Soundtrack of my life: Robert Wyatt

The prog-rock pioneer on his love of jazz, falsetto singing, the thrill of meeting Bulgarian
folk singers and why Pharrell Williams is as good as any of the 60s soul greats
Interview by Jude Rogers
The Observer, Sunday 26 October 2014

Singer/musician Robert Wyatt at his home in Louth. Photograph: Fabio De Paola

Robert Wyatt was born in Bristol in 1945 to a psychologist father and BBC
producer mother. At 21, he joined prog pioneers Soft Machine; at 25 formed
his own group, Matching Mole; at 29, he fell out of a fourth-floor window
while drunk, at a party, permanently paralysing himself from the waist
down. His solo career proper began a year later, with 1974s
dreamlike Rock Bottom. He has had two top 40 hits: a cover of the
Monkees Im a Believer, which he fought to sing in his wheelchair onTop of
the Pops, and the song Elvis Costello wrote for him, Shipbuilding, which
became Rough Trades first top 40 hit. In recent years, he has collaborated
with Bjrk, Paul Weller, Hot Chip and Brian Eno, continuing a relationship
that began when he co-wrote 1/1, the piano track on EnosAmbient 1:
Music for Airports. Wyatts authorised biography, Different Every Time, is
published next week by Serpents Tail, and a compilation of the same name
follows in November on Domino. He celebrates his 70th birthday in January

THE SONG THAT PROVES IM NO REBEL

Every Day I Have the Blues by Ella Fitzgerald and Joe Williams with
Count Basie (1956)
In the 50s, young people were rebelling against their mothers and fathers.
Not me. I inherited a love of mainstream jazz from my father, whose youth
was rudely interrupted by having to serve in the second world war. He
loved Fats Waller, Duke Ellington and Count Basies band, who I thought
were wonderful. His arrangements werent complicated or sophisticated,
because most of his band couldnt read music, but their simplicity was
fantastic. This is from the first EP I bought, four tracks on a piece of plastic.
I still think this is a knockout duet.

THE TRACK THAT MADE ME REALISE IT WAS FINE TO SING HIGH

Ooo Baby Baby by the Miracles (1965)
I used to have a very high range, but not any more. Thats the cigs and so
on. But in the 1960s, even someone as quintessentially English as me
loved Motown. Id play this in breaks between rehearsals with Soft
Machine, probably on my Dansette. I found it nice to hear songs and how
they were done. Also, there were so many testosterone-fuelled voices back
then, mainly because of the influence of the blues, but Smokeys light
falsetto was different. It came from a line of African-American music thats
gentler, but just as crucial from the tenderness of doo-wop, and from
gospel, to which so many things return. I have so little testosterone that Im
verging on being a different sex altogether. Ooo Baby Babys got no guitars
in it either and I love that. English rock is all about beer and guitars. Thats
why I dont really fit in. Im much more wine and keyboards.

THE ONE THAT REMINDS ME OF MY WIFE

You Are the Sunshine of My Life by Stevie Wonder (1974)

The reason that I stayed with Alfie [his wife, English artist Alfreda Benge]
more than one night was that there wasnt enough time to play her record
collection! We celebrated our 40th wedding anniversary this year, so I
suppose well have to divorce when it finally runs out. When we were first
together, we both loved Sly and the Family Stones Stand! it had a bit of
Hendrix about it, but mixed more with jazz. It was so fantastically inventive.
Then came our love of Stevie Wonder, who was such a wonderful musician
from day one. So many blind musicians are, because education at
specialist schools in America is often more advanced and sophisticated.
Also, those musicians are just concentrating on sound. This song reminds
me of mine and Alfies honeymoon and the feeling you get when you finally
find a friend. It makes you realise how lonely you were before.

THE RECORD THAT TURNED ME INTO A FANBOY

Ostana Kera, Kleto Sirache by Kalinka Vulcheva (1974)
In the 70s, being a communist basically meant going to charity fundraisers
all the time, for striking Turkish miners, striking British miners, antiapartheid. I remember going to one for [socialist newspaper] the Morning
Star, and youd get records at these things from eastern Europe and Cuba.
My favourites were by a Bulgarian folk singer called Kalinka Vulcheva, who
had an extraordinary voice and style of singing, very beautiful and unusual.
I met her after the cold war, at a folk concert in Whitby, quite by chance.
Alfie spotted her Robert! Its Kalinka Vulcheva! and I shivered at the
thrill of meeting her. She panicked when I asked for her autograph because
she could only write it in Cyrillic. To hear things from across the world, and
then meet the person with that voice, was quite something.

THE RECORD THAT MADE ME THINK ABOUT POSSIBILITIES IN

MUSIC
Folk song arrangements by Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears(1948)
This was something in my dads collection again, on a 78. A 78! His was of
Scottish songs, from recordings Britten did with the tenor Peter Pears. The
tunes in them are wonderful, but the chords sound so strange to us now
and that strangeness is what interested Britten. The thing about avantgarde musicians is theyre not just about looking forward. They also look
back, far beyond that which other people do. Its like looking at primitive
paintings and trying to speak their language.

THE RECENT SONG THAT IS AS GOOD AS THE 60S CLASSICS

Happy by Pharrell Williams (2013)
When Im not watching Russia Today, obviously, Im watching pop TV. Even
my sons embarrassed by the infantilism of my tastes, but theres some
good stuff out there now. Pharrell Williamss Happy thats absolutely
fucking knockout. Williams is as good as any 60s soul singer and the song
is brilliantly put together. Its a great drum track, and there are only four

chords or so, but theyre just enough. Its really subtly done, absolutely
spot-on. My granddaughter tells me I should totally disapprove of that other
song he did, though. With someone else... something lines? Blurred Lines!
Thats the one. Take it from me that I dont like that one at all.