be the same person, songs about life as business and vice versa, truly mature songs about how perplexing love is, mentions of magick, all backed with Fripp's guitar and fascinating production skills, it becomes clear that this is certainly not a Hall & Oates album.

Daryl Hall wrote all the songs but two, the Frippertronics solo Urban Landscape and NYCNY, a kind of progressive punk ode to New York with music written by Fripp and lyrics by Hall. The songs all have a semi-serious, sober vibe about them although the production is concise and filled with fun little touches throughout. Babs and Babs shifts into a Frippertronics chill-out mid-way through only to flip back into the proper song full throttle and end with a meeting of both worlds. Don't Leave Me Alone With Her fades all the way out only to come right back and keep chugging away. NYCNY ends with what sounds like a locked groove or a skip on a record, only to have someone lift the tone arm, all completely audible on the recording.

Due in part to Hall's then label, RCA, and manager Tommy Mottola (of Sony fame), the album was denied release due to fears it was uncommercial. Hall and Fripp's reaction was to share copies of the album with dj's, writers and fans in a push to get the word out. The album finally saw the light of day in 1980 and didn't sell badly, but the label didn't support it or release any singles, damning it to obscurity. As bad as that is, what's worse is the debacle that followed with Fripp's first solo album, Exposure. Hall contributed vocals to eight of that album's songs but Mottola again decided to butt in. This time he told Fripp that he would only allow two of Hall's vocals to appear on the album unless the album was credited to Hall & Fripp and released on RCA. Fripp kept two Hall vocals and had the rest re-recorded by other performers, although versions of most of Hall's performances for the album have been released as of 2006 via Fripp's own DGM label on a two disc reissue of Exposure.

Sacred Songs did see a CD reissue with Hall's two contributions to the initial release of Exposure added as bonus tracks, but that has gone out of print and the album is unavailable even as a digital purchase, so I'm featuring it here today for download. The best thing I can tell you to expect is more than you probably do. It's poppy enough you might be able to slip some of the songs on soft rock radio but this is not a pop album in the normal sense. It's also not a Hall & Fripp or Fripp & Hall album. Fripp's contributions are great and can be heard and felt throughout, but Hall is the main attraction. This is a really great record that has been forced to languish in obscurity, and that's truly unfortunate. I hope you give it a chance, you might be just as surprised by how great it is as I was, and you might find it stuck on repeat just as I have.


Daryl Hall - Sacred Songs

01 Sacred Songs
02 Something In 4/4 Time
03 Babs and Babs
04 Urban Landscape
05 NYCNY
06 The Farther Away I Am
07 Why Was It So Easy
08 Don't Leave Me Alone With Her
09 Survive
10 Without Tears

Robert Fripp - God Save The Queen / Under Heavy Manners

Oh how I am tired. Ever woken up at one in the morning to find you might be suffering from a potentially severe sleep disorder that causes you to scream out for no logically clear reason about things that make no sense? Didn't sleep well after that, although the fact I couldn't NOT sleep means I'm not suffering from insomnia which I suppose is a good thing. Anyway, the funny part is I was listening to this very record while falling asleep which leads me to wonder if it might have affected my state. I suppose one shouldn't listen to things which might affect them but this is some good shit! Maybe I need Breathe Right strips or something.

Anyway, in the recent Bowie post I mentioned my lack of knowledge regarding Fripp and Belew and requested some guidance. I want to thank everyone who wrote me which includes Roger Camden, Stanley, Anonymous (beefheartfan) and Nathan Moore (I'll be responding to you soon Nathan!), for your advice which has been quite helpful. I've found that the King Crimson stuff really isn't my thing as it just doesn't add up for me, but Fripp's work with Eno, his productions for Daryl Hall and Peter Gabriel, his group the League Of Gentlemen and his solo records are all pretty incredible! (No Pussyfooting) kinda drags but the music is so beautiful and Fripp's later pieces with Eno are amazing. Fripp's supposed AOR trio of albums are rather good if not totally off the wall, with Peter Gabriel's PG 2 ("Scratch") probably being the most sensible of the three, Hall's falling somewhere between his work with Oates and Fripp's Zen Garden vibes, and Fripp's Exposure being totally insane to the point I have no idea how it could have been labeled AOR by anyone. Exposure is incredible though, and from there I listed to the League Of Gentlemen album which is excellent and very much of it's early eighties dance/punk era. But that's when I finally heard some solo Frippertronics recordings and fell madly in love with God Save The Queen / Under Heavy Manners, one of the only albums Fripp has not reissued since it's original release.

I haven't gotten to do much research as to why GSTQ/UHM remains unavailable, but I suppose it has something to do with Under Heavy Manners, the song, also appearing on the League Of Gentlemen album and a reworked version of The Zero Of The Signified, the album's closer, also appearing on the League album as God Save The King. It's a shame though that the Frippertronics pieces haven't been reissued as they are stunningly beautiful. I've read commentary from other listeners that many see those pieces as repetitive and boring, but for myself they were just the opposite. Relaxing, beautiful, stretching out as far as they need to, it's the type of thing Eno would be proud of. And the non-Frippertronics tracks, labeled by Fripp as Discotronics for featuring bass and percussion augmenting his guitar loops, I've also seen get bashed for supposedly not changing very often, but The Zero has all kinds of little subtle shifts before the rhythm drops out leaving only Fripp's loops, and David Byrne's vocal appearance on Manners, odd and more disjointed than usual with all the lyrics written by Fripp, is stunning. Maybe Fripp thought this album, which is clearly meant to be taken as two separate sets of recordings, was damaged by this split, but I thoroughly disagree.

After having found some low bitrate MP3s of this album, a friend on a private site (who wishes to remain anonymous) hooked me up with a beautiful lossless rip that sounds so clear it's almost not believable that it's a vinyl transfer. He also gave me the artwork and liner notes for the album which are very informative, and I decided to share these all back with you, my beloved readers! So, please enjoy this ridiculously clean rip of the God/Manners album and I hope you are just as enchanted as I am. Now I'm going to do some research about sleep disorders in my family tree.


Robert Fripp - God Save The Queen / Under Heavy Manners

UPDATE: Sorry guys, but Fripp's lawyers are becoming mighty feisty regarding his solo material. With that said, I'm not going to be posting any Fripp for a while, but I may post this again down the road as part of something special. Keep an eye peeled!

01 Red Two Scorer
02 God Save The Queen
03 1983
04 Under Heavy Manners
05 The Zero Of The Signified


PS - Gotta drop you a line and chat Michael! Thanks again for the kind words.