I adore that song. Always reminds me of that day, only a week or so after I moved to London about 22 years ago. I was at the Royal Festival Hall on the South Bank, having a drink with my then girlfriend (now wife) and enjoying one of those free concerts they regularly have in the main foyer. Next to us was a couple. The guy was in a wheelchair and had long messy grey hair and beard. All the time I kept thinking "I know that guy!". It's only after we left that I realised it was Robert Wyatt and his wife Alfreda Benge.
One of the most moving song in history. Love it since it was released. One of my friends chose it as music for his funeral and it was a cathartic moment we'll never forget. The reason all these musicians were on this LP is that they were friends and wanted to help Wyatt after he lost his motricity. And they felt respect for the great composer and singer he was and still is.
Haunting, evocative track. Robert's voice will forever be associated with his cover of Elvis Costello's classic, heart-breaking song 'Shipbuilding' written about the Falklands War in 1982.
I was in absolute heaven when I discovered that gem years ago. Pure gold, honestly. Best Canterbury album by the true genius of Canterbury. We're the sea both beauty and fury
This was Robert's first solo album after an alcohol related accident in 1973 left him paralyzed from the waist down. If you like his voice, you should check out Soft Machine 1 & 2, which has been described as Experimental, Psychedelic, Avant Garde and even Comedic. Their 'Third' album was quite different showing a transformation towards jazz. It was mostly instrumental, except for 'Moon in June,' written (and vocals) by Robert Wyatt. It's my favorite track of the album, and definitely very worthy of a 'First Reaction.' Probably my all around favorite Soft Machine track (that I'm familiar with at least, since I lost interest starting with their 'Fourth' album). Btw, Robert Wyatt was a great drummer as well.
According to producer Michael Beinhorn (Who is known for producing Herbie Hancock's Rockit, Soundgarden's Black Hole Sun and others), Robert was having an affair with a married woman and in his attempt to run away from the scenes, he stuffed the accident that resulted in his paralysis.
I believe Soft Machine & Pink Floyd we’re both part of the same UFO Club scene. This is post Wyatt accident where he became party paralyzed and couldn’t play a drum kit anymore, and a lot of folks came to help him out. Check out his album Schleep too, much later but wonderful.
This album became one of my all time favourites. His beautiful lyrics and voice and untidy approach is his trademark. Another rabbit hole is waiting to be explored
One of the best songs ever conceived, written and composed by human mind and being ❤ I absolutely love it. "Rock Bottom" is one of the 10 albums defining my life. Thank you from the bottom (pun intended) of my heart
This is a classic Wyatt track...very introspective, beautiful. Love the melody, the wobbily piano and the way he punctuates certain notes, and the quirky lyrics (in his often 'conversational' style). The way it builds after he sings "We're not alone..." it's like the sun coming out and this desperate cry of joy. There's a great version of this song on a live tribute album I have called "Soupsongs Live: The Music of Robert Wyatt" with Julie Tippetts (a friend of his) singing lead, also in the band is Phil Manzanera (from Roxy Music and David Gilmour's band) and Didier Malherbe from Gong.
I always thought of some lines in this song as a reference to Robert Wyatt's accident, which happened before recording this album. He fell out of a window while heavily drunk, and was paralysed from the waist down. He has used a wheelchair for movement ever since. The accident definitely influenced the grim atmosphere of the album. "When you're drunk you're terrific When you're drunk I like you mostly Late at night, you're quite alright But I can't understand the different you In the morning when it's time to play At being human for a while Please smile"
In "Alifie" too, in Alfreda Benge's response, _"but when plops get too helly, I'll fill up your belly",_ the _plop_ might refer to the accident. On Aymeric Leroy's TH-cam channel, search for "Robert Wyatt on Rock Bottom" -- delightful excerpts from an interview with Wyatt in 2001, in 6 parts.
sea song was written before the accident, and so was a majority of the album. it does make for a nice exegesis but the "grim atmosphere" was written during and after his time in venice with alfie
The connection between Robert Wyatt and Mike Oldield is Kevin Ayers who was, with Robert Wyatt, a founding member of the band Soft Machine. When Kevin Ayers left the the band for a solo career, he took the young mike Olfield as bass player. 🙂
Skilfully parsed, JP. I have not heard this in so long. I bought this album in a music shop rather than a record store, in those heady days when stocking vinyl was a cottage industry; several blocks away even the Virgin label's store was a cheap acquisition painted uniform black. Those were times when making an album as intricate as this was a risk the industry was willing to indulge, releasing small batches to small outlets. All of the musicians involved are part of a creative community, largely unbound by the sort of exclusive contract that had, say, obliged Clapton to be anonymous on The Beatles' (White Album). The music we hear certainly has echoes from around its community, but it is very much Robert Wyatt's stamp of creativity, and of course a voice whose musicality may not be in conventional registers but which is always under tuneful control. Great to hear this again. Thanks for taking it on, and taking it in so lucidly, Justin.
This is by far his best album, and one of the best albums ever recorded. A classic. I dare say that he is (among) the most emotional vocalist I know. Some of the pieces on this albums brings tears to your eyes (like this one). I can highly recommend his biography that has been released not so long ago ( a couple of years). It tells a lot about the Canterbury scene aswell. And nobody scatts like Robert Wyatt does.
O wow, you did this - awesome. This song gives me goosebumps every single time, even after listening to it hundreds of times! The whole album is something else - Progressive....what? Progressive Everything! The album has more structure than the Soft Machine albums, which I also love.
@@Katehowe3010 Yeah. Production was the least of Shamal's problems, mind. Coming immediately after the trilogy and bereft of the Captain (Capricorn), it's a wonder it was even released under the Gong name. Not that I hate it mind, but I love Camembert... through to You so much, it rarely gets a spin.
@@Katehowe3010 Me too, but personally I tend go for Gazeus or some Pierre Moerlin's for that. Again, let me state that I like the album, but I see it as a transitional stage after losing Daevid for a while. If somebody asked me to recommend an album that represents the qualities that make the band so unique, this might be the last one I'd pick. There is no version of Gong that I don't love, and there is no band I love more, be it punking out with the Hear & Now boys, Gilly's Mother Gong or an Acid Mother's Temple collaboration. They all have a place in my heart.
Sort of immortal love song that only kind Mr Wyatt could have written. Notes on "Rock Bottom": Mongezi Feza's trumpet on "Little Red *Riding* Hood Hit the Road" will make you lose your way in the forest. Perfect double bill with Feza's part on "The Owl" with Slapp Happy and Henry Cow. --- Mike Oldfield's guitar is sooo recognizable on "Little Red *Robin* Hood Hit the Road", even repeats a riff from "Tubular Bells part 1". As teenager, Oldfield was playing bass in (ex-Machinist) Kevin Ayers' band. --- On acquaintance with Pink Floyd: Wyatt played drums on some solo records of Syd Barrett. But of course, Wyatt's list of contributions and collaborations is a special department in itself.
I love Wyatt's vocals and was surprised to find many people do not. It was the reason he left Soft Machine. Robert's vocals are center stage on the first two albums and "Moon In June". Wyatt and Richard Sinclair both love jazz style improv scat vocals. The album's lyrics are very personal and are in part related to an accident that left him paralyzed. The accident ended a new Matching Mole project. As others have pointed out, Soft Machine and Pink Floyd were part of the underground scene and played gigs together. I highly recommend the album Nick Mason's "Fictitious Sports" where Wyatt does lead vocals. It's really a Carla Bley album: another artist you should explore starting with the mammoth "Escalator Over the Hill".
Some people don't like Roberts voice, I love it. Sinclair was in The Wilde Flowers with Wyatt (and Kevin Ayers) Wyatt was in Soft Machine (with Kevin Ayers). Wyatt and Mason new each other from the UFO days. So glad Wyatt has crossed your path!
I think I must be the only person in the world who doesn't like this album. It was on my "must listen" list for decades, then two years ago someone gave it to me. I listened to it three times and put it in the bin. I like a lot of Canterbury stuff, so don't know why I had such a negative attitude towards it. Love Ayers, by the way!
Rock Bottom is one of the most personal statements a ‘Rock’ musician has ever recorded. It’s all ‘of a piece’. Yes it’s very English, and it’s completely honest and free of affectation. This isn’t commercial, it’s true art. You could do Wyatt, Wyatt, Wyatt and some of us wouldn’t complain. 👍
Nick also produced The Damned and some stuff for Gong and a few other things. When you're the drummer for Pink Floyd you can pretty much do whatever the hell you want. Including running his own band that kicks total ass and I can't wait to see them this year in DC at the Lincoln Theater. Also finally getting to see Roxy Music in September!!! There's still 4 of em!!! Can't wait!!
As well as Last Straw have a listen to Little Red Riding Hood ( the second version, i.e. the final track) -which will introduce you to the world of Ivor Cutler…
I would recommend a listen to At Last I Am Free by Robert Wyatt which is a cover of would you believe a Chic song. His voice is simultaneously shrill, deeply soulful, communicative and heartbreakingly honest.
This cover is just as good as the original Chic version. Wyatt's cover is probably more vocally emotional than Chic's which is more detached, but both versions are excellent. I think the same of the track "Shipbuilding" which I find just as good by Elvis Costello as by Robert Wyatt. From my point of view, these are complementary versions.
Soft Machine and Pink Floyd shared billings at various gigs around London. The biggest was probably at the Rainbow Theatre. But there have been various collaborations between the two bands, on different projects.
In response to your query, Justin, Pink Floyd and Soft Machine played in a lot of the same venues in their early days and the band members were close friends. Soft Machine were also friends with The Jimi Hendrix Experience and 'Mitch, Noel and Jim' are name checked (thanking them) on the second Soft Machine album. The first three Soft Machine albums are considered their greatest works ('Volume Two' being their greatest achievement as a whole) but the piece that's their magnum opus, and Wyatt's, is his 'Moon In June' on their 'Third' album, one of the most incredible side-long pieces in rock history, and I couldn't recommend it more highly. Believe me, you will be astonished.
Superb introspective album. I hope that when you did the next song "A Last Straw", you followed up with the next one "Little Red Riding Hood Hit the Road" because these two are almost chained together and the rendering is more appreciable when listening those two together !
Strangely (because lots of people talked to me about this album), this is my first listen too. Weird, intriguing, a bit magic and made to travel: I liked that.
A truly beautiful song. Well, the next step would be "Song from the Bottom of a Well" by Kevin Ayers, also featuring Mike Oldfield. One of the most funny songs I know. Wyatt+Pink Floyd makes complete sense, if you know their common background, where they come from. I never would have questioned any connection here at all.
"This is a song from the bottom of a well/I didn't move here, I just fell". Wonderful. Great, scary instrumentation too. Whatevershebringswesing is my favourite Ayers album.
finally got around to listening to Kevin's solo stuff recently and whatevershebringswesing is definitely one of my favorite albums right now, though Joy of a Toy is also fun. Oh My would be a more fun and whimsical one to start with though, Song from the bottom of a well is a bit more gimmicky in my opinion. Still a good song but not a great representation of kevin as an artist
@@ianscarlett6884 Check out Phil Manzaneras lyrics to his song Technicolor UFO! Bottom of a well seems to be a signature song für Kevin among collegues.
Oldfield is on the album, but that's Kevin playing the crazy guitar part on Song from the Bottom of a Well. Oldfield is too precise a player to do something that feral.
Soft Machine and Pink Floyd were both playing the same sort of venues during the formative years and often were on the same bill, so no surprise they all knew each other. As other's have noted, there is plenty of performer overlap on solo albums by all involved.
Hi JP! Cool review of one of my favourite ever songs from one of my favourite ever albums, which has been part of my life for ~45 years. However, as good as "Sea Song" is, it's the next song "A Last Straw" which, for me, is the better. I await your confirmation of this fact with interest 😉
Pink Floyd and The Soft Machine played at the UFO club in the late 60s, and are mentioned in the BBC (Peel session) version of The Moon in June, in which he recommends the facilities at the BBC studios. One of the songs on this LP was done with Henry Cow on Cow's Concerts LP, with some great rhythm guitar by Fred Frith, who plays viola on Rock Bottom - the Canterbury scene was so incestuous.
We can always count on you to go 'Wyatting'! If you want twisted & dark, check out "The Hapless Child and Other Stories" Michael Mantler's treatment of Edward Gorey's poems, Wyatt is the featured vocalist. It's a perfect matchup! Wyatt's first band Wilde Flowers split into, Caravan and Soft Machine, with who he was the drummer. Peace.
I can hardly imagine the drummer Wyatt would have evolved into had he not become paralyzed from the waist down. This album is his first venture back into music after that. Of course he is well known for his work with Soft Machine, but if you haven't listened to any Matching Mole yet you are in for a wild treat. I recommend starting with "Matching Mole's Little Red Record", first song, "Marchides". Wyatt's Pink Floyd connection traveled through the years. For fun you can check out Wyatt singing "Comfortably Numb" with David Gilmour in concert back in the early 2000's. Blessings.
This is a stunning album, there's nothing else quite like it. Hauntingly beautiful from start to finish, and it concludes with one of my all time favorite album closers. To me, Nick Mason was the coolest member of Pink Floyd, the one most likely to step outside the box. Of all the band members' solo albums his "Fictitious Sports" was the one that strayed furthest from what his band mates were doing. Wyatt appears on that one as well. I beseech you to continue with Rock Bottom and just let it wash over you.
Excellent! Missed this yesterday when it was posted but you have found another of the top 30 prog albums ever. Robert Wyatt's voice may not be to everyone's taste but is different enough to stand out. Great tracks like Little Red Riding Hood... and Alifib follow and are also strangely weird. The rest of the comments give you all the other information you need.
Yoko would be proud. I didn't realize that the Tears For Fears version is a cover. Hmmm. Nick Mason also produced albums by Gong, The Damned and Steve Hillage.
I think this song is kinda about a "summer love", they know they arent a perfect match and it wont last forever, but for now their madness fits nicely together. The album is heavily influenced by nursery rhyme -type ideas, but it somehow works into a coherent piece. One of my favorite albums for sure
I've loved this album for 40 years! Check out his cover of Chic's "At Last I Am Free"- it is heartbreakingly beautiful! I also adore his album Old Rottenhat.
I highly recommend the two albums of Matching Mole, the Soft Machine offshoot band that Robert Wyatt formed after leaving Soft Machine and before his accident.
About the lyrics, they are, of course, about the sea. The full moon is relevant to the lunacy he mentions in the end, of course, but also to the cycle of tides caused by the moon's gravity.
You're gonna need to listen to the whole album because it's a masterpiece of despair. Alifib/alife is such an incredible pair of songs. With Mike Oldfield on guitar!
The story is that Soft Machine and Pink Floyd alternated as the house band(s) for the legendary--if all-too-short-lived--UFO Club in London in 1967. He (Robert) and Nick Mason go back more than half a century, is the point. Richard Sinclair is another "Canterbury Scene" figure from the bands Wilde Flowers and, somewhat more famously, Caravan. Wilde Flowers is the band that split and became Soft Machine and Caravan, and Richard, Robert, and most of the Soft Machine/Caravan members were in it together. Btw, the reason you're reminded of Peter(s) Hammill and Gabriel is because the prog bands are most of them influenced by predecessors, the Canterbury Scene bands, Caravan, Soft Machine, Hatfield and the North, and others.
Wonderful song from a brilliant artist. Check out the cover version by British Folk singers 'The Unthanks', which is also wonderful. The also did a brilliant cover of King Crimson's 'Starless'
You wanna hear Robert sing something a little more accessible? Check out "Happy Land" and "Kingdom" from Ultramarine's album United Kingdoms. Ultramarine is an Electronica duo who made great chill out music in the 90s. These two songs are very good if you like that stuff, I do...
Very interesting music. Difficult and demanding to listen to for sure, but a lot the music from the Canterbury scene is challenging. Bands like Soft Machine, Gong, Henry Cow and others pushed the boundaries of music. Robert Wyatt certainly did this. Robert Wyatt also did some work with Eno's early solo albums.
Rock Bottom is a totally unique album, I know of no other album that comes even close to the originality of Robert Wyatt's surreal masterpiece. However, each side of the album works perfectly as a single piece of music and I think only Sea Song can be listened outside of the album context without losing something. Go on, give each side of the album the space it deserves. You won't regret it.
Ah, a great opening for you to go back to Soft Machine's 'Third' and thence return to Caravan and the L'Auberge du Sanglier' medley... it's a bit of a strange journey, but it would all make perfect musical sense, in the end!
JP If you want to react to a soulful, plaintive Robert Wyatt vocal, you should definitely check out "Shipbuilding". As mentioned in Jeremy Blackmore's comment, it's a song about the Falklands war by Elvis Costello. One of the most beautiful, touching anti-war songs ever written. th-cam.com/video/1lSZf9XnseQ/w-d-xo.html
@JustJP: How did Nick Mason get involved with Robert Wyatt? Well, back when they were "The Pink Floyd" with Syd Barret, they shared many a gig with The Soft Machine, with Wyatt on drums and vocals, back at the UFO Club in London, so they were friends since then. And then when Wyatt fell out of a window and became paralyzed sincem unable to play drums, they've been there for him. Robert Wyatt even sings on Nick Mason's solo album FICTITIOUS SPORTS (which is said to really be a Robert Wyatt album with jazz singer Carla Bley). I highly recommended a reaction to that, especially if you like the oddity of this song. He also appears on David Gilmour's "Meltdown" concert, singing "Comfortably Numb". (Oh, and the Mike Oldfield/Wyatt connection comes from when Oldfield was with Kevin Ayers & The Whole World, Kevin Ayers also being of The Soft Machine. Now, what's really weird is Nick Mason producing punk band The Damned's MUSIC FOR PLEASURE. They wanted Syd Barrett, originally, but he was unavailable, because, well, you know...so they got Nick Mason instead, to neither's mutual satisfaction, apparently.)
'Fictitious Sports' was more like a Carla Bley rock/punk parody album with Robert singing it straight on all but one song, snuck onto a major label by being ostensibly a 'Nick Mason' solo album. Carla Bley is primarily known as a jazz composer, awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship for composition in 1972 and was named an NEA Jazz Master in 2015. Carla's another deep dive whenever you're ready, quirky humor mixed with amazing big-band arrangements, piano/bass duets with husband Steve Swallow, a beautiful Christmas Album, her star-studded triple-album 'Escalator Over the Hill', touring on keyboards in the Jack Bruce Band... And frequent collaborator with Robert Wyatt.
What makes you different ................discovering real quality and gems of good music ! Generaly i don't like all those people first reaction to something that's not part of their world, especialy all those girls ......these belong to my generation and i feel in many cases something alike a rape of our history ...........not so in your case ! YES Wyatt is something out of the ordinary , even people of my generation havent discoverd his talents......same as most don't know Soft Machine .........start again with listenig to SEVEN ......... This music was analog ..........if you necer listend to it in analog and with decent speakers or a quality headphone ..........much of the real music is missing ! Digital is a trap...........it's like drinking sterilized and creamed milk.................never knowing and experience the taste of the real thing ........drinking dead milk instead of the living milk. A calf grows up deinking real living milk........
You can see and hear Robert Wyatt in David Gilmour’s ‘Remember that night’ live concert in the Royal Albert Hall. In this song the singer is quite often off tone. A bit of anti-music, so it sounds to me; I have problems listening to this stuff.
Le premiere fois que j'ai écouté je me suis dit : qui c'est xe gars qui a piqué les instruments de son grand frère......depuis j'ai du l'écouter des centaines de fois ...et ke 2ne sais toujours pas pourquoi :)
Nick Mason did not do his job, fade that crazy singing in tongues out. I didn’t hate it, it had some interesting things going on, drunken piano for instance. Rock bottom indeed.
An excruciatingly long, and unmelodious ditty this. Definitely a hard listen. Also, at times discordant, and rather abstract. And that voice, accent.... He's been involved in some good stuff over the years, but whoever told him he could sing should be horsewhipped. And what was he thinking with that random caterwauling in the end section. Jeez I hope this isn't typical of the rest of the album, if we're to be subjected to more of this.
i felt that way when i first heard him with soft machine, the more i listened to him the more i like his voice. He hits the right notes, its just that a) he has a slight lisp and b) a lot of british singers sing with an american accent so we arent really used to hearing heavy british accent in music. Maybe he just isnt your cup of tea but for me it just took some time to get used to
I adore that song. Always reminds me of that day, only a week or so after I moved to London about 22 years ago. I was at the Royal Festival Hall on the South Bank, having a drink with my then girlfriend (now wife) and enjoying one of those free concerts they regularly have in the main foyer. Next to us was a couple. The guy was in a wheelchair and had long messy grey hair and beard. All the time I kept thinking "I know that guy!". It's only after we left that I realised it was Robert Wyatt and his wife Alfreda Benge.
One of the most moving song in history. Love it since it was released. One of my friends chose it as music for his funeral and it was a cathartic moment we'll never forget. The reason all these musicians were on this LP is that they were friends and wanted to help Wyatt after he lost his motricity. And they felt respect for the great composer and singer he was and still is.
Haunting, evocative track. Robert's voice will forever be associated with his cover of Elvis Costello's classic, heart-breaking song 'Shipbuilding' written about the Falklands War in 1982.
Top 30 45rpm of all time♥️
Not a cover - his is the original version, written specifically for him by Elvis.
@@Joooools5000 Thanks. I couldn't remember the order they were released. Elvis' own version is stunning too.
Deserves a place on the Mount Rushmore of progressive rock songs. Perfect, beautiful, vulnerable.
Great, great choice !!! The whole album is a perfect gem.
Robert Wyatt also sings on Nick Mason's debut solo album "Nick Mason's Fictitious Sports".
AKA "Nick Mason Piggy-backs Most of Carla Bley's Band onto a Major Label." A very interesting but very odd record.
I was in absolute heaven when I discovered that gem years ago. Pure gold, honestly. Best Canterbury album by the true genius of Canterbury. We're the sea both beauty and fury
This was Robert's first solo album after an alcohol related accident in 1973 left him paralyzed from the waist down. If you like his voice, you should check out Soft Machine 1 & 2, which has been described as Experimental, Psychedelic, Avant Garde and even Comedic. Their 'Third' album was quite different showing a transformation towards jazz. It was mostly instrumental, except for 'Moon in June,' written (and vocals) by Robert Wyatt. It's my favorite track of the album, and definitely very worthy of a 'First Reaction.' Probably my all around favorite Soft Machine track (that I'm familiar with at least, since I lost interest starting with their 'Fourth' album). Btw, Robert Wyatt was a great drummer as well.
"Moon in June" is my favourite too, what a trip!
He has released one obscure album before this one.
According to producer Michael Beinhorn (Who is known for producing Herbie Hancock's Rockit, Soundgarden's Black Hole Sun and others), Robert was having an affair with a married woman and in his attempt to run away from the scenes, he stuffed the accident that resulted in his paralysis.
I believe Soft Machine & Pink Floyd we’re both part of the same UFO Club scene. This is post Wyatt accident where he became party paralyzed and couldn’t play a drum kit anymore, and a lot of folks came to help him out. Check out his album Schleep too, much later but wonderful.
thanks for sharing this
Couldn't imagine how much pain he must've felt from hearing that.
This album became one of my all time favourites. His beautiful lyrics and voice and untidy approach is his trademark. Another rabbit hole is waiting to be explored
The entire album is enthralling!
One of the best songs ever conceived, written and composed by human mind and being ❤ I absolutely love it. "Rock Bottom" is one of the 10 albums defining my life. Thank you from the bottom (pun intended) of my heart
This is a classic Wyatt track...very introspective, beautiful. Love the melody, the wobbily piano and the way he punctuates certain notes, and the quirky lyrics (in his often 'conversational' style). The way it builds after he sings "We're not alone..." it's like the sun coming out and this desperate cry of joy. There's a great version of this song on a live tribute album I have called "Soupsongs Live: The Music of Robert Wyatt" with Julie Tippetts (a friend of his) singing lead, also in the band is Phil Manzanera (from Roxy Music and David Gilmour's band) and Didier Malherbe from Gong.
Haunting vocals. Robert has so many amazing songs.
What a beautiful work you do. Great music
I always thought of some lines in this song as a reference to Robert Wyatt's accident, which happened before recording this album. He fell out of a window while heavily drunk, and was paralysed from the waist down. He has used a wheelchair for movement ever since. The accident definitely influenced the grim atmosphere of the album.
"When you're drunk you're terrific
When you're drunk I like you mostly
Late at night, you're quite alright
But I can't understand the different you
In the morning when it's time to play
At being human for a while
Please smile"
In "Alifie" too, in Alfreda Benge's response, _"but when plops get too helly, I'll fill up your belly",_ the _plop_ might refer to the accident.
On Aymeric Leroy's TH-cam channel, search for "Robert Wyatt on Rock Bottom" -- delightful excerpts from an interview with Wyatt in 2001, in 6 parts.
sea song was written before the accident, and so was a majority of the album. it does make for a nice exegesis but the "grim atmosphere" was written during and after his time in venice with alfie
The connection between Robert Wyatt and Mike Oldield is Kevin Ayers who was, with Robert Wyatt, a founding member of the band Soft Machine. When Kevin Ayers left the the band for a solo career, he took the young mike Olfield as bass player. 🙂
Genius
Really enjoyed this. So atmospheric.. 👍
best song ever..best album ever
Skilfully parsed, JP. I have not heard this in so long. I bought this album in a music shop rather than a record store, in those heady days when stocking vinyl was a cottage industry; several blocks away even the Virgin label's store was a cheap acquisition painted uniform black.
Those were times when making an album as intricate as this was a risk the industry was willing to indulge, releasing small batches to small outlets. All of the musicians involved are part of a creative community, largely unbound by the sort of exclusive contract that had, say, obliged Clapton to be anonymous on The Beatles' (White Album).
The music we hear certainly has echoes from around its community, but it is very much Robert Wyatt's stamp of creativity, and of course a voice whose musicality may not be in conventional registers but which is always under tuneful control.
Great to hear this again. Thanks for taking it on, and taking it in so lucidly, Justin.
Follow your heart. I enjoyed this as well.
This is by far his best album, and one of the best albums ever recorded. A classic. I dare say that he is (among) the most emotional vocalist I know. Some of the pieces on this albums brings tears to your eyes (like this one). I can highly recommend his biography that has been released not so long ago ( a couple of years). It tells a lot about the Canterbury scene aswell. And nobody scatts like Robert Wyatt does.
My favourite piece with Robert singing is Calyx from the first Hatfield & The North album. Sublime!
O wow, you did this - awesome. This song gives me goosebumps every single time, even after listening to it hundreds of times! The whole album is something else - Progressive....what? Progressive Everything! The album has more structure than the Soft Machine albums, which I also love.
Nick Mason produced a few superb albums. Listen to his incredible production on Steve Hillage's "Green".
@@Katehowe3010 Yeah. Production was the least of Shamal's problems, mind.
Coming immediately after the trilogy and bereft of the Captain (Capricorn), it's a wonder it was even released under the Gong name. Not that I hate it mind, but I love Camembert... through to You so much, it rarely gets a spin.
@@Katehowe3010 Me too, but personally I tend go for Gazeus or some Pierre Moerlin's for that.
Again, let me state that I like the album, but I see it as a transitional stage after losing Daevid for a while.
If somebody asked me to recommend an album that represents the qualities that make the band so unique, this might be the last one I'd pick.
There is no version of Gong that I don't love, and there is no band I love more, be it punking out with the Hear & Now boys, Gilly's Mother Gong or an Acid Mother's Temple collaboration. They all have a place in my heart.
@@Katehowe3010 My favourite!!
After Soft Machine Robert formed Matching Mole. Their track O Caroline has my favourite Robert vocal.
Robert Wyatt lived, for many years, on the opposite bank of the Humber to me. I could see his house with a pair of decent binoculars.
One of my favorite songs, I love the Tears For Fears cover too 😊
Rock Bottom is another one of my desert island selections. It is one of my favorite albums of all time.
Sort of immortal love song that only kind Mr Wyatt could have written.
Notes on "Rock Bottom": Mongezi Feza's trumpet on "Little Red *Riding* Hood Hit the Road" will make you lose your way in the forest. Perfect double bill with Feza's part on "The Owl" with Slapp Happy and Henry Cow. --- Mike Oldfield's guitar is sooo recognizable on "Little Red *Robin* Hood Hit the Road", even repeats a riff from "Tubular Bells part 1". As teenager, Oldfield was playing bass in (ex-Machinist) Kevin Ayers' band. --- On acquaintance with Pink Floyd: Wyatt played drums on some solo records of Syd Barrett. But of course, Wyatt's list of contributions and collaborations is a special department in itself.
I love Wyatt's vocals and was surprised to find many people do not. It was the reason he left Soft Machine. Robert's vocals are center stage on the first two albums and "Moon In June".
Wyatt and Richard Sinclair both love jazz style improv scat vocals.
The album's lyrics are very personal and are in part related to an accident that left him paralyzed. The accident ended a new Matching Mole project.
As others have pointed out, Soft Machine and Pink Floyd were part of the underground scene and played gigs together.
I highly recommend the album Nick Mason's "Fictitious Sports" where Wyatt does lead vocals. It's really a Carla Bley album: another artist you should explore starting with the mammoth "Escalator Over the Hill".
Ciao man,sono sorpreso da un giovane come te che conosce e apprezza Robert Wyatt GRANDE!!!!good luck abbi una lunga vita FELICE
Great album. So melancholic. It's one of my favorites.
Some people don't like Roberts voice, I love it. Sinclair was in The Wilde Flowers with Wyatt (and Kevin Ayers) Wyatt was in Soft Machine (with Kevin Ayers). Wyatt and Mason new each other from the UFO days. So glad Wyatt has crossed your path!
And Kevin Ayers band The Whole World including Mike Oldfield on bass and occasionally lead guitar
@@17cgrg Should of remembered that especially as I was trying to nudge JP in the direction of Ayers, again!
I think I must be the only person in the world who doesn't like this album. It was on my "must listen" list for decades, then two years ago someone gave it to me. I listened to it three times and put it in the bin. I like a lot of Canterbury stuff, so don't know why I had such a negative attitude towards it. Love Ayers, by the way!
Rock Bottom is one of the most personal statements a ‘Rock’ musician has ever recorded. It’s all ‘of a piece’. Yes it’s very English, and it’s completely honest and free of affectation. This isn’t commercial, it’s true art.
You could do Wyatt, Wyatt, Wyatt and some of us wouldn’t complain. 👍
Nick also produced The Damned and some stuff for Gong and a few other things. When you're the drummer for Pink Floyd you can pretty much do whatever the hell you want. Including running his own band that kicks total ass and I can't wait to see them this year in DC at the Lincoln Theater. Also finally getting to see Roxy Music in September!!! There's still 4 of em!!! Can't wait!!
As well as Last Straw have a listen to Little Red Riding Hood ( the second version, i.e. the final track) -which will introduce you to the world of Ivor Cutler…
Now, an American reacting to the wonderful Ivor Cutler... that WOULD be interesting.
A late-night regular on radio here in the late 80s
What a nice surprise!
I would recommend a listen to At Last I Am Free by Robert Wyatt which is a cover of would you believe a Chic song. His voice is simultaneously shrill, deeply soulful, communicative and heartbreakingly honest.
This cover is just as good as the original Chic version. Wyatt's cover is probably more vocally emotional than Chic's which is more detached, but both versions are excellent. I think the same of the track "Shipbuilding" which I find just as good by Elvis Costello as by Robert Wyatt. From my point of view, these are complementary versions.
Beautiful cover, I recommend it too 👍
Soft Machine and Pink Floyd shared billings at various gigs around London. The biggest was probably at the Rainbow Theatre. But there have been various collaborations between the two bands, on different projects.
In response to your query, Justin, Pink Floyd and Soft Machine played in a lot of the same venues in their early days and the band members were close friends. Soft Machine were also friends with The Jimi Hendrix Experience and 'Mitch, Noel and Jim' are name checked (thanking them) on the second Soft Machine album. The first three Soft Machine albums are considered their greatest works ('Volume Two' being their greatest achievement as a whole) but the piece that's their magnum opus, and Wyatt's, is his 'Moon In June' on their 'Third' album, one of the most incredible side-long pieces in rock history, and I couldn't recommend it more highly. Believe me, you will be astonished.
Superb introspective album.
I hope that when you did the next song "A Last Straw", you followed up with the next one "Little Red Riding Hood Hit the Road" because these two are almost chained together and the rendering is more appreciable when listening those two together !
Strangely (because lots of people talked to me about this album), this is my first listen too. Weird, intriguing, a bit magic and made to travel: I liked that.
A truly beautiful song. Well, the next step would be "Song from the Bottom of a Well" by Kevin Ayers, also featuring Mike Oldfield. One of the most funny songs I know. Wyatt+Pink Floyd makes complete sense, if you know their common background, where they come from. I never would have questioned any connection here at all.
"This is a song from the bottom of a well/I didn't move here, I just fell". Wonderful. Great, scary instrumentation too. Whatevershebringswesing is my favourite Ayers album.
finally got around to listening to Kevin's solo stuff recently and whatevershebringswesing is definitely one of my favorite albums right now, though Joy of a Toy is also fun. Oh My would be a more fun and whimsical one to start with though, Song from the bottom of a well is a bit more gimmicky in my opinion. Still a good song but not a great representation of kevin as an artist
@@ianscarlett6884 Check out Phil Manzaneras lyrics to his song Technicolor UFO! Bottom of a well seems to be a signature song für Kevin among collegues.
Oldfield is on the album, but that's Kevin playing the crazy guitar part on Song from the Bottom of a Well. Oldfield is too precise a player to do something that feral.
Soft Machine and Pink Floyd were both playing the same sort of venues during the formative years and often were on the same bill, so no surprise they all knew each other. As other's have noted, there is plenty of performer overlap on solo albums by all involved.
Hi JP! Cool review of one of my favourite ever songs from one of my favourite ever albums, which has been part of my life for ~45 years. However, as good as "Sea Song" is, it's the next song "A Last Straw" which, for me, is the better. I await your confirmation of this fact with interest 😉
Pink Floyd and The Soft Machine played at the UFO club in the late 60s, and are mentioned in the BBC (Peel session) version of The Moon in June, in which he recommends the facilities at the BBC studios.
One of the songs on this LP was done with Henry Cow on Cow's Concerts LP, with some great rhythm guitar by Fred Frith, who plays viola on Rock Bottom - the Canterbury scene was so incestuous.
We can always count on you to go 'Wyatting'! If you want twisted & dark, check out "The Hapless Child and Other Stories" Michael Mantler's treatment of Edward Gorey's poems, Wyatt is the featured vocalist. It's a perfect matchup! Wyatt's first band Wilde Flowers split into, Caravan and Soft Machine, with who he was the drummer. Peace.
I can hardly imagine the drummer Wyatt would have evolved into had he not become paralyzed from the waist down. This album is his first venture back into music after that.
Of course he is well known for his work with Soft Machine, but if you haven't listened to any Matching Mole yet you are in for a wild treat. I recommend starting with "Matching Mole's Little Red Record", first song, "Marchides".
Wyatt's Pink Floyd connection traveled through the years. For fun you can check out Wyatt singing "Comfortably Numb" with David Gilmour in concert back in the early 2000's.
Blessings.
This is a stunning album, there's nothing else quite like it. Hauntingly beautiful from start to finish, and it concludes with one of my all time favorite album closers. To me, Nick Mason was the coolest member of Pink Floyd, the one most likely to step outside the box. Of all the band members' solo albums his "Fictitious Sports" was the one that strayed furthest from what his band mates were doing. Wyatt appears on that one as well. I beseech you to continue with Rock Bottom and just let it wash over you.
Excellent! Missed this yesterday when it was posted but you have found another of the top 30 prog albums ever. Robert Wyatt's voice may not be to everyone's taste but is different enough to stand out. Great tracks like Little Red Riding Hood... and Alifib follow and are also strangely weird. The rest of the comments give you all the other information you need.
I can't wait to see your reaction to 'A Last Straw'. It is hands down my favorite track on this album.
Yoko would be proud. I didn't realize that the Tears For Fears version is a cover. Hmmm. Nick Mason also produced albums by Gong, The Damned and Steve Hillage.
I think this song is kinda about a "summer love", they know they arent a perfect match and it wont last forever, but for now their madness fits nicely together.
The album is heavily influenced by nursery rhyme -type ideas, but it somehow works into a coherent piece. One of my favorite albums for sure
However Alifie and Robert are still together after 50 years. This is why it's particularly moving.
I've loved this album for 40 years! Check out his cover of Chic's "At Last I Am Free"- it is heartbreakingly beautiful! I also adore his album Old Rottenhat.
I highly recommend the two albums of Matching Mole, the Soft Machine offshoot band that Robert Wyatt formed after leaving Soft Machine and before his accident.
About the lyrics, they are, of course, about the sea. The full moon is relevant to the lunacy he mentions in the end, of course, but also to the cycle of tides caused by the moon's gravity.
You're gonna need to listen to the whole album because it's a masterpiece of despair. Alifib/alife is such an incredible pair of songs. With Mike Oldfield on guitar!
The story is that Soft Machine and Pink Floyd alternated as the house band(s) for the legendary--if all-too-short-lived--UFO Club in London in 1967. He (Robert) and Nick Mason go back more than half a century, is the point. Richard Sinclair is another "Canterbury Scene" figure from the bands Wilde Flowers and, somewhat more famously, Caravan. Wilde Flowers is the band that split and became Soft Machine and Caravan, and Richard, Robert, and most of the Soft Machine/Caravan members were in it together.
Btw, the reason you're reminded of Peter(s) Hammill and Gabriel is because the prog bands are most of them influenced by predecessors, the Canterbury Scene bands, Caravan, Soft Machine, Hatfield and the North, and others.
Wonderful song from a brilliant artist. Check out the cover version by British Folk singers 'The Unthanks', which is also wonderful. The also did a brilliant cover of King Crimson's 'Starless'
Haces un gran trabajo amigo, por favor continua así !!!!
You wanna hear Robert sing something a little more accessible? Check out "Happy Land" and "Kingdom" from Ultramarine's album United Kingdoms. Ultramarine is an Electronica duo who made great chill out music in the 90s. These two songs are very good if you like that stuff, I do...
Very interesting music. Difficult and demanding to listen to for sure, but a lot the music from the Canterbury scene is challenging. Bands like Soft Machine, Gong, Henry Cow and others pushed the boundaries of music. Robert Wyatt certainly did this. Robert Wyatt also did some work with Eno's early solo albums.
I would recommend checking out the band Robert formed after he left the Softs, Matching Mole.
If you ever decide to dig through the rest of what came after Rock Bottom, get ready to be surprised almost every single time.
Incredible album. And Soft Machine were Pink Floyd's successors in the UFO Club/psych scene.
I don't if the original LP is the same but my CD sleeve only name checks Robert and the producer.There must have been more people involved than that .
Great stuff. Suggest you now listen to Soft Machine Volume Two and try picking just one track!
Wonderful... give his album "shleep" a listen. You won't regret it. I came relatively late to his party, but I stayed...
Rock Bottom is a totally unique album, I know of no other album that comes even close to the originality of Robert Wyatt's surreal masterpiece. However, each side of the album works perfectly as a single piece of music and I think only Sea Song can be listened outside of the album context without losing something.
Go on, give each side of the album the space it deserves. You won't regret it.
It reminds me of Daevid Allen whom he has a big connection with.
Free Will and Testament is a favourite RW track of mine.
Yeah, in South America we have the myth of Boto, you got it right, it starts with a B!
It's about his wife, Alfreda Benge.
Glad ther was no auto tune that time.
I'm hearing some Paranoid Android from Radiohead in here.
Ah, a great opening for you to go back to Soft Machine's 'Third' and thence return to Caravan and the L'Auberge du Sanglier' medley... it's a bit of a strange journey, but it would all make perfect musical sense, in the end!
JP If you want to react to a soulful, plaintive Robert Wyatt vocal, you should definitely check out "Shipbuilding". As mentioned in Jeremy Blackmore's comment, it's a song about the Falklands war by Elvis Costello. One of the most beautiful, touching anti-war songs ever written. th-cam.com/video/1lSZf9XnseQ/w-d-xo.html
I also adore his cover of Chic's "At Last I Am Free" and Eubie Blake's "Memories of You"!
@JustJP: How did Nick Mason get involved with Robert Wyatt? Well, back when they were "The Pink Floyd" with Syd Barret, they shared many a gig with The Soft Machine, with Wyatt on drums and vocals, back at the UFO Club in London, so they were friends since then. And then when Wyatt fell out of a window and became paralyzed sincem unable to play drums, they've been there for him. Robert Wyatt even sings on Nick Mason's solo album FICTITIOUS SPORTS (which is said to really be a Robert Wyatt album with jazz singer Carla Bley). I highly recommended a reaction to that, especially if you like the oddity of this song. He also appears on David Gilmour's "Meltdown" concert, singing "Comfortably Numb".
(Oh, and the Mike Oldfield/Wyatt connection comes from when Oldfield was with Kevin Ayers & The Whole World, Kevin Ayers also being of The Soft Machine. Now, what's really weird is Nick Mason producing punk band The Damned's MUSIC FOR PLEASURE. They wanted Syd Barrett, originally, but he was unavailable, because, well, you know...so they got Nick Mason instead, to neither's mutual satisfaction, apparently.)
'Fictitious Sports' was more like a Carla Bley rock/punk parody album with Robert singing it straight on all but one song, snuck onto a major label by being ostensibly a 'Nick Mason' solo album. Carla Bley is primarily known as a jazz composer, awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship for composition in 1972 and was named an NEA Jazz Master in 2015. Carla's another deep dive whenever you're ready, quirky humor mixed with amazing big-band arrangements, piano/bass duets with husband Steve Swallow, a beautiful Christmas Album, her star-studded triple-album 'Escalator Over the Hill', touring on keyboards in the Jack Bruce Band... And frequent collaborator with Robert Wyatt.
Yes the whole song is about periods, what else? Amazing song!
You need to listen to the rest of this album and also soft machine
Matching Mole : Signed Curtain is every bit as affecting, but more coherent.
What makes you different ................discovering real quality and gems of good music !
Generaly i don't like all those people first reaction to something that's not part of their world, especialy all those girls ......these belong to my generation and i feel in many cases something alike a rape of our history ...........not so in your case !
YES Wyatt is something out of the ordinary , even people of my generation havent discoverd his talents......same as most don't know Soft Machine .........start again with listenig to SEVEN .........
This music was analog ..........if you necer listend to it in analog and with decent speakers or a quality headphone ..........much of the real music is missing !
Digital is a trap...........it's like drinking sterilized and creamed milk.................never knowing and experience the taste of the real thing ........drinking dead milk instead of the living milk.
A calf grows up deinking real living milk........
You can see and hear Robert Wyatt in David Gilmour’s ‘Remember that night’ live concert in the Royal Albert Hall.
In this song the singer is quite often off tone. A bit of anti-music, so it sounds to me; I have problems listening to this stuff.
you're not alone 🙂
......................the gosts within .................Wyatt with Palestinian musicians .....
Le premiere fois que j'ai écouté je me suis dit : qui c'est xe gars qui a piqué les instruments de son grand frère......depuis j'ai du l'écouter des centaines de fois ...et ke 2ne sais toujours pas pourquoi :)
Boff. I didn't like it.
Nick Mason did not do his job, fade that crazy singing in tongues out. I didn’t hate it, it had some interesting things going on, drunken piano for instance.
Rock bottom indeed.
An excruciatingly long, and unmelodious ditty this. Definitely a hard listen. Also, at times discordant, and rather abstract. And that voice, accent.... He's been involved in some good stuff over the years, but whoever told him he could sing should be horsewhipped. And what was he thinking with that random caterwauling in the end section. Jeez I hope this isn't typical of the rest of the album, if we're to be subjected to more of this.
Oh yes ! the whole album is in the same vein and that's fine for me.
@@a.k.1740 grim times ahead for me though
i felt that way when i first heard him with soft machine, the more i listened to him the more i like his voice. He hits the right notes, its just that a) he has a slight lisp and b) a lot of british singers sing with an american accent so we arent really used to hearing heavy british accent in music. Maybe he just isnt your cup of tea but for me it just took some time to get used to
@@jfergs.3302 I guess so...
@@ianscarlett6884 Or mix in a bit of an American accent. Elton John goes all for it, but I wouldn't say all have.