Trivia / Discipline

• Channel Hop: While the band were always under the management of EG Records, the latter moved away from their original model of licensing their artists out to Island Records in the UK, transitioning into self-releasing material under a new distribution deal with Polydor Records; King Crimson followed suit. In the US, EG would move the King Crimson output from Atlantic Records to Warner (Bros.) Records until 1989, when their material fell under EG's hands Stateside as well.
• Promoted Fanboy: Adrian Belew had been a longtime fan of King Crimson before being inducted into the lineup on this album.
• Referenced by...: In JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: The JOJOLands, Usagi Aloha'oe's Stand is named the Matte Kudasai.
• Sequel Gap: Discipline was King Crimson's first album since Red seven years prior.
• Throw It In!: The second spoken verse of "Thela Hun Ginjeet" was real, covertly-recorded audio of Belew recounting a mugging he just barely escaped minutes earlier. Robert Fripp whispered to the engineer to hit record in the middle of the story, and incorporated the audio into the song.
• What Could Have Been:
  • This was originally meant to be the self-titled debut to a new band called Discipline. However, Robert Fripp found it similar enough to King Crimson's outings to release it under his former band's name, thus turning the Discipline lineup into the first of many King Crimson reunions.
  • Fripp initially considered having Daryl Hall front the band, off the strength of the two's collaborations during the late 70's (Hall having performed on Fripp's Exposure and Fripp in turn producing Hall's Sacred Songs), but Hall chose to remain with Hall & Oates.
  • The spoken-word parts in "Thela Hun Ginjeet" were originally meant to describe a man witnessing an assault in New York City, as a Ripped from the Headlines allusion to John Lennon's murder. However, Robert Fripp found Belew's lyrics and performance uninspired, asking him to go around London reciting the part into a tape recorder to get into character. By chance Belew passed by an illegal gambling ring while doing this, and the guys there mugged him, thinking he was a cop. Belew ran back to the studio after escaping and recounted the story, still in distress, to the band; Fripp found that story far more interesting and secretly recorded it while Belew was recounting it.

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