Robert Wyatt: Classic or Dud?

Wyatt interviewed by Richie Unterberger, Richard Cook, Ian MacDonald ('74), and Ben Thompson, who also reviews Shleep--all currently in the Free section of Rock's Back Pages (click on a link and they send you a password)
http://www.rocksbackpages.com/free.html#W

There was a great little programme about RW on Radio 4 this week. "The Voices of Robert Wyatt", mid-morning, Tuesday. Listen to it this weekend before it drops of the i-Player.

this was very nice alright. seems a lovely guy.

Thanks for the heads up, this is a lovely documentary.

been listening to this one a lot the past few days for w/e reason

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XsLAY1OdZrA

wyatt, lydon, idk

This guy seems like such an incredible human. I seem to recall reading that he and his wife go to AA meetings not because they are alcoholics, but out of sympathy and unity with those afflicted. Or something like that.

Nothing to do with the fact that he hadn't been pissed out of his head one night he wouldn't have ended up in a wheelchair?

No, Wyatt's an alcoholic and makes no secret of it. IN recovery for the last 5 years or so.

No, there was something more to it. Let me find it....

Oh, I see. I just misunderstood.

guy's a hero and a gentleman, despite his often inflexible and reflexive politics.

That BBC bit is indeed a lovely listen.

I recently put this proposed box set together and loved the hell out of it. He sure deserves something like it!

Nice collection, Gerald, and a very well-done compilation for people who've never heard him. But I think it relies far too heavily on album tracks and misses many fine moments not on LP (like my favorite, Wyatt's vocal on the Epic Soundtracks single "Jelly, Babies," which was a Rough Trade 7" a-side and not released on CD until last year.) And those Dondestan tracks - Dondestan or Dondestan (Revisted)? Those are small gripes, but Wyatt fans tend not to be "casual" fans and are likely to own the entire oeuvre (at least the main albums) and would probably buy a box set only if it had a fair number of obscurities on it.

That's said, I'm burning a copy tonight. Thanks!

You're absolutely right, I noticed those issues as well, but it's an interesting attempt. I find his albums a bit inconsistent and appreciated the guide.

I just discovered "Jelly Babies" last year and it is indeed magnificent!

Actually, why don't you suggest a best of Wyatt rarities comp?

well, there already is a wyatt rarities comp! it's called "flotsam jetsam" and it's fabulous.

that said, he has done a lot of guest work. here's some stuff he sings on i love. a lot of times it's just backing vocals but that's enough dammit! i'd suggest:
henry cow and robert wyatt- living in the heart of the beast (it's on "the road" but there's an FM broadcast, unlike the aud on the Road, that's even better.. if you can find it, ha ha...)
phil manzanera- frontera
robert wyatt- love (john lennon tribute "instant karma")
slapp happy- a little something (peel session version)
fish out of water- cry from the city (dub)
ben watt- walter and john
the last nightingale- moments of delight/in the dark year
working week- venceremos/we will win
ryuchi sakamoto- we love you
the shiny men- dream pussy
robert wyatt- rangers in the nightst ("miniatures" compilation)
ultramarine- kingdom
millennium- another great victory
michael mantler- a l'abbatoir
fat mattress- the clown
robert wyatt- violin concerto no. 2 in b minor, 1st movement (from a radio show he curated called "radio popolare"... he went from playing "lay lady lay" to singing over the beginning of the bartok piece and talking about how wonderful it is... everybody should hear this)
robert wyatt- radio popolare theme (he also sang a theme song for this series)
robert wyatt- catholic architecture (live performance 1991... not sure the context but it's on youtube somewhere... there was also a bbc documentary on him in '03 or somesuch that had him singing a few numbers live)
john greaves- the song (wonderful, wonderful!)
ricky gianco- hasta siempre comandante (not the same as the comicopera version!)
robert wyatt and the john peel singers- good king wenceslas (the famous john peel carols session with wyatt, sandy denny, i think t.rex, and others, late 1969... i think this was rebroadcast on bbc6 recently)
hatfield and the north- calyx
daevid allen- memories (the hugh hopper song oft-recorded by wyatt, i think this version is my favorite)
kevin ayers- whatevershebringswesing
brian eno- the true wheel
robert wyatt- locomotive
news from babel- heart of stone
john cage- experience
robert wyatt- september in the rain (japanese-only bonus track to "shleep")
pascal comelade- september song
robert wyatt- instant pussy (soft machine bbc session, 1969)
robert wyatt- dedicated to you but you weren't listening (soft machine bbc session, 1971)
robert wyatt live with hatfield and the north, december 1972 (broadcast on french television, the complete performance circulates as slightly wobbly audio)

well there's more but that should get you started.

Spotify's got this Wildeflowers comp, mostly diligent, advanced-placement kid demos (versions of Hopper's "Memories" get better and better)---but Wyatt, singing and drumming, is unmistakably himself, at all tymes. A couple of his ballads give me chills.

The 1972 French TV broadcast with Hatfield and the north is just breathtaking...kinda justifies the existence of the Internet

the song "i'm a mineralist" on the fictitious sports album is hilarious

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pqsm3C8nvFU
what a crazy great band (and what a crazy great drummer wyatt was)

Read that (up two) as "I'm a miserablist" from the fictitious "Sports" album.

Thanks for that list. I'm listening to his 3 tracks with Millennium - fantastic classical/dance mix with Robert the cherry on top! What's the story with this band?

I wish the "Sports" album was fictitious!

I also want to point out, among all the other ephemera that circulates (there are a couple bootleg comps some guy calling himself "Hemix" uploaded to guitars101 some years back... links are dead, but the files are still out there), there was a great adaptation of Rimbaud's "Season in Hell" on BBC3 a couple years back with Wyatt on vocals. Also, there was this guy named Paul Mex who did this 23-minute post-punk demo song in 1981 and Robert sings on that (didn't even know the guy's name until I did some searching yesterday... had it for years on one of those dodgy unlabelled cassettes that turn up sometimes!)

As for Millennium I don't know anything about them except that Curt Boettcher wasn't involved. :) I guess it was a collaboration between Wyatt and someone from Technotronic? I don't know, but I like it better than the Wyatt/Hot Chip collaboration. Also, if you haven't heard Wyatt singing on Bertrand Burgalat's "This Summer Night" you probably should!

There used to be this great website that exhaustively catalogued all of Robert Wyatt's guest work... it's still there but it hasn't been updated in the last fourteen years. :( Well, hunting for these things is half the fun!

Yeah, I found the Hemix comps and am assessing them along with Flotsam Jetsam and Solar Flares Burn For You. I find myself drawn to Stuff like Millennium which is a sound l normally wouldn't connect with but Roberts presence makes it work for me!

awww, bummer:

http://www.uncut.co.uk/robert-wyatt/robert-wyatt-i-ve-stopped-making-music-news

Well, he has earned it, but I love(d) "Comicopera", hoped there might be another record coming down the line at some point.

aw man, hope he enjoys his retirement

yeah, bummer. he's left us with tons of great music but every few weeks i wonder "when is the next robert wyatt album coming out, anyway?"

at least he's not stopping b/c he has to for health reasons -- i didn't get that impression from that admittedly brief summary of a longer article. if anyone finds the full article online don't hesitate to post it here. :)

this is probably my cue to check out all the various live albums, boots etc. from his time with soft machine. so far i mostly just know the proper studio records.

Saw him make a guest appearance with Charlie Haden and Carla Bley in 2009, singing and playing pocket trumpet, and his voice was already quite weak and ragged then, so that kind of diminishing may have played some part in this decision, along with the reasons stated in that article.

you can hear his voice weakening on the studio albums. it can't be a coincidence that they increasingly rely on guest vocalists. surely his last two albums aren't among his more original or ambitious but i still enjoyed them a great deal.

Oh. Was just listening the other day to his version of Chic's "At Last I am Free"

xp wtf Comicopera is as original and ambitious as anything else by him I can think of

Yeah, listening to Comicopera now and its lovely. He's "stopped" before though right? Am I wrong in thinking he was so angry another tory government got voted in, that he decided no-one deserved to hear his music? Something like that?

Just listened to Disc 1 of Different Every Time, listening companion to bio of the same name. "Signed Curtain" aside (vocal is definition of twee), the sequence of tracks just keeps building, so resourceful and assertive and dramatic and lucid and fluid and well you know. Wonder if he chose 'em?
Disc 2 offers new as well as old, according to the npr guy's mostly non-essential text ("wondrously elfin," yeeesh).
Streaming here for the moment:
http://www.npr.org/2014/11/09/361384516/first-listen-robert-wyatt-different-every-time

Buried lede is the very last song on that set. His version of John Cage's Experiences #2. I am so happy that's seeing an extended release finally.

Just finished the equally epic (maybe more, in terms of range and sweep) Disc 2, "Benign Dictatorships." Yeah, the Cage track is a strong finish to the astute sequence.

wait, i thought this hadn't come out yet. i'm tempted to get this, but i have all but one song on the first disc and probably 1/3 of those on the 2nd disc. but i don't mind sending some royalties robert's way, i suppose.

he really comes up with some corny album/song titles doesn't he?

He's a frustrated jazz musician.

i said corny, not horny.

Comes out Nov. 18, according to xpost npr

Good piece on Wyatt, reflecting on new bio, listening too. Don't agree w all of it--and discussing political songs, how could he leave out "Biko," "Shipbuilding," "At Last I Am Free," for that matter? Oh well, word limit, and he packs a lot into a small space, without murking up a knotty subject:http://www.lrb.co.uk/v36/n22/jeremy-harding/short-cuts

Good point that teen R. Ellidge was already unmistakably Robert Wyatt on the Wildeflowers tapes.

I think I'll read this book

It's very good - much more thoughtful than the usual rock bio, with a ton of new research.

@amateurist: pls give some examples of not-corny titles you actually like.

most of 'em!

i even like the corny ones! they're just corny is all!