The Cheerful Insanity of Giles, Giles and Fripp is the only album from the 1960s psychedelic rock group Giles, Giles and Fripp. In addition to 13 songs, the album contains two comedic spoken word pieces, “The Saga of Rodney Toady” and “Just George”, which are interspersed between the songs. The album is a mix of various styles (folk, classical, pop, psychedelic rock and religious music). (More from Wikipedia)
I have always been fascinated about where this music came from, and while I certainly don’t have all of the answers, I heard about a predecessor psychedelic rock band called Giles, Giles and Fripp not too long ago. This band includes the only constant member in the ever-changing line-up of King Crimson over the years, guitarist Robert Fripp. The other bandmembers were two English brothers, drummer Michael Giles and bass guitarist Peter Giles; the two had advertised for a singing keyboard player, but they hired Fripp anyway. The band released one album, The Cheerful Insanity of Giles, Giles and Fripp in 1968, along with a couple of singles; all sold poorly (Robert Fripp claimed that they only sold 500 copies of the original album, though that figure is disputed).
(March 2013)
