At the risk of over-treating the topic…well, I cain’t hep it, so here we go. Essentially, YouTube’s “suggested” algorithms have come through for the win here, and it just makes sense to put these clips together.
The original
The title track of King Crimson’s 1981 masterpiece Discipline just blew me away on my very first listen, in Brent Holman’s dorm room on the Stanford campus…thirty-six years ago now. By the time we’d got to the last track on the record, I was already stunned and hooked on Crim for life (yeah…the album really is that good), but out of the glorious semi-controlled chaos that is “The Sheltering Sky” (about which I’ve gushed a bit before, on its own), the record then concludes with this polymetric tour-de-force.
Are you friggin’ kidding me?
That sequencing–“Sheltering Sky” into “Discipline” to end the album–is on the shortest of short lists of brilliant mastering layout on any record you care to name. And you know what, folks? The craziest part is that the more you dig inside this piece, the more astonishing it gets, both in its complexity and–ironically–in its minimalist simplicity.
I think you can see this idea illustrated nicely in a couple of the “suggested” clips that YouTube has brought in front of me, of people variously covering the individual parts of “Discipline”. And so we have…
The covers
First, I saw Tom Way covering Bill Bruford’s drum part on the song; that got its own post, but it belongs here too as part of the set.
Sounds pretty note-perfect to me, and the visual of watching him play it puts you much better inside how glorious a part it really is. But hell, that’s just the first one. I also found this cover of Tony Levin’s Stick part, by The Hungarian Stickist.
The story goes that Tony Levin got the gig with the ’80s Crim by being able to play that part right away at the audition, which is pretty mind-blowing in itself. He’s a bass legend for a reason!
And finally, I saw this piano cover of the two guitar parts, together, with what looks like Robert’s part on the top and Adrian’s part on the bottom. This one is truly mesmerising; one can totally see the connection with minimalists like Reich and Glass as Robert “drops a note” against the 5/4, or “adds a note” over Belew’s 16/16…and they keep going, and eventually it catches up again…
Just sensational. And by this time perhaps my point is asserting itself: so much of interest is going on in any one of these parts, that all The Awesome actually might get a bit lost when it comes together. But somehow, the assembly lays out beautifully, and even rocks in its own way. Which is what leads me to conclude with…
The comments
Actually, the very first “suggested” clip I saw wasn’t a full bass cover, but instead was bassist Paul Thompson, at pdbass, highlighting the bass part and giving it some analysis. I think Paul says it all rather well:
And all of this suggesting was probably kicked off by my first discovering the hour-long interview that Rick Beato did with the band which is being assembled to stage the upcoming BEAT tour, playing the music of the ’81-’84 Crimson. In Rick’s interview they cover a little analysis of “Discipline” specifically, and as with everything Beato it’s worth listening to.
At any rate, it occurred to me that these covers should be brought together with the original, and some thoughtful analysis as well. So now, they’re bookmarked…together.
Craftygrass 