Ian McDonald

Ian McDonald is best known as a co-founder of two of the biggest bands of the late '60s and the late '70s: King Crimson and Foreigner. He has a significant fandom among the audiences for both bands (especially that of King Crimson), and can rightfully be considered a star in the field of progressive rock. A multi-instrumentalist, proficient on reeds, winds, keyboards, and guitar, as well as a singer -- and a producer -- McDonald has figured prominently on four of the biggest-selling albums of the ten-year period from 1969 through 1979, encompassing two completely different rock genres. McDonald was born in London in 1946, and his musical inclinations first manifested themselves through the guitar when he was in his teens. McDonald then took an unusual route toward furthering his music education, by way of the British Army -- he joined up while in his teens and became a junior bandsman, and later a bandsman, learning to play the clarinet, which he soon extended to the saxophone and the flute, and also learned to read music. McDonald was five years in the military, and when he came out he found that music was in a true state of flux, much more so than it had been in the previous decade. British rock had always been a bit more eclectic than its American counterpart, with audience pockets that were ready to accept it in pop-, blues-, and jazz-based hybrids. He found a group that seemed to embrace all of those elements in its sound, in Giles, Giles & Fripp, a trio spawned in Dorset consisting of Michael Giles (drums, vocals), Peter Giles (bass, vocals), and Robert Fripp (guitar), who had cut a brace of singles and one unsuccessful LP. McDonald added reeds, winds, and keyboards to their sound, which was also -- very briefly -- to include a new singer in Judy Dyble, an...