McDonald and Giles
In my entry for 5 January I noted that the big news in the UK music press was that Michael Giles and Ian MacDonald had left King Crimson, then riding high on the success of In The Court of the Crimson King. Naturally enough, the duo set about recording their own album May to July 1970.
Wikipedia says that McDonald and Giles was released in January 1971, but the copyright date on the label is 1970, and Nick Logan reviewed it in New Musical Express, 14 November 1970, so I reckon I’m justified in going with a November 1970 UK release date.
NME 14 November 1970
Nick Logan’s review is pretty much spot on. Listening fifty years on from its release, substantial chunks of it stand up really well, particularly when they edge towards jazz. The main things that locate this in time and space are the flute sound, the obvious Beatles influences, and the quirky lyrics and arrangement of Birdman, although as it’s written in part by Peter Sinfield that’s maybe not a surprise.
It’s also clear that their split from King Crimson was inevitable. There’s an almost pastoral sensibility at work here that would never have survived the Crims’s shift to the angular scales and rhythms of Larks Tongues In Aspic and Red. Nick Logan suggests as much too, arguing that McDonald and Giles were a restraining influence of Robert Fripp. That sounds reasonable, but I think it’s just as true that a force of nature such as Fripp does not benefit from being restrained.
This album is widely praised as a classic (indeed, according to one bloke in the YouTube comments, a timeless classic). I don’t think I’d go that far; where I differ from Nick Logan is that I think it’s a bit of a curate’s egg. The fact that bits (like most of side two) are of their time isn’t a criticism as such, it’s a statement of the bleedin’ obvious. In the context of 1970, this was a notable record. That doesn’t mean that I’m happy to listen to all of it today, or at least not to listen uncritically. Equally, the bits that are good, particularly on side one, are very good. I also liked the horns that appear towards the end of side two, but I’m a sucker for a good horn section.
For a change, the album isn’t on Spotify. It’s all on YouTube though
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