This is the homemade tapes that Giles, Giles And Fripp made in their House on Brondesbury street in London,
there they make these tracks so great that you nearly can believe it should be made in a proper studio,
so it's very enjoyable and just a few drop-outs because of the age of the cheep tapes they had bought,
so haven't you heard these tracks before, then you have miss the link between the wimsey psychedelic popgroup
and the fullgrown prog group that was named King Crimson when Peter Giles leave the group and an old friend
of Fripp, Greg Lake replace him on bass, Ian McDonald arrived in this time and he play on the bulk of the
tracks, his girlfriend Judy Dyble from the old Fairport Convention sings on 7 tracks too, and the only track
with her that had been out before is the wonderful I Talk To The Wind on A Young Person's Guide to King Crimson,
and the lyric on that song was written by one of Ian's friends Peter Sinfield so here you got it all, and you
can hear the beginning to the In the Court Of The Crimson King and some things that devolop into some other
King Crimson album too and the marvellous McDonald & Giles album that even Peter play the bass on.
This is a fantastic album indeed that definitely have it's own space in the King Crimson collection,
I like this album very much and I bet that you gonna do that too, because the music is just marvellous.
01 - Hypocrite (3:41)
02 - Digging My Lawn (1) (1:58)
03 - Tremelo Study In A Major (Spanish Suite) (1:41)
04 - Newly Weds (1:52)
05 - Suite No. 1 (5:34)
06 - Scrivens (2:15)
07 - Make It Today (1) (3:26)
08 - Digging My Lawn (1) (1:55)
09 - Why Don't You Just Drop In (1) (3:40)
10 - I Talk To The Wind (1) (3:17)
11 - Under The Sky (1) (3:53)
12 - Plastic Pennies (2:18)
13 - Passages Of Time (3:32)
14 - Under The Sky (2) (2:49)
15 - Murder (2:41)
16 - I Talk To The Wind (2) (3:15)
17 - Erudite Eyes (6:46)
18 - Make It Today (2) (4:46)
19 - Wonderland (6:08)
20 - Why Don't You Just Drop In (2) (3:42)
21 - She Is Loaded (3:12)
Judy Dyble - Vocals on 7, 11-16
Ian McDonald - Vocals, Acc & El Guitars, Piano, Clarinet, Flute, Saxophone
Robert Fripp - Guitar, Piano
Peter Giles - Vocals, Bass
Michael Giles - Vocals, Drums
Al Kirtley - Piano on 1
]Review by Bruce Eder
Considering that Giles, Giles & Fripp's original album sold about 500 copies, the very existence of this 70-minute CD is a source of astonishment as well as delight. Comprised of privately made tapes of the legendary progressive/pop/rock trio -- all home recordings, on a Revox stereo reel-to-reel recorder, that made lots of use of overdubbing -- this CD shows Robert Fripp, Peter Giles, and Michael Giles (along with Julie Dyble and Ian McDonald) at their most experimental. Virtually all of what ended up on The Cheerful Insanity of Giles, Giles & Fripp seems to have started life here, before they ever got into Decca's studios, so this is a chance to hear some of their released music as works-in-progress, most notably Robert Fripp's "Suite No. 1" (which was later transmuted into "Prelude: Song of the Gulls" from Islands), and an early Fripp guitar piece, "Tremelo Study in A Major." King Crimson completists will also be overjoyed to find the GG&F rendition of "I Talk to the Wind" (two different takes of it, in fact) in its original version, sung by Julie Dyble, which appeared on the double LP Young Person's Guide to King Crimson, finally turning up on CD on this disc. Also present on this CD is another lost early link in Crimson's subsequent output, "Why Don't You Just Drop In," which evolved through several intermediate stages into "The Letters" on Islands; and a portion of Fripp's "Passages of Time" ended up in the bridge of "Peace--A Theme" from In the Wake of Poseidon. Dyble turns up on vocals along with Ian McDonald (who plays sax, flute, and keyboards, as well as singing) on "Make It Today," a smooth piece of progressive pop-jazz (complete with a McDonald sax solo) that sounds as though it could have come from Judith Durham of the Seekers in a light moment. McDonald is all over these tapes, playing flute on an outtake of "Digging My Lawn" and saxes and piano elsewhere. Not all of it is great music -- "Plastic Pennies" is pure (albeit pleasant) pop, worthy of the Seekers -- but the raw talent is impressive. Additionally, listening to these tapes, one gets the sense that Giles, Giles, Fripp & McDonald, whatever they called themselves, could have made it, at least as far as the jazz clubs in England, without ever becoming what we later knew as King Crimson. There's also a pleasant bonus for fans of Peter Sinfield, whose "Under the Sky" (later a centerpiece of his solo album), turns up here in its ethereal original version, sung by Dyble. There is distortion on a few tracks, but most of what's here displays amazingly good quality for home demos dating back more than 30 years.
Personnel:
Robert Fripp - guitar.
Michael Giles - drums & vocals.
Peter Giles - bass guitar & vocals.
Al Kirtley - piano (1).
Ian McDonald - flute, sax, clarinet, vocals (7, 9-16, 18-21), piano (6, 9, 13, 15, 20), acc. guitar (10, 11, 14, 16, 19), electric/rythm guitar (13, 19 - solo only).
Judy Dyble - vocals (7, 11-16, 18,
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