There was a scare story in the late '80s that CDs would 'expire' or rot and become unplayable after ten years. This was one of the first two CDs I ever had, bought after I got a CD player for my 21st birthday. That makes it over 20 years old, and it hasn't rotted, though it did make a horrible, horrible noise in my computer's drive, so I ejected it pretty smartly.
God, I'd forgotten what a great album this is. Or rather, I think — though I always liked it — I may not have realised until now just how good it is. As an album there is a beautiful balance of songs, moods and tempos; the sequence of tracks is just right and it's very coherent.
This was the first time King Crimson re-formed, having split in 1974 or 75. Who was the first band to re-form? Everyone does it now, but it used to be rare. Roxy Music disbanded in 1976 and came together again in 1978, but I don't think that's a long enough hiatus to count as re-forming. I believe Robert Fripp said some years later that this incarnation of Crimson achieved everything it could with this first album. That seemed harsh, since I quite like the two that came after it, but now I can see what he means: the music that followed was treading the same path, and with less vigour.
I also remember hearing Bill Bruford being interviewed by Tommy Vance at the time Discipline came out. I think Bill was a bit non-plussed. First, TV put it to him that the new King Crimson would be seen as a copy of Talking Heads. Bill spluttered about Fripp's unique guitar sound (it probably didn't help that both Crimson guitarists had by this time played on Talking Heads records). Then TV read out one of Fripp's gnomic press releases, and, when asked to explain it, Bill had to brush it aside and tell him that only Fripp can explain Fripp.
He did, however, spin the possible apocryphal story behind Thela Hun Ginjeet (an anagram of Heat in the Jungle): that Adrian Belew was walking the mean streets of London outside the studio, muttering soundbites into a tape recorder about crime in the city, when he was accosted by a couple of heavies who suspected him of being an undercover policeman, wanted to hear his tape, and didn't believe his cover story. [Update, 6 November 2009: Delight! The full interview is now online. It shows my memory for these things, after 25 years, was pretty good — I was paying attention.]
 MusicBrainz entry for this album
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