In 1995, progressive rock group King Crimson reunited. Gary Steel talked to drummer Bill Bruford (who also played with Yes) for Real Groove magazine. To celebrate the “almost Crimson” Auckland performance next week by the Robert Fripp endorsed The Crimson ProjeKCt, we revisit that story.
Notes: Originally published as part of a progressive rock special in the July 1995 issue of the now defunct Real Groove, it’s interesting that the piece finds Bruford naming the King Crimson as his “spiritual home”. He would soon have a massive falling out with Fripp, which ultimately resulted in his decision to retire from music. Bruford would go on to outline his disillusionment and bitterness in his autobiography, published in 2009. I wish I had been given more space to twitter on about Crimson and Bruford, whose work both within the context of KC and Fripp’s orbit, and on other, more jazz-oriented projects like Earthworks, was exemplary. Perhaps I’ll dig out my unexpurgated interview transcript and publish that, one of these days.
WHO COULD HAVE imagined that King Crimson, the group many consider to be more responsible than any other for the virtual invention of the genre that became known as progressive rock, could be considered hip in the ‘90s?
Strange, but true. A new version of the much maligned pro-rock supergroup has emerged, their creative energies fuelled by a new generation of rock musicians who see their ‘70s work as hugely influential. Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain cited King Crimson’s Red (1974) as one of rock’s seminal albums and the same period of King Crimson’s turbulent history is celebrated by groups like Primus, the Rollins Band and Nine Inch Nails.
“This grunge business and post-grunge business has in a way elevated King Crimson to the point of being a sort of godfather of some of that music, strangely enough,” says Crimson drummer Bill Bruford. “So, far from being lumped in the progressive rock bag – the Genesis/Yes department – King Crimson has been espoused by younger players as having the grit and grunge that got the movement partly fired up. It’s made a transition which means the band is in danger of becoming as fashionable as it has ever been.”
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