Robert Fripp Quotes

Robert Fripp (22)

Birth:	16th May, 1946
Nationality:	British
Profession:	Musician, Producer, Lyricist

About

Robert Fripp is an English guitarist, composer and record producer. He is ranked 62nd on Rolling Stone magazine's 2011 list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time" after having been ranked by David Fricke 42nd on its 2003 list.

Related Authors

• Mac Davis
• Al Stewart
• Butch Hancock
• Richard Hell
• Lonnie Donegan
• Bill Kreutzmann
• Colin Hay
• Glenn Miller
• Jon English
• Jon Crosby

Advertisement

Today's Anniversary - 24th May

Births

• 1794 - William Whewell
• 1928 - William Trevor
• 1938 - David Viscott
• 1522 - John Jewel
• 1957 - John G. Rowland

Deaths

• 1969 - John Foster Dulles
• 1725 - Jonathan Wild
• 1993 - Jack Gould
• 1952 - Fulton Oursler
• 1543 - Nicolaus Copernicus

• A mistake is always forgivable, rarely excusable and always unacceptable.

  Robert Fripp

  Topics in Mistake
• 

  There are no mistakes, save one: the failure to learn from a mistake.

  Robert Fripp

  Topics in Failure, Mistake

• And if you are playing in several meters at once, there has to be a – not a rigid – but there definitely has to be a reference to a common pulse in the band.

  Robert Fripp

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Once, Playing, Band

• According to USA today, the average length of an attention span of a man in America is 23 minutes.

  Robert Fripp

  Topics in America

  Tags in Today, Attention

• If a professional musician in a symphony orchestra is playing Beethoven. But this particular orchestra have played this particular chestnut so many times, they can play it in their sleep. Does the genius remain present in the music or not?

  Robert Fripp

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Music, Sleep, Play

• However, in modern conceptual frameworks there is a more sophisticated view. I would say that the act of music exists in several worlds simultaneously.

  Robert Fripp

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Music, Act, View

• But above that, most mature adults can hold their attention on something for 45 minutes, whether they like it or not. But above that requires training.

  Robert Fripp

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Training, Attention, Whether

• I’d say that what we hear is the quality of our listening.

  Robert Fripp

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Quality, Hear, Listening

• If you are playing repertoire material, you’re stuck. There’s not huge amounts you can do.

  Robert Fripp

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Playing, Material, Stuck

• In terms of an identity, an identity reflects an individuality, by definition. And, if there is a quality present, it is recognizable and it can be named. If you can’t name it, it means you don’t recognize it.

  Robert Fripp

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Means, Quality, Name

• If an apprentice does not hear what a master hears, is then that quality not present in the music? Yes and no. In the world in which the apprentice lives no.

  Robert Fripp

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Music, Lives, Quality

• Linguistic philosophers continue to argue that probably music is not a language, that is in the philosophical debate. Another point of view is to say that music is a very profound language.

  Robert Fripp

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Music, Another, Point

• Even within the band, if I cannot manage to persuade the members of what I see to be the next course of action, how do you expect the group to deal with the expectations of thousands of people. It is not possible.

  Robert Fripp

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Group, Action

• Now, if King Crimson accepts responsibility for innovating its own tradition, you can’t accept responsibility for the audience. And there is an enormous tangible weight of expectation, which comes from an audience attending a King Crimson concert.

  Robert Fripp

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Accept, Audience, King

• So, you can set up an orchestra down this end of the railway station playing one particular area, and simultaneously at the other end something completely different going on. And in the middle they meet, or not, depending.

  Robert Fripp

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in End, Down, Different

• Music can be transformative, utterly transformative. The act of music is utterly transformative.

  Robert Fripp

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Music, Act, Utterly

• The perception of the audience is the interesting part. If the audience doesn’t hear what is going on, is it going on or not?

  Robert Fripp

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Hear, Perception, Audience

• The spoken form is in fact a very restrained representation of what is possible in the musical language.

  Robert Fripp

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Fact, Possible, Language

• Then certainly for a musician timing becomes something that is immediately accessible as a concept, because it’s a necessity in ones everyday performance.

  Robert Fripp

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Everyday, Necessity, Musician

• To me, Bill’s musical heart is in Earthworks, in the jazz they are playing, in the acoustic kit.

  Robert Fripp

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Heart, Playing, Jazz