Peter Sinfield, best known for his King Crimson songs, has died at age 80. Over a storied career in prog, he also worked with Emerson Lake and Palmer and Roxy Music.
King Crimson and stalwart leader Robert Fripp both confirmed Sinfield’s death. No cause was given but Sinfield was said to have been in declining health.
Sinfield was a do-anything figure during King Crimson’s early years: He named the band, found their initial rehearsal space, served as King Crimson’s original roadie and sound engineer, and operated the lights, as well. He also connected the band with his friend Barry Goldber, creator of the iconic cover image for their 1969 debut, In the Court of the Crimson King.
READ MORE: The Top 50 Progressive Rock Albums
He wrote songs and served as art director with King Crimson through 1971, while also co-producing the 1970 albums In the Wake of Poseidon and Lizard. Some of his best-known co-writes included “The Court of the Crimson King,” “21st Century Schizoid Man” and the expansive title tracks from In the Wake of Poseidon and Lizard. But Fripp and Sinfield had begun to clash as Fripp moved to assume sole leadership of the group.
“He’s an extraordinary chap and I have great admiration for him; I sort of love him in a way,” Sinfield told Roxy Music biographer David Buckley. “I worked with him non-stop for two-and-a-half, three years, on the first four King Crimson albums. He takes a sort of unilateral stance on something – and I notice and I speak up, and the others don’t. The other guys are all sweet and lovely, and perhaps I’m not as sweet or lovely, and thus say, ‘Excuse me, this isn’t right. is it?'”
Soon, the restless Fripp was ready to move on. He subsequently told Melody Maker that he “didn’t feel that by continuing to work together we could improve on what we had already done.”
Sinfield went on to produce Roxy Music’s self-titled 1972 debut and their U.K. Top 5 hit single “Virginia Plain,” before releasing his own first album. Still would feature Greg Lake, Mel Collins and Ian Wallace from past King Crimson projects – and John Wetton, who’d soon join Sinfield’s former group.
Listen to ‘In the Court of the Crimson King’
Peter Sinfield’s Collaborations With Emerson Lake and Palmer
Sinfield’s long association with Emerson Lake and Palmer began with a pair of co-written songs from 1973’s Brain Salad Surgery, including “Karn Evil 9: 3rd Impression.” He’d also contributed to Works Volume I and Works Volume 2 from 1977 and 1978’s Love Beach. “I Believe in Father Christmas,” a collaboration with Greg Lake, reached No. 2 in the U.K.
Into the ’90s, Sinfield worked with Leo Sayer (1983’s Have You Ever Been in Love), Cher (the title track from 1989’s Heart of Stone), Cliff Richard (1993’s The Album) and Celine Dion (songs from 1993’s The Colour of My Love and 1996’s Falling Into You), among others. He also collaborated with fellow King Crimson alumni David Cross on 1997’s Exile and Ian McDonald on 1999’s Drivers Eyes, before working on an anniversary rewrite of “21st Century Schizoid Man” with Fripp in 2014.
His favorite moment, however, may just have been a deep cut from that long-ago King Crimson debut. “I still like ‘I Talk to the Wind,'” Sinfield later told The Independent. “It’s about the young men we used to be in ’69, struggling to wake up and wondering what to do with the day, as if nothing mattered and everything mattered at the same time. Does that sound bollocks? It’s what it’ll say on my gravestone. No, not ‘bollocks’– ‘I Talk to the Wind.'”
In Memoriam: 2024 Deaths
A look at those we’ve lost in 2024.
Gallery Credit: Allison Rapp
