| The Saga Of Rodney Toady | | ||||
| 1. North Meadow | | | | | |
| 2. Newly-Weds | | | | ||
| 3. One In A Million | | | | ||
| 4. Call Tomorrow | | | | ||
| 5. Digging My Lawn | | | | ||
| 6. Little Children | | | | ||
| 7. The Crukster | | | | ||
| 8. Thursday Morning | | | | ||
| Just George | | | | ||
| 9. How Do They Know? | | | | ||
| 10. Elephant Song | | | | ||
| 11. The Sun Is Shining | | | |||
| 12. Suite No. 1 | | | | | |
| 13. Erudite Eyes | | | | | |
| Bonus tracks | |||||
| 14. She Is Loaded | | | | | |
| 15. Under The Sky | | | | | |
| 16. One In A Million (mono single) | | | | ||
| 17. Newly-Weds (mono single) | | | | ||
| 18. Thursday Morning (mono single) | | | | ||
| 19. Thursday Morning (stereo single) | | | |
Elephant Talk, the official web page for King Crimson enthusiasts, recently described this album with the following sentence: "Hard to believe they became King Crimson". It would be difficult to disagree with this assessment.
For several years, The Cheerful Insanity Of Giles, Giles & Fripp was a befuddling album to record collectors who sought to investigate the origins of King Crimson therein. Due to a 1992 CD reissue, more and more fans around the world have been able to share in the bemusement.
The sole GGF album contains few hints of the watershed King Crimson project which was to commence only one year later. Instead, the album contains evidence of Fripp and the Giles brothers liberally partaking of cheery psychedelic-pop, with only a few suggestions of Krimson's trademark "darkness" lurking beneath.
In general, the album is an engaging-if-insubstantial glimpse into the genesis of the careers of all concerned. Most of the songs are decent- to-good throwaway ditties; if they don't point to the future, they at least don't make a complete disaster of the undeveloped present.
The album begins with "North Meadow", a laid-back pastoral track commenced by a statement of the bass/horns variety. The bass line is rather good despite its simplicity; a very prototypically Frippish guitar segueways grant the track its extra half-star. This track gives a hint of things to come; the follow tracks, sadly, generally lack this edge.
"Newly-Weds" is a "typically British humour" track, involving a slightly hokey bass line, a minimal guitar presence, and the appearance of silly voices towards the end. Mike Giles's brushstroke drumming at the fadeout ands a bit of distinctiveness, but not much. A fair track, but nothing too special.
"One In A Million" is decent psych-pop, with a string section accompanying the band through its progress. At this juncture, "Call Tomorrow" provides a bit of a stylistic shift with the previous tracks -- a strong keyboard presence dominates the piece as an awkwardly-written narrative about the pregnant vicar's daughter is outlined. Another "okay, but nothing special" track.
One of my former associates once expressed a particular appreciation for "Digging My Lawn", an amusing narrative involving an absurd adulterous affair. Unfortunately, I can't quite share this person's enthusiasm; the music, while quite good in a "jazzy" sort of way, is essentially just a backing track for a lead solo which never actually emerges. A bit more distinctive than some of the other tracks here, but still not that great.
"Little Children" is the first Fripp-penned track on the album; unfortunately, it's not very good. Intrusive vocal backing from The Breakaways marrs a track that wasn't terribly notable to begin with. In fairness, though, some credit must be given to the "Downshire Hill" section of the track; if only the entire thing were as good ...
"The Crukster" contains what must be, in retrospect, considered as godawful psychedelic lyrics, apparently charting the damnation of an unbalanced soul. As a counterpart to Ray Thomas's poem at the end of "Nights In White Satin", it has a certain value; moreover, the extreme dissonance of the music makes up partly for the lyrical dearth.
"Thursday Morning" is another psych-pop single, similar to "One In A Million". Aside from the presence of a string section and a few interesting guitar trills here & there, the material here doesn't really lead to too much consideration. "How Do They Know?" contains an interesting leadoff riff, and a few interesting guitar tricks, but not terribly much else.
"Elephant Song" is a somewhat different work; a novelty track, dominated by a trombone refrain. The absurd lyrics (which defy summarization here) are moderately engaging, but become a bit tedious towards the end of the track.
"The Sun In Shining" is, by far, the weakest link of the album. The track may best be described as a hokey, countryish shuffle ballad, destined to appall any Crimson fan who has the misfortune of coming across it. It would not be rash to assert that this may be the worst track Robert Fripp has ever played on -- the track is swathed in horns, strings, piano, and backing vocals, but all of this help can't remove the fundamental worthlessness of the track.
At this juncture, the album suddenly begins to improve dramatically, as Robert Fripp redeems himself for "Little Children" by coming up with two absolute gems to close of the original album. "Suite No. 1" begins with Fripp playing a terribly fast solo, met with jazzy accompaniment with Giles bros. Naturally, since this is a suite, it doesn't stay that way: subsequent sections involve harmonic vocals with minimal accompaniment, a guitar/harpsichord duet (oddly similar to some parts of Lizard, strangely enough), and finally a return to the original theme (with piano accompaniment). A pleasure to listen to.
"Erudite Eyes", however, is the one track that points directly to the future. An extremely atmospheric piece, it is nevertheless abrasive in its ambience (something which Fripp would make sufficient use of afterwords). The extended conclusion is a direct precursor to similar movements on In The Court Of The Crimson King, with quiet reflection taking the place of the previously skewed assertiveness. The lyrics are actually fairly comprehensible as well.
One should also note the presence of "The Saga Of Rodney Toady" and "Just George", two spoken word showcases which appear between the tracks. "Rodney Toady", sadly, is a rather abysmal creation, detailing the pointless life of the grotesque individual in question, which ends with his purchase of adult magazines. "Just George", featuring variations on the idea of knowing a man named George, is a bit better.
The bonus tracks are actually fairly revealing. "She Is Loading" is a trombone-driven novelty; if the subject matter is a bit irritating, the music itself more than makes up for it. "Under The Sky" is a more sedate piece, featuring an interesting drum rhythm in the background -- a lush piece in the style of "I Talk To The Wind". Either of these could have been substituted for "The Sun Is Shining" had they been written in time to be included on the album.
The single tracks don't reveal terribly much, except for the fact that "One In A Million" was released in this format without the string section, and "Newly-Weds" is given an extended guitar intro and outro (the silliness is toned down substantially as well). The single versions of "Thursday Morning" do not significantly differ from the album versions. Interesting historically, but not musically vital.
In short, this is a fair purchase for King Crimson fans, and not a total waste of time from a musical standpoint.
(review originally posted to alt.music.yes on 27 May 1997)