Archive of the former Yahoo!Groups mailing list: Mellotronists

<< > and of course, peter giles never (officially) played bass with crimson

Ahem. Are we forgetting 'Poseidon'? >>

no, mike, just checking everyone's attention span :-)

I actually meant he was sort of drafted in, as were a great number of
musicians during the poseidon/lizard/islands period, rather than allowed to
contribute as a full-time member.
no-one else could have rendered catfood quite like he; it was the remainder
of 21csb who took it rather briskly, and the lack of tippety-tappety piano
(the cat itself) sort of let it down. in fact, peter giles didn't like the
piano and felt they might have managed more than their one top of the pops
appearance without it.....
his whole tenure during the poseidon sessions has a temporary feel about it;
g,g,&m were really far more interested in their own project by this time and
were helping fripp out at a bad time for the band, while peter's presence on
the album is often forgotten because greg lake and gordon haskell also
handled bass duties for the band at various times. and there's the disputes
over writing credits, and the whole future of the band in jeopardy, with
speculation that fripp might join elp.....

sid's book is a bit vague about this period, especially as to why greg
relinquished 4-string duties before quitting the group altogether. fripp is
quoted as saying that "peter was a better bass player anyway", in which it's
possible to detect a hint of sour grapes; not only had greg deserted him too,
but he'd extracted payment for these vocal sessions in the form of the
crimson pa system which he didn't really need- elp had a huge advance from
atlantic. and emerson, by this time, had publicly announced that he didn't
want to share the stage with a guitarist like fripp... anyway, anyone who's
heard lake's bass playing knows that fripp was talking through his trousers.
if he'd felt badly enough, who knows what might have happened to poseidon?
elton john singing? or brian ferry?

fripp is coming over as more and more of a curmudgeon these days, like he's
the only true crimso, and I was furious with that rag "time out" for being
dismissive of the 21csb line-up as some sort of half-arsed tribute band.
these guys have earned their stripes and were much closer to the spirit of
the original crimson... (&c&c rant rant rant)



d/m400nr1098 and nine basses.