Fripp & Eno (No Pussyfooting)

On September 8th 1972, Robert Fripp brought his guitar and pedal board to Brian Eno’s home studio. Using Eno’s twin tape recorder/loop method set-up Fripp provided two takes – one for the background guitar loop and one for the foreground solos with Eno selectively manipulating which signals were committed to the final tape. The 21 minutes piece of music that resulted, The Heavenly Music Corporation became one of the most significant and influential pieces of electronic music ever recorded.

The other track on the album Swastika Girls was not recorded until over a year later in August 1973 – the track title inspired by a picture of girls wearing a swastika and little else that was pinned to the mixing console. Also pinned to the console was a piece of paper with the words ‘No Pussyfooting’ – Fripp’s reminder to both musicians that they should not compromise what they felt to be right or be deterred by the hostility to the project shown by management and record label alike (there was talk of Fripp leading Eno into ‘un-commercial territory).

The album was released in November 1973 and, astonishingly, went on to sell over 100,000 copies.