Robert Fripp has spent decades establishing himself as one of rock’s most exacting bandleaders, helping push guitar playing into new territory with King Crimson. But on the band’s first-ever performance, he made an exception to one of his most personal rules — and he’s never repeated it since.
After some bizarre musical experiments with his early group Giles, Giles and Fripp, the guitarist helped form what would become King Crimson. By the time the band recorded its genre-defining debut, In the Court of the Crimson King, however, original bass player Peter Giles had departed.
Before the album’s five tracks were committed to tape, the group made its live debut at London’s Speakeasy club in April 1969. And the occasion brought an unexpected guest onstage: Scottish folk singer Donovan.
Recalling the show in a new YouTube video with his wife, Toyah Willcox, Fripp describes it as “a very happy recollection.”
“We were a very big success; an unknown band,” he says. “At the end of it, a guest star stepped up to play with us.”
The moment was entirely spontaneous. The band played Donovan’s “Get Thy Bearings,” from his 1968 album The Hurdy Gurdy Man. At the end of the set, the singer joined them onstage — and borrowed Fripp’s guitar.
“We played a Donovan song, ‘Get Thy Bearings’,” Fripp recalls. “And at the end of our set Donovan came up, stood onstage and borrowed my Les Paul — may I say the only person who has before and since and after borrowed my guitar — to sit in and do ‘Get Thy Bearings’ with the band.”
Donovan was already an established name in the British music scene. The Hurdy Gurdy Man featured contributions from musicians who would go on to become Led Zeppelin members, while George Harrison had contributed lyrics to the title track, though they were ultimately omitted from the released version. His decision to join the fledgling King Crimson onstage was a memorable endorsement of the band’s emerging talent.
And the guitar he borrowed was no ordinary instrument.
Fripp had acquired his 1959 Gibson Les Paul Custom after businessman Angus Hunking loaned £7,000 to Giles, Giles and Fripp following the modest success of their sole album, The Cheerful Insanity of Giles, Giles and Fripp. Fripp took some of the money to a London music store, where a tough-nosed clerk tried to persuade him that Eric Clapton was interested in the £400 instrument. Fripp called his bluff and walked out with the guitar.
Given the instrument’s age and association with Fripp, it would likely command a six-figure sum today. But its most unusual distinction may be that, more than half a century ago, Donovan became the only person Fripp has ever allowed to borrow it.
Fripp and Toyah’s video also features a Halloween-themed cover of another Donovan song, “Season of the Witch,” complete with a suitably garish mask. The 1966 original has enjoyed a new wave of attention thanks in part to Lana Del Rey’s 2019 cover for the film Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark. Donovan has recalled how heartbreak, LSD and Jimmy Page helped shape the song.
