Today I challenged my students to connect Robert Fripp to Miley Cyrus in as few steps as possible...

[bbernardini]

...and one of them ACTUALLY DID IT. It wasn't the shortest way there, but it was pretty good:

Fripp played with Andy Summers.

Andy Summers plays with Sting in The Police.

Sting has been photographed by Annie Liebovitz.

Annie Liebovitz also photographed Miley Cyrus.

[Westegg]

1. But just musical steps? Annie's shot everyone.

[bbernardini]

2. I was hoping for just musical steps...

...but I was so impressed that somebody actually did it, I let it go. :)

[Westegg]

6. I'll work on it. Very challenging...

...my first thought is to avoid Eno entirely.

[bbernardini]

10. Actually, you COULD do it with Eno.

Robert Fripp recorded with Brian Eno.

Brian Eno was in Roxy Music with Phil Manzanera.

Phil Manzanera has played with David Gilmour.

David Gilmour performed on Paul McCartney's "No More Lonely Nights".

Paul McCartney's drummer for his last few tours has been Abe Laboriel, Jr.

Abe Laboriel, Jr. played drums on the "Hannah Montana 2: Meet Miley Cyrus" album.

[darkstar]

20. I bow to you

:toast:

[Westegg]

12. Did Billy Ray and Miley ever record/sing together?...

...Because right now I can connect Fripp to Cher, but I can't connect Cher to Billy Ray, and thus from there possibly to Miley. And I don't have two more seconds to deal with this, alas.

Fripp played on the Roche Sisters' debut album, along with Tony Levin, who also recorded with Cher.

So where do we go from there?

[bbernardini]

14. Got it!

Tim Pierce played guitar on Cher's "Living Proof" album. He also played guitar on "Hannah Montana 2: Meet Miley Cyrus".

[Westegg]

15. Teamwork! You rock!

[Rabrrrrrr]

3. Wow! To even have someone know who Robert Fripp is, is amazing.

And that a youngster knows Annie Liebovitz, and seems to know her beyond just hearing about the brouhaha with the photos with Miley dumbass or whatever her name is.

[bbernardini]

7. To be fair, they didn't know who Robert Fripp was.

I had to explain him to them. They did this all with the internets. I don't know how she got Annie Liebovitz in there.

(Side note: you should have seen the reaction when some of them found some old pictures of Toyah Willcox.)

[Rabrrrrrr]

8. Oh. Well, on the good side, it let's me go back to hating American culture

and having no hope for our future intellectual growth.

x(

[bbernardini]

11. Well, look at it this way...

A 7th grade boy actually spoke the names of Trey Gunn, Eddie Jobson and Frank Zappa. It's a start.

[Magrittes Pipe]

4. Fripp played with Eno

Billy Ray Cyrus isn't fit to clean Eno's balls.

[Rabrrrrrr]

5. Billy Ray Cyrus isn't fit to be on the same continent as Eno's balls.

Cyrus is to Eno what a toxic pile of beetle shit is to God.

[madinmaryland]

9. Oh. I thought this was a genealogy challenge.

Who is robert fripp??

[XNASA]

13. Miley's dad is Billy Ray Cyrus......

..who had a bit part in "Mulholland Drive", which was directed by David Lynch.

Eno contributed "Prophesy Theme" to the Dune soundtrack which was also, as I'm sure you know, directed by Lynch.

Eno and Fripp, of course, have recorded together many times.

That's all I got.

[darkstar]

21. Nice...what's his role in Mullholland Drive?

Well played and good trivia to boot!!

:hi:

I do know bbernadini, you and I have a connection of sorts....that's all I got....

[mitchum]

16. Fripp had that guitar school/commune/cult center/whatever in West Virginia...

there are hillbillies in West Virginia
Miley Cyrus is the offspring of a hillbilly

[mitchum]

17. Fripp played with Bowie

Bowie had one of the first mullets
Billy Ray Cyrus had the world's most offensive mullet
Miley Cyrus is his daughter

[Rabrrrrrr]

18. Robert Fripp is unknown by the average NASCAR shitpile. Miley is a NASCAR shitpile.

[bbernardini]

19. Can anybody connect them in two steps or less? nt

[MilesColtrane]

22. Challenge them to connect Robert Fripp and Miley cyrus to Mr. Scorpio.

[muriel_volestrangler]

23. How about:

Robert Fripp played guitar on "Peter Gabriel" (the first album, aka 'Car'), produced by Bob Ezrin

Bob Ezrin also produced "Dragontown" by Alice Cooper, on which Tim Pierce played guitar

Tim Pierce played guitar on "Hannah Montana 2: Meet Miley Cyrus"

[bbernardini]

25. Very nice...here's my original solution:

Robert Fripp has played with guitarist Mike Keneally (formerly of Frank Zappa and Steve Vai's bands) on one of the "G3" tours.

Mike Keneally played with Josh Freese in the Dweezil Zappa Band. (Freese has played drums for Devo, as well as a zillion other folks.)

Josh Freese played drums on "Hannah Montana 2: Meet Miley Cyrus."

[muriel_volestrangler]

26. I like yours better - involving a producer struck me as a slight cheat (nt)

[mitchum]

29. Nawww, in Ezrin's case it is not a cheat...

he usually contributes some some keyboards, vocals, and/or percussion to his productions. Sometimes credited, sometimes not.
Well done.
However, I am now staggered by the implications of the connection between Miley Cyrus and the gentleman in my avatar :)

[Hawkeye-X]

24. Heh. I nailed it down to 2!

Miley Ray Cyrus was in "Hannah Montana" (2006) {My Best Friend's Boyfriend (#2.7)} with Larry David (I)
Larry David (I) was in "Fridays" (1980) {(#3.9)} with Robert Fripp

:woohoo:

Edit: Okay, so I cheated - http://oracleofbacon.org/cgi-bin/oracle/movielinks?firstname=Robert%20Fripp&secondname=Cyrus,+Miley+Ray&using=3&game=0

[Giant Robot]

27. Wow this is an impressive

waste of time.

BTW I was trying to connecting them via the lead singer from Letters to Cleo being Miley's back-up, but it stopped there. I suck.

[bbernardini]

28. Actually, that's completely possible, and was part of my original solution.

Well, sort of. I'll include the singer from Letters To Cleo in this, but she can be left out for reasons I'll make clear.

Kay Hanley of Letters To Cleo is a backup singer for Miley Cyrus.

Stacy Jones was in Letters To Cleo with Kay Hanley. However, he is also the drummer and musical director for the Miley Cyrus tour, which is why we can leave out Kay Hanley. Jones recruited her for the gig.

Stacy Jones is in American Hi-Fi with Drew Parsons. (Side note: I'm in a band with Drew's brother.)

Drew Parsons played bass on a Tracy Bonham album (the one with "Mother Mother" on it) with Josh Freese (on drums).

Josh Freese was in the Dweezil Zappa Band with Mike Keneally (a hell of a nice guy).

Mike Keneally played with Robert Fripp.


This was my original solution to the problem until I discovered Josh Freese was also on the most recent Miley Cyrus album.