Pete Sinfield died on November 14, 2024, aged 80. As King Crimson’s co-founder and lyricist, he helped establish the band’s identity in unusually practical ways: he supplied its name, wrote its lyrics, operated its lights and worked on its live sound.
Sinfield was already a friend and songwriting partner of Ian McDonald when he joined Crimson as a roadie in early 1969. The pair had agreed that Sinfield would concentrate on the words while McDonald wrote the music. Their debut, In the Court of the Crimson King, put his writing in front of listeners through songs including “21st Century Schizoid Man”, “I Talk to the Wind” and “Epitaph”, with Greg Lake singing lead. The album’s credit for Sinfield, “words and illumination”, described that combination of lyric writing and lighting work.
He also helped find the face on the cover. As biographer Sid Smith recounted in Prog, Sinfield asked his friend Barry Godber to try painting something for the band. Godber had attended rehearsals, and Sinfield remembered asking for artwork that would stand out in record shops. Godber’s screaming portrait became the cover. Sinfield’s lyrics then continued through In the Wake of Poseidon, Lizard and Islands, completing his contribution to Crimson’s first four studio albums between 1969 and 1971.
After leaving Crimson, he produced Roxy Music’s self-titled debut in 1972. In an account published by DGM Live, Smith described three weeks of pre-production rehearsals followed by ten days at Command Studios. Sinfield recalled being drawn to the band’s unusual combination of styles and ideas, even when its members were still working out how to play them. He also produced their single “Virginia Plain”.
His own album, Still, followed in 1973 through Manticore, Emerson, Lake & Palmer’s label. Sinfield sang and played guitar and synthesizer, while Lake contributed vocals to the title track. Other musicians from Crimson’s extended circle also contributed. Sinfield later told Smith that making the album had been exceptionally demanding, with the work often outweighing the enjoyment. Finishing it made stepping away from a solo career an easier decision.
Lake also enlisted Sinfield to help complete the lyrics for “Karn Evil 9” and “Benny the Bouncer” on Emerson, Lake & Palmer’s 1973 album Brain Salad Surgery. In a 2014 MusicRadar interview, Keith Emerson explained that Lake wanted the input of someone he trusted. “Pete brought a lot of fantastic ideas and lines to the songs,” Emerson said. The assignment covered sharply different material: the extended conflict between humanity and machines in “Karn Evil 9”, and the comic storytelling of “Benny the Bouncer”.
That writing partnership continued with Lake’s 1975 single “I Believe in Father Christmas”. Sinfield supplied the lyrics and shared production duties with Lake; the record reached No. 2 in the UK. His work subsequently reached pop audiences through songs including Céline Dion’s “Think Twice”, co-written with Andy Hill and included on her 1993 album The Colour of My Love. In 1995, “Think Twice” spent seven weeks at No. 1 on the UK singles chart.
