22 YEARS to play this IMPOSSIBLE King Crimson song! Full Performance-Failure to Fracture, Episode 7

After 22 years, I am finished with learning and playing King Crimson's impossible song, "Fracture." In this video, I talk about destinations versus journeys and wrap it up with my final performance of Fracture. Thank you to Robert Fripp for his incredible music, technique, and inspiration.

Performance starts at 5:35.

00:00 Talk talk talk
05:35 Fracture performance
08:25 Moto perpetuo
11:20 Back to it

Thanks!

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[jori]

People don't realize know this, but it was just as difficult for Fripp. He wrote Fracture when he was 5, and then spent the next 22 years learning to play it.

[jewelscapes]

My father had his impossible piece - Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue. A high school music teacher told him he could skip the hard part. He didn't. He chased after it for over 40 years. He was fairly gone to Alzheimers a few years before he died and sat down and played quite a bit of it. It was a quest for a grail he never found. I am glad you managed. Made me remember that day 30 some years ago.

[IV]

You definitely get bonus points for playing it while standing- something Fripp never did. Great job.

[bobjones]

Oh and only the genius of a megalomaniac like Fripp would create a tuning and call it new STANDARD... I F’n love King Crimson

[mateuszzz]

Fripp once said, that in time he had mental disorder, he had dream vision. He had seen new structures and kind of harmony and he heard "If you return, play what you saw". Fracture was realesed after he had catatonia, 1973. That's why this song is ridiculously tough to repeat.

[nicholasrella]

It’s amazing how a song can be so complex and intricate that you can write an entire book about learning to play it.

[RiquezaEmGotas]

Congrats on your herculean effort, it takes some balls, stamina and endurance to play this.
NOTE TO GUITARISTS: If you are a guitarist and you think you are really good, way above average and think you can play anything, just give this song a try and be humbled for months or even years.
Be prepared to feel the pain and numbness creeping up on your fingers, wrist and arm to a point where they do not obey your commands anymore and you are ready to admit defeat.
Forget about Van Halen, Vai, Satriani, Malmsteen and the like, forget even about Steve Morse, this is the plateau of difficulty. If you think i am exaggerating, just give it a try.

[shafterx]

Still can't believe to this day how Fripp came with this song up, besides being the most complex KC song it still manages to have catchy melodies. Props on this amazing achievement and probably performing the best cover of this song so far on the Internet.

[MerkinMuffly]

Congratulations, a great accomplishment.

[DimmoMeister]

I have watched all your videos on this song and i had the biggest smile on my face watching this! Proud of you, bravo!

[tedshusterman]

This was really inspiring! Your reactions to the "mistakes" added to the humanity and realness of this performance. Bravo! Thank you for bringing us along on your journey.

[nikolajkrarup-osgn]

Fracture is my favorite king crimson tune. Just amazing. I never ever get tired of listening to it.

[jbjb]

awesome !! And a thought for John Wetton. Even if he didi not co-compose Fracture, he was structurally vital for that album, one of my favorites from KC's. The bass line that starts at 14:15 has always amazed me.

[BroncoJay]

Just the idea that you and maybe one or two people on this whole planet have ever done this must be rewarding as well. I watched every video and comment and have the greatest respect for this. And besides the musicality it was very inspiring to get to know the philosophy and insights about this piece as well. Very enjoyable!

[DMustane]

If you see vids of Fripp from back in the day in 74 you can see that once a sees a camera he gets into a serious mood and a killer glance to it. Cameras can be really distracting, and having another performance worry such as the disk space makes no good to your playing. Now that you've practiced the song you need to practice the stare lol.

Also I've seen some of your videos on the topic and they're really enjoyable for a crimhead so thanks a lot.

Also the recording present on the SABB album is a live recording from 1973 in Amsterdam, hence "the shouting guy" Bruford. But it's augmented with studio overdubs. Drums, bass and guitars have overdubs here and there (Wetton has a dual bass solo at 14:16), I think Fripp miss a couple of notes on the motto perpetuo part and one of the overdubs he did was this notes, still you can hear the original take as the overdubs augmented the mix, they weren't made to correct errors.

What this implies is that even the recorded version of the song has a mistake on Bobby's playing!

[steverickenbacher]

For the last 30+ years, this has been my favorite King Crimson piece. All things considered, I think you've done it justice, and wish you great luck reaching your next destinations.

[fandru]

incredible track, great rendition... the break, at 13'19", with Bruford yelling of sheer excitement, is one of my favorite moments of the whole Crimson catalogue...

[catnipnapkin]

It sounds like someone tried to write a jazzalbum, but had no idea what jazz sounded like and halfway though decided "fuck it, let's just make a rock album" but the drummer got addicted to weird rythms so he kept playing jazz, and everyone else was like "I guess we're still playing jazz" but without it actually ever sounding like jazz.

Anyway good job on the performance.

[mykonomen]

This is one of the best pieces of music ever made, and you did a MONSTER job! I have no words. Funny you mentioned the shouting guy: When I was in my early twenties and had partys at my place, me and this other guy who was also into Crimson had a thing we always did. When everybody was drunk (including us) and everybody was having fun talking, dancing around, we always put this on really loud and stood really close to the speakers waiting for the scream and when it came we exploded with a scream too. No one else liked this at all... But we always did it. :-D THANK YOU SO MUCH and hats off to you Anthony. Respect.

[andyashford]

This track has held a fascination for me for the best part of fifty years. Well done for getting a grip of it and giving me a better opportunity to see how the guitar part is structured than is immediately apparent from the original recording. Thank you!