The Walrus - Music With Big Fuckin' Teeth!

05/13/2008

Robert Wyatt's Rock Bottom Masterpiece

I have to giggle at all of these new bands who claim to be "experimental," especially after my recent Robert Wyatt binge. Nowadays, nothing comes close to Wyatt's pioneering 1974 album Rock Bottom.

When it was time promote Rock Bottom, Wyatt was booked to perform the non-album single "I'm a Believer," on the British Top of the Pops television program. Producers of the show wanted Wyatt to perform from a regular chair, rather than the wheelchair he was confined to after his 1973 drunken fall from a window. The network didn't think a paraplegic on national television was appropriate for a family program.

Wyatt told 'em to piss off.

Granted, "I'm a Believer" is not the most experimental of Wyatt's repertoire, in fact it isn't even on a record. Nonetheless, if you pick up a copy of Rock Bottom, I challenge you to tell me what is so progressive about today's experimental wannabee's.