Frame by Frame

I take this to be sort of like Tool's "Lateralus" -

It's about how someone is proceeding 'frame by frame' (in the small scale) with their analysis of something. They "drown" in their analysis, doubting themselves (by numbers, or predictably).

It's kinda what happens when you hear an 80s Crimson song for the first time and get absolutely lost trying to figure it out according to simpler musical conventions. Woah.

You have to understand that at this stage, on the fly, Fripp had relegated lyrics and singing to Adrian Belew, right after hiring him to play guitar for King Crimson.\n\nYou further have to understand that getting hired by Robert Fripp to play a musical instrument in King Crimson is roughly analogous to being kicked out of a moving aircraft at several hundred thousand feet. Whether or not you have a parachute -- and the condition it\'s in -- is entirely YOUR business, not Fripp\'s.\n\nYou even further have to understand that Jamie Muir, way back @ Lark\'s Tongues in Aspic, introduced the paradigm shift of covertly and/or obliquely critiquing one\'s feelings / attitudes / animosities toward fellow bandmates in the/as the lyrics.\n\n(This trend was subsequently picked up on by Jon Anderson and Yes in their albums "90125" and "Big Generator" before they realized that they could make more money by not being quite so inventive, but I digress).\n\nThis is nothing more -- or less -- than Belew\'s cathartic reaction (with all its anxiety, apprehension, angst, aggression, anger) AGAINST Fripp and his velvet-fist-in-the-iron glove approach to Dealing with the Uninitiated.\n\nLook at the personnel changes in King Crimson over its long and storied history and ask yourself (particularly if you\'re a musician or want to think you are), how long YOU could last with Robert.\n\nBruford managed for twenty-five years until it (a) started affecting his health and sanity and (b) almost ended his marriage.\n\nStep by step. Doubt by numbers. \n\nSurely it\'s happened -- or is happening --in YOUR life. They\'re also called toxic relationships, and most of them are utterly irresistible, kind of like getting dragged into the gravity well of a black hole.

robert fripp is an amazing guitarist. for proof see the performance on old grey whistle test

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2wysp_king-crimson-frame-by-frame_music

Watch his fingers at 1:00minute.

As all things crimson, a series of fractals which are simultaneously profound and shallow. The music's simple statement that wr get caught up in our own thoughts. As one who can relate, I often over think things, when if I stop trying so hard and slow down, the answers present themselves.