Robert Fripp‘s pre-King Crimson outfit, Giles, Giles & Fripp, the band he featured in with brothers Michael and Peter Giles, both of whim would go on to play with Fripp in King Crimson, are to have their 1968 debut album, The Cheerful Insanity of Giles, Giles & Fripp, remastered and reissued on CD and vinyl.
At the same time, The Brondesbury Tapes, a collection of home demo recordings, newly remastered by King Crimson manager David Singleton, will be released, both releases coming through the Panegyric/DGM label on July 4.
Fripp applied for, and got the role of “a singing organist”, advertised for by the Giles brothers in 1967, despite not being able to sing, nor was he an organist! However the trio were offered a record deal with Decca, for whom they recorded The Cheerful Insanity of Giles, Giles & Fripp, which was released in 1968, a mixture of psychedelic pop, folk music and the trio’s trademark humour.
The Brondesbury Tapes is a collection of demos recorded at the flat the three musicians shared at 93a Brondesbury Road in North London, converting their living space into a recording studio of sorts, with a single Revox reel-to-reel tape machine, and where the trio were visited by the likes of Ian McDonald, Greg Lake and Judy Dyble.
The demos provide fans with a glimpse of how the band’s sound developed, and I Talk To The Wind (which would feature on the King Crimson 1969 debut album In The Court Of The Crimson King) features while parts of Fripp’s Suite No.1 would later be transformed into Prelude: Song Of The Gulls and his Why Don’t You Just Drop In became, with new lyrics, The Letters for 1971’s album Islands.
The spoken interludes from The Cheerful Insanity of Giles, Giles & Fripp have been removed for this new reissue, while the audio quality of The Brondesbury Tapes is limited in places due to the original source, new remastering by Singleton has improved the sound significantly compared to previous issues.
Both are released on heavyweight 200g vinyl, with the vinyl cut by Jason Mitchell at Loud Mastering. The Brondesbury Tapes vinyl features 13 of the best quality recordings from the tapes, while the CD features all 21 tracks.
You can see the full tracklistings below.
Giles, Giles & Fripp
The Cheerful Insanity Of Giles, Giles & Fripp (The Songs)
LP
SIDE A:
1. North Meadow
2. Newly-weds
3. One in a Million
4. Call Tomorrow
5. Digging My Lawn
6. Little Children
7. The Crukster
8. Thursday Morning
SIDE B:
1. How Do They Know
2. Elephant Song
3. The Sun is Shining
4. Suite No. 1
5. Erudite Eyes
CD
(Running order as above plus)
She is Loaded
Under the Sky
One in a Million (Mono Single)
Newly-weds (Mono Single)
Thursday morning (Mono Single)
Thursday morning (Stereo Single)
The Brondesbury Tapes
LP – A Selection from The Brondesbury Tapes
Side A
1. Erudite Eyes
2. I Talk to the Wind (1)
3. Make it Today
4. Wonderland
5. She is Loaded
Side B
1. Scrivens
2. Why Don’t You Just Drop In?
3. Suite No. 1
4. I Talk to the Wind (2)
5. Under the Sky
6. Plastic Pennies
7. Tremolo Study in E Major (Spanish Suite)
8. Passages of Time
CD – The Brondesbury Tapes
1. Hypocrite
2. Digging My Lawn (A)
3. Tremolo Study In E Major (Spanish Suite)
4. Newly Weds
5. Suite No. 1
6. Scrivens
7. Make It Today (A)
8. Digging My Lawn (B)
9. Why Don’t You Just Drop In (I)
10. I Talk To The Wind (1)
11. Under The Sky (*)
12. Plastic Pennies
13. Passages Of Time
14. Under The Sky (**)
15. Murder
16. I Talk To The Wind (2)
17. Erudite Eyes
18. Make It Today (B)
19. Wonderland
20. Why Don’t You