Happy Birthday Robert Fripp
Robert Fripp, yes that is his actual name, was born May 16, 1946, somewhere in England. Bobby was the second child of a working-class family. In 1957, at age ten, Fripp received a guitar and a hula hoop for Christmas from his parents. He later recalled, “Almost immediately I knew that this hula hoop was going to be my life”.
Fripp spent years studying the hula hoop and was the number one hula hooper in England until a hip injury sidelined him. While recovering, Robert turned to the guitar and music. Elvis Presley’s guitarist Scotty Moore inspired Fripp to play rock, moving on to traditional jazz at 13 and modern jazz at 15. He cited jazz musicians Charlie Parker and Charles Mingus as his musical influences during this time. He never looked back and gave up the hula hoop for the guitar.
Tulips on My Organ
In 1967, Fripp responded to an advertisement placed by Bournemouth-born brothers Peter and Michael Giles, who wanted to work with a singing organist. Fripp ended up hogtied in the trunk of a car after the Giles brothers asked him is he knew “Tulips on my Organ”.
In 1968, Fripp formed King Crimson with, Michael Giles, Greg Lake, Ian McDonald and lyricist Peter Sinfield. Their debut album, In the Court of the Crimson King (1969), remains their most commercially successful and influential release, with a potent mixture of jazz, classical and experimental music. Fripp disbanded this group in 1974.
Robert went on to work extensively as a session musician and collaborator, notably with David Bowie, Blondie, Brian Eno, Peter Gabriel, Daryl Hall, Midge Ure, Talking Heads, and David Sylvian. He has also contributed sounds to the Windows Vista operating system. Fripp claims Bill Gates chased him around the studio and grabbed him by the organ. His discography includes contributions to over 7 million official releases.
Enter The Sandman
Fripp married singer and actress Toyah Willcox on 16 May 1986. During the lockdowns, Fripp and Willcox uploaded many short, humorous videos to YouTube, usually covers of well-known songs, and mostly titled Toyah and Robert’s Sunday Lunch. According to rock and metal news website MetalSucks, their stories about these covers were extremely popular; their cover of Metallica’s “Enter the Sandman” [sic] was the site’s 6th-most popular story that year. Cheers Robert.
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