Discipline (album)
Encyclopedia
Discipline is an album by the band King Crimson
, released in 1981. This album was King Crimson's first album following a seven-year hiatus. Only founder Robert Fripp
and later addition Bill Bruford
remained from previous incarnations. The rest of the band was Adrian Belew
(guitar, vocals), who had played alongside David Bowie
, Frank Zappa
, and Talking Heads
, and Peter Gabriel
alumnus Tony Levin
(bass, stick
). The album resulted in a more updated 1980s new wave
pre-techno
sound mixed with the previous dark and heavy sounds of the 1970s.
" literally means "please wait".
The original release of Discipline featured only one version of "Matte Kudasai", with a guitar part by Robert Fripp
that was removed from the track on a subsequent release of the album. The latest versions of the album to be released contains both versions of the song - track 3, "Matte Kudasai", without Robert Fripp's original guitar part; and track 8, "Matte Kudasai (alternative version)", with the guitar part included.
The lyrics of "Indiscipline
" were based on a letter written to Adrian Belew
by his then-wife Margaret, concerning a sculpture that she had made.
"Thela Hun Ginjeet
" is an anagram
of "heat in the jungle". When it was first performed live, some of its lyrics were improvised around an illicit recording made by Robert Fripp of his neighbours having a vicious argument when he was living in New York; this recording is featured on the track "NY3" on Fripp's solo album Exposure
. While the track was being recorded for the Discipline album, Adrian Belew, walking around Notting Hill Gate
in London
with a tape recorder
looking for inspiration, was harassed first by a gang and then by the police. On returning to the studio, he gave a distraught account to his bandmates of what had just happened to him. This account was recorded by Fripp without Belew's knowledge as well, and is featured on the Discipline version of the track (as well as almost all live versions), in place of those earlier lyrics that were based on Fripp's New York recording.
"The Sheltering Sky" is named after and partially inspired by the 1949 novel
of the same name by Paul Bowles
. Bowles is often associated with the Beat generation
, which would be an inspiration for King Crimson's subsequent studio album Beat
.
Live versions of "Elephant Talk", "Indiscipline", and "Thela Hun Ginjeet" included partial vocal improvization during spoken-word parts. One such example can be found in the August 13, 1982 performance, which, as of February 19, 2007, was still available for free download in both MP3
and FLAC
formats from DGM
.
The band used the Celtic knot
on the original LP cover without knowing that it was copyrighted, and for the most recent releases, it is replaced with a similar knot redesigned by Steve Ball (used with his permission). The back cover features the statement "Discipline is never an end in itself, only a means to an end".
, Bill Bruford
, Robert Fripp
and Tony Levin
.
King Crimson
King Crimson are a rock band founded in London, England in 1969. Often categorised as a foundational progressive rock group, the band have incorporated diverse influences and instrumentation during their history...
, released in 1981. This album was King Crimson's first album following a seven-year hiatus. Only founder Robert Fripp
Robert Fripp
Robert Fripp is an English guitarist, composer and record producer. He was ranked 42nd on Rolling Stone magazine's 2003 list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time" and #47 on Gibson.com’s "Top 50 Guitarists of All Time". Among rock guitarists, Fripp is a master of crosspicking, a technique...
and later addition Bill Bruford
Bill Bruford
William Scott "Bill" Bruford is an English drummer, percussionist, composer, producer, and record label owner. He was the original drummer for the progressive rock group Yes, from 1968-1972. Bruford has performed for numerous popular acts since the early 1970s, including a stint as touring...
remained from previous incarnations. The rest of the band was Adrian Belew
Adrian Belew
Adrian Belew is an American guitarist, singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and record producer...
(guitar, vocals), who had played alongside David Bowie
David Bowie
David Bowie is an English musician, actor, record producer and arranger. A major figure for over four decades in the world of popular music, Bowie is widely regarded as an innovator, particularly for his work in the 1970s...
, Frank Zappa
Frank Zappa
Frank Vincent Zappa was an American composer, singer-songwriter, electric guitarist, record producer and film director. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Zappa wrote rock, jazz, orchestral and musique concrète works. He also directed feature-length films and music videos, and designed...
, and Talking Heads
Talking Heads
Talking Heads were an American New Wave and avant-garde band formed in 1975 in New York City and active until 1991. The band comprised David Byrne, Chris Frantz, Tina Weymouth and Jerry Harrison...
, and Peter Gabriel
Peter Gabriel
Peter Brian Gabriel is an English singer, musician, and songwriter who rose to fame as the lead vocalist and flautist of the progressive rock group Genesis. After leaving Genesis, Gabriel went on to a successful solo career...
alumnus Tony Levin
Tony Levin
Tony Levin is an American progressive rock musician, specializing in bass guitar, Chapman stick and upright bass ....
(bass, stick
Chapman Stick
The Chapman Stick is an electric musical instrument devised by Emmett Chapman in the early 1970s. A member of the guitar family, the Chapman Stick usually has ten or twelve individually tuned strings and has been used on music recordings to play bass lines, melody lines, chords or textures...
). The album resulted in a more updated 1980s new wave
New Wave music
New Wave is a subgenre of :rock music that emerged in the mid to late 1970s alongside punk rock. The term at first generally was synonymous with punk rock before being considered a genre in its own right that incorporated aspects of electronic and experimental music, mod subculture, disco and 1960s...
pre-techno
Techno
Techno is a form of electronic dance music that emerged in Detroit, Michigan in the United States during the mid to late 1980s. The first recorded use of the word techno, in reference to a genre of music, was in 1988...
sound mixed with the previous dark and heavy sounds of the 1970s.
Song notes
"Matte KudasaiMatte Kudasai
Matte Kudasai is a single by the progressive rock band King Crimson, released in 1981. Its tracks are from the album Discipline ....
" literally means "please wait".
The original release of Discipline featured only one version of "Matte Kudasai", with a guitar part by Robert Fripp
Robert Fripp
Robert Fripp is an English guitarist, composer and record producer. He was ranked 42nd on Rolling Stone magazine's 2003 list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time" and #47 on Gibson.com’s "Top 50 Guitarists of All Time". Among rock guitarists, Fripp is a master of crosspicking, a technique...
that was removed from the track on a subsequent release of the album. The latest versions of the album to be released contains both versions of the song - track 3, "Matte Kudasai", without Robert Fripp's original guitar part; and track 8, "Matte Kudasai (alternative version)", with the guitar part included.
The lyrics of "Indiscipline
Indiscipline
"Indiscipline" is a song by King Crimson, from the 1981 album Discipline. The song has become a fan favorite over the years and was often played live. On the Beat tour, for example, it closed all of the shows and began with a Bill Bruford drum solo...
" were based on a letter written to Adrian Belew
Adrian Belew
Adrian Belew is an American guitarist, singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and record producer...
by his then-wife Margaret, concerning a sculpture that she had made.
"Thela Hun Ginjeet
Thela Hun Ginjeet
Thela Hun Ginjeet is a single by the band King Crimson, released in 1981. Its tracks are from the album Discipline . The song name is an anagram of "heat in the jungle", which is a reference to crime in the city...
" is an anagram
Anagram
An anagram is a type of word play, the result of rearranging the letters of a word or phrase to produce a new word or phrase, using all the original letters exactly once; e.g., orchestra = carthorse, A decimal point = I'm a dot in place, Tom Marvolo Riddle = I am Lord Voldemort. Someone who...
of "heat in the jungle". When it was first performed live, some of its lyrics were improvised around an illicit recording made by Robert Fripp of his neighbours having a vicious argument when he was living in New York; this recording is featured on the track "NY3" on Fripp's solo album Exposure
Exposure (Robert Fripp album)
-Side two:-2006 bonus disc third edition:-2006 bonus tracks :-Personnel:* Robert Fripp — guitars, Frippertronics* Daryl Hall — vocals on "Preface," "You Burn Me Up," "North Star," "Disengage II," "Chicago" disc two, "New York" disc two, "Exposure" bonus track, "Mary" bonus track; piano on "You Burn...
. While the track was being recorded for the Discipline album, Adrian Belew, walking around Notting Hill Gate
Notting Hill Gate
Notting Hill Gate is one of the main thoroughfares of Notting Hill, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Historically the street was a location for toll gates, from which it derives its modern name.- Location :...
in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
with a tape recorder
Tape recorder
An audio tape recorder, tape deck, reel-to-reel tape deck, cassette deck or tape machine is an audio storage device that records and plays back sounds, including articulated voices, usually using magnetic tape, either wound on a reel or in a cassette, for storage...
looking for inspiration, was harassed first by a gang and then by the police. On returning to the studio, he gave a distraught account to his bandmates of what had just happened to him. This account was recorded by Fripp without Belew's knowledge as well, and is featured on the Discipline version of the track (as well as almost all live versions), in place of those earlier lyrics that were based on Fripp's New York recording.
"The Sheltering Sky" is named after and partially inspired by the 1949 novel
The Sheltering Sky
The Sheltering Sky is a 1949 novel by Paul Bowles. The story centers on Port and Kit Moresby, a married couple originally from New York who travel to the North African desert accompanied by their friend Tunner...
of the same name by Paul Bowles
Paul Bowles
Paul Frederic Bowles was an American expatriate composer, author, and translator.Following a cultured middle-class upbringing in New York City, during which he displayed a talent for music and writing, Bowles pursued his education at the University of Virginia before making various trips to Paris...
. Bowles is often associated with the Beat generation
Beat generation
The Beat Generation refers to a group of American post-WWII writers who came to prominence in the 1950s, as well as the cultural phenomena that they both documented and inspired...
, which would be an inspiration for King Crimson's subsequent studio album Beat
Beat (King Crimson album)
Beat is an album by the British rock band King Crimson, released in 1982.Of King Crimson's thirteen studio albums, this is the only album that does not have a title track, although its title is included in the name of the song "Heartbeat"....
.
Live versions of "Elephant Talk", "Indiscipline", and "Thela Hun Ginjeet" included partial vocal improvization during spoken-word parts. One such example can be found in the August 13, 1982 performance, which, as of February 19, 2007, was still available for free download in both MP3
MP3
MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III, more commonly referred to as MP3, is a patented digital audio encoding format using a form of lossy data compression...
and FLAC
FLAC
FLAC is a codec which allows digital audio to be losslessly compressed such that file size is reduced without any information being lost...
formats from DGM
Discipline Global Mobile
If you were looking for the Italian Prog-Power Metal band, see DGM .Discipline Global Mobile, alias DGM, is a small independent record label company started in 1992 by Robert Fripp of King Crimson. In addition to running a mail-order music shop, it has offered Crimson/Fripp and related live...
.
The band used the Celtic knot
Celtic knot
Celtic knots are a variety of knots and stylized graphical representations of knots used for decoration, used extensively in the Celtic style of Insular art. These knots are most known for their adaptation for use in the ornamentation of Christian monuments and manuscripts, such as the 8th-century...
on the original LP cover without knowing that it was copyrighted, and for the most recent releases, it is replaced with a similar knot redesigned by Steve Ball (used with his permission). The back cover features the statement "Discipline is never an end in itself, only a means to an end".
Track listing
All songs written by Adrian BelewAdrian Belew
Adrian Belew is an American guitarist, singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and record producer...
, Bill Bruford
Bill Bruford
William Scott "Bill" Bruford is an English drummer, percussionist, composer, producer, and record label owner. He was the original drummer for the progressive rock group Yes, from 1968-1972. Bruford has performed for numerous popular acts since the early 1970s, including a stint as touring...
, Robert Fripp
Robert Fripp
Robert Fripp is an English guitarist, composer and record producer. He was ranked 42nd on Rolling Stone magazine's 2003 list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time" and #47 on Gibson.com’s "Top 50 Guitarists of All Time". Among rock guitarists, Fripp is a master of crosspicking, a technique...
and Tony Levin
Tony Levin
Tony Levin is an American progressive rock musician, specializing in bass guitar, Chapman stick and upright bass ....
.
Side one
- "Elephant Talk" – 4:43
- "Frame by FrameFrame by FrameFrame by Frame is a song performed by the progressive rock band King Crimson. The song appears on the 1981 album Discipline as the second track. It is 5:09 in length. The time signature in the chorus is 7/4 and the guitar/drum rhythms can also be considered polyrhythmic to each other. At 4:21 Belew...
" – 5:09 - "Matte KudasaiMatte KudasaiMatte Kudasai is a single by the progressive rock band King Crimson, released in 1981. Its tracks are from the album Discipline ....
" – 3:47 - "IndisciplineIndiscipline"Indiscipline" is a song by King Crimson, from the 1981 album Discipline. The song has become a fan favorite over the years and was often played live. On the Beat tour, for example, it closed all of the shows and began with a Bill Bruford drum solo...
" – 4:33
Side two
- "Thela Hun GinjeetThela Hun GinjeetThela Hun Ginjeet is a single by the band King Crimson, released in 1981. Its tracks are from the album Discipline . The song name is an anagram of "heat in the jungle", which is a reference to crime in the city...
" – 6:26 - "The Sheltering SkyThe Sheltering Sky (King Crimson song)The Sheltering Sky is a 1981 song by the progressive rock band King Crimson. The track is 8:22 in length and is entirely instrumental. It appears as the sixth track on the album Discipline. The title of the song came from a 1949 novel of the same name by Paul Bowles. Bowles is also associated with...
" – 8:22 - "Discipline" – 5:13
Personnel
- Adrian BelewAdrian BelewAdrian Belew is an American guitarist, singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and record producer...
– guitarGuitarThe guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
, lead vocals - Robert FrippRobert FrippRobert Fripp is an English guitarist, composer and record producer. He was ranked 42nd on Rolling Stone magazine's 2003 list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time" and #47 on Gibson.com’s "Top 50 Guitarists of All Time". Among rock guitarists, Fripp is a master of crosspicking, a technique...
– guitar, devices (Frippertronics)FrippertronicsFrippertronics was a specific tape looping technique used by Robert Fripp. It evolved from a system of tape looping originally developed in the electronic music studios of the early 1960s that was first used by composers Terry Riley and Pauline Oliveros and made popular through its use in ambient... - Tony LevinTony LevinTony Levin is an American progressive rock musician, specializing in bass guitar, Chapman stick and upright bass ....
– Chapman stickChapman StickThe Chapman Stick is an electric musical instrument devised by Emmett Chapman in the early 1970s. A member of the guitar family, the Chapman Stick usually has ten or twelve individually tuned strings and has been used on music recordings to play bass lines, melody lines, chords or textures...
, bassBass guitarThe bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
, backing vocals - Bill BrufordBill BrufordWilliam Scott "Bill" Bruford is an English drummer, percussionist, composer, producer, and record label owner. He was the original drummer for the progressive rock group Yes, from 1968-1972. Bruford has performed for numerous popular acts since the early 1970s, including a stint as touring...
– drumsDrum kitA drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
, percussionPercussion instrumentA percussion instrument is any object which produces a sound when hit with an implement or when it is shaken, rubbed, scraped, or otherwise acted upon in a way that sets the object into vibration...
Charts
Album| Year | Chart | Position |
|---|---|---|
| 1981 | Billboard Billboard (magazine) Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis... Pop Albums |
45 |
External links
- Wiki with song lyrics at fan-site Elephant Talk (inspired by Disciplines "Elephant Talk")