-Originally published in PleaseKillMe as "Bringing Words to King Crimson's Court", May 2021-
Reconsidering Peter Sinfield:
King
Crimson Lyricist as Wandering British Poet
By John Pietaro
In the Court of the Crimson King,
beyond bestowing progressive rock’s hierarchy to King Crimson, brought with it the
canonization of Robert Fripp and his ever-shifting band of brothers. But with each
variant of line-up, from explosive debut through ongoing reconstruction, the
lyrical content has been eminent to the legend. Whether coated in psychedelia,
painted by otherworldliness, misted in wayfaring balladry or haunted with
rueful agitation, the voice of King Crimson is found within its verse. That it
all began with a young, wandering poet is too often lost in the band’s
tenacious history.
Peter John Sinfield was born in the Fulham section of
London on December 27, 1943. The circumstances of an absentee father and a jocular,
bohemian mother offered young Sinfield a foundation of equal parts wonder and upheaval.
His formative years, however, were largely spent in the company of the family
housekeeper who’d been a member of the Flying Wallendas aerial circus act. One
can easily imagine the impact this intriguing mélange had on a bright, creative
child. At age eight he was sent to a suburban boarding school where he gained a
rich introduction to literature. When asked in a 2010 interview about his literary
origins, stated: “I think that it was probably in my mother's womb, because I
was born with a tyrannical talent to consume and put forth words. At the age of
10 I wrote poems for the school magazine and a little bit later, used to waste
my time in geography lessons rewriting the words to the current hits.”
Leaving his studies at 16, Sinfield took up with art
school students (as nascent ‘60s rockers were wont to do) and traveled through
the continent and on to Morocco, writing, playing a newly purchased Hofner guitar,
and earning keep by selling hand-made craft items. He’d by then fallen under
the influence of 17th Century Japanese master haiku poet Matsuo
Basho “when it became fashionable for myself and others on the
"Underground Scene" to investigate the literature, music and
philosophy that was becoming available from all over the world. George Harrison
discovered Ravi Shankar and I discovered Basho. Perhaps Haiku appeals to me as
a lyricist since it seems I have been forever trying to describe life, love and
the universe (to sit with music) in the minimum of words.”
By 1967, once back home, Sinfield founded a band with
saxophonist/flutist Ian McDonald. Though short-lived, Infinity as it was known,
introduced the pair to Michael Giles, Peter Giles and Robert Fripp, the trio of
which was now expanded to include singer Judy Dyble (an early Fairport
Convention member), and a repertoire framed by the Sinfield-McDonald “I Talk to
the Wind”. The song reflected the restlessness and vision shared by so many in
this generation.
Said
the straight man to the late man,
Where
have you been?
I’ve
been here and I’ve been there and
I’ve
been in between.
I
talk to the wind,
My
words are all carried away,
I
talk to the wind,
The
wind does not hear.
The
wind cannot hear.
(lyric excerpt, “I Talk to the Wind”” by P.
Sinfield, Universal Music)
First recorded as a single by Giles, Giles & Fripp,
“I Talk to the Wind” wouldn’t make it to the band’s singular album. Recorded
in 1968 but not released for some 35 years, The Brondesbury Tapes
featured the song. It is notable that Greg Lake had replaced bassist Peter
Giles by this point and his presence was central to Fripp’s next project.
- Giles, Giles & Fripp: “I Talk to
the Wind” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXiWbV0d2w0
The lyric by Sinfield made enough of an impact for
Fripp to recognize the need for a poet in King Crimson. After naming the new band,
Sinfield wrote the lyrics so powerfully emoted by bassist/vocalist Greg Lake throughout
In the Court of the Crimson King. Alternately shocking in its literary
challenge and familiar in its drug-induced expanse, Sinfield’s poetry balanced
the great instrumental force. The album’s opening number, “21st
Century Schizoid Man” functioned as urgent commentary on post-modern societal
provocations – as well as the life, bare income and single-minded pursuit of
the poet, the artist. Sang by Lake through a blizzard of distortion and played with
both shrieking free improvisation and the tightest, most orchestrated precision
unisons, the song alerted listeners to Crimson’s ultimate journey:
Cat’s
foot, iron claw,
Neurosurgeons
scream for more
At
paranoia’s poison door.
Twenty-first
century schizoid man.
Blood
rack barbed wire
Politicians
funeral pyre,
Innocents
raped with napalm fire.
Twenty-first
century schizoid man.
Death
seed, blind man’s greed,
Poet’s
starving children bleed.
Nothing
he’s got he really needs.
Twenty-first
century schizoid man.
(lyric, “21st Century Schizoid Man” by P. Sinfield, EG Music
Ltd)
-
King Crimson: “21st
Century Schizoid Man”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OvW8Z7kiws
The
lyric conjures, more than any other, the scarlet entity that Fripp would claim
to be haunted by over decades, whereas the title song painted this myth with
medieval imagery, casting the crimson king amid prism ships, pattern jugglers,
yellow jesters and dancing puppets.
The
rusted chains of prison moons
Are
shattered by the sun.
I
walk a road, horizons change,
The
tournament’s begun.
The
purple piper plays his tune,
The
choirs softly sing
Three
lullabies in an ancient tongue
For
the court of the crimson king.
(lyric excerpt, “In the Court of the Crimson King” by P. Sinfield,
Universal Music)
Overall, King Crimson’s debut offering was a critical
and popular success, launching international tours for the band. But what place
for the Blake-inspired poet who toiled over the lyrics during the forging of
such an album? Sinfield, who also demonstrated skill as a visual artist, became
the band’s lighting tech, drenching the performers in purples, reds and
flourishes, as the case may be. He was also called on, sparingly, to add
additional keyboards to the soundstream, but largely stood as Crimson’s “pet
hippie”, according to Sinfield in an early interview.
The working ensemble, by 1970, was fractured with the exit
of Ian McDonald, drummer Michael Giles, and then Lake soon after. Sinfield
sought to maintain stability with Fripp and King Crimson’s sophomore album, In
the Wake of Poseidon, was completed under considerable duress. In the end,
Lake agreed to cover the majority of vocals, and both Michael and Peter Giles
(bass) were on the sessions. Fripp also called on such musicians as woodwind
player Mel Collins, pianist Keith Tippett and drummer Andy McCullough, all of
whom would return for the band’s third release and remain Sinfield associates
well beyond.
Marked by the lyricist’s initial attempt at record production,
In the Wake of Poseidon offered him a wide breadth of material even if
much of the imagery perpetrated sword-and-sorcery depictions. Still, Sinfield’s
poetry shined as it called out the complexities about him, railing against the
excesses of urban capitalist society:
Concrete
cold face cased in steel,
Stark
sharp glass-eyed crack and peel,
Bright
light scream beam brake and squeal,
Red
white green white neon wheel…
(lyric excerpt, “Pictures of a City”, P.
Sinfield, Universal Music)
- King Crimson: “Pictures of a City” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7QdzDssvqY
More so, the album’s single, “Cat Food”, an acerbic
condemnation of commercial impurities, brandished a lyric that skids cleverly over
the music by Fripp/McDonald which moves in and out of a 19/8 time signature.
Lady
Supermarket with an apple in her basket
Knocks
on the manager’s door.
Grooming
to the muzak from a speaker in the shoe rack
Lays
out her goods on the floor.
Everything
she’s chosen is conveniently frozen
“Eat
it and come back for more!”
(lyric excerpt, “Cat Food”, P. Sinfield,
Universal Music)
- King Crimson: “Cat Food” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmnqX4iNBpI
A year or so later, jazz vocalist Annie Ross included
her rather uncomfortable version of the song on live album You and Me, Baby,
complete with alley cat moans and hisses. This wasn’t the first time a jazz
artist tried their hand at the repertoire: in 1970 trumpeter Doc Severinsen, primarily
known as Johnny Carson’s bandleader, recorded an intriguing instrumental
version of “In the Court of the Crimson King” on his Doc Severinsen’s Closet
album. A variety of international pop and rock artists also produced their own
adaptations of Crimson material over the years, offering the lyricist his share
of royalties, as the case may be.
- Annie Ross, “Cat Food” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFBjC6kD2h4
Sinfield’s role as King Crimson lyricist was
maintained over the next two albums, he and Fripp providing the only solidity
of an often shattered ensemble. For Lizard (1970), Sinfield’s poetry
delved into alchemy, the occult and tarot card imagery. With hindsight, one may
assume that 11th Century sorcerers and Mongol invasions were more of
a comfort than the session battlegrounds the band couldn’t seem to shake. Islands,
a year later, would too suffer from its lack of cohesion. Fripp, after completing
the recordings, briefly abandoned the project and Sinfield not only completed production
but chaired post-production as well. Unfortunately, his conception wasn’t thoroughly
successful. Lester Bangs, writing for Rolling Stone, had no problem
attacking the musical and lyrical vagueness, labeling it “a fusion of jazz and
rock and folk and corn”. He also cited Sinfield’s lyrics as
“quasi-Victorian/Shakespearean doggerel”, adding that they’re “worth quoting if
not much else”. Interestingly, Bangs describes the lyric of “Ladies of the
Road” as “an elegantly punk macho trip” several years before the actual punk
movement would develop on the Bowery. Bangs somehow missed the humor:
Stone
headed Frisco spacer
Ate
all the meat I gave her.
Said
would I like to taste her’s
And
even craved the favour.
(lyric excerpt, “Ladies of the Road”, P.
Sinfield, Universal Music)
The irascible rock critic added that the song’s primary
benefit is as a sleep aid, posting a warning to Fripp and Co. to “recapture
some of the primal drive.” Even die-hard fans tend to agree: the music, its
breadth and weightiness, had become extremely dense and hyper-dramatic. Fripp would
go on to reshape King Crimson into a leaner, harsher ensemble but first the
band went on tour in 1971 with Fripp, bassist/vocalist Boz Burrell (later of Bad
Company), saxophonist/flutist Mel Collins and drummer Ian Wallace plus Sinfield
who occasionally appeared onstage, adding bits of keyboards, but continued his
role as lighting director. The capture of their concert at Frankfurt’s Zoom
Club, following months of rehearsal, indicates the band’s strengths as a
working unit, though this line-up too would recede into the mists of Crimson lore.
But the founding lyricist’s role, particularly on the road, had become painfully
obscure.
- King Crimson: “Ladies of the Road” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sckkHW487y0
Sinfield, in any case, sought his own path. Back in
London he produced Roxy Music’s successful 1972 debut, attracted to the band’s
“mixture of kitsch and burlesque, and so clever”, earning him considerable
attention within the industry. And then the poet began work on his own album, Still.
While his vocals and guitar playing were not deemed strong enough for King Crimson,
Sinfield regardless envisioned a solo career fronting a band. Encouraged
heartily by Greg Lake, already several years into Emerson, Lake and Palmer, Sinfield
plotted out his audio “variety show” (as stated in the liner notes), recorded just
down the hall from the studio KC labored in for their own upcoming release.
Influenced by the structures of later Beatles’ albums,
Celtic finger-picking guitar styles, macro-biotic eating and the country atmosphere
of West Cranmore, Sinfield composed “the sort of stuff that I left off with in
King Crimson.” And this connection extended to the guest musicians as well.
Lake offered a joint lead vocal with Sinfield on the title cut, also electric
guitar and backing vocals on two others. Mel Collins overdubbed a plethora of
woodwinds on opener “Song of the Sea Goat” which also included KC alumni
drummer Ian Wallace and pianist Keith Tippet, as well as bassist John Wetton
who’d join that year. Other tracks included Boz Burrell on guitar and a 5-piece
horn section arranged by Collins. But the core band was drawn from new associates
in the country after leaving London. Sinfield would later muse over the
hardships of recording the album, standing as its lead vocalist in a time when
he had no concept of changing a song’s key to better suit his voice. Later, he would
recognize his near inability to grapple with rock and roll vocals and “the
danger in using your friends…when your friends don’t get it right 12 hours
later, it gets very, very difficult.” The final product progresses slowly,
pensive to a fault, but readily builds with increasing points of horn-driven
improvisational intensity. But for all of its positive aspects, Still
never made the impact Sinfield desired. Other than a handful of live and
television performances (including BBC’s ‘the Old Grey Whistle Test’) with
Collins, Burrell and Wallace, among others, Sinfield’s solo career has woefully
faded from memory.
- Peter Sinfield: “Song of the Seagoat” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzoxJT74W0w
The philosophy within the verses of the title song
remains vibrant, baring traces of Thoreau, Marx, Gandhi, perhaps Abraham Maslow
too:
Still
I wonder how it is to be a stream
From
a dark well constant flowing,
Winding
seawards over ancient mossy wheels
Yet
feel no need of knowing?
Still
I wonder how it is to be a tree,
Circles
servant to the seasons,
Only
drink on sky and rake the winter wind
And
need no seal of reasons?
(lyric excerpt, “Still”, P. Sinfield,
Manticore Music)
- Peter Sinfield: “Still”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9EC51RwMf4
The poetic landscape, even with the tension of the
helm about him, was wide open. On “A House of Hopes and Dreams” Sinfield wrote Across
the floor lies broken bowls of pride, and on “The Night People”, his tale
of life on tour, Blue neon clock fingers. But he also used the
opportunity to air the stressors with Fripp. He’d later state, “I do a bit of
angry every so often”, specifically on “Envelopes of Yesterday”:
I’m
upside down, I’m an empty town
My
eyes are full of ghosts
Of
dusty windowed certainty and spider-webbed almost.
I
love, I hate this rock and roll,
The
ladies and the lights
Ate
my flowers long ago but the roots came through all right.
Whilst
now my toast is the crossroads post
I
hear just out of sight
That
the Black Pick’s found this Chaldean lamp
After
years in a concentration camp
But
I fear he’s still out on ice
With
his bagpipe mouth and cup of crimson speiss
(lyric excerpt, “Envelopes of Yesterday”,
P. Sinfield, Manticore Music)
Unfortunately, at other points Sinfield fell through
the usual portals of myth and magic. In the end such excesses of leading a band
in the King Crimson orbit proved to be ineffectual. Greg Lake had invited him
to compose lyrics for Emerson, Lake and Palmer the year prior, while Sinfield
was constructing Still, and after completion of the album the time was
right; the poet’s ELP immersion came at an opportune point. Brain Salad
Surgery (1973) was the trio’s first album of both public and critical
acclaim, from its fold-out cover by H.R. Giger to its surprise of a hit single,
“Karn Evil 9” (the title of which was another Sinfield gem). The full work, a
nihilistic vision of a computer-ruled society, was built over three Impressions
totaling a near half-hour in length. Sinfield’s major contribution was in the
lengthy latter Impression, though he also worked with Lake in other sections.
Man
of steel pray and kneel
With
fever’s blazing torch
Thrust
in the face of night;
Draws
a blade of compassion
Kissed
by countless kings
Whose
jeweled trumpet words blind his sight.
(lyric excerpt, “Karn Evil 9, Third
Impression”, P. Sinfield, Manticore Music)
Simultaneously,
Sinfield partnered with Procol Harum’s Gary Booker in writing a series of songs
for that artist’s first solo outing. While ELP toured the world amidst laser
lights and pyrotechnics, performing all of the complexities of Brain Salad
Surgery, Sinfield was back at home working with the trio’s label Manticore.
He produced the 1973 album of Italian progressive ensemble PFM and, with Mel
Collins, opened for that band’s European dates. 1974 saw the publication of Sinfield’s
poetry collection, Under the Sky, the title piece of which reached back
to the roots of his collaboration with McDonald, signaling both a release from
and rapprochement to the crimson one. That same year he produced PFM’s second release
and its first live album, and in ‘75 wrote the lyrics for and produced a widely
successful single for Lake, “I Believe in Father Christmas”, which included a
60-piece orchestra and 30-voice chorus. And it was just about the holiday
season that Sinfield decided, for the second time, to leave the glitter of
London for a quieter locale, this time the Spanish island of Ibiza.
In
1977, over several months, ELP released both of their momentous Works
volumes, carrying Sinfield’s lyrics over turntables and stages across the
globe.
Spare
us, the galleon begged,
But
mercy’s face had fled.
Blood
ran from the screaming souls
The
cutlass harvested
Driven
to the quarter deck, the last survivor fell.
She’s
ours, my boys, the Captain grinned,
And
no one left to tell.
(lyric excerpt, “Pirates”, P. Sinfield,
Manticore Music)
Ironically,
most of the poetry apart from the above was restricted to love songs like “Lend
Me Your Love Tonight” and “Watching Over You”. Odd that the band at the helm of
stadium-geared progressive rock, after releasing albums of the highest order, felt
the need for such a formula.
The
unfortunate fall of both ELP and Sinfield’s lyric contributions, however, came
in the form of Love Beach, the album that moved more rapidly to LP
cut-out bins than even John Travolta’s fateful leap into music. From the
open-shirted, tanned Bahamian imagery to the unexpectedly commercial sounds,
the album strayed far from rock art song.
In a bizarre turn, when looking back on the single “All I Want is You”
as well as the title song, one detects pop hooks of quality and Lake’s voice is
surely in top form. The all-star band Asia, which included Carl Palmer, would form
within two years in an attempt to popularize such prefab progressiveness, forging
an emulsion of electro-pop and prodigious playing, just where Love Beach
left off.
-
Emerson, Lake
and Palmer: “Love Beach” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABKtXIWJmko
Through
1979 and into the ‘80s and ‘90s, Sinfield’s production and writing credits
continued. In 1980, he returned to London and began work with songwriter Andy
Hill on several projects including “The Land of Make Believe” for UK singer
Bucks Fizz which quickly went to number one. The pair wrote several others for
Fizz, little known on these shores, as well as for Lulu (“If You’re Right”), Leo
Sayer (“Have You Ever Been in Love?”), and the hit for Celine Dion “Think
Twice”. As before, Sinfield was called on by foreign-language artists to write
English lyrics to their songs, but also worked with Chris Squire (“Run with the
Fox”), Moon Martin (“X-Ray Vision”), Eric Clapton (“Leave the Candle”), Bad
Company (“Smokin’ 45”), John Wetton (“Get What You Want”), among others. Sinfield,
with a select band drawn again from KC forces, performed on Spanish television
in a rare performance. But perhaps his most intriguing credit was the debut
album of Unrest for their song “Manhattan”, “an adaptation of Gershwin's
"Rhapsody in Blue" from the Woody Allen film Manhattan with
King Crimson & Half Japanese lyrics recited simultaneously”, as stated in
Sinfield’s discography. The description alone remains a total draw.
1993,
the 20th anniversary of Still, saw a reinvention of the album
under the title Stillusion which the poet has since disavowed due to the
label’s disorder of the tracks. He continued working as lyricist for other
artists and contemplated a second solo album, working at points with John
“Poli” Palmer, vibraphonist/flutist of Family. In 2005, after recuperating from
open-heart surgery, Sinfield mused over the place of poetry in rock music,
offering: “Well I would class Randy
Newman as a man who conjures intelligent, 'poetic writing' with depth and disturbance.
With him sits the mighty Mose Allison; in fact dozens of old blues legends.
John Lennon of course, Bob Marley and Youssou N' Dour. There are so many; very
recently a young singer called Laura Marling (another old head on young
shoulders) whose new album, " I Speak Because I Can", I am currently
listening to.” Never one for complacency, in recent years he appeared in the BBC
documentary Prog Rock Britannia: An Observation in Three Movements, and also
collaborated with experimental Italian musicians Max
Marchini and Paola Tagliaferro, offering both his own spoken word
performance and a lyric for Tagliaferro’s vocal.
-
Max Marchini and Paola Tagliaferro: “Blossom on the Tree” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Fdl7z27B3s
Residing
today in the coastal English town of Aldeburgh, Sinfield is an active writer
working primarily in haiku who has been featured in numerous European festivals
of poetry. He is still reading Blake, Kahlil Gibran, Shakespeare, Basho, Dylan,
when not engaging in farming, natural cooking and herbal medicines. Rumors of
his planned second album remain pervasive.
References:
Sinfield website: https://www.songsouponsea.com/
Smith, Sid: liner notes, Still,
2009 re-release (Esoteric Records)
Smith, Sid: “Happy Birthday Peter
Sinfield” https://www.dgmlive.com/news/happy-birthday-peter-sinfield-and-the-making-of-still
Rockerilla Magazine, May 2010, Sinfield interview by Max Marchini, http://www.songsouponsea.com/galleries/press/rockerilla2010.html
King Crimson website: https://www.dgmlive.com/
