Ian McDonald, of the Bands King Crimson and Foreigner, Dies at 75

Foreigner’s debut album in 1977 made Billboard’s Prime 5 checklist and bought greater than 5 million copies. One tune Mr. McDonald helped write, “Long, Long Way From Home,” turned a Prime 20 Billboard hit. He was a co-producer of all three albums that he recorded with Foreigner, together with “Double Vision” (1978) and “Head Games” (1979).

Ian Max McDonald was born on June 25, 1946, in Osterley, Middlesex, England to Keith McDonald, an architect, and Ada (Could) McDonald, a homemaker. His father performed banjo and piano, and, in a home crammed with music, Ian performed guitar and piano.

His multi-instrumental strategy broadened at 15, when he left faculty and entered the British Military as a bandsman. “I used to be taught clarinet, and from there I taught myself flute and saxophone,” he instructed Large Bang Journal in 1999. “I used to be uncovered to a lot of completely different musical types.”

After leaving the military and shifting to London, he met Mr. Fripp, who had a whimsical group referred to as Giles, Giles and Fripp, together with Michael Giles and his brother Pete. Mr. McDonald recorded songs with them earlier than they advanced into King Crimson, with the singer and bassist Greg Lake changing Pete Giles.

Nearly instantly a buzz grew round them, resulting in an invite to carry out at a Rolling Stones free live performance in London in Hyde Park; the occasion was initially meant to introduce the Stones’ new guitarist, Mick Taylor, but it surely wound up doubling as a salute to the musician he had changed, Brian Jones, who had died two days earlier. Viewers estimates for the present vary from 250,000 to 500,000. In 2013, The Guardian reported that “King Crimson almost stole the present.”