King Crimson - Elephant Talk (Live At The Warfield Theatre, San Francisco 1995)

Boy, this was a blast to play. I love words anyway, and Adrian’s lexicon of alliterations – clichés , commentary, controversy, chatter, chit-chat, etc - always made me smile. I’m also all for action rather than words, so the reminder that ‘It’s all talk, only talk’, at the beginning an end of every letter, resonated strongly with me. Many people talk about doing; fewer people actually do.

It was also one of the quickest songs to come together in the origination stages, and that’s always a good omen. The guitar and stick parts, and the lyrical idea, seemed to appear from nowhere - really fast. I may have missed some long gestation in the back of Belew’s head, but I don’t think so. And we all knew very quickly it would work well on stage. All it needed was a backbeat from the drummer, but not on hi-hat or cymbals , of course. This was a model of collective collaboration. There was nothing to say about what any individual was doing. All the bits fitted together perfectly, like a jigsaw.

This version is performed by six men, (five of whom are invisible), but nothing significant is added to the Tokyo version of 1984, also on this channel, performed by four men. The sound is a bit thicker with six, but the song could be played by one man and a kazoo and it would still work. It’s sort of indestructible.

Regular subscribers here will have got my drift in respect of teaching. IMO the best teaching is absorbed by listening to and observing the teacher in action and context, in other words, playing live with others. That’s why this channel predominantly uploads performance footage. Here you can see it done (well, not on this video): the articulation, the choices made, possibilities missed, all for better or worse. You may miss detail because the camera is elsewhere or the action too fast, but many other questions are worth asking.

For example, why is the stage black throughout, save for the lead performer and his Day-Glo guitar? The younger drummer will want to know other things. Why are the drums and cymbals set up that way? How often does the drummer deviate from a given pattern and to what effect? How often are toms used? How often does the drummer exit from a fill on the downbeat (rock), or tend to avoid that (jazz)? How often is the internal balance of the percussion instruments varied, or does it stay the same? Does the player turn on the hi-hat like an unvarying click track, or is the hat used as a fourth voice, integral to the rhythmic phrasing? Or is the hat not pedalled at all? To what extent are genre norms being challenged, or is the drummer content to lay it down and keep out of the way? These are interesting questions being answered in front of you every time you go hear a drummer perform.

And those are just the drum ones.

#billbruford #drumsolos #improvisationmusic #kingcrimson #paistecymbals #jazzdrumming #yes #electronicdrumkit #tamadrums #billbrufordsearthworks #billbrufordsearthworks

[christopherjobin-official]

I smile whenever I get to see footage of the Double Trio. Thank you Mr. Bruford!

[Pwecko]

I played Discipline, the album that this track comes from, for the first time just a few days ago, and I was blown away.
This sounds like a more musically proficient Talking Heads. It's brilliant.

[worldprog]

I had the VHS video made from this tour. It was where my fiance at the time first experienced Crimson. I myself have been a fan for over 50 years.

[supermantra]

Nice suit and orange glowing guitar sounds great to my eyes

[giorgioclavelli]

This is my prefered King Crimson song and I never seen this version before. Thanks Bill!

[peterbustin]

Sublime. Satisfying. Super. Elephant Talk

[stevennewman]

Les Claypool made an entire career sounding like this song.

[yournamehere]

This is great (thanks, Mr. Bruford!), but the version from Live on Fridays 1981-2 is the real mind blowing one. Still can't believe it's not lip-synched dubbed, the playing is so damn tight!

[lorenzofeugg]

Adrian Belew, what a genius! Thank you Bill, these videos are gold!

[seanwinkel]

I was at this show- it was a birthday gift- and it was one of the best shows I've ever attended.

[lornestein]

Great memories of the last tour I got to see you play. Wishing you all the best Bill.

[upyours]

What a great group of musicians. Dang!!!

[thisislogout]

Thanks for this upload!! Greatest version so far to me! I saw King Crimson sometime between 2003 and 2009 in Anaheim California at the House of Blues. It's a smaller venue with tables that served grilled steaks, chicken, type food and a bar of course. Very nice place to take a date or just see a performance. There is standing room all round and up to the stage. Every seat is a good seat in the house. Anyway, halfway through the awesome show, they paused after ending a song and it got quiet. I yelled out, 'Elephant Talk'!! and without missing a beat they went into this song. I will never forget that show! Wished I could have seen them more, ... but I have all their albums and I have YouTube Premium to watch all the live stuff! Lol.

[crikett]

I might've been there... was at the second of the three Warfield shows they did on this tour, and they were amazing! I had been fortunate to have heard Adrian play this song on solo tours before, but seeing it with Crimson was absolutely amazing, and cool to see this after all these years!

[EarleMonroe]

Man, that brought back my love of that record! But I gotta say I missed hearing, “These are words with a ‘d’ this time!”

[exoticalover]

Brilliant groovy shit. From the time people where seriously creative and unique.

[robertbernstein]

This song has never failed to fascinate me… thanks so much for posting this performance (just wish could have seen more of the band)!

[nondeblah]

Mr. Bruford always makes me think; both his drumming and his words. Mr. Belew kind of makes me laugh.

[edengully]

Killer version!. And someone's playing a glockenspiel! Bill's musicological musings, insights, and comments on song gestation are priceless bonuses. Thank you.

[tweeked]

I saw this your in Rosemont, IL.

Was one of the top three concerts of my lifetime.

You boys were just firing on all six cylinders.

Honored to have been there.

California Guitar Trio was a spectacular bonus opening band.

Just an awesome night.