Robert Wyatt
Robert Wyatt
Robert Wyattis an English musician, and founding member of the influential Canterbury scene band Soft Machine, with a long and distinguished solo career. He is married to English painter and songwriter Alfreda Benge...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionDrummer
Date of Birth28 January 1945
singers primitive folks
I'm just a very primitive, infantile folk singer.
I don't do live things.
rocks tunes whole
I have never felt in tune with the whole rock industry.
years suits-you drunk
I would encourage people to realize that you don't have to panic if you're not part of a mainstream, or if you find yourself outside the flow. If it doesn't suit you, don't go along with it. Just sit it out and get your stuff done. Don't just sit moaning or getting drunk—I spent some years doing that. But if you can just come up with something of your own, however minor it is, that's going to be easier to live with when you're at the end of your life.
thinking government people
Because of my politics, people think I'm anti-American. But I was quite the reverse. What I don't like about the United States is when the government acts like an old, imperial 18th- or 19th-century European power.
song writing doe
I find writing songs hard, because it does not come naturally to me. I never set out to be a songwriter or a singer.
quality instruments vocal
The most effective instruments do have a vocal quality.
hero firefighter people
My heroes are people like Picasso and Miro and people who at last really reach something in their old age, which they absolutely couldn't ever have done in their youth.
new-york bebop revolution
I can't imagine my life without the extraordinary bebop jazz revolution in New York in late '40s and '50s.
men rocks together
I find it hard to take rock groups very seriously or treat them with respect. There is something absurd about these gloomy young men getting together and banging away.
thinking people wish
People say, oh it's a shame, you're not nostalgic about the '60s. Well actually, it's quite good, when you think of it. Wouldn't it be sad if I was sitting here wishing it back?
falling-in-love love-is thinking
Love is blind. My politics has been, too. I think you can fall in love with ideas, and you can fall in love with people. It's a very subjective experience. And I'm loyal to that experience.
thinking people avant-garde
Because I'm associated with an avant-garde sensibility, people think I'm looking down on popular culture, but I don't want to be part of a new elitism.
numbers singers rays
There are singers that I have enjoyed, from Nina Simone and Ray Charles onward. But the music that made music the number one thing for me as a youth was jazz.