Peter Sinfield - King Crimson

King Crimson

In 1968, McDonald decided to join Giles, Giles and Fripp, a progressive pop trio consisting of Michael Giles, Peter Giles, and Robert Fripp, who were looking to do more with music than their three-man line-up could manage. McDonald let the others know that he was already working with someone who could write lyrics. In their primordial form, Giles, Giles & Fripp, augmented by McDonald and ex-Fairport Convention vocalist Judy Dyble, recorded an early version of the McDonald-Sinfield song "I Talk to the Wind", which later became part of King Crimson's repertoire.

Peter Giles left the group at about this time, to be replaced by Greg Lake, and Sinfield joined around the same timespan. In his own words, "I became their pet hippie, because I could tell them where to go to buy the funny clothes that they saw everyone wearing". Sinfield also came up with the name King Crimson. Sinfield loved working with the band and, in addition to writing the phantasmagorical lyrics that came to be part of King Crimson's trademark, he also ran the group's light-show at their concerts. Apart from writing lyrics for In the Court of the Crimson King (1969), In the Wake of Poseidon (1970), Lizard (1970) and Islands (1971), and offering advice on artwork, album design, and other details of the band's releases, Sinfield's musical role in the band was limited over the first four albums. He was not a good enough singer to contribute to the band's vocals, and the presence of Robert Fripp made his guitar playing superfluous. However, Sinfeld occasionally added touches of EMS VCS 3 synthesizer, see, e.g., the Ladies of the Road album recorded live on tour in 1971 and '72 or the title song of the Lizard album. It was during the recording of the song "Lizard" that his influence reached its peak. Fripp became involved with other projects (most notably the Centipede orchestra), which left Sinfield with much of the responsibility for the final version and design of the album, including the uniquely ornate jacket. Even so, the relationship between Sinfield and Fripp had become increasingly strained as the band progressed. On their next album, Islands, Sinfield began exploring new lyrical territory, with more sexual imagery juxtaposed with the languidly surreal title track. On 1 January 1972, however, following a tour of the United States, Fripp got tired of Sinfield's fantasy-based lyrics and Sinfield left.