Friday, February 13, 2009

Because I was in the mood for some Robert Wyatt

A fun interview with Robert Wyatt from 2007:



A vintage clip of the Soft Machine doing one of Kevin Ayers' finest songs (dig those cheesy psychedelic effects in black and white!):



Wyatt lip-synching "I'm A Believer" on Top Of The Pops in the 70s. If he looks pissed off, it's probably because the producers suggested that the sight of him in a wheelchair would be too upsetting for the audience. (We take no responsibility for the misspelling of the song title on the YouTube clip.)



A hypnotic live-on-video clip of "Gharbzadegi", from back before Robert quit drinking, as you can see at the beginning when he takes a hearty swig of an undetermined dark liquid while grooving to the musicians' Coltrane-esque pulse. Exquisite jazz combo and supple vocals from the great man.

4 comments:

Righteous Bubba said...

Thanks for the interview. I've always liked that guy.

Anonymous said...

I never understood why people are so weirded about by the sight of a wheelchair. A wheelchair only defines how that person gets around, it doesn't define who that person is... maybe if we saw more people in the media in wheelchairs, it wouldn't be such a big deal.

Maybe, too, taking on accessibility issues wouldn't always be an afterthought.


What a cop out!

J Neo Marvin said...

Thanks for the comment.

I think many people are afraid to be reminded that they too could be disabled in some way one day. It's all rooted in denial.

I caught this story just this evening. People really need to grow up.

Svenn said...

That's what I call a great blog post!