Peter Sinfield, Surrealist Lyricist for King Crimson and Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Dies at 80

Peter Sinfield, the colorfully surreal British poet and lyricist who co-founded King Crimson with guitarist-composer Robert Fripp and went on to contribute lyrics to songs by Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Celine Dion and Cher, died Thursday in London. The news was confirmed by Fripp on social media; Sinfield (pictured above, left, with Fripp) was 80.

No cause of death was announced, although Sinfield had been in poor health in recent years.

Sinfield’s whimsical, often bizarre lyrics were a perfect counterpart for the challenging, multi-genre music on King Crimson’s galvanizing 1969 debut “In the Court of the Crimson King” (including the famously Kanye West-sampled song, “21st Century Schizoid Man” ), which is widely regarded as the first fully progressive rock album. He continued contributing to the fractious band’s ensuing albums into the early 1970s while also writing for erstwhile Crimson singer Greg Lake in his new band, the even more successful prog-rock outfit Emerson, Lake & Palmer, as well as Lake’s perennial solo holiday classic, “I Believe in Father Christmas.” He also played keyboards for the group and helmed its psychedelic light shows.

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As a producer, Sinfield was most notably behind the boards (and manned the Mellotron) for the self-titled debut album by pioneering avant-glam rockers Roxy Music and its first single, “Virginia Plain.” In 1973, Sinfield also recorded one of prog rock’s finest lost albums, his solo effort, “Still,” where the lyricist sang, played twelve-string guitar and synthesizer, and even designed its cover.

Yet he also worked as a lyricist far beyond the prog world, contributing lyrics to hits by ABBA’s Agnetha Fältskog (1987’s “Love in a World Gone Mad”), Cher (1989’s “Heart of Stone”) and Celine Dion (1993’s “Think Twice,” 1996’s “Call the Man”), among others.

Peter John Sinfield was born in the Fulham section of London on December 27, 1943, to bohemian parents with whom he rarely had contact. Sinfield came in touch with the entertainment world early, as he was primarily raised by a German housekeeper, Maria Wallenda, who happened to be a high-wire walker with the Flying Wallendas famous circus act. Educated at the Danes Hill School in Oxshott, Sinfield fell in love with English literature and poetry, particularly the works of Paul Verlaine and William Blake, and began writing his own free verse and playing guitar while hanging around the famed Chelsea School of Art.

After travelling around Spain for a time, he returned to London and formed his own first band in 1967, the Creation (not to be confused with the same-named rock band known for songs like “Painter Man” and “How Does It Feel to Feel?”). His former Creation bandmate Ian McDonald, who he would later join in King Crimson, told Sinfield that he was a better writer than a singer, and the lyricist was off and running.

By 1968, McDonald joined Robert Fripp’s first ensemble, Giles, Giles and Fripp, who performed an early version of a Sinfield-McDonald song, “I Talk to the Wind.”

Giles, Giles and Fripp’s name became obsolete after singer Peter Giles was replaced by Lake, and Sinfield came up with the band’s new name: King Crimson. While the group’s original lineup splintered less than a year after they’d formed — even as their album caught fire across the U.K., U.S. and Europe — Sinfield contributed to the band’s three next albums, “In the Wake of Poseidon” (1970), “Lizard” (1970) and “Islands” (1971), until he had a falling-out with Fripp, as every Crimson member eventually does with the cantankerous founder, and left the band in 1972. Along with his solo work and lyrics for ELP, during the ‘70s Sinfield produced and penned English lyrics for the Italian progressive group Premiata Forneria Marconi (PFM) and its first two albums, “Photos of Ghosts” (1973) and “The World Became the World” (1975). He also contributed lyrics for Gary Brooker of Procol Harum’s first solo effort, “No More Fear of Flying.”

During the 1980s and ‘90s, Sinfield continued his solo career, released a book of his lyrics and poems, “Under the Sky,” left England for Ibiza, and narrated an album by Brian Eno and Robert Sheckley, “In a Land of Clear Colours.” Along with the aforementioned tracks for Cher, Dion and Fältskog, Sinfield also wrote lyrics for other pop artists such as Leo Sayer and Bucks Fizz. Along with co-writer Andy Hill, Sinfield won two Ivor Novello Awards for songs for Sayer and Dion.