Review: Robert Wyatt – Rock Bottom (1974)

Rock Bottom is Robert Wyatt’s second studio album.

Rock Bottom is the greatest album by Canterbury legend Robert Wyatt (b.1945). However, this statement is not meant to belittle Wyatt’s other output, which for the most part is of very high quality. But with Rock Bottom he achieved something truly magical.

Robert Wyatt’s career really took off in the late 60s as a singing drummer in the pioneering avant-garde psychedelic-jazz combo Soft Machine, as a member of which he recorded four major albums. While still a member of the band, he recorded his first solo album, the highly experimental The End Of An Ear, in 1970. About a year later, Wyatt resigned (or was fired, views on this vary somewhat) from Soft Machine in a row and formed his own prog band Matching Mole. It managed to make two studio albums before the incident that forever changed the course of Wyatt’s life.

Rock Bottom was born in the aftermath of some very tragic events. In June 1973, Robert Wyatt attended the birthday party of Gilly Smyth of Gong fame. For Wyatt, the party was a rather raucous affair, and at one point in the evening, while enjoying the party atmosphere, he fell out of a window and crashed into the hard street four floors below (rock bottom…?). Wyatt’s spine was fractured and he was permanently paralysed from the waist down. Since then, Wyatt has even claimed the accident as his salvation, as he is certain that his overindulgence in alcohol would otherwise have killed him within a few years.

Wyatt, who had hitherto been known more for his drumming skills than anything else, was forced to turn his creativity to new directions. A career as a drummer in rock bands would be a life left behind for Wyatt. While recovering in hospital, Wyatt decided to concentrate more and more on composing vocal music. Most of the songs on Rock Bottom had already been composed before the accident for Matching Moles’ third album, but after the accident Wyatt decided to use the material for a solo project and as a result of this process the songs became very different from what they would have been had they been performed with Matching Mole.

Recorded just six months after the accident, Rock Bottom has a truly original feel and its music is almost impossible to compare to any other album. At least not the one before it. You can still find influences from that album here and there to this day. For example, I would be very surprised if many of Radiohead’s songs were not indebted to this album.

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Read also: Review: Soft Machine – Fourth (1971)

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Rock Bottom’s music is low-key, expressive and slowly bubbling, easy to immerse yourself in. It’s as if the listener is slowly flowing in a slightly murky river, encountering all sorts of weirdness along the way. The floating or gliding atmosphere of the music is also emphasized by the fact that there is hardly any traditional drumming on the album, but the drum kit is used more in a percussive way. After Wyatt’s accident, it was natural and perhaps even therapeutic to take a little break from that instrument. Despite its strangeness and melancholy, which at times verges on the dark, Rock Bottom retains the earthy and warm atmosphere so typical of the Canterbury scene. There is nothing pretentious, glittering or flamboyant about Rock Bottom, but it has a very nakedly human feel to it.

Rock Bottom also has a great line-up of musicians. Wyatt has many old band mates on the album, including Mike Oldfield (Wyatt and Oldfield played together for a while in Kevin Ayers’ band), Hugh Hopper (Soft Machine, Gilgamesh), Richard Sinclair (Caravan) and new acquaintances such as Fred Frith (Henry Cow) and Scottish poet Ivor Cutler.

Rock Bottom is not an album of epic solo performances, but Wyatt’s fine and original compositions are the main focus, but special mention should be made of the maniacal trumpet playing of the South African Mongezi Feza in ”Little Red Riding Hood Hit the Road” and Gary Windo’s crazy tenor saxophone playing in ”Alife”, as well as Oldfield’s fine one, achingly emotional solo with many overlapping guitar tracks in the album’s final song ”Little Red Robin Hood Hit the Road”. The droning section that follows Oldfield’s solo, over which Ivor Cutler recites a monotonously strange monologue, is also something truly magical.

Wyatt himself sings with touching sensitivity, which is not surprising given his circumstances at the time, and with wry humour. The style of the lyrics ranges from the straightforward and personal (e.g. about Wyatt’s relationship with his wife Alfreda Benge) to the very odd verses of which one can only guess at the meaning. In any case, the lyrics are consistently interesting. Also, of course, thanks to Wyatt’s unique vocal style.

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
You’ll be different in the Spring, I know
You’re a seasonal beast like the starfish that drift in with the tide, with the tide
So until your blood runs to meet the next full moon
You’re madness fits in nicely with my own, with my own
Your lunacy fits neatly with my own, my very own

Rock Bottom’s curiously idiosyncratic and successful production is the work of Nick Mason, better known as Pink Floyd’s drummer, who has described the album as one of the highlights of his career.

Rock Bottom was released in July 1974, and in September it was celebrated with a special concert at the Drury Lane Theatre, where all the musicians involved in the making of the album played through the whole album and other songs from Wyatt’s earlier career. The concert was a success and remains the only concert Robert Wyatt has given as a solo artist. The concert was finally released in 2005 as a fine live album, albeit of variable quality, under the title Theatre Royal Drury Lane 8th September 1974.

Rock Bottom was reasonably successful for such an unusual album and received a lot of positive attention. Since then, the album’s reputation has only grown over the years, and it is not uncommon to see it praised by musicians of very different types. It is easy to agree with these praises. Rock Bottom is a masterpiece, and I personally put it right up there at the top of my personal favourites. I love this album.

Best tracks: ”Sea Song”, ”Little Red Riding Hood Hit the Road”, ”Alifie” ja ”Little Red Robin Hood Hit the Road”

Author: JANNE YLIRUUSI

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Tracks:

1. ”Sea Song”
2. ”A Last Straw”
3. ”Little Red Riding Hood Hit the Road”
4. ”Alifib”
5. ”Alife”
6. ”Little Red Robin Hood Hit the Road”

Duration: 39:34

Musicians:

Robert Wyatt: vocals, keyboards, percussion, slide guitar (2) Mike Oldfield: electric guitar (6); Gary Windo: bass clarinet, tenor saxophone (5) Ivor Cutler: voice (3 and 6), baritone concertina, harmonium (6); Alfreda Benge: voice (5); Mongezi Feza: trumpets (3); Fred Frith: viola (6) Hugh Hopper: bass (2, 4 and 5) Richard Sinclair: bass (1, 3 and 6) Laurie Allan: drums (2 and 6).

Producer: Nick Mason

Label: Virgin