I’m sure a lot of people did what I did, and bought the first album just on the basis of the cover:
It’s a stunning piece of work, the cover and the album, and set another pattern: three tracks on side one, two on side two with some improvisation.
Looking at the cover, I remember thinking who are these people? How can they play like this?
You can tell it’s prog rock because of all the Mellotron from McDonald. His contribution to this is so great…
There are some fan favourites here, 21st Century Schizoid Man and Epitaph for a start.
After M Giles and McDonald left, P and M Giles both returned to help out on the second album, In The Wake Of Poseidon, described by some wag as the first album but in stereo. It does feature Cat Food though. Lake was also off after this, to Emerson, Lake and Palmer. So, almost all change.
Then new people for album three, Lizard, from 1970.
It’s a prog album (lots of Mellotron) for sure. New singer, Gordon Haskell, guest musicians, Jon Anderson gets a sing, Mel Collins is here. Fripp always said it would not be performed in public and should be forgotten about, but the current band play great chunks of it and it sounds amazing, way ahead of its time. And the Bolero is one of the most beautiful pieces of music you will hear.
Fripp and Sinfield, well mainly Collins, then brought in Ian Wallace on drums and Boz Burrell on bass and vocals. The next album, the amazing Islands, from 1971.
People either love or hate this album, but we love it. Side one has the amazing Formentera Lady and The Sailor’s Tale, side two Ladies Of The Road and the title track. Listen to that on headphones. You can hear all the instrumentation that has been faded out, almost, to pare back the song. Boz sings wonderfully, for all its squeaks the harmonium is inspired and the mellotron (oh yes, it’s prog) never sounded better.
But it wasn’t a happy time, Fripp didn’t like the music, especially live and they split. Peter Sinfield went on to write for PFM, Celine Dion and Bucks Fizz.