Christy Moore: Boy In The Wild.

RIP Pete Sinfield. (27 December 1943 – 14 November 2024)

I was very sorry to hear today that Pete Sinfield has passed away aged 80. It was less than a year ago that I wrote a little story about finding a rare signed book by Pete. I thought I'd repeat it today as a tribute to Peter Sinfield. This is it........

You know how in my last blog piece a few days ago I said I had started dealing in books again, and I said that it was only a hobby, but I might find some nice books on my travels. Well, I never thought that would come true so quickly, and I didn’t even have to leave the house. It seems like serendipity to me, or synchronicity, what ever you want to call it. Anyway, it happened by chance in a most happy beneficial way. A few months ago, a very good friend of mine kindly gave me a copy of a signed limited-edition book of lyrics by Kate Bush called How To Be Invisible. It is a wonderful book that I wouldn’t dream of selling. Last Thursday morning I started reading it. 

Kate had written a very interesting introduction and in the last paragraph she said, “When I was about sixteen, I bought a book of lyrics and poems by Pete Sinfield. He was the lyricist for the progressive rock band King Crimson. It was fascinating and not like the other books of poetry I had. It wasn’t that there was anything missing from the written lyrics, but there was definitely something different about them. Something I couldn’t quite put my finger on……..

This information piqued my interest. “Hmm, I wonder if that book is still available”, I thought to myself. So, I looked online. It is the only book Pete Sinfield published and called Under The Sky. I was disappointed to find out that it had been out of print since the 1970s. There were no copies available from Amazon or any other online bookshops I could find. 

Then I looked on eBay and was shocked to find just one copy for sale for £450!. I didn’t give up though, and wondered if the Oxfam book shop might have a copy……and they did! . Not only that, but it was also signed by Pete himself. Best of all it was priced at less than a tenth of the unsigned one on eBay. I couldn’t believe my luck, clicked ‘Buy Now’ and it was mine. It arrived in the post today, and I am well chuffed with it. The dust jacket is quite creased and has some marks on it, but you have to expect that in a book that is half a century old. The inside of the book is fine and has Pete’s signature under a photo of himself. It also has beautiful illustrations by a lady called Julia Fryer. It contains all of the lyrics that Pete wrote for King Crimson up to 1972.

My favourite of his songs is I Talk To The Wind. They are all here, In The Court Of The Crimson King, The Wake Of Posiedon, 20^th Century Schizoid Man and many others. For the time being this book is a keeper. Thank you very much to my friend for the Kate Bush book which led me to learning about her influence Pete Sinfield, which in turn led me to find this rare and wonderful book. Things do happen in mysterious ways, which proves to me that everything is connected.