Peter Sinfield's Progression as a Lyricist

I was thinking that Karn Evil #9 was an amazing departure from what he was writing with King Crimson.   It seems like a change in tone, and almost operatic in scope compared to what he did with Crimson.  I'm not sure of a longer work that he did.  Memoirs of an Officer and a Gentlemen was full-side, which may be his next longest work. 

I've been saying the same thing on several threads now....

;)

If he progressed, I'd say it's from chaos to simplicity.

 

Hi,

This is a little strange. Generally, a writer does not worry about the length in things, since you can not limit the size of your imagination when writing, or creating something.

It would be extremely strange, and weird, at a time when longer (and larger) pieces of music were coming around in rock music, I would even suggest to a point that Pete Sinfield helped in that area, that coming up to the piece of music with lyrics is not an issue ... it is much more likely that the music extended and adjusted to the wording, since there are a few times, when a moment or two, or a line, can help define what the music will sound like. I supposed I should say that same can happen the other way, too!

All in all, a writer, will likely remain a writer, a lot longer than rock'n'roll (so to speak!), because a writer, does not stop writing, just because a song stops. 

Now, defining Pete Sinfield as "progressive" ... I don't think so, however, his expression was valuable and important to the late 60's and how his words were used, although, in many ways, folks tend to not take lyrics seriously and think that mostly they are all about macaroni and cheese. 

I'm not sure, however, the songs he had later, for Celine and others, were not that good, either. We just do not accept that he is a writer, and some people (probably Rene in this case) appreciated his words more than some folks could and had a song created for his wife. But I'm not sure that is any different, writing wise, than creating a song about megalomaniac dictators and leaders ... many of which were in the news at the time, too. VietNam and Ireland, were not the only ones out there! And PS saw them, as well as we did, if our eyes were open, and we did not think that "All Along the Watchtower" is about the kitchen sink! Bob Dylan can be vain, but he is not THAT vain!

;)