King Crimson: Discipline (1981)

Dialogue, duologue, diatribe,
Dissension, declamation
Double talk, double talk

Robert Fripp, Bill Bruford, Adrian Belew, and Tony Levin! Wow. Imagine that? The 80s KC is really a super group. And, wow, what a change in sound. At times, Discipline is my favourite record. It might be the best thing Crimson ever did. It's either this record or The Power to Believe. Both are fabulous. I also love the other two 80s records: Beat and Three of a Perfect Pair.

I would say that Discipline contains my favourite KC track of all time. That track is Frame by Frame. From what I have read, this tune is in 7/8 and 13/8. I'm not up on my music theory. It has something to do with Fripp falling behind Belew one beat every measure until they sync up again, after each has played thirteen and fourteen bars or notes. My memory is hazy. In any case, it is totally awesome.

The title track is also interesting:

"During the piece the two guitars of Belew and Fripp, respectively, move through the following sequence of pairs of time signatures: 5
8 and 5
8, 5
8 and 4
4, 5
8 and 9
8, 15
16 and 15
16, 15
16 and 14
16, 10
8 and 20
16, 15
16 and 15
16, 15
16 and 14
16, 12
16 and 12
16, 12
16 and 11
16, 15
16 and 15
16, 15
16 and 14
16. Throughout the drums play in 17
16..." [source]

The only track I am not big on is Matte Kudasai, which might sound sacrilegious given the love this track gets from many fans. It just doesn't do anything for me. I like it; I don't love it.

I used to own the cassette. I have the record. I have the definitive edition on CD. I have the thirtieth anniversary edition on CD.

This record fits on my top ten list of records of all time, a list that probably has one hundred records on it by now. By the way, I used to be on a listserv called Elephant Talk. Formerly, it was called Discipline, until Fripp asked the group to change the name. You can find the archives via the ET wiki.