And
no, that’s not a bad thing, especially if you enjoy Summers’ solo
albums, particularly Mysterious Barricades (compare “Emperor’s
Last Straw” to “Forgotten Steps”), Charming Snakes (compare
“Passion of the Shadow” to “Tribe”), Earth + Sky (compare
“Above the World” to “Begin the Day”), Triboluminescence
(compare “Help from Jupiter” to “Bewitched”), and the
title track of XYZ (compare to “Train”). By the way,
Summers’ rhythmic chorused arpeggios on “Train” brilliantly
convey the sonic motion of a locomotive.
I
bought my first vinyl copy of Bewitched in the late 1980s,
from a record store next to the GAP in a retro futuristic outlet mall
across the parking lot from Levitz on Route 17 in Paramus, New
Jersey. It was my first album of Summers and Fripp. Summers had just
finished his first stint with The Police and had only three solo
albums and a couple of soundtracks to his name. So, his parts on
Bewitched and I Advance Masked seemed obvious.
However,
as his solo work has progressed over the years and become more varied
and revelatory, so have my understanding and appreciation of his work
on the Fripp albums. And as Summers continues to record into his
seventies and reveal more of his idiosyncrasies, I continue to
unearth still even more treasures from those decades-old but timeless
works.
--Raj
Manoharan
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