Friday Music: Robert Wyatt

Robert Wyatt is a music legend you may never have heard about. He was a singer and drummer of the '60s psych-jazz band Soft Machine that emerged out of Canterbury, England, along with Pink Floyd. Later, he fronted the band Matching Mole. In 1973, drunk at a party, he tumbled out a third story window and ended up paralyzed from the waist down. A lead singer with stage fright, he has said of the accident: "What could have been debilitating turned into an excuse to work in a different way without the pressure and responsibilities of performing or being in a group."

Thus began a solo career that continues with this fall's release of Comicopera, his tenth solo album of original work, though he's perhaps best known for his cover of Elvis Costello's "Shipbuilding," a touching song about the Falklands War. Here's a live video BBC performance:



Description: Wyatt, holding a microphone in both hands, sits in a traditional steel wheelchair on a darkened stage surrounded by his band. He wears an olive military-styled shirt and a black beret, with longish blond hair and a fullish beard.

The lyrics to "Shipbuilding":

Is it worth it
A new winter coat and shoes for the wife
And a bicycle on the boys birthday
It's just a rumour that was spread around town
By the women and children
Soon we'll be shipbuilding
Well I ask you
The boy said dad they're going to take me to task
But I'll be back by Christmas
It's just a rumour that was spread around town
Somebody said that someone got filled in
For saying that people get killed in
The result of this shipbuilding
With all the will in the world
Diving for dear life
When we could be diving for pearls
It's just a rumour that was spread around town
A telegram or a picture postcard
Within weeks they'll be re-opening the shipyards
And notifying the next of kin
Once again
It's all were skilled in
We will be shipbuilding
With all the will in the world
Diving for dear life
When we could be diving for pearls

Among music trivia buffs, Wyatt may be known as the only person using a wheelchair to ever perform on Britain's Top of The Pops. The details range from funny to appalling. He was asked on the popular, long-running music chart TV program to sing his cover of The Monkey's "I'm A Believer," which he reportedly chose to record in the first place because he thought it was written by Neil Sedaka, whose music he claims to enjoy. Except "I'm A Believer" was written by Neil Diamond, which every British '60s experimental psych-jazz musician should know, right?

An argument ensued with Top of The Pops producers when they told him he needed to sit in a regular chair while performing because sitting on stage in a wheelchair was "not suitable for family viewing." This was 1974. In one 2002 account of the event:

A furious Wyatt stood his ground (metaphorically) with the end result that the entire band appeared in wheelchairs, and Wyatt spat out the lyrics with barely concealed venom and even more naked irony. The performance has never been shown anywhere since.

But the Wiki for Top of The Pops states that:

The most complaints the show received for a single episode was in 1994 when Manic Street Preachers performed their song "Faster" in a manner that was seen as intimidating and featured lead singer James Dean Bradfield wearing a balaclava such as would be worn by an IRA terrorist. Prior to this the performance that was rumoured to have drawn most complaints was Robert Wyatt performing his hit "I'm A Believer" in as animated a fashion as his wheelchair would allow.

You can judge the performance for yourself. Here's the YouTube video (that's Pink Floyd's Nick Mason on drums):



Another stage performance with an audience standing and dancing close to the stage. Wyatt sways in his chair as he sings. A hard-to-read text over the video indicates that this clip was missing and presumed lost for nearly 30 years. Either way, Wyatt's wheelchair evidently caused a stir for daring to show up on TV.

Then again, music trivia buffs may know Wyatt because his name has become a verb: "Wyatting" refers to the pub entertainment of intentionally picking a jukebox song that will empty the establishment.

All the above links to articles are entertaining because Wyatt is a character. Here are some other good links:

1996 interview with music writer Richie Unterberger

Sean O'Hagan's recent Guardian feature article on Wyatt

Guardian review of Wyatt's latest album Comicopera

YouTube live video performance of "Gharbadzegi" from his album Old Rottenhat (wild and jazzy live, mellow on the album, this is a personal fav of mine)

Chicago Reader review of Comicopera

Blog love from The Runout Groove



Update: First, apologies that my videos don't stay where they're placed within my text but migrate downwards. I don't know why they do that.

Also, thanks to Jennifer Justice in the comments of this post, here's a direct link to an audio file of the October 26 episode of "Sound Opinions" from Chicago Public Radio. There's some Britney Spears first, to skip directly to the discussion of Wyatt go to about 10:30 in the audio recording.