It was written by Robert Fripp, Ian McDonald, Greg Lake, and Michael Giles with lyrics written by Peter Sinfield.
[3][4] As with the album's first track, "21st Century Schizoid Man", the song's lyrics have a distinctly dystopian feel to them and are presented as a protest to the Cold War.
[3][5] The song's title was used as the name for a live album of recordings done by the original King Crimson, Epitaph.
[7] Emerson, Lake & Palmer would later incorporate an excerpt from this song after the "Battlefield" portion of the live version of their song "Tarkus", from the Tarkus album, as documented in the live album Welcome Back My Friends to the Show That Never Ends... Ladies and Gentlemen.
In 1976, "Epitaph" was released as a single with "21st Century Schizoid Man" as the B-side, a companion to the compilation A Young Person's Guide to King Crimson (1976).