Lyricist Pete Sinfield died last month.

His most famous work was done with King Crimson for whom he came up with the name and wrote most of the lyrics for the first four albums though he didn’t play on them.

I have featured his work before since he wrote the English language lyrics for Italian group Premiata, Forneria, Marconi (PFM.) The World Became the World is a prime example of Sinfield’s art.

He was also responsible for the words of Greg Lake’s great Christmas hit I Believe in Father Christmas.

Later in Sinfield’s career he moved more to pop and wrote songs for, among others, Leo Sayer, Cher, and even Think Twice for Celine Dion.

This is a haunting piece from King Crimson’s debut album, In the Court of the Crimson King.

King Crimson: I Talk to the Wind

Peter John (Pete) Sinfield: 27/12/1943 – 14/11/2024

Now add Greg Lake to the growing list.

Founder member of King Crimson and Emerson, Lake and Palmer, Lake of course found individual fame with his 1975 hit I Believe in Father Christmas.

Lake apparently wrote Lucky Man when he was twelve having received a guitar from his mother as a present. It was one of the first times a Moog synthesiser had featured on a record.

Emerson, Lake and Palmer: Lucky Man

Gregory Stuart “Greg” Lake: 10/11/1947 – 7/12/2016. So it goes.

I’ve not had some prog rock for a while so here’s a track from King Crimson’s first album In the Court of the Crimson King.

There’s some great portentous guitar and nice heavy mellotron on this.

King Crimson: Epitaph (including “March for No Reason” and “Tomorrow and Tomorrow”)

This is probably the track which really switched me on to prog rock. I had been softened up by Procol Harum and had, I think, a few Moody Blues LPs by this time but this was something different.

I heard The Court Of The Crimson King for the first time on Pick of the Pops. Alan Freeman did not just play the top twenty but other more eclectic stuff. I particularly remember the name Rabbi Abraham Feinberg.

Anyway, one day this came on and I thought “Wow. What is that?”

King Crimson: In The Court Of The Crimson King (including “The Return of the Fire Witch” and “The Dance of the Puppets”)