Giles Giles & Fripp
The Cheerful Insanity of Giles Giles & Fripp
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It need not be said that guitarist Robert Fripp has, over the last 30 years, achieved a mythical, deified status, while at the same time not gaining huge superstardom. His talent is immeasurable as an innovator and player - HOWEVER, where he is now recognized as a leader in the music world, it begs a second look and listen to Fripp's more humble beginnings, in a setting some might find unsettling. Here is Robert Fripp pre-King Crimson, 1968, as 1/3 of a trio led by future Crimson cohorts, drummer/vocalist Mike Giles and Giles' brother Peter on bass. Their singular album for UK Decca's Deram subsidiary in 1968 disappeared without a trace upon its initial release, but the benefit of time and technology allows us to revisit this rather unique collection that simultaneously borders on cool jazz, proto-progressive rock and, well, cheerful insanity!
These reviews are written and posted to rec.music.dementia as a service to those who do not have the reviewed recordings, as a means to acquaint those readers with the recorded material and the artists. Any quoted lyrics are included solely for enhancement, copyrights remain with the original owners, I make no claims. I am not affiliated with The Dr Demento Show, On The Radio Productions, etc. (except like, I was in the, like, Funny Five or something...uh huh huh huh)
Giles Giles & Fripp
The Cheerful Insanity of Giles Giles & Fripp
Deram Records DES 18019 (1968)
Deram Records UK, DML/SML 1022 (1968)
UK reissue 1975, "World Of" series, Deram SPA 423
CD reissue 1992, Deram 820 965-2
Side One: The Saga of Rodney Toady
- North Meadow
- Newly-Weds
- One in a Million
- Call Tomorrow
- Digging My Lawn
- Little Children
- The Crukster
- Thursday Morning
Side Two: Just George
- How Do They Know
- Elephant Song
- The Sun Is Shining
- Suite No. 1
- Erudite Eyes
Bonus CD tracks
- She Is Loaded (unreleased)
- Under The Sky (unreleased)
- One in a Million (mono single, Deram DM188)
- Newly-Weds (mono single, Deram DM188, alternate take)
- Thursday Morning (mono single, Deram DM210)
- Thursday Morning (stereo single, unreleased)
Boy, is this one hard-to-classify album. It is also quickly becoming one of my favorites. There is a lot of musical worth in between the wacky and often sick lyrics on this collection. Despite the fact that the first thing people will say in reference to this album is FRIPP (myself included), the album really and truly belongs to Mike Giles. Yes, Fripp wrote 3 of the selections on the original album (and one of the CD-only bonus cuts), but it is Mike Giles' voice, compositions and drumming style that dominate this effort. Of course, it is Fripp's presence that gives the album its unique sound, between his unconventional playing style and his sparse but effective Mellotron use. The nicest surprise is that, knowing full well what was to come a scant year later in the form of IN THE COURT OF THE CRIMSON KING, the first listening reveals Wow, this swings!!! *And* it's whacked!!!
It starts out innocently enough with "North Meadow", a song about the coming of spring, trees swinging in the breeze, you get the idear. The music is surprisingly sparse yet full-sounding, if there is such a thing - the trombone section punctuates the break before the verse, but each verse begins with simply bass and drums backing their rather manly harmonies - this is a West Country band, remember, the UK equivalent of country bumpkins...however it gets a little cosmopolitan in the section after each verse, with an interesting chord pattern over which Fripp does some positively jazz noodling. This repeats and fades - the song is basically two verses and nothing more, strangely it seems quite a soothing piece.
Then the narrative begins: The Saga of Rodney Toady. Fripp's amateurish, halting narration, complete with his West Country accent, is absolutely hilarious, telling the sad story of Rodney, who was fat and ugly and no one liked him! Bits from the story punctuate the songs on Side One, with Fripp aided and abetted by the Giles brothers playing various characters in Rodney's life. Needless to say, this drives this album well over the line into accepted dementia!
"Newly-Weds" was a single in England. Why it did not become a hit is evident in the fact that it begins as a jazz waltz on the verses but moves to a not-quite-heavier 4/4 rock beat on the choruses - however Fripp's guitar on this section is volume-pedaled swells only, and Mike Giles is still playing with his brushes! So while it has the rhythm of a harder tune, the sounds are still in the jazz idiom. The song speaks of the mechanics of marriage, worrying about the proverbial wolves at the door, making the marriage work - strange topic for the lovin' Sixties...The single version (included on the CD reissue) is a different take, with a heavily-compressed guitar and piano fanfare tacked onto the beginning and end of the tune.
Fripp does some playful Mellotron work on "One in a Million", which also is a rather workaday topic - a gentleman runs a shop. His wife will be 53 on Monday. He has insurance. That's about it. Very basic music, just GG&F on their respective close-miked instruments playing a simple little 4/4 rhythm. But Fripp adds little flourishes using the flute and trumpet tapes of the Mellotron, making a kind of "doopy" sound, which played against Mike Giles' low and confidential vocal, sounds downright Howdy Doody. The rhythmic playing on this tune is very tight indeed.
"Call Tomorrow" is a pastoral, rather mournful dirge-like tune, no drums, just ethereal organ with left-hand piano bangs (Who's that banging on the piano? I dunno!) setting up a song about the vicar's daughter, rumors, and the Sunday-minded people in the parish. Devious little tune but quite nice, and a bit challenging melodically.
Quite a fun track is "Digging My Lawn", a sprightly jazz waltz regarding indiscretions and jealous husbands, also containing a bad pun or 2. The instrumentation remains solely GG&F, not even a hint of effects on Fripp's guitar.
"Little Children" bears no resemblance to the Billy J. Kramer hit of the same name, it is a Fripp composition in 2 parts - first a bossa nova speaking of the innocence of children, their distaste for love and its affectations at that age, followed by a downright rhumba having to do with the purity of Downshire Hill, whatever that may be :-) Vocal backing by the popular English singing group The Breakaways (that is to say, popular in England). Perhaps my pick for weak track of the album, something about using the word "cloy" as a verb rather than an adjective, I dunno.....
Definitely some Frippery abounds on "The Crukster", a spoken word piece using Fripp's frenetic guitar as a backdrop for Mike Giles' poem of despair and angst - it even breaks the softer jazz approach of the rest of the album by including some downright horrifying studio echo feedback and explosions as part of the track.
Side One concludes with a neat little Baroque pop ditty in "Thursday Morning", which was also released as a single. The guitar provides the harmonic framework, perhaps in place of harpsichord in a more traditional setting, there are also strings and woodwinds on this track, quite pretty.
Not to be overlooked is the bass work of Peter Giles, who also wrote a number
of the songs on the album. After recording this album he sort-of retired from
music to become a computer programmer, yet still came back to take over bass
duties from Greg Lake on the second King Crimson album
In
The Wake of Poseidon. He provides a solid foundation for the rhythmic
interplay between Mike Giles and Robert Fripp - which, in a trio setting, is
very important.
We open Side Two with a bit of a fanfare from the trio, opening up "How Do They Know?", which again, settles into a cool jazz groove with some admittedly confusing lyrics.
This sets off Side Two's verbal interjections: Mike and Peter Giles, each in their own channel, spouting quatrains in various West Country accents along the lines of "I know a man, and his name is George." "George is his name, and a man I know." "Know I George, his name and a man?" "Man his name is George and I know." This is varied between the tracks on Side Two, using different characters and different variations on the order of the words. Very bizarre indeed, but very funny!
Which brings us to the winner and champion of the album.....the musically and lyrically brilliant "Elephant Song"! A very interesting sound as a low-mixed Fripp distorted guitar is put against the wall o'trombones on a great intro melody, which leads into a narrative on the verses. The song is bizarre at the very least, totally whacked at the very most! In a fake upper crust accent, Mike Giles weaves a yarn about a ticked-off talking elephant and other characters at the circus including the sweets lady during intermission...It's indescribable, you just have to hear it (yeah, copout for the reviewer - but you just gotta get this album, if even for this one song!)
"The Sun Is Shining" is their archetypal Moon/June parody, complete with the ever-present trombones and strings, and the Breakaways sounding like they're having a good time sending up the old tunes on their answering phrases, tons o'dramatic vibrato!
"Suite No. 1" is Fripp's tour de force, a three-part composition in the strict classical sonata form, consisting of an introductory up-tempo section, a contrasting slow middle and a final section reminiscient of the first. It is basically classical music with a jazz rhythmic framework, something you might hear on an old Swingle Singers or Claude Bolling album. It is an ambitious piece and quite enjoyable.
Fripp also has the final composition, "Erudite Eyes". Yet another jazz waltz, but this time we hear slight tinges of what is to come later, as the bridging sections between chorus and verse contain what would later become classic Fripp guitar riding over the top of the band, despite the jazz waltz status! The tune disintegrates into a random, neo-psych jam that would definitely later be explored further on "Moonchild" from the In the Court of the Crimson King album. Kind of a strange denouement for such an ambitious album but certainly indicative of the times.
When I read an interview with Emerson, Lake and Palmer in Goldmine magazine a number of years ago, Greg Lake spoke almost derisively about this album and the GG&F collective, in that they used to "dress up like cripples and sing the most ridiculous songs"...Maybe so, but again, wasn't that partially indicative of the times?, when The Beatles could get away with having not only Magic Alex but The Fool as part of their entourage, anything goes and it usually did...I think Giles Giles and Fripp should be commended for saying something different within the framework of those times. A lot of it is very workaday British, which for modern American listeners, for example, might be foreign enough to be considered a novelty, but it is certainly far enough off-center to be revered and enjoyed as a true member of the Demented music genre. Cheerful Insanity, indeed!
Comments, questions, etc. to powersalad2@powersalad.com Hope you all enjoyed the review. © 2000 Chris Mezzolesta [powersalad2@powersalad.com] Email for permission before reposting, all reposts must be intact and include copyright notice and name of original author. Images scanned from vinyl or CD booklet, no infringement intended, for demonstration/informational purposes only. Reviews are also archived at: http://php.indiana.edu/~jbmorris/