RIP: Former In The Wake of Poseidon and Lizard-Era King Crimson Singer Gordon Haskell Dead at 74

Gordon Haskell, best known for singing on the two 1970 King Crimson albums In The Wake of Poseidon and Lizard, has died at age 74. The news was announced on his Facebook page, and the cause of death has not been revealed.

King Crimson’s Twitter commented on the news, saying “His time in KC wasn’t a particularly happy part of his long career but his work on In The Wake Of Poseidon and in particular, Lizard is much admired in the Crimson community.”

The band’s website had a lot more to say about the man and his career, starting with his time singing for them, “Gordon briefly joined King Crimson in 1970 after appearing as a guest vocalist on In The Wake Of Poseidon singing ‘Cadence & Cascade.’ He was asked to join the band full-time in the summer of that year and provided bass and vocals on Lizard, the last album King Crimson recorded at Wessex Studios. The experience was not a happy one for Gordon and he bitterly regretted his decision to join.”

There’s pictures of Haskell playing with King Crimson guitarist/songwriter Robert Fripp in Fripp’s early 1960s band The League of Gentleman when they were studying at the same school. When King Crimson’s first vocalist Greg Lake left the band, Haskell was invited to record vocals with them because of this connection. He left the band before they could tour Lizard, for “feeling little empathy for the music Fripp was writing.”

Haskell went on to record a solo album in 1971 called It Is and It Isn’t, a folk rock release featuring John Wetton on bass (who went on to become lead vocalist for Asia ten years later). Wetton joined King Crimson the next year and played bass on their next three albums. 

Meanwhile, Haskell took a break from recording music, ending up as a cruise ship entertainer at some point during that period. He recorded Serve at Room Temperature in 1979, but it went unreleased until 1997. Haskell didn’t get back to releasing music until 1990’s Hambledon Hill, but he kept sporadically releasing music from then on. His best known album from this period is his 2002 smooth soul album, Harry’s Bar. This year, he released another album after another ten-year break, The Cat Who’s Got The Cream.