ELP Digest Sunday, 23 Oct 1994 Volume 4 : Issue 19 The "All my Words Just the Shaft of My Flail" Edition Today's Topics: PETER SINFIELD and what he did/does part......? Prelude ======= It is a great privilege for me to send out a "special" edition of the ELP Digest today. Imagine my surprise (and delight) when, one morning, I checked my email and found a mail message from Peter Sinfield. Yes, the Peter Sinfield who helped ELP lyrically with Karn Evil 9, Pirates, etc. The mail messsage is attached. In it, Peter gives a quick history of his career including a great story about the beginnings of King Crimson (where Peter first met Greg Lake), news of a (non-ELP) reggae version of "I Believe in Father Christmas", and many other delights. I have sent a reply to Peter asking if he would indulge with an "e-mail interview" which I would send out as part of the ELP Digest. I hope we can do that. In the meantime, please be reasonable and don't flood him with e-mail. Unlike those of us in industry or academia, it may cost him to receive your message or send a reply, so please don't "wear out our welcome" and flood him with email. I will try to organize a way we could submit questions to him for a "ELP Digest interview" and get answers to questions we may have about his career. I'd also like to point out that I had to edit this mail message because it appeared to go through an 8-bit to 7-bit character conversion or something that translated some underscore/quote/double-quote characters to something not very readable. I've very carefully edited it back to the state it was in when Peter sent this to me. However, I will take responsibility for any typos, etc. that may have crept in. So... a public "Thanks!" to Peter for sending me this. I really enjoyed reading it. In the next edition, we'll continue with my backlog of messages with early opinions about "In the Hot Seat". In the meantime, why not take this opportunity to search out a copy of Peter's "Stillusion" CD (originally released on vinyl back in the Brain Salad Surgery era) and listen to it. Some great songs and even a song co-sung by Peter and Greg Lake. Till next time, - John - ------------------------------------------------------------ Date: Thu, 15 Sep 94 07:32:11 GMT From: Peter Sinfield Subject: PETER SINFIELD and what he did/does part.....? To: J.ARNOLD@MA30.BULL.COM=/ THOSE THAT SPRING TO MIND An alphabetical list of the artists who have sung songs written (W), produced (P), co-written (CW), co-produced (CP) or art directed (AD) by . . PETER SINFIELD AGNETHA "Love In A World Gone Mad" CW with Billy Livsey for ex-ABBA girl; platinum in Sweden zinc elsewhere. HERB ALPERT "Angelina" CW with Gary Brooker on the album "RISE" . . .thank you guardian angel. BAD ENGLISH Don't Walk Away" CW with Andy Hill on USA platinum album ; single some territories. MICHAEL BALL "As Dreams Go By" CW with Andy Hill; ex-euro entry on the UK star's first big album. HANNAH BOEL "Waiting In the Wings" CW with Andy Hill. Sept release in Scandinavia & hopefully elsewhere. ANGELO BRANDUARDI 2 albums of `adaptations' and vocal prod'n for Italian folk/rock star managed by David "What Royalties" Zard. GARY BROOKER 5 songs CW for his solo album "No More Fear of Flying" prod. by Mr.G.Martin including Angelina/vocal. PETER CETERA "Have You Ever been in Love" CW with A. Hill & J.Danter on T93 album; brave version+amazing guitar solo! ROGER CHAPMAN "The Dance Hall Years" CW with A.H. on good old rocker's 93' album. Big in Germany. . .truly! I recall .38 Special trying to cut this song but failing to match the demo gave up. . .hmmm KEITH CHRISTMAS "Brighter Day" (P) for ELP's Manticore label; Christmas' wit&wisdom on soft-textured mysterious 70's album. CHER "Heart Of Stone" CW with Andy Hill. Classic Andy Hill demo sung by Maggie Ryder taken and produced by Peter Asher perhaps wearing a green cord suit and later `clarified' by Richie Zambora probably wearing a black hat. An unusual song lyrically `celebrating' 20 years of my life/loves/work and judging by the wonderful vocal and video Cher's too! It has sold about 7 million worldwide so far (Aug '94) . .now if she'd just releases her "Best Of. . ." in the USA ! I wonder if she got the art nouveau vase I sent her via Geffen Records to say thank you? And what does she want to sing about on her next album. . . . .? JULIEN CLERC 7 CW's on major French star's little noticed '91 E. Lang venture but includes magical "There Is No Distance". KING CRIMSON The first 4 albums 1969-1972 CW,CP,AD. . . .Yes including the one with the big red face (a mirror image of my late friend the artist Barry Godber) and those `songs' Schizoid Man, Epitaph, Court of the Crimson King, Talk To the Wind, Cat Food, Cadence and Cascade, Islands, Formentera Lady Etc. Etc. And here is this month's clever answer to the FAQ "What is Robert Fripp really like"? Well Robert, who in another life may have been a tram driver, has always seemed to me to be as much `mad scientist' as moralising artist. What you don't see is what you usually get. And while we're here let's answer another FAQ namely "Who Started the band KING CRIMSON". Well the version according to Mike Giles and myself goes like this. . . . Once upon a time, long ago in a little town in Dorset, there were two brothers. Michael Giles who played the drums and his brother Peter who played bass. They practised and practised till they were ever so good and then naturally desirous of earning a shiny shilling or two placed an advertisement in the local paper for an organ player of like mind and equal dexterity to join them to make music en tres, or ent'resting music. (sorry) ANYway imagine the cocking of ears and arching of eyebrows one fine spring day when a young, curly-haired pale faced and bespectacled chap popped his head round the door of their rehearsal room and announced quietly in a voiced edged with hawthorn-- "Hello my name is Robert er Bob Fripp and I have come about the position mentioned in the paper, I can't play organ very well but I do play guitar." HE DID . . ! indeed he did and amidst the excitement they called themselves "Giles Giles and Fripp" and it was good and the spirit was not so much upon them as hanging around for a bit wondering what was going to happen next. They started to make an album for Decca and towards the end of that project were joined by multi-instumentalist Ian Macdonald fresh, as they say but often mean knackered, from five years playing clarinet in in the army. Realising suddenly over a period of months ( I know I know ) that to move away from the whimsy of their first, to put it bluntly, unsuccessful, record that they desperately needed a real singer they recruited Greg Lake, another Dorset boy, from a group called "The Gods" and he played bass as well. Actually not as well as Pete Giles but he could sing like an angel albeit fallen in his case; exit Pete Giles and there they are. There are four people called Giles Giles and Fripp rehearsing a strange version of Joni Mitchell's "Michael From Mountains" in a cellar resembling the black hole of Calcutta beneath "Greek George's" Fulham Palace Road cafe in West London just about a small park and a five hundred tombstones away from where I was born. And. . .where am I all this time? Well now I'd had the great good fortune to meet Ian some months earlier when he'd replied to an ad' that that I put in the MM looking for musicians to join an ensemble that I had, in my ever modest way, called "The Creation". Ian persuaded me, with very little difficulty since I thought he was a genius, that I might be more usefully employed writing songs with him. . then he joined GG&F. I was in paradise. I had never met such talented musicians. I went from being Ian's mate who wrote the lyrics to being Ian's mate who wrote the lyrics, made the tea, built the lights, humped the equipment, mixed the sound, designed and stuck up the posters, got the album cover together and against some opposition persuaded the band, in which I had become `the one that didn't actually appear on stage', that it would henceforth be known as King Crimson. *** Namin', Framin', and Flamin' that's the game I'm in. *** Ah well . .Now before this turns into a book it is time as they say to cut the languishing story short. So I should like to render a heartfelt thank you to everyone who has supported the band over the past 25 years, all those millions of pennys have enabled me to keep my ex-wives in the style to which I perhaps fortunately have never quite became accustomed to..er.. . .have. Yes. Right. Back to reality. Where are we? Episode 26..... KIM CRISWELL Stage star signed to EMI sings "There Is No Distance" spring '94. . .still waiting for THE version. CELINE DION "Think Twice" CW with Andy Hill will be the third single from her triple platinum album "The Colour of My Love". and should be released august this year of our Lord 1994 . . .Yeah! BARBARA DIXON "If You're Right" CW with A.H. & "Touch Touch" CW with Ritchie Brunton on her top 5 UK album "Gold". EMERSON LAKE AND PALMER WORK on 5 albums 1974-1978 CW, CP including Brain Salad Surgery, Pirates, CUest La Vie, Benny The Bouncer and An Officer and a Gentleman Etc. . . . ESPERANTO "Danse Macabre" (P) of multinational eleven piece band with 4 fiddles for Derek Green at A&M. I was so tired at the end of the project that I turned down a chance to produce the first Supertramp album. All those eights! CHRIS FARLOWE 2 or was it 3 songs on "Out Of Time" man's "Best Of / Comp'n" and I'm b***rd if I can remember which. VERONIKA FISCHER "Looking Through The Eyes Of A Child" CW with Andy Hill & Albert Hammond but sung in German! BUCKS FIZZ "The Land Of Make Believe" the best known (irony @ No1 in UK) of a string of songs CW with producer Andy Hill for the '81 Eurovision winners followed by other `charters' such as "You And Your Heart So Blue", "I Hear Talk", "Keep Each Other Warm" and "Heart Of Stone" TONY HADLEY "Lost in Your Love" CW with A. Hill big hit in Italy not much elsewhere. ALBERT HAMMOND "Looking Through The Eyes Of A Child" CW which is on Albert's "Best of Albert Hammond" album in Germany and not just because Claudia likes it . . .Albert and I have a picnic basket full of half finished songs some of which I guess we'll finish when I am in LA long enough or he is in London long enough. ROY HAY 5 Songs CW for ex Culture Club guitarist's slightly `over. . .' album with fine Scottish singer John Reid. JOHN HOLT "I Believe In Father Christmas". . .the reggae version. Does anyone have a copy I've lost mine ? JENNIFER HOLIDAY "Peace In Our Time" CW with Andy Hill on Arista's "Olympic" album with lyric rewrite to please NBC. GREG LAKE "I Believe In Father Christmas" CW,CP,AD This song complete with 60 piece orchestra and 30 piece choir despite selling up to 50,000 a day was beaten to the No1 spot in the UK Xmas '75 by some long forgotten band singing something or other rhapsody Bahamian I think it was, but we did leave Laurel and Hardy under their Lonesome Pine way behind in third place. Most of the other stuff written with Greg in solo guise around this time appears on ELP's Works1 and Works2 including one of my favourite yet little known lyrics on a very beautiful if slightly flawed (like people really?) song called "Closer To Believing". The lyric to this five and a half minute number took more than six months to write! Yes I do very occasionally write songs in an hour or two ("Angelina" being one) but they are exceptions. LULU "If You're Right" another favourite song from '82 CW with A. Hill sung just fine by Billy Lawrie's big sister MACDONALD & GILES "Birdman" a 20 minute `suite' CW with Ian for side two of ex-Crimsos joint venture in 1970. Yes there is talk of the original band reforming if only to fill in the gaps in the Castle Communication's documentary which is currently in pre-preproduction. . .But Fripp has to tour and record with his current rose by any other name through the end of T94 and then we'll see. . . Do not hold the breath. BARRY MANILOW "Keep Each Other Warm" CW with A.H. big MOR song . . .nice PRS. MOON MARTIN "X-Ray Vision" lively pop song CW with Bill Wyman sideman Terry Taylor. .No4 in France! Eh Voila ! BETTE MIDDLER "As Dreams Go By" She has sung it live! She has cut it! Fingers crossed, will it make it to the '94 album? EDDIE MONEY "Peace in Our Time" with the original lyric (minus half a verse and the middle 8) on the ex-policeman's platinum "Best Of. ." album gets to No11 in the USA chart but there's no video! This song came out just as the the Berlin Wall was coming down and contains the lines "We're never gonna tear down walls and build a prison with the stone" at the front of the chorus. . .Eddie also cut "Eyes Of A Child" TOMMY NIELSEN "Peace in Our Time", "Eyes of a Child", and "Don't Walk Away" on major Swedish rockstar's '90 album. OPUS THREE "I Talk To the Wind" a rare item! A dance cover (T93) of famous King Crimson song. . . .extraordinary *?*!! ELAINE PAGE "I Believe In Father Christmas" English stage diva's version on her million selling Xmas album. GENE PITNEY "There Is No Distance" CW cut of the Clerc song for TV advertised compilation. . . .not the definitive version! P.F.M. 2 Albums "PhotoUs of Ghosts" and "World Became The World" (CW) & (P) for wonderful Crimson influenced Italian band who were signed in the mid-seventies to ELP's Manticore label. I heard recently that they are back out playing, but only in Italy. Catch them if you ever get the chance! CLIFF RICHARD "Peace in Our Time" . .Yes it's that song again and this time 5 mixes of it! Mainly using the less abrasive Olympic lyric rewrite and one of them even contains the middle 8! Videos galore even a great taped live performance from his Xmas '93 Wembley concerts where it finishes the show after a moving spoken intro where he praises the lyric..thank you Cliff. .In the UK you can't really call yourself a songwriter 'til Cliff has cut one of your songs. Rather a long wait! Peaked at numero ocho in the singles chart/ album platinum. ROXY MUSIC "Roxy Music" their first hit album and "Virginia Plain" their No. 2 first single both of which I would humbly submit are regarded by the cognoscenti as `classics' were produced by yours truly P.Sinfield not a lot of people know that. Well one of me anyway! ANNIE ROSS "Cat Food" wonderful "Live at the Hampstead Theatre Club" version of quirky Crimson song. I need a copy! DIANA ROSS "Waiting In The Wings" CW with A Hill on her "Power" album. LEO SAYER "Have You Ever Been In Love" big song for the little chap and the title of his TV advertised "Best Of...". PETE SINFIELD "Still" or as it is now called "Stillusion" upon its 1993 plus-tracked CD release is my 1973 solo album on which I co-everythinged and in the widest sense of the term sang. Beware! I have enough material lying about for another but I will probably save it to go on one of my CD Rom ventures. Tra La. POINTER SISTERS "Don't Walk Away" a lively version of the song which is on their `disappeared' 94 album CHRIS SQUIRE "Run With The Fox" CW with Chris. Another Christmas song which pops up on the radio each year oddly enough at *Xmas* and makes the Yes bass man and I a few quid. FIVE STAR "Rain Or Shine" CW with Billy Livsey. People often ask, `who are you writing for at the moment' ? And of course unless I have an album project in hand the answer is, "Er. . .not actually for anyone just at this time just writing sort at everything for anybody". This song is an exception Billy who went on to produce it and I wrote this purepop ditty when specifically asked to write a song for the band that wasn't dance like their previous three hits. Rain Or Shine was the result and even better was their biggest hit reaching No.2 in the UK. THE FOUR TOPS "You And Your Heart So Blue" CW somewhat computerised version of former Bucks Fizz hit. JOHN WETTON "Get What You Want" CW appears on the singing bass maestro's first solo album. PIA ZEDORA Only joking. . .just wanted to end with a Z 'cos I started with an A. . . the best is yet to come ! ! ! %%%%%%%%% Trying to finish 3 new songs. Writing a CookBook for the Internet A Book Of Poems possibly for Net or CD-Rom Designing the "Sinfield Song Bureau" for WWW (This will be SOMETHING ELSE!!) Checking out what of the old material could be used for either another album or as an insert with the new poems. Renegotiating a new publishing deal Advertising for a spare brain.. This one hurts a little bit too often. ** PETER SINFIELD ** "The Abbey Road Exploration Society" Rack n' Droll, Superior Soup and Third Wave Therapy ---- Lyric1@demon.co.uk & Compuserve 100302,3246 ------ "BE AS MUCH OF YOU AS YOU CAN BE AND MAY GOOD LOVING LIGHT YOUR WINDING ROAD" ------------------------------ Digest, mailing address, and administrative stuff to: J.Arnold@ma30.bull.com ==\ => the same for now ELP-related info that you / want to put in the digest to: J.Arnold@ma30.bull.com =/ Back issues are available from the World Wide Web ELP Home Page: URL: http:/bliss.berkeley.edu/elp/ Back issues are also available via anonymous ftp: ftp site: ftp.uwp.edu user name: anonymous password: provide a full email address path: /pub/music/lists/elp/digests/1991/elp-digest-1.* /pub/music/lists/elp/digests/1992/elp-digest-2.* /pub/music/lists/elp/digests/1993/elp-digest-3.* /pub/music/lists/elp/digests/1994/elp-digest-4.* Note: The opinions, information, etc. contained in this digest are those of the original message sender listed in each message below. They are not necessarily those of the mailing list/digest administrator or those of any institution through whose computers/networks this mail flows. Unless otherwise noted, the individual authors of each entry in the Digest are the copyright holders of that entry. Please respect that copyright and act accordingly. I especially ask that you not redistribute the ELP Digest in whole or in part without acknowledging the original source of the digest and each author. Thanks! End of ELP Digest [Volume 4 Issue 19] *************************************