B.B.C. 2 are showing ‘The Robert Wyatt story’ tonight,at 11.35pm.
Robert was the drummer/singer inthe group ‘Soft Machine’ who unfortunately broke his back and has been confined to a wheelchair for some 30 years.
However,this hasn’t prevented him from having one of the most individualistic careers in Rock-and dare I say ‘Pop’?- music.
And the guys a committed Marxist to boot,with something interesting to say,rather than the empty spoutings of most popular musicians!
musicmaking still, peforms a normal function
Wow. Is that a satori?
Thanks for the tip Kevin. I’ll watch out for this program in Australia—we get a lot of BBC material.
I’m a big fan of Wyatt. I recently bought the CD versions of Soft Machine 1, 2 and 3 and they are every bit as good as I remember them as being. (Maybe I should now sell my old vinyl copies and clean up.)
It was a marvelous programme,among the highlights were clips of Robert performing six of his classic songs with a tremendous band,featuring (among others)Harry Beckett on Trumpet,Annie Whitehead on Trombone,and,on one song,Paul Weller on bottle-neck Guitar.
I have to say that his albums ‘Rock Bottom’ and ‘Ruth is stranger than Richard’ have been favourites of mine for nigh on thirty years,and I still get something new from them with every playing.
after all it’s only measured time isn’t it?