A music-obsessed, retired San Francisco lawyer, and author of the rock & roll memoir Jittery White Guy Music (available on Amazon)... picking a random album or song in his collection every day or so and sharing a few thoughts.
Last time folk harmony sister trio The Roches made an appearance, I bemoaned how they (somewhat incongruously) netted guitar virtuoso Robert Fripp (on a break from prog legends King Crimson) to produce their debut, yet he only pulled out his trademark Frippertronics on a single track. Fripp returned for their third album, 1982's Keep On Doing--and once again stayed largely out of the picture. The exception this time around was "Losing True," a beautiful, subdued track, deliriously devastating harmonies with some chiming acoustic guitar, Fripp hanging patiently in the shadows til he fires up the slithery ol' guitar fireworks a couple minutes into the song. His ethereal ambience gels perfectly with the sisters' voices, turning a pretty folk ballad into something haunting and viscerally powerful.Live (sans Fripp) 1982:Stopping by my alma mater in 1990:Lovely cover version by Rock Paper Scissors:
My pick from the album would have been On the Road to Fairfax County (melodramatic, perhaps, but oddly moving), though Losing True is certainly a worthy choice and it is indeed great to hear Fripp's guitar. Tangential personal note: the footage from the Roches' 1990 appearance at Princeton reminded me that I attended their 1989 gig at Alexander Hall with my girlfriend and had been planning to propose to her after the show but didn't for reasons that are now hazy but may have been related to some act of stupidity on my part. Happily the proposal happened a few weeks later and we remain both married and Roches fans...
Great story! Alas, these gigs happened shortly after my graduation, so I missed out. But I did manage to marry myself a Princeton girl, so it worked out.
My pick from the album would have been On the Road to Fairfax County (melodramatic, perhaps, but oddly moving), though Losing True is certainly a worthy choice and it is indeed great to hear Fripp's guitar. Tangential personal note: the footage from the Roches' 1990 appearance at Princeton reminded me that I attended their 1989 gig at Alexander Hall with my girlfriend and had been planning to propose to her after the show but didn't for reasons that are now hazy but may have been related to some act of stupidity on my part. Happily the proposal happened a few weeks later and we remain both married and Roches fans...
ReplyDeleteGreat story! Alas, these gigs happened shortly after my graduation, so I missed out. But I did manage to marry myself a Princeton girl, so it worked out.
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