Music / Discipline

"When was the night so long?"

Discipline, released in 1981 through EG Records in conjunction with Polydor Records in the UK and Warner (Bros.) Records in the US, is the eighth studio album by English Progressive Rock band King Crimson. Their first release since Red roughly seven years prior, the album was the end result of a large amount of other artists' works converging at once.

Three years after dissolving King Crimson, guitarist and de-facto band leader Robert Fripp was pulled out of retirement by one of his former collaborators, Brian Eno, who wanted him to play guitar on David Bowie's upcoming album "Heroes". While reluctant to do so at first, Fripp found the experience enjoyable enough to go back into music, spending the rest of the '70s collaborating with a variety of other artists, from fellow prog stalwart Peter Gabriel to rising pop star Daryl Hall to New Wave Music giants Talking Heads and Blondie.

Meanwhile, Bowie recruited a guitarist from Frank Zappa's backing band by the name of Adrian Belew to play on his tour for "Heroes", and Gabriel began working with a session musician named Tony Levin. Levin and Fripp ran into each other as session players on Gabriel's debut album, and Fripp was impressed enough by Levin's musicianship to recruit him for his own 1979 solo debut, Exposure; the pair would remain close collaborators with Gabriel as well. Belew meanwhile would play guitar both on Bowie's tour and his 1979 album Lodger, after which Eno brought him over to play on Talking Heads' 1980 album Remain in Light, catapulting him into in-demand status as a session player.

That fall, having already declared 1981 "The Year of the Fripp" in the music video for his 1979 rendition of Gabriel's "Exposure", Fripp realized that his interest in music was big enough to start playing in a band again. Bringing back Bill Bruford from the '70s lineup, Fripp bumped into Belew and, impressed by his work with Bowie and his earlier band GaGa, asked him to join in. Belew agreed to do so once he finished touring with Talking Heads, and in the meantime Fripp re-contacted Levin and inducted him into the lineup. Now in charge of a four-man ensemble, Fripp dubbed the group Discipline, who debuted in April of 1981 and spent the following May and June recording what was to be their debut Self-Titled Album, taking influence from the working methods of Indonesian gamelan music and incorporating the mix of genres that the quartet had worked with during the late '70s.

The result was a sound widely described as the Trope Codifier (if not the outright Trope Maker) for "post-progressive," a new brand of prog that worked with influences outside the typical Classical Music and jazz stylings of the genre's heyday; Fripp previously claimed that prog fell into a rut of conventionalism upon his initial retirement in 1974, and thus fully embraced the opportunity to explore these new horizons. In particular, Discipline would take after the new wave scene and the rising worldbeat movement that Gabriel and Talking Heads had kicked off. By October, Discipline decided to readopt the King Crimson moniker, reviving the dormant project under what the band described as their new "Gamelan Trio" lineup. This configuration would, however, only last for three years before Fripp decided to disband the group again in 1984; within that time they'd put out two more new wave-tinged albums — Beat in 1982 and Three of a Perfect Pair in 1984 — that carried on from the template that this record set. Robert Fripp would brand this Thematic Series the Incline to 1984, playing off of the Drive to 1981 (which comprised his pre-Discipline solo albums).

Upon release, Discipline sold modestly, reaching No. 41 in the UK and No. 45 in the US.

Discipline was supported by two singles: "Matte Kudasai" and "Thela Hun Ginjeet".

Tracklist:

Side One

1. "Elephant Talk" (4:43)
2. "Frame by Frame" (5:09)
3. "Matte Kudasai" (3:47)
4. "Indiscipline" (4:33)

Side Two

1. "Thela Hun Ginjeet" (6:26)
2. "The Sheltering Sky" (8:22)
3. "Discipline" (5:13)

Principal members

• Adrian Belew - electric guitar, guitar synthesizer, lead vocals
• Bill Bruford - percussion
• Robert Fripp - electric guitar, guitar synthesizer, Frippertronics
• Tony Levin - Chapman Stick, bass guitar, backing vocals

Death by troping:

• Added Alliterative Appeal: Each verse of "Elephant Talk" is a list of words that mean "talk" that share the same first letter. This gets lampshaded in the fourth verse with the line "These are words with a D this time."
• Alliterative Name: "Frame by Frame".
• Alternate Album Cover:
  • The original release of the album features a Celtic knotwork design by John Kyrk, based on a design by George Bain. Because the Bain design turned out to be copyrighted and used without permission, the 2001 reissue replaced it with a new, specially-commissioned design by Steve Ball, titled "Possible Productions knotwork", and it's stuck ever since; Ball would design various other knotwork logos for Fripp's other projects.
  • While early CD releases retain the Bain/Kyrk knotwork design, they also increase the proportional size of it and the text and bunch everything closer together to compensate for the smaller space on a jewel case. Releases since 2001 meanwhile stick with the LP proportions.
• Animal Motifs: Adrian Belew by this point was already well-known for his animalistic guitar effects, and he puts them to use here too.
  • "Elephant Talk", befitting the song name, features Belew mimicking an elephant's trumpeting.
  • "Matte Kudasai" features Belew playing seagull cries, tying in with the serene tone of the song.
  • "Indiscipline" breaks into monkey screeches just before Belew's vocals come in.
  • "The Sheltering Sky" prominently features Belew performing more waterbird cries as the lead melody.
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: In a live performance of "Thela Hun Ginjeet", Adrian Belew recounts how the gang he encountered wanted to "Kill me! Rip my limbs off! Smash my tape recorder!"
• The Big Rotten Apple: "Thela Hun Ginjeet" was originally conceived as a story about someone being assaulted in New York City, inspired by the murder of John Lennon. While the actual mugging that Belew describes in the song took place in London (where Discipline was being recorded), it was kept in because it fit that same sense of big city paranoia.
• Breather Episode: One appears on each side of the album.
  • On side one, "Matte Kudasai" is a relaxing-sounding ballad slotted between the aggressively weird "Frame By Frame" and the aggressively heavy "Indiscipline".
  • Meanwhile, side two has "The Sheltering Sky", a serene instrumental that acts as a reprieve between the frantic, distressed "Thela Hun Ginjeet" and the off-kilter "Discipline".
• Broken Record: The second verse of "Indiscipline" repeats the line "I repeat myself when under stress" five times in a row, cutting off in the middle of the fifth.
• Epic Rocking: "Thela Hun Ginjeet" goes on for six and a half minutes, while "The Sheltering Sky clocks in at eight and a half.
• Foreign Language Title: "Matte Kudasai" (待ってください), which means "please wait."
• Gratuitous Japanese: "Matte Kudasai" is one of the band's many songs with Japanese-language titles. In this case, it means "please wait."
• Idiosyncratic Cover Art: The visual motifs of the album cover (the band name, the album title, and a symbol atop a solid-color background) would be carried over to King Crimson's other two '80s albums.
• Instrumentals: "The Sheltering Sky" and "Discipline".
• List Song: "Elephant Talk" mostly consists of naming synonyms for talking.
• Literary Allusion Title: "The Sheltering Sky" is named after a novel by Paul Bowles.
• Market-Based Title: The South Korean release of the album retitles "Matte Kudasai" to a direct translation, "Please Wait for Me", owed to anti-Japanese sentiment in the country caused by lingering memories of Imperial Japan's 35-year occupation of the Korean peninsula.
• Minimalistic Cover Art: Simply the band name, the album title, and a knotwork pattern atop a solid red background. The cover was designed by Factory Records associate Peter Saville, an aficionado towards this trope.
• Mundane Made Awesome: "Indiscipline" is a driving, bombastic Heavy Metal song about... studying a painting and liking it.
• New Sound Album: A mix of Progressive Rock and New Wave Music influenced by the band members' session work with the likes of Peter Gabriel, David Bowie, Frank Zappa, and Talking Heads. Belew in particular brings a lot of Talking Heads influences to the record, with his vocals and lyricism being inspired by David Byrne and the album using similar interlocking polyrhythms, exemplified by Belew collaborating with Fripp more closely than previous guitarists.
• No Ending: "Frame by Frame" and "Discipline" both abruptly cut off at the end.
• Real Life Writes the Plot:
  • The lyrics to "Frame by Frame" were inspired by the various lengthy conversations Robert Fripp had with Bill Bruford during the recording sessions; Adrian Belew found their talks amusing thanks to how impenetrably British the subjects were.
    Belew: Tony Levin and I, the Americans, soon noticed how, often, when we stopped between takes, Robert and Bill, the Englishmen, would engage in drawn out discussions about "the inner mosaic of the polyrhythms" or which British schools were better, private or public, or who knows what. Tony and I would go off for coffee, come back ten minutes later, and they'd still be at it! So I wrote about it.
  • A twofer with the vocal sections of "Thela Hun Ginjeet". The first came from a demo of the song based around John Lennon's recent murder, while the second came straight from Adrian Belew's frazzled story of being confronted by gangsters in London just minutes earlier while recording the first verse. As Belew began his story, Robert Fripp signaled to the studio engineer to begin recording. This was lampshaded when the band performed on the American sketch comedy show Fridays.
    Belew: Hello, America! I'd like to tell you the true story about how I nearly got killed while making the Discipline album.
• Rearrange the Song: Reissues of the album from the 1989 "Definitive Edition" remaster onward edit "Matte Kudasai" to remove the Frippertronics, including a Frippertronic solo by Robert Fripp. The 2001 remaster would include the original 1981 version at the end of the album as a bonus track.
• Recurring Riff: A (typically minor-key) arpeggio that repeatedly descends and ascends appears throughout the album as a leitmotif, being most explicitly heard on "Frame by Frame", "Thela Hun Ginjeet", and "Discipline" (the latter of which consists entirely of variations on the arpeggio).
• Rock Trio: Despite the band containing four members at this point, the new lineup was billed as a "Gamelan Trio".
• Siamese Twin Songs:
  • "Indiscipline" and "Discipline" share similar names, both close out their respective album sides, and are among the most experimental tracks on the album (the former bordering on Progressive Metal and the latter being extremely heavy on shifting polyrhythms).
  • "Discipline" also shares melodic elements with "Frame By Frame", right down to the abrupt ending, effectively acting as its direct counterpart as well.
• Significant Anagram: While it looks like a nonsense phrase at face value, "Thela Hun Ginjeet" is actually an anagram of "Heat in the Jungle" (which appears in the lyrics), acting as an allusion to the lyrical themes of urban chaos and paranoia ("concrete jungle" being an idiom for an unpleasant urban environment).
• Spoken Word in Music: Most of Adrian Belew's vocals in "Elephant Talk", "Indiscipline", and "Thela Hun Ginjeet" are spoken rather than sung; in the latter case, the vocals in verse two come from a rambling story Belew told the rest of the band about being mugged that Fripp secretly recorded.
• The Stinger: The end of the liner notes features the cryptic phrase "Discipline is never an end in itself, only a means to an end." Tellingly, King Crimson made two more albums in this one's vein before briefly calling it quits again in 1984.
• Surprisingly Gentle Song: "Matte Kudasai", a soft, serene ballad tucked in an otherwise tense album.
• That Came Out Wrong: In "Thela Hun Ginjeet", Adrian Belew recounts how the guys who mugged him took away the tape he had with him and played it... and immediately were greeted with a recording of Belew saying "he had a gun in his hand." Belew then had to hastily explain that it was part of a song he was doing with King Crimson— this song— after the muggers assumed he was a cop.
• Title Track: Two in fact: "Indiscipline" and "Discipline".
• Uncommon Time: Thanks to Belew's work on Remain in Light, Discipline makes heavy use of Afrobeat-inspired polyrhythms.
  • "Frame by Frame" features a 7/8 guitar line playing against a 6/8 one, leading the two to go in and out of sync as the song progresses.
  • "Indiscipline" merges a 4/4 drum pattern with a 15/8 guitar line.
  • "Thela Hun Ginjeet" features Robert Fripp playing in 7/8 while everyone else stays in 4/4.
  • "Discipline" goes all out with the time signatures, featuring twelve different pairs of disparate time signatures between Adrian Belew and Robert Fripp's guitar parts over the course of the song, with Fripp doing the most changes. In order, the two both start off in 5/8 → Fripp switches to 4/4, then 9/8 → both switch to 15/16 → Fripp to 14/16 → Belew to 10/8 and Fripp to 20/16 → both to 15/16 → Fripp to 14/16 → both to 12/16 → Fripp to 11/16 → both to 15/16 → Fripp to 14/16. Whew.

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Discipline is never an end in itself, only a means to an end.