The History of the Crimson King (Part Eight) - Discipline

 - Vancouver, British Columbia - With the dissolution of King Crimson in 1974, the band members went their separate ways and continued to be active in the music industry with varying levels of success. Having Crimson on their resume was considered a badge of honour as the band was notoriously difficult to work in, both as a test of skill and on a personal level. Bill Bruford and John Wetton were the last members of the band to play with Robert Fripp on their last album Red. The two of them would go on to have success elsewhere in the music industry. Fripp on the other hand, had decided to leave the music world.

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Mitigo and The Grizz: Live in Concert - Vancouver (The Rio Theatre) - April 19, 2012

 - Vancouver, British Columbia - To really gauge the strength of a performer, one has to see how they face failures as well as their successes. You can really tell what motivates musicians with how they carry themselves both on stage and off. On Thursday April 19th, I was blessed to meet and watch two blossoming Vancouver bands. It was a fundraiser night for my up and coming feature film, and despite publicizing through the bands, the comedian and the theatre itself, the turn out was rather low and the fundraiser wound up not raising my production team many funds. Why did it fail?  We can only speculate. Perhaps it's that it's exam season and the show was geared toward a young adult audience. Perhaps we aren't as good at advertising as we thought we were. All we know is that a good portion of The Rio's 445 seats were not occupied.

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David Bowie - Lodger

 - Vancouver, British Columbia - We come to the end of Bowie’s Berlin Trilogy of albums, and at this point I’m wondering why Bowie and Eno felt this was a “Berlin” trilogy at all. From what I can gather, this album was somewhat written in Berlin, but it was recorded and mixed in Switzerland and New York, which were stops between tour legs. Maybe calling it the Eno Trilogy might have been more appropriate. Upon further reflection, I’m not even sure these three albums should be a trilogy at all. More on that a little later.

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David Bowie - "Heroes"

 - Vancouver, British Columbia - When I reviewed the first entry in the Berlin trilogy, Low, I noted that it was a pretty light album and fun at times. It’s interesting because at the time, it was regarded as a fairly dark and melancholy album. I guess I have to assume that it was for 1977. Well, less than a year later, Bowie and Brian Eno recorded and released “Heroes” in Berlin, technically making it the only ‘true’ entry in the trilogy, as it was wholly completed in Berlin. Again, as stated in the last entry, Eno was not the producer of this album (Bowie and Tony Visconti were), but a collaborator. Interestingly enough, Eno had persuaded King Crimson founder and guitarist Robert Fripp to come play on the album, which he did in one day. Apparently Fripp had no interest being in the music scene again, but working on this album rekindled something within him. Fripp would go on to continue working with Peter Gabriel in his solo albums, and would reform King Crimson in 1981. But for more information on that, stay tuned to Doug Ferguson’s “The History of the Crimson King” series here on Sour Grapes Winery.

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David Bowie - Low

 - Vancouver, British Columbia - David Bowie’s a far out guy, and sometimes he can be difficult to get into. I myself was really on the fence about the guy because his vocals can be quite unusual at times. I think you’d be hard-pressed to find someone out there who didn’t like “Let’s Dance,” although I have no doubt they’re out there. As it stands, Bowie has always pushed the envelope with his music and demonstrated to even his harshest critics that he has a constantly creative mind.

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