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I love the term "rentierism."----- Original Message ----- From: "Philip Conway" <Philip.Conway@bristol.ac.uk>
To: <Loopers-Delight@loopers-delight.com> Sent: Friday, September 07, 2012 9:26 AM Subject: Re: Fripp news
Sorry, I didn't mean to imply that *Fripp's* 'retirement' was a purely materialistic decision but that this is the nature of the music industry as a whole -- obsessed with legality and ownership and neglectful of creativity.The 'posh offices', etc. was referring to the turn that the whole industry has taken towards rentierism. I didn't mean to imply that Fripp has any of these things. To me he just seems to be defending his artistic and commercial legacy against this kind of predation.Philip.--On 07 September 2012 08:43 -0400 Douglas Baldwin <coyotelk@optonline.net> wrote:Knowing the Frippster just a teensy tiny bit (via Guitar Craft and a few other brief exchanges), I feel compelled to comment on the many comments given about his "retirement." First, note Robert's online diary: http://www.dgmlive.com/diaries.htm . Robert is a great writer, but he often uses his own code to express himself. Regular reading of his diary reveals this code rather clearly, and gives excellent insight to his day-to-day life: his struggles with the music business, pictures of his office and fellow workers, his lovely wife Toyah, and perhaps most relevantly, his thoughts about retirement. Philip wrote (and several other posters said or implied):"I understood that as he is becoming his own management to keep following up legal rights to his music of the past. Reminds me of the tendency among record labels to stop seeking out new great music in favor of focusing on dealing with the legal rights to their back catalogue." Economists call this rent, or rentierism. The extraction of value not by producing anything new but by squeezing what has already been produced. Actually creating new stuff entails risks and overheads; extracting rents just requires a small army of lawyers and some posh offices. That's 21st Century capitalism for you - all gain, no risk!Philip's comment implies a stinky heartless materialism. Robert doesn't seem to be very interested in making money through his back catalog per se. What he wants is proper control of the Crimson/Fripp catalog so it doesn't get abused by the fat grubs of 21st century music biz. He would also like to distribute income properly to his fellow musicians, many of whom do not have the background in real estate that he does, and so do not have much in the way of a cushioning income to soften the blows of the business. Robert certainly has no posh offices nor army of lawers; the DGM offices are on a rural side street adjacent to the village butcher, and Bobby often bunks down on the floor in a sleeping bag when work demands it. The staff consists of two or three people. Almost everyone who commented on the DPRP article was blindsided by DPRP's stupidly misleading and sensationalistic headline: "Robert Fripp Quit Music." That's poor English, for starters. What Robert has given up on is his role as a front-line, headlining, touring-in-poor-conditions performer and recorder of music that demands tour support. Robert is so plugged into music that it drips in puddles around his feet. Music flits around his rounded head like moths 'round a light. Almost every day he does things with his fingers, heart, and ears (and what's between them) than most of us could wish for. He's just sick of the crappy business surrounding the public performance and distribution of music.