Robert Wyatt: Classic or Dud?

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!

Good interview: looking at the world now, US in 60s while touring, the strength of pop music, other matters (got the idea at the end that his wife's health was more of a concern than his own, to him anyway)
http://pitchfork.com/features/interviews/9544-robert-wyatt/

I love his honesty:

I'm spending a lot of time with Alfie, and I hope we have a long time, but this is kind of the end run. And I haven't been a particularly good husband, not very attentive. I'm trying to make that right. I really like her company. She makes me laugh. We watch things together, a lot of DVD box sets of shows like “The Good Wife” and “Mad Men”.

Wyatt has been an exemplar of honesty for so long, just by many accounts an absolute sweetheart with a knack for measured empathy. I wonder if he was always like this or, like his politics, if this is just the wisdom of age manifesting itself? Or maybe it's just my reading of him as a sort of sage-like monk genius who understands the perfect is impossible and always strives to improve himself.

I dunno. Anyway, Wyatt is special.

I've recently become obsessed with another Wyatt performance, the single Jelly Babies by Epic Soundtracks. I think it was on some sort of Epic Soundtracks comp recently and may or may not appear on an upcoming CD release you'll hear a lot about in the future. Wyatt and Soundtracks singing harmonies, a beautiful, melancholy song.

Know nothing by him except the Chic cover on Wanna Buy a Bridge (nothing by Soft Machine, either). Someone posted the Top of the Pops "I'm a Believer" clip on Facebook yesterday, and I don't remember being so moved by a cover version in a long time. I would have loved it in any event, but the context--first public performance after his accident--deepens everything significantly. (Details of said accident I didn't know either until I read some background yesterday--I'd probably always assumed there was a car accident behind his paralysis.) Wyatt's vocal and the fiddle-like affect around two minutes are beautiful.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5hPENM6h78

Andy Summers on acoustic guitar and Fred Frith on electric guitar - only one of whom would make a few more appearances on Top of the Pops I believe.

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/84/f6/34/84f6343375d4a44ae31c4c0d4be72d82.jpg

Wyatt with Hatfield and the Matching Police Floyd Cow

Looks like Nick Mason on drums in that Wyatt clip too

You don't know "Shipbuilding", clemenza? That's his most famous cover I'd guess. His version rules. Much better than Elvis Costello's original. And somehow I have the feeling with the Brexit Great Britain is going for another folly which is at least as irrational and nutty as the Falkland war.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Res3-YX4X8g

Robert Wyatt's is the original recording, Costello's version was released later.

But it was written by Costello, so it is his song.

To be accurate it was written by Clive Langer, he asked Costello to write lyrics for it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shipbuilding_(song)

He signed me up to CND in the mid-80s. He was often on Twickenham High St canvassing membership on Saturdays iat that time.

You don't know "Shipbuilding"?

I don't (even though I know it's just a click away). I did order both Rock Bottom and Ruth Is Stranger Than Richard because of "I'm a Believer" (and after a little reading).

Ruth is a little thornier/difficult imo, I'd also recommend Nothing Can Stop Us, Shleep, Dondestan, and Comicopera

ahhh you are in for a treat with 'rock bottom'

for whatever reason, 'reminds me of your rocky bottom' is the lyric from that album that sticks with me. the contrast between ones rough edges and the concept of hitting rock bottom are especially poignant to me i suppose

I walked past him in Lincolnshire market town Louth (he lives there).

Ruth Is Stranger Than Richard: wheelchair rock, for cats who haven't bought enough records by handicapped people this week. From what I can tell, it set a new standard for wibbling British nonsense. It makes listening to Henry Cow records seem like an enjoyable experience. (Obviously it doesn't, I'm just exaggerating for effect.) You can guess how I feel about Soft Machine.
― Otis Wheeler, Sunday, April 15, 2001 1:00 AM (sixteen years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I'm sometimes taken aback by the shitheadery of old school ILX, but this takes the fucking biscuit. How insulting to Wyatt and his work to suggest people only buy his albums because he's disabled. Ridiculous.

the good old days before ilx was mean

That TOTP clip is fairly infamous for the shitty way they treated Wyatt.

WYATT: The producer said, "l'm embarrassed by that wheelchair, it's not entertaining, can you go and sit in this wicker-work thing?" I told him to fuck off, and he said, "You will never work on this programme again" - but as I just told you, I am too posh to care, frankly. I mean, I can't wheel a wicker chair, and I need to be able to get out quick in case the cops are coming, for fuck's sake!

http://www.disco-robertwyatt.com/images/Robert/interviews/Uncut_feb_2014/index.htm

I did order both Rock Bottom and Ruth Is Stranger Than Richard because of "I'm a Believer"

you are in for a treat! Rock Bottom is amazing.

Robert Wyatt obviously classic as fuck

No love here for his (flop) follow up single?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BhEeM5rBxJI

the two Matching Mole albums are also solid

I really like the Drury lane set too. Though it does drop in sound quality towards the end.

Also really like the stuff he did in 1975 with Henry Cow which I think is mainly live.

Matching Mole is pretty essential definitely. Especially the 2cd versions that came out about 5 years ago.

Don't know if anybody knows this but it's glorious...I could listen to it all day

https://www.reddit.com/r/progrockmusic/comments/4b7zkg/hatfield_and_the_north_rockenstock_french_tv_1973/

The Concert for Corbyn w/Paul Weller last December was widely heralded but I don't remember seeing a single review. There are one or two clips on YouTube, but little else.

i suspect it being about jeremy corbyn had something to do with its burial

Mojo reviewed it.

Mostly Daevid Allen...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wswhUGb1k6c

from Rolling Jazz---I mostly listened to these because of Wyatt (and Coyne):

Michael Mantler:
The Hapless Child
Watt/4
words by Edward Gorey
(from 'Amphigorey')

Robert Wyatt (voice)
Terje Rypdal (guitar)
Carla Bley (piano, clavinet, synthesizer)
Steve Swallow (bass)
Jack DeJohnette (drums)

recorded July 1975 through January 1976
Willow, NY, and England
A whirlwind right out of the gate, and I knew from later all-instrumental versions how strong some of these frameworks would be---did not expect the excellent and unusual studio effects on some of Wyatt's vocal turns---but eventually, when the words are more upfront, can seem overly emphatic---Gorey's dank little narratives work better with his spare, black white & grey drawings or etchings or whatever they be. Also, c'mon, it's Gorey---think I'll go on to the settings of Beckett and Pinter.

― dow, Thursday, May 17, 2018 9:18 PM (three days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

That is, the *overall* effect, the ensemble onslaught, not primarily Wyatt's vocals, can seem overly emphatic here.

― dow, Thursday, May 17, 2018 9:21 PM (three days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Mantler again: Silence(1976)---the overemphasis here is confined to some of MM's heavier handling of Pinter's words, and Chris Spedding's often repeated use of sustain etc., drawing a note out and curving it around 'til it's a needle in my earphones ---but it can hurt so good, and the voices are strong and distinctive, Carla Bley holding her on with Kevin Coyne and Robert Wyatt---and sometimes everybody follows Wyatt's dustdevil percussion, without ever missing their cues (it's a play with a small cast/combo, compressed, maybe condensed, into a single LP's worth of songs).

― dow, Friday, May 18, 2018 6:10 PM (two days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

The text itself may grow on me, but so far doesn't seem up to several Pinter plays I'm more familiar with, though Mantler can highlight the weak spots in his literary sources, maybe by blurring some of the plot points.

― dow, Friday, May 18, 2018

Pretty sure I would have bought these in the 70s if had come across them (was mailorderphobic, opp extreme in 80s), and as a Wyatt fan would have been fairly satisfied.

never even heard of these, thanks.

wowowow this rules!!

That "Playa de Formentor" clip; wow, just wow! Thanks so much for that.

Some atrocious acting from young Robert there, he looks at the camera, the last thing you should do as an extra. Daevid is good though.

Yup, Daevid is good. Incredible seeing him so young with it all ahead of him.

Talking of which, this is pretty nutty, though it would belong on a Daevid Allen thread, if such a thing existed...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpPfn2Dmcrw

I hadn't seen that one either. Going by that and myriad other Daevid Allen TV appearances, French TV in the late 60s / early 70s was tres out there.

And yes, a scandal that there is no Daevid Allen thread.