In Memoriam: Three Crims

 

Since its formation in 1968, King Crimson has gone through many different lineups and musicians, and over the years, there has been some sort of official differentiation between “members” and additional musicians who recorded and/or toured with the band, although some people moved between the two statuses. In 2020, we lost three musicians affiliated with King Crimson, two full members, and one who declined the rights and privileges, such as they are, of that status. Two of those remembered here were involved in 1970, the third played during the more recent configuration of King Crimson, from 2013 until his death earlier this year.  

King Crimson: Cadence and Cascade
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Gordon Haskell was a school friend of King Crimson leader Robert Fripp, and played with him in a band when they were teenagers, before moving on to become the bass player in the band Fleur de Lys (and, apparently, briefly sharing a flat with Jimi Hendrix). They also acted as a house band for Atlantic Records, which gave Haskell the opportunity to work with noted producers, including George Martin, Arif Mardin and Glyn Johns. He recorded a solo album in 1969, but it went nowhere. 

Meanwhile, his old friend Robert was having problems of his own. After recording In the Court of the Crimson King, a legitimate classic, and touring behind the album, both Ian McDonald and Michael Giles left the band. Then, singer/bass player Greg Lake quit, planning to form Emerson, Lake and Palmer. After hiring, and then sacking, the still unknown Elton John (who got paid £250 for not working) as the vocalist on Crimson’s second record, In The Wake of Poseidon, Lake ultimately agreed to sing on the album (in exchange for Crimson’s PA equipment), but there was one song that Fripp felt wasn’t right for Lake. He approached Haskell, who recalled, “I straight away, without any hesitation, said ‘absolutely not’. I was totally R&B oriented and it wasn’t my sort of music. I didn’t like King Crimson. Anyway, after a while I said I’d think about it, and my wife got to work on me because she wanted a regular income so in the end I joined.” Haskell sang on one song, “Cadence and Cascade,” which is a beautiful ballad, beautifully sung, as you can hear at the link above. 

After completing Poseidon, Fripp regrouped again, adding more musicians, who began work on Lizard, which was jazzier and more avant-garde than the two prior records, and it was not a good experience for Haskell, who sang and played bass on the album. He didn’t like the music, noting that “At the end of one song, ‘Indoor Games’, I just burst out laughing. You can hear it on the album. They thought it was really freaky, that I’d understood the lyrics and my part – but the truth of the matter is, it was a lousy song, the lyrics were ludicrous and my singing was atrocious so I just burst out laughing. And they thought it was wonderful!” Haskell left the band, acrimoniously, during rehearsals for live performances, and later King Crimson for royalties. 

After leaving King Crimson, Haskell struggled for years, before having a hit single in England, “How Wonderful You Are” in 2001 and he followed that up with a successful album, Harry’s Bar, in 2002. His next record was not as well-received, and he was released by his label after a dispute. From then on, Haskell continued to release music without much success, and wrote an autobiography, The Road to Harry’s Bar. 

Haskell died from cancer on October 15, 2020 at the age of 74.   Announcing his death, the official King Crimson website noted, “The experience was not a happy one for Gordon and he bitterly regretted his decision to join,” and that Haskell had “come to detest” the song “Cadence and Cascade,” which is a shame.

Keith Tippett also played on the Poseidon and Lizard albums. Allmusic’s biography of Tippett states that he “held an unparalleled place in British contemporary music,” due to the breadth of his collaborations, the variety of music he wrote and performed, and the influence that he had on other musicians. Tippett's work ranges from free improvisation as a solo pianist and with duos and small groups, to compositions for, and performances with, contemporary classical groups and large-scale works for Jazz Orchestra. 

Tippett (whose last name was actually Tippetts, which he changed for the delightful reason that he was tired of seeing his name on posters with the apostrophe after the last “t” and not the “s”), was a classically trained pianist who had formed a jazz band, the Keith Tippett Sextet, which released its first album in 1969. Other members of that band included Elton Dean, later of Soft Machine, and Mark Charig and Nick Evans, who also contributed to King Crimson albums. Tippett was hired to play piano on Poseidon (including some pretty playing on “Cadence and Cascade”), and along with Charig and Evans, played on Lizard and Islands. His influence in King Crimson increased over time, and he claimed that Fripp offered him co-creative control over the band if he would join full time. However, as he remembered, “I didn’t want to join King Crimson, not because I didn’t like King Crimson, I had great respect for the band, but I wanted to be doing other things, I didn’t want to just go out on the road for eighteen months. I had too much love for the sextet and it would have taken me away from the jazz scene.” 

One of those things was to put together a 50 piece band, Centipede, that included members of his jazz band, along with members of Soft Machine, King Crimson, and other bands that skirted the progressive rock/jazz genres, along with students from the London School of Music. It released an album, Septober Energy, produced by Fripp (who had appeared live with the band, but was not on the album), in 1971. Melody Maker wrote about this album, “In this one piece he has done more than almost anybody else that comes to mind in breaking down barriers in rock, jazz and classical music” The album was, however, not commercially successful, probably for the reason that it broke so many barriers.

Tippett continued to perform and record improvisational and avant-garde jazz music and jazz/rock with various combinations of musicians, including many from the Canterbury scene, until fairly recently—his discography as a leader and sideman is vast. 

Tippett succumbed on June 14, 2020 to a heart attack after two years of recurring illness at the age of 72.

After disbanding a version of King Crimson in 2008 and playing with various Crimson-related musicians before briefly retiring, Fripp decided to form a new King Crimson lineup, this time with three drummers. One of the drummers was Bill Rieflin, who had played with, among others, Ministry, KMFDM, and R.E.M. after Bill Berry left the band. Although mostly known for playing industrial and darker rock music, his stint with R.E.M. and his work on other projects demonstrated the wide scope of his talent. In addition, he was a prolific session musician, recording with artists from Nine Inch Nails to experimental rockers Swans and pop singer Robbie Williams. He released his first solo album, Birth of a Giant in 1999, which included contributions from Fripp and Trey Gunn, who was in King Crimson at the time. 

Over the years, Rieflin, who also played keyboards and other instruments, had collaborated with Fripp in a number of different projects, and participated in Fripp’s Guitar Craft project, about which he stated (before joining Crimson), “I couldn't possibly describe in any detail the impact this has had in my life; I can say that it was and continues to be significant. Were I to say "life-changing," this would be true, but it wouldn't begin to communicate the depth of the experience.” 

So his inclusion as part of the new “seven-headed monster” configuration of Crimson, along with Fripp, Tony Levin, Mel Collins, Pat Mastelotto, Gavin Harrison (who had played in prior versions of the band), and Jakko Jakszyk, was not surprising. I saw this band play in 2014 and was blown away by the power and intricacy of the percussion work (as well as by the rest of the band, of course). Here’s a video of the three drummers, with Rieflin in the center, “soloing” during rehearsals in 2014, highlighting how they play both in unison and separately.

Rieflin took a “sabbatical” from the band in 2016, but returned in 2017 to create a “Double Quartet” formation, but rather than have four drummers (that would be crazy, right?), he focused on “mellotron, keys and fairy dusting, rather than using drums as a main instrument.” He didn’t appear on the autumn US tour in 2017 (when I saw them again, and they were, again, great), but returned in 2018 before taking another sabbatical in 2019. Rieflin died on March 24, 2020 from cancer at the age of 59.

STEEL: Revolting Cocks "Stainless Steel Providers"

(purchase)

Make a motorcycle sound with your lips. My 1 1/2 year-old son does it whenever he sees a motorcycle, bike or scooter.

Leave the saliva on your mouth for the rest of the article. Let it dribble down.

The audacious industrial label Wax Trax is one of Chicago’s most important contributions to music history. Two Wax Trax bands especially-- Ministry and the Revolting Cocks-- are/were revolutionary groups that were crowded under the industrial umbrella as a result of their drum programming and sampling and the bands they toured with, though neither band threw themselves entirely into the clank-on-steel sounds of bands like Nitzer Ebb or Einsturzende Neubaden, the latter which literally played with junkyard steel on stage.

Ministry followed an interesting trajectory, from moody, funky synth-pop (Revenge), to nihilistic industrial (Land of Rape and Honey) and then onto industrial-metal (The Mind is a Terrible Thing to Taste and New World Order) before sliding into stolid, straightforward metal on ensuing albums. They were/are politically vitriolic and have always had a decent sense of humor, though they were never as smart as they wanted to be. But at least in the 80s and early 90s, they were pull-your-pants-down-in-front-of-a-cop reckless and a couple pints in front of everyone else who had cloudy visions of making the industrial dance/metal music Ministry and Revco were at the time. And it’s a hell of a testament to the creative talents in both bands that they were as prolific as they were despite taking tons of drugs.

Each band had an adventurous mixed cocktail of members throughout their tenures, though mainstays were guitarist/vocalist Al Jourgensen and bassist Paul Barker. Revco--the side project- was sleezier and dancier than Ministry, but far more formidable than an alter-ego. As much as Al (referred to as “Uncle Al” in many circles) proclaims to hate the nascent stage of Ministry and its funky synthpop (once saying that most bands sell out after their first record but he sold out before he even got started), the first three Revolting Cocks albums (1986-1990) and parts of Finger Lickin’ Good (1993, “Cracking Up” and “If Ya Think I’m Sexy”) pump a smug affection for dance music, though Revco was always plunge- yourself-into-a-barrel-of-tahini and do a lap dance kind of dance music more than chart busting stuff. Maybe this is Barker more than Jourgenson for after Barker left Revco, Revco left the dance party and settled for simple and tame electro-metal rather than anything with a unique, dancy vision.

So let’s talk Barker as Al gets most of the attention. He was tall with curly black hair and glasses whereas other members of the two bands were in dreadlocks, mohawks , gelled crew cuts or sometimes shaved clean on the crown. Barker came across like a young, cool professor who preferred his students to his colleagues. His bass lines were catchy, dark and eternally simple, the nerve from which every 5-8 minute Revco song was energized.

Revco was one dirty bacchanalia and ever body was welcome, including their sometimes topless dancers the Revolting Pussies. A few of the many contributors include Skinny Puppy’s Nivek Ogre, NIN’s Trent Reznor, Chris Connelly, drummer William Rieflin (now of King Crimson and REM), Belgium’s inimitable Luc Van Acker and Front 242’s Richard 23. The best exhibition of Revco’s wildness and rabid bite is the live You Goddamned son of a Bitch (1998), the extended version including a cover of PiL’s “Public Image” and two songs off of Beers Steers and Queers including the crotch-hammering “Stainless Steel Providers.”

“Stainless Steel Providers”, which debuted on You Goddamned…. before showing up on 1900’s underappreciated Beers Steers and Queers is kick started with the revving up of a motorcycle, a sound which sparks the rhythm throughout. On the live version a menacing industrial din moans underneath. Vocalist Chris Connelly, who includes the song on his personal favorites (Initials C.C. Outtakes and Rarities Volume 1), delivers more attitude than on the album version. He’s a tripping and pissed off neurotic delivering a diatribe on a couple empty cases of Old Milwaukee at a party. And what’s it all about?

            Quick locate and detonate your public enemy

            Stainless steel, believe it’s real

            It’s all you mean to me

            What’s that sound, what’s that sound

            It bleeds efficiency

Guns?

Steel. Revco and Ministry usually paraded around in cowboy hats and leather. In some of their videos they fired around Chicago in motorcycles, such as in the video for Ministry’s “Stigmata” where Jourgenson is being dragged by a rope attached to a shiny, steel hog driven by a near giggling Barker.  Vrrrroooom Vroooooom. I wondered if they actually rode motorcycles or if it was some kind of irony being as close as they were to Milwaukee’s Harley Davidson Plant. Motorcycle gangs and cowboys--two groups whose image exudes maximum masculinity. But the two bands have always dressed like this. Al even talked about retiring, moving to Texas and playing country music. But how long can you be ironic until it becomes you?

In my late 30s, some friends of mine started a bowling night on Sundays. They dressed in loose and long polyester shirts, donned Blatz hats and drank Pabst Blue Ribbon. After a few months, Sunday Bowling Night became Friday Bowling Night. They started betting on their scores. They stuck by PBR while pale ales started becoming popular. Then they stopped going to shows. Bowling was easier and more interactive. They got home earlier and could watch tv.

My friends with a broad taste in music don’t get this band. I have one high school buddy who loved their work enough to pump it in his car on cruises past Dairy Queen and McDonalds through our tiny downtown on Friday nights. He dug industrial music but in truth, he loved anything with a huge bass: “Well, you might say this song is tits Becker but lets see how its bass checks out on my speakers!” And in his Honda Civic we’d go, me always in the back seat, where I felt more comfortable than the shotgun in the front everyone competed for. I connected with him for the first time in 20 years this summer and he still listens to industrial music.

I never saw Revco though I saw Ministry three times. Rieflin, Connelly, Luc Van Acker, Barker and Richard 23 apparently did a short 6-date tour a couple years ago as just “The Cocks”. I checked out the clips. Though it wasn’t as reckless as the 80s and 90s, you could sense a belief in the tunes endurability. Luc Van Acker was comfortable in his royal tubbiness. Richard still had the gelled crew cut and Kojak shades.  Barker still geeked around in back, hunched over the bass.

On the record, I never saw the problem with bowling. I liked the dark lighting, the streaks of neon, the smell and the clatter of pins knocking around. I think it’s a fine way to spend a Wednesday night.