Named after the second of three King Crimson albums that featured Belew in the early 1980s, Belew put Beat together to salute and extend the legacy of that pioneering, constantly shape-shifting English art-rock band, whose first iteration counted Jimi Hendrix and Pete Townshend among its biggest early fans in the late 1960s.<\/p>\n
The band\u2019s 1969 debut album, \u201cIn The Court of The Crimson King,\u201d was a singular blend of rock, classical and jazz. Its standout track, the still-harrowing \u201c21st Century Schizoid Man,\u201d was sampled by Kanye West for his 2010 song, \u201cPower.\u201d It has also been covered by everyone from Ozzy Osbourne and Todd Rundgren to Phish and Black Midi.<\/p>\n
Original King Crimson bassist Greg Lake, who sang \u201c21st Century Schizoid Man,\u201d went on to cofound the progressive-rock band Emerson, Lake & Palmer. His eventual replacement \u2014 several band lineup changes later \u2014 was John Wetton, whose other credits ranged from Roxy Music and Asia to Wishbone Ash and Uriah Heep.<\/p>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/SUT-L-MUSIC-BEAT.jpg\")
The members of King Crimson, circa 1981. Shown from left are guitarist Robert Fripp, bassist and Chapman Stick player Tony Levin, guitarist and singer Adrian Belew, and drummer Bill Bruford. (Warner Bros. Records)
\n\u2018A huge influence\u2019<\/p>\n
Beat teams two Crimson alums \u2014 Belew and bassist and stick player Tony Levin \u2014 with drum ace Terry Bozzio and guitar star (and Rancho Santa Fe resident) Steve Vai. By coincidence, Vai and Bozzio also first rose to prominence performing in Zappa\u2019s bands.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s true, but that\u2019s not the point of it,\u201d said Belew, speaking from his Tennessee home in Mt. Juliet, about 20 miles outside of Nashville.<\/p>\n
Rather, the point is to showcase and breathe new life into the music King Crimson created on the three albums it made between 1981 and 1984. Those albums \u2014 \u201cDiscipline,\u201d \u201cBeat\u201d and \u201cThree of A Perfect Pair\u201d \u2014 established a new sonic template that still sounds fresh and vital today.<\/p>\n
Drawing from Balinese gamelan music, art-rock, punk-funk, the avant-garde and more, the early 1980s edition of King Crimson was the first edition of the band to feature both British and American members. It teamed Kentucky native Belew with fellow guitarist and King Crimson mastermind Robert Fripp, former Yes drummer Bill Bruford (who, like Fripp, is a native of England) and Boston native Tony Levin, who is equally dexterous on electric bass and the Chapman Stick, an all-neck, body-less instrument that has 13 strings and is played with all 10 fingers.<\/p>\n
Fripp and Belew alternated between electric guitars and guitar synthesizers, while Bruford played a hybrid acoustic and electronic drum set. The music they made with Levin was dense and intricate, brainy and brawny, ferociously powerful one moment and moody and contemplative the next. Belew\u2019s song lyrics added a surreal edge, especially on 1981\u2019s \u201cElephant Talk,\u201d which may still be the only rock song to include such words as brouhaha, balderdash, ballyhoo, chit-chat and diatribe.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re a huge influence on us,\u201d Tool singer Maynard James Keenan said in a 2001 San Diego Union-Tribune interview. \u201cHopefully, people who are responding to what we\u2019re doing are hearing \u2014 with King Crimson \u2014 where we came from, (and) where we may end up.\u201d<\/p>\n
The proudly left-of-center music on \u201cDiscipline,\u201d \u201cBeat\u201d and \u201cThree of a Perfect Pair\u201d has been also cited as a key inspiration by such bands as Nine Inch Nails, Primus, Rush, Nirvana, The Mars Volta and, especially Tool. Danny Carey, the drummer in Tool, was a member of Beat when the band made its San Diego debut in 2024 with two sold-out shows at Humphreys Concerts by the Bay.<\/p>\n
When Beat returns for a concert next Sunday at San Diego Civic Theatre, it will be with Bozzio on drums. Carey, who has other obligations, had to bow out.<\/p>\n
No matter the lineup, though, Belew has very specific guidelines for the Beat.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I put the band together,\u201d he recalled, \u201cI said to everyone that there are central things that have to be there, and that they have to be done exactly. For example, the interlocking guitar parts have to be (amplified) the same and have the same volume. But I want to hear their version of this music, because I know that\u2019s what the fans want. I don\u2019t want the band to feel like they have to duplicate the parts, note for note.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Beat](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/sut-l-music-vai-0403-01.jpg\")
Beat guitarist Steve Vai is now a San Diego County resident. (Larry Dimarzio)
\n\u2018It\u2019s polymetric\u2019<\/p>\n
Yet, even with creative latitude, the music of King Crimson is exacting and demanding. It requires exceptional precision, sensitivity and pinpoint dynamic command. It is not for beginners \u2014 or for anyone not willing to fully commit \u2014 be they members of the band or its audience.<\/p>\n
Or, as Vai put it in an April Union-Tribune interview: \u201cOn King Crimson\u2019s three \u201980s records \u2014 \u2018Discipline,\u2019 \u2018Beat\u2019 \u2018Three of a Perfect Pair\u2019 \u2014 there\u2019s a technique that Robert and Adrian employ that we call interlocking guitar parts. But what it is, is the merging of two time signatures; it\u2019s polymetric. Adrian will play a line in 7\/8, and Robert will play the same line, minus one note, in 6\/8.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, you get this amazing kind of turnaround and these harmonies and things that just don\u2019t repeat themselves until the whole line comes around. And this is the brilliant compositional technique that those guys used extensively throughout those three records.\u201d<\/p>\n