Eye of the Needle - Evolution

It is not, at this time, a public forum or document, but this is something I posted this weekend on the Guitar Craft Histories website...

Eye of the Needle

Some notes on the evolution and history of Eye of the Needle. These are gleaned from a combination of first-hand memory (often unreliable) and available recordings (often surprising).

I have a few memories of the appearance of Eye of the Needle during the first Level II, at Claymont in December 1985, but no clear sense of when in the course this took place. I remember parts turning up as people were coming from their personal meetings with Robert, and parts of it put together in an afternoon session, with the sense that we were testing something. Then in a late night session, perhaps even the same day, it seemed to come together almost instantly. It was not part of our first performance, which came 2 or 3 days into the course and involved going out to the Iron Rail. This show was mostly small group stuff. It also does not appear on the performance we did on Sunday December 8 on West Virginia Public Radio. That show involved a 6+ hour drive to Charleston, WV and an overnight stay. The next day, recording for the album commenced at Claymont. It may have been in the works at that point, but it was not in the available performance repertoire. Six days later, on Saturday December 14, it was performed at GWU, and again the day after that. The Sunday show became the source of much of the material that made it to the album. It was also videotaped.


Robert Fripp And The League Of Crafty Guitarists
LIVE!
Editions EG EEGCD 43

Recorded December 14 or 15, 1985, George Washington University, Washington, DC


The first recording of Eye of the Needle was on “Live!”. At the time of this performance, the working title was Spikes. The first time I heard the real title was in the library at Claymont in the summer of 1986, when the record was released and we heard it for the first time. This is Eye in its most rudimentary form.

• The 13/4 Intro is only played in the basic A Minor configuration, and then the piece transitions directly to the 4/4 version of A minor. While the bass players were spared the difficult descending line that later evolved, the transition from 13 to 4 was, for them/us, challenging. The anticipated C-D-E is completely different coming at the end of a bar of 13.
• There does not seem to be a “high octave” version of the 13/4 figure.
• The 13/4 figure does is not recapitulated in the middle of the piece. The long F# Minor section with harmonies and running lines goes directly back to the simple unison A Minor.
• It is also worth noting, from watching the video, that the ubiquitous alternate picking that has since become the standard was not part of it. In fact, accented picking was the norm – 123 123 123 1234. It is very audible, and likely the inspiration for the working title.
• Also a part of this piece in the early days was the preponderance of the finger pivot. One had the sense that it may have actually sprung out of work with this technique.
• The 5 against 4 polyrhythm of the Coda is entirely ascending through the chord changes, with the basses playing roots in a quietly pulsing 4.

The piece is pretty brisk in this performance, about 70-72bpm.

League Of Crafty Guitarists
Private recording of live radio broadcast - unreleased
Recorded December 6, 1986, WMMR, Philadelphia, PA

The next recording I have is from a radio broadcast at WMMR in Philadelphia, one year after “Live!” was recorded. It was part of a short tour we did during a Level II at Claymont. It was a large performance team, about 30, and included most of the group that had just returned from the first Level III in Dorset. The arrangement is substantially the same as “Live!”; much slower, beginning around 65bpm and slowing down to closer to 63bpm.

• The high octave guitar on the middle A Minor has appeared, presumably Robert.
• The bass part now includes 4s descending through the changes in the Coda.

League Of Locals
Demo tape - unreleased
Recorded April 1987, Washington DC vicinity

This Washington/Baltimore-based group was the first local or regional Guitar Circle. The tape comes from a small studio recording project we did of the then-current League repertoire. The arrangement of Eye of the Needle is identical to the WMMR recording, at roughly the same tempo.

New York Chapter Of The League Of Crafty Guitarists
Private recording of live performance - unreleased
Recorded August 21, 1987, Washington Square Church, NYC

The same arrangement as WMMR and the League of Locals. In at 70bpm and accelerating to about 74bpm.

League Of Crafty Guitarists
Live at Muhlenberg College, Allentown, PA
Board tape from live performance - unreleased
Recorded March 15, 1988

Simply marked “League – Muhlenburg March 1988”, my next example comes from what I presume is a live performance, in Allentown, PA. I don’t know much more about it. The timing coincides with a Level III that was taking place at Claymont, and we would presumably have been on our way to NY to record an appearance as "guest VJ's" on VH-1. There is no audible audience, so it would have to be a board tape. It is obviously edited for this presentation. 

It is again at the slower tempo; close to 60bpm.

• The full Intro through the 4 chord changes in 13 appears, including the descending bass melody
• The return to 13 in the middle is now part of the arrangement, including the descending bass melody.
• The high octave melody with harmony in the second A Minor 13 makes its first appearance in the Intro here, as well.

League Of Crafty Guitarists
SHOW OF HANDS
Editions EG EEG 2102-2
Recorded July 4-14 1986, Manhattan Studios, New York City, NY

Virtually the same arrangement as the Muhlenburg 1988 recording. In the 66bpm range.

• In the Coda, the 4s seem to have been relegated to the descending pattern, with the 5s ascending. It is pretty hard to hear for sure.
• The low octave version of the descending bass line in the middle 13/4 A Minor has been added.

League Of Crafty Guitarists
Bootleg of live performance - unreleased
Recorded August 4, 1990, Central Park, New York City, NY

Substantially the same as “Show of Hands”, although the quality of the bootleg tape makes hearing subtleties difficult. The ascending 4s in the Coda seem to have returned. Brisk performance tempo, ~72bpm.

League Of Crafty Guitarists
LIVE II
Guitar Craft Services CGCD 002
Recorded October 5, 1990, Victoriaville, Quebec, Canada

Made from the board tape of a performance at the Victoriaville Festival in Canada. ~70bpm. Again, largely the same arrangement, except that the piece is introduced by the solo guitar on the high octave for the first two figures of 13. The other melody players join in at the 3rd repetition of the figure, the same time that the descending bass line comes in. The high octave part ends on a high E here. Either Robert had a guitar with a 21st fret added, or an exceptionally hard and accurate callus on his finger.

League Of Crafty Guitarists
INTERGALACTIC BOOGIE EXPRESS – LIVE IN EUROPE 1991
Discipline Global Mobile DGM 9502
Recorded March 22, 1991, Tonhalle, Düsseldorf. Germany

Recorded on the final League tour. Once again, essentially the same arrangement as “Live II”, including the solo high octave guitar in the Introduction and the non-existent high E at the end, though considerably slower; ~63bpm. This recording contains what is generally considered to be an error; the wrong descending bass line in the middle 13 section. For a long time I cynically attributed this to deft editing in post production. However, I now realize that this particular combination of parts occurs nowhere else, and the cutting and pasting necessary for the rhythmic juxtaposition would have been wildly difficult, pre-ProTools. But not impossible. Still, I’m inclined to think we just played it wrong.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

The arrangement found on “Live II” and “IBE” (ignoring the error in the bass line), are still considered to be the current standard arrangement. A few variables include:

• To start with the solo octave melody or with all the melody players together; depending on the capability and confidence of the octave player.
  
  
• The low C# in the bass in the second half of the “F#” section. If there are a number of players on the bass part, one sometimes drops down to this note in bars 5-8 of that section.
  
  
• Similarly, sometimes one player begins the descending bass line that starts on “B” (second line in the Intro, only line in the middle 13s), down an octave – jumping back up into unison when it runs out of room.
  
  
• Downstrokes vs alternate picking on the running 5s (known colloquially as the “burbles”) and in the Coda. Europeans and South Americans tend toward the downstroke, while North Americans favor alternate picking. I think it can be pretty much boiled down to “it depends on who you learned it from; Robert or Curt.”