Discipline (album)

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Discipline
Discipline cover
Studio album by King Crimson
Released September 1981
Recorded 1981
Genre Progressive rock
Length 42:03
Label Warner Bros.
Producer(s) King Crimson and Rhett Davies
Professional reviews
King Crimson chronology
Red
(1974)
Discipline
(1981)
Beat
(1982)


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. Fripp brought in Frank Zappa and David Bowie alumnus Adrian Belew (guitar, vocals) and Peter Gabriel alumnus Tony Levin (bass, Chapman Stick) to round out a quartet. The album resulted in a more updated 1980s new wave pre-techno sound mixed with the previous dark and heavy sounds of the 1970s.

Contents

[edit] Song notes

"Matte Kudasai" (Japanese: 待って下さい) means for "please wait for me". 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 alternative version seems largely instrumental, as the lyrics are buried beneath Fripp's guitar. A short piece of Fripp addressing the band in the studio - commenting "I've never heard anything like that in my life" to the sound of Levin's Chapman stick - closes the track. The disc, when looped in its entirety, seems to loop perfectly, with the static from the tape looking into the opening of "Elephant Talk."

The lyrics of "Indiscipline" were based on a letter written to Adrian Belew by his then wife Margaret. The letter concerned 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 based on 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 "Thela Hun Ginjeet" 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, 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. That album's instrumental track "Sartori in Tangier" is also inspired at least in part by Bowles.

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. (sample (from Indiscipline))

The most recent release of the album features a redesigned celtic knot.

[edit] Track listing

All songs written by Adrian Belew, Bill Bruford, Robert Fripp and Tony Levin

  1. "Elephant Talk" – 4:43 Elephant Talk is also a free, digest-format newsletter about guitarist Robert Fripp and King Crimson
  2. "Frame by Frame" – 5:09
  3. "Matte Kudasai" – 3:47
  4. "Indiscipline" – 4:33
  5. "Thela Hun Ginjeet" – 6:26
  6. "The Sheltering Sky" – 8:22
  7. "Discipline" – 5:13

[edit] Bonus track

  1. "Matte Kudasai" (alternative version) – 3:50

[edit] Personnel

[edit] Charts

Album

Year Chart Position
1981 Billboard Pop Albums 45

[edit] External links

King Crimson
Robert Fripp | Adrian Belew | Tony Levin | Pat Mastelotto

Former members | Guest musicians

Original studio albums
In the Court of the Crimson King | In the Wake of Poseidon | Lizard | Islands | Larks' Tongues in Aspic | Starless and Bible Black | Red | Discipline | Beat | Three of a Perfect Pair | THRAK | The ConstruKction of Light | The Power to Believe
Other records
Cat Food/Groon | Atlantic Sampler | The Night Watch/The Great Deceiver | Epitaph/21st Century Schizoid Man | Matte Kudasai | Elephant Talk | Thela Hun Ginjeet | Heartbeat | Three of a Perfect Pair/Man With an Open Heart | Sleepless | VROOOM | Dinosaur | People | Sex Sleep Eat Drink Dream | Level Five | Happy With What You Have to Be Happy With
Live albums
Earthbound | USA | The Great Deceiver | B'Boom: Live in Argentina | THRaKaTTaK | Epitaph | The Night Watch | Absent Lovers: Live in Montreal | Cirkus: The Young Persons' Guide to King Crimson Live | Live in Mexico City | The ProjeKcts | The Deception of the Thrush: A Beginners' Guide to ProjeKcts | The Beginners' Guide to the King Crimson Collectors' Club | Heavy ConstruKction | VROOOM VROOOM | Ladies of the Road | EleKtrik: Live in Japan | The Power To Believe Tour Box
Compilations
A Young Person's Guide to King Crimson | The Compact King Crimson | Heartbeat: The Abbreviated King Crimson | Frame by Frame: The Essential King Crimson | Sleepless: The Concise King Crimson | The 21st Century Guide to King Crimson - Volume One - 1969-1974 | The 21st Century Guide to King Crimson - Vol. 2 - 1981-2003
Side projects and guest appearances
ProjeKct One | ProjeKct Two | ProjeKct Three | ProjeKct Four | ProjeKct X | ProjeKct Six
See Also
Giles, Giles and Fripp | McDonald and Giles | 21st Century Schizoid Band