Robert Wyatt: Classic or Dud?

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I love that "Little Red Riding Hood ..." side of the HC live LP, it's so propulsive. I've got to get it and Rock Bottom on CD so I can iPod it at work. I was just watching a multiple-generation video copy of a French TV interview/doc (from '93) and remembered there was an Italian video doc about him. Is this available on DVD now?

nickn (nickn), Saturday, 18 September 2004 06:19 (twenty years ago) link

Robert Wyatt was a communist in the original Marxist sense, not a Stalinist. There's a HUGE difference, but that's something you're not told in America, where even LIBERAL has become a bad word, let alone socialism.
Wyatt is pretty funny about it though - he said Trotskyism was too shouty, so he wanted to go for something completely unfashionable and contemplative.
His comment about there being many, many good,kind people in the world, yet the leaders being utter bastards is sadly pretty spot on.
And his music is wonderful. Get over your silly hipster hatred of Weller and just enjoy it. I think the Jam are hugely overrated, but I've got to hand it to Weller, that slide guitar part on Free Will And Testament is sublime.

Stewart S, Saturday, 18 September 2004 08:51 (twenty years ago) link

love him. his version of "I'm a Believer" is awesome. "Rock Bottom" is classic, and posters above have described it very well, I think. I also love his take on "Guantanamera" and Chic's "At Last I Am Free." And the song called "Grass." He owns "Shipbuilding," obviously. Also really liked, after some initial reservations, "Shleep." He's actually one of my heroes for a lot of reasons.

eddie hurt (ddduncan), Saturday, 18 September 2004 16:11 (twenty years ago) link

Classic! Uhm, yep. Although his debut is a bit over the top sometimes.

strom (strom), Saturday, 18 September 2004 16:21 (twenty years ago) link

nine months pass...
Revive...cuz I just bought Rock Bottom this weekend!

Wow...I'm lovin' it like a Mickey D's fruit walnut salad...

Really cool droney, crazy ol' man EZ listening prog or something....it's DEFINITELY something...that's for sure....Sea Song is just a heartbreaking love song...."Your madness fits in nicely with my own" is such a sweet like....I love the big droney songs called Little Red Robin Hood....

Great organ sounds....bewitching record.

M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Monday, 11 July 2005 16:01 (nineteen years ago) link

The only thing I don't really like is the end of the last song (Red Riding Hood II)...where he uses this wierd stupid "rasta mon" accent

M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Monday, 11 July 2005 16:11 (nineteen years ago) link

even that song will grow on you

kyle (akmonday), Monday, 11 July 2005 16:39 (nineteen years ago) link

"At Last I Am Free" is gorgeous.

Alfred Soto (Alfred Soto), Monday, 11 July 2005 16:52 (nineteen years ago) link

i picked that up used recently too...it cemented my love for mr. wyatt...

b b, Monday, 11 July 2005 17:10 (nineteen years ago) link

What else is good by this dude? Is he pretty solid overall? I want more.

M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Monday, 11 July 2005 17:16 (nineteen years ago) link

The only thing I don't really like is the end of the last song (Red Riding Hood II)...where he uses this wierd stupid "rasta mon" accent
-- M@tt He1geson (matt@game[remove]informer.com), July 11th, 2005.


That's Ivor Cutler and that's how Ivor Cutler sounds

chris besinger (chris besinger), Monday, 11 July 2005 17:19 (nineteen years ago) link

"Ruth is Stranger than Richard", "Shleep" and "Cuckooland" are excellent

chris besinger (chris besinger), Monday, 11 July 2005 17:20 (nineteen years ago) link

That's Ivor Cutler and that's how Ivor Cutler sounds

ah cool...that makes me feel better about it...I thought it was Wyatt copping an accent for some reason....

M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Monday, 11 July 2005 17:22 (nineteen years ago) link

I acquired Rock Bottom and Solar Flares Burn for You in March. Haven't listened to either in about a month but I'm fond of both, particularly the former (which Marcello's review inspired me to pick up).

Weird time for a revive, though -- I had a dream last night where I was playing "Sea Song" and my brother came in and said, "What the fuck is this crap? He sounds horrible!" and I was harping on about how he sounded better than any of The Beatles and how a lot of people think Green Gartside sounds a lot like him. I thought the discussion actually happened when I woke up until I remembered that he spent the night over at a friend's house.

Ian Riese-Moraine: that obscure object of desire. (Eastern Mantra), Monday, 11 July 2005 19:30 (nineteen years ago) link

I smashed up the telly with the broken phone.

Rastaman! (Eastern Mantra), Monday, 11 July 2005 19:32 (nineteen years ago) link

rock bottom, shleep, and the most recent one (cuckooland) are all exceptional. Rock Bottom is the best though. I also have Old Rottenhat, it's not bad.

kyle (akmonday), Monday, 11 July 2005 21:43 (nineteen years ago) link

i want it i want it i want it give it to meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Monday, 11 July 2005 22:11 (nineteen years ago) link

also, to be pedantic (again!), it's "i smash up thee telly with remains of thee broken phone."

Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Monday, 11 July 2005 22:11 (nineteen years ago) link

get that ep's thing with his version of "i'm a believer"! the peel sessions version is fab too, he does one of his patented "voice imitating a coltrane solo" things.

i own the whole rbt wyatt discography, except for that 'solar flares' thing which i need to get and i guess the best-of which would be redundant. there's nothing bad in it. though i don't listen to 'dondestan' very much, i admit.

Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Monday, 11 July 2005 22:19 (nineteen years ago) link

Amateur(ist), do you know of this single i mentioned upthread where he's playing w/south african musicians? i never picked it up and now i kick myself.

i have almost everything also, and i think my favorite is an ep that was put out as Nothing Can Stop Us Now, with a few extra tracks on the reissue.

The Amazing Jaxon! (jaxon), Tuesday, 12 July 2005 01:32 (nineteen years ago) link

solar flares is WONDERFUL

my 2 oddities are the downloaded peel session where he performs with Slapp Happy and a 12 w/ UK faux-latin new pop types Weekend where he duets w/ Tracey Thorn.

Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Tuesday, 12 July 2005 02:48 (nineteen years ago) link

how could anyone mistake a scot for a rasta?!?!???!?

hstencil (hstencil), Tuesday, 12 July 2005 03:02 (nineteen years ago) link

Hate the communism (my grandfather was murdered by the Red Army, and my uncle died after being in a labour camp) but (perversely?) I love Stalin Wasn't Stallin! Love Shipbuilding, Carl Craig remix of Ultramarine, At Last I Am Free...

Definitely Classic.

Check "The End of An Ear"!

Telegram Sam, Tuesday, 12 July 2005 05:59 (nineteen years ago) link

"how could anyone mistake a scot for a rasta?!?!???!?"

How about if someone was extremely drunk and was trying to tell a joke that involved mimicking a Scottish and / or Jamaican accent, but wasn't actually very good at different accents?

I believe this sort of confusion is particularly common with Welsh and Indian accents.

Robert Wyatt? Classic, obv.

Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Tuesday, 12 July 2005 09:50 (nineteen years ago) link

Classic. Wonderful human being as well. Gorgeous voice, clever and unexpected melodic sense, lyrically at once naive and knowing (I'm not sure how many of his lyrics his wife wrote on the last record, but she wrote most of Shleep and Dondestan).

Best records best to least for me: Rock Bottom, Soft Machine vols. 1 & 2, Shleep, Dondestan (either mix), Ruth is Stranger than Richard, Old Rottenhat, Matching Mole, Cuckooland (enjoyed it but the cheap keyboards are starting to bug me - Leonard Cohen syndrome). I don't listen to Rock Bottom very often at all, because it's such a charged object for me; it'd be like having the Koh-I-Noor diamond lying around as a paperweight.

End of an Ear is a prog-jazz record which I enjoyed, but it has hardly any vocals on it. Solar Flares Burn for You is an odds-and-ends compilation which is notable for some Rock Bottom demos and 'Little Child' which is one step away from being Lil' Markie.

Brakhage (brakhage), Tuesday, 12 July 2005 14:02 (nineteen years ago) link

i didn't think shleep was to his standards; i prefer the new one i think. end of the ear left me fairly cold, it's most akin to some of the more noodly stuff on the matching mole records.

Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Tuesday, 12 July 2005 20:50 (nineteen years ago) link

nice to see some love for matching mole. i just heard little red record a couple months ago, expecting something mildly interesting but datedly noodly. there are some rough patches, but i was nicely suprised by how good it is.

wayward son, Tuesday, 12 July 2005 22:03 (nineteen years ago) link

do you have the s/t lp by matching mole? it's better.

Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Tuesday, 12 July 2005 22:08 (nineteen years ago) link

never heard it. thanks for the tip

wayward son, Tuesday, 12 July 2005 22:18 (nineteen years ago) link

the s/t is way, way, way better. it's got the beginnings of wyatt's cute nursery rhyme slow songs and the jams jam.

i hardly ever listen to Little Red Record, but the cover is GREAT. doesn't it have a terry riley homage on it?

The Amazing Jaxon! (jaxon), Tuesday, 12 July 2005 22:26 (nineteen years ago) link

first track sounds a bit Reichian maybe, those were the days. the second one kicks off like it's going to be the monster of the whole decade but it piddles out a bit before the end, but I love the Eno synthscape rampup on 'Gloria Gloom' and 'god song' is a great Wyatt tune that could have been on the second Soft Machine record.

first Matching Mole album holds up though... the second side "wyatt-discovers-the-mellotron" is drony and fantastic

Frith says he was signed up to join Matching Mole for their third album. But then, the accident.

milton parker (Jon L), Tuesday, 12 July 2005 23:04 (nineteen years ago) link

milton otm. and a vocal looseness graces "flora fidgit" that wouldn't sound out of place on Rock Bottom

wayward son, Tuesday, 12 July 2005 23:33 (nineteen years ago) link

xposts:

do you know of this single i mentioned upthread where he's playing w/south african musicians? i never picked it up and now i kick myself.

Oh, I've got that... it's "The Wind Of Change", credited to Wyatt and the SWAPO singers. It's bright and jolly and swingy and catchy.

and a 12 w/ UK faux-latin new pop types Weekend where he duets w/ Tracey Thorn.

Ah yes, got that as well. "Venceremos" is the title - though it's actually a three-way performance between Wyatt, Thorn and Claudia Figueroa. It was Working Week's debut single; their second, "Storm Of Light", featuring Julie Tippetts (aka Driscoll) on vocals, is also outstanding.

Another good rarity is Wyatt's cover of Chris Andrews' "Yesterday Man", which was scheduled as a follow-up to "I'm A Believer" but never released. Instead, it appeared (in 1975) on a cheapo Virgin 2LP sampler called V. I also like his performance of Soft Machine's "Memories" on Daevid Allen's Banana Moon, and his harmony vocals on Kevin Ayers' "Hymn" and "Whatevershebringswesing".

"Free Will And Testament", featuring Paul Weller, remains the last 7" single I bought (not counting second-hand stuff).

mike t-diva (mike t-diva), Wednesday, 13 July 2005 09:23 (nineteen years ago) link

"Yesterday Man" is also available on the EPs boxed set, and very lovely it is too.

Taste the Blood of Scrovula (noodle vague), Wednesday, 13 July 2005 09:30 (nineteen years ago) link

No doubt I've said this in 20 other threads, but his work with the Carla Bley/Mike Mantler nexus is generally superb - Mantler's The Hapless Child (prog-goth-isolationist adaptation of Edward Gorey poems) is tremendous, as is Nick Mason's Fictitious Sports, released under Mason's name but really a C Bley record.

Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Wednesday, 13 July 2005 09:31 (nineteen years ago) link

I don't think anyone has mentioned the recent "Greatest Misses" compilation yet - it's an excellent place to start. Japanese import I think, but I got it quite reasonably.

Why the Stanley Spencer of pop?

bham, Wednesday, 13 July 2005 10:46 (nineteen years ago) link

greatest misses is GREAT! amen to that. nothing can stop us now has some of my favorite wyatt stuff... i have the arauco/caimanera 7"... there's plenty of good bits here and there, although i can get tired of some of the proggywhozits. a few of his records start amazing and get eh... that's my rememberance of "ruth is stranger than richard"... i could be crazy.

m.

msp (mspa), Wednesday, 13 July 2005 14:00 (nineteen years ago) link

the song he guests on from Bjork's last is still my favorite from that record.

b b, Wednesday, 13 July 2005 15:06 (nineteen years ago) link

Okay...I like the last song now!

Sorry to Ivor Cutler! Sorry to the Welsh people...but somehow welsh sounds like an English dude doing a bad Carribean accident to me at first listen!

Rock Bottom: still ruling the school.

M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Wednesday, 13 July 2005 15:17 (nineteen years ago) link

There should be more six-song albums. Less opportunity for filler. See also Talk Talk - Spirit of Eden and Laughing Stock of course, both of which were partially influenced by Rock Bottom.

Ian Riese-Moraine: the crown prince of understatement. (Eastern Mantra), Wednesday, 13 July 2005 15:21 (nineteen years ago) link

yeah...I can really see the infl. on Spirit of Eden, now that you mention it.

M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Wednesday, 13 July 2005 16:16 (nineteen years ago) link

Sorry to Ivor Cutler! Sorry to the Welsh people...but somehow welsh sounds like an English dude doing a bad Carribean accident to me at first listen!

ha ha...Scottish, dude.

Masked Gazza, Wednesday, 13 July 2005 16:49 (nineteen years ago) link

damn! : (

I'm totally banned from the Commonwealth....

M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Wednesday, 13 July 2005 16:55 (nineteen years ago) link

>ruth is stranger than richard

definitely worked better as a two sided record -- I like every track okay, but they don't work as well all in a row, though "Muddy Mouth" at the very end is way up there with the best of his stuff

I love "Yesterday Man" so much. No idea why that wasn't a single.

milton parker (Jon L), Wednesday, 13 July 2005 17:26 (nineteen years ago) link

Muddy Mouth

Handy cided to leave
He'd come apart at the seam - endangered life and lawn order before
The more since he lies (even under oaf handy lies) when he feels caught
Between righthand wrong. I think he just might have been wrong this time
Which in turn left him with few alternatives to relieving himself by hand
Alone in the dark, wanking in the bog?

http://www.strongcomet.com/wyatt/lyrics/lyrics1.htm

milton parker (Jon L), Wednesday, 13 July 2005 17:27 (nineteen years ago) link

"The follow up - Chris Andrews' song 'Yesterday Man' - was shelved. I was told that the boss considered it 'lugubrious'." - Robert Wyatt

Taste the Blood of Scrovula (noodle vague), Wednesday, 13 July 2005 17:30 (nineteen years ago) link

Also from the EPs liner notes, re: "I'm A Believer" -

"I'd meant to do a Neil Sedaka song but, typically, got the wrong Neil."

Taste the Blood of Scrovula (noodle vague), Wednesday, 13 July 2005 17:31 (nineteen years ago) link

i know, that's great. his liner notes are always v. funny.

Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Thursday, 14 July 2005 05:21 (nineteen years ago) link

A wonderful artist - we should all be thankful that we're living in a time that Mr. Wyatt still elects to make new music. Please try and hear "Rock Bottom" and "Ruth Is Stranger Than Richard" or the first two Soft MAchine Albums or the First two Matching Mole albums. Classic stuff. I remember that the NWW Guy didn't like Wyatt...anothr goos reason to like him, I reckon.

SoHoLa (SoHoLa), Thursday, 14 July 2005 05:33 (nineteen years ago) link

A friend of mine met him recently and said he was a top bloke - he's kind of the Michael Foot of music. Plus he likes a beer, a cig, a laugh and the ladies - preferably all at once.

Dadaismus (Dada), Thursday, 14 July 2005 08:18 (nineteen years ago) link


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