The artist Robert Fripp didn’t consider a real guitarist: “I very much doubt if he was interested”
There aren’t many guitarists who can get away with intense noodling in multiple time signatures, but Robert Fripp has always managed to craft an entire career around this virtuosic talent of his.
Unlike many of the great rock guitarists of his era, Fripp’s influences aren’t rooted in blues or rock and roll to the same degree, with jazz and classical music playing a far bigger role in his musical upbringing.
You only need to take a few moments with the introduction of the band’s signature song, ‘21st Century Schizoid Man’, to realise that what he and King Crimson were aiming for was not to settle down alongside the archetypal classic rock bands, and were always intentionally making their music more challenging and cerebral.
It’s not just the crunching riffs and knotty solos of this early example that show off just how anti-blues Fripp’s work could be. Songs like ‘Starless’ with its repetitive and brooding one note crescendo in the middle section are rock in its most minimalist form, while King Crimson’s ‘80s comeback produced the incredibly precise ‘Frame By Frame’, with Fripp flawlessly executing a lick in 1/32 notes (demisemiquavers) with military precision.
On top of this, many guitarists in the rock world loved to show off live, strutting about the stage as though it was their own personal domain. Fripp, on the other hand, preferred to perform seated, which is perhaps as nonchalant and unshowmanlike as he could possibly be. It was never about the performance for him, but solely about the dexterity of those playing the music, and that’s something that you have to admire him for.
However, given his own personal distaste for fitting the mould of most other rock guitarists, it shouldn’t come as a surprise to learn that Fripp doesn’t rate the guitarists that many other enjoyers of rock music hail as being the greatest of all time.
During an interview with Guitar Player, where he lambasted Eric Clapton for being “excessively tedious”, he also took time to give his opinion on one of the most highly-regarded players to have ever lived, questioning whether he was ever truly a guitarist in the first place.
Not holding back from laying into a certified legend of the instrument, Fripp decided to take Jimi Hendrix to task as well as Clapton, stating: “I haven’t been influenced by Hendrix and Clapton in the way that most people would say it. I don’t think Hendrix was a guitarist. I very much doubt if he was interested in guitar playing as such. He was just a person who had something to say and got on and said it.”
While this is perhaps the most scathing thing anyone has ever said about Hendrix, with most concurring that his talents were worthy of the acclaim he received, Fripp’s comments don’t come without him also taking an opportunity to slag off the instrument as a whole, in typically self-deprecating fashion. “I think the guitar is a pretty feeble instrument,” he added. “Virtually nothing interests me about the guitar.” Fripp may want to look inwards and question whether he really sees himself as a guitarist, but as far as an outsider might be concerned, he just happens to be one of the best.
