Rock Bottom (album)

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Rock Bottom
Studio album by
Robert Wyatt
Released26 July 1974 (1974-07-26)
RecordedFebruary 1974 (basic tracks)
April–May 1974 (overdubs)[citation needed]
StudioDelfina's Farm, Little Bedwyn, Wiltshire (basic tracks)
The Manor Studio, Oxfordshire
CBS, London (overdubs)
Genre
Length39:31
LabelVirgin
ProducerNick Mason
Robert Wyatt chronology
The End of an Ear
(1970) 		Rock Bottom
(1974) 		Ruth Is Stranger Than Richard
(1975)
Alternative cover
Cover of the 1998 re-issue

Rock Bottom is the second

paraplegic. He enlisted musicians including Ivor Cutler, Hugh Hopper, Richard Sinclair, Laurie Allan, Mike Oldfield and Fred Frith
in the recording.

Background

The band

paraplegic helped me with the music because being in hospital left me free to dream, and to really think through the music."[3]

Within six months he was back at work in the recording studio and appeared on stage at London's Rainbow Theatre with Pink Floyd and Soft Machine, who lent financial support by playing a benefit concert for him. Although the music itself is intense and often harrowing, and the lyrics to the songs are dense and obviously deeply personal, Wyatt has denied that the material was a direct result of the accident and the long period of recuperation. Indeed, much of the album had been written while in Venice in early 1973 prior to Wyatt's accident, where his partner and future wife (the poet Alfreda Benge) was working as an assistant editor on Nicolas Roeg's film Don't Look Now.[4]

Recording

Having written most of the songs while in Venice, before his fall, Wyatt went to record them a few months after his accident. By the time he and Alfreda "were stuck for somewhere to stay, and one of the people who helped was Delfina Entrecanales, who had a farm in Wiltshire around a village called Little Bedwyn". Part of the album was recorded there. They brought a "recording van and parked it in a field behind and put cables through the windows, so it wasn’t really soundproofed – a few donkeys and tractors going by are on the tape". (Delfina Canales is "the" Delfina who owned the "wineglasses", "tray" and "small battery" included in the "Personnel" section below as played by Wyatt). The rest of the album was recorded at Virgin's Manor studio at Shipton-on-Cherwell and CBS Studios in London.[5]

Music and lyrics

Wyatt recorded Rock Bottom with musicians from both the progressive rock and jazz scenes.[6] Dissatisfied with jazz fusion as it had existed previously, which he felt typically took the "worst of both worlds" from each genre with excessive "noodling," Wyatt sought to achieve a novel, "upside down" style of jazz-rock fusion all his own on Rock Bottom.[7] Musically, Rock Bottom combined the "looseness," "rhythm section," improvisation and instrumentation of jazz with the song-form structure of rock or folk music.[8] The songs of Rock Bottom would form the center-piece of the Drury Lane concert, which featured musicians from both the rock and jazz traditions.[9]

Artwork

Rock Bottom has been released with two different covers, both featuring artworks by Benge. The cover found on the original LP and several reissues is a pencil drawing of a scene at an ocean shore. The upper area of the cover, inspired by a Victorian-era book cover, depicts activity along the beach and off to the horizon, while the bottom third gives an underwater view of strange animal and plant life in the sea.[10] Details include three teenage girls playing at the beach,[11] a faraway steamer, seagulls and sandcastles.[10] Benge intended the cover's subdued style to strike a contrast with the dominant trend of fantastical progressive rock album art, best typified by Roger Dean's science fiction-inspired artwork for Yes.[10] At a time when "all the covers were getting more and more complicated, competing with each other for pizzazz", Benge said, "the only way to counter that ... was to be absolutely minimal and quiet."[10]

Release

Promotion

To promote Rock Bottom, a headlining performance by Wyatt was held on 8 September 1974 at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, a West End theatre in London. The concert was reportedly arranged by the Virgin Records executive Richard Branson, who told Wyatt that certain musicians had expressed interest in performing as Wyatt's backing band for a concert.[9] Meanwhile, Branson also told the same musicians that Wyatt had expressed interest in recruiting them for his live band.[9]

The one-off backing band assembled for the concert, dubbed Robert Wyatt & Friends, included most of the musicians featured on Rock Bottom along with several other guests.

Julie Tippetts, who was not involved in recording Rock Bottom, sang back-up vocals on several songs and performed one of her own songs, "Mind of a Child".[14] Most of the band had collaborated with Wyatt prior to Rock Bottom; for example, Hopper was also in Soft Machine, and Wyatt and Tippetts had both been members of Centipede.[12]

Concert at Theatre Royal, Drury Lane

Main article: Theatre Royal Drury Lane 8th September 1974

The concert served as the live premiere of the album, which had been released a little over a month prior. In addition to the songs from Rock Bottom, the set list included

Julie Tippetts of her own song, "Mind of a Child"; and most notably, an extended version of "I'm a Believer", a song written by Neil Diamond for American pop-rock band The Monkees
.

John Peel, the BBC Radio 1 disc jockey, served as the evening's master of ceremonies wearing a glam rock-style costume.[15] Opening acts Ivor Cutler and Phyllis King performed songs and spoken word poetry.[14] Peel, who had considered Wyatt his favourite drummer prior to the accident, delivered an introduction and concluded by announcing: "And now, for Robert Wyatt of Twickenham... opportunity knocks!"[16] Wyatt entered the stage and received a standing ovation.[14] Positioned between a mixer and keyboards, he said that the mixer was not actually plugged in but would give him "something to do with my hands." He said he would "probably not" play the keyboards, since he had not done so in rehearsal, but remarked that they "look good" anyway.[15] After two covers of songs composed by Hugh Hopper, the band performed the songs from Rock Bottom, starting with "Sea Song".[9] Over the course of the concert, Wyatt's band performed Rock Bottom in its entirety, albeit not in the same order as the album.[17] The more confident performance of Rock Bottom turned a corner from the unsteady playing in the first two songs. Wyatt, in particular, performed with noticeably greater confidence after the audience applauded in recognition at the opening lines of "Sea Song".[14] During "Sea Song", the band launched into extended group improvisations not present on the studio version, which Simon Reynolds compared to an "Anglicised Bitches Brew," and ends the song with improvisatory scat singing, which Reynolds described as his "falsetto spiral[ling] up into ecstatic scat acrobatics, as though his spirit is trying to escape his shattered body." Will Hermes likened Wyatt's scat vocals throughout the concert to the sound of "a choirboy at an acid test.[18]

"I'm a Believer" single

See also: I'm a Believer

Reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[1]
AllMusic Guide[19]
Christgau's Record GuideB+[20]
The Independent[21]
Mojo[22]
Pitchfork9.0/10[23]
Q[24]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide[25]
Spin10/10[26]
Uncut[27]

Rock Bottom sold better than expected, and was released to acclaim from critics. The British musical press praised the album, with positive reviews in NME,[28] Melody Maker,[29] Sounds,[30] and the Record and Radio Mirror.[31] The album charted in the United States on Billboard FM Action—a chart that measured airplay of LPs on "progressive rock" radio stations—where it peaked at number 13 in 1975.[32]

Village Voice critic Robert Christgau wrote of Rock Bottom in a retrospective review, "I'm at a loss to describe this album of 'drones and songs' conceived and recorded after Wyatt's crippling accident except to say that the keyboards that dominate instrumentally are of a piece with his lovely tortured-to-vulnerable quaver and that the mood is that of a paraplegic with the spirit to conceive and record an album of drones and songs."[20]

Reviewing the album for Pitchfork in 2010, Douglas Wolk said:

The six songs of Rock Bottom were a new kind of music for Wyatt: very slow, exquisitely deliberate. (It's easy to hear echoes of the album in latter-day Radiohead, among others.) The magnificent "Sea Song" is the most immediately gripping piece here, but everything has peculiar little joys that take their time emerging.[23]

Pitchfork listed it as the 98th best album of the 1970s.[33] In 2015, NME ranked the album at 358 on its list of the 500 "greatest albums of all time."[34]

In 2024 David Polanski, writing on the album's 50th anniversary, said: "The accident that rendered him paraplegic, and should have sidelined him thereafter, in fact resulted in one of the greatest weird/weirdest great albums ever made ... even after half a century, while it’s surely not for everybody, Rock Bottom remains one of the most curiously affecting records of the rock era."[35]

Legacy

The opening track "Sea Song" was covered in 1985 by Tears for Fears for the B-side of the single "I Believe (A Soulful Re-Recording)", the original version of which was dedicated to Wyatt in the LP liner notes.

According to Roland Orzabal, "This track was the B-side to 'I Believe', which was so clearly inspired by Robert Wyatt that I thought it would be a good idea to cover one of his songs for the flip side. His voice in my opinion is one of the best, not something I felt I could match, but if I introduced one person to his music then it would have been worth it."[36]

The North Sea Radio Orchestra, alongside John Greaves, Annie Barbazza and William D. Drake, performed the full album live in November 2018. On 17 May 2019, this recording was released on CD and vinyl as Folly Bololey: Songs From Robert Wyatt's Rock Bottom via Greaves' record label Dark Companion, including four bonus Wyatt covers.[37][38][39] Liner notes for the album were provided by Massimo "Max" Marchini, Jonathan Coe and Wyatt himself, the latter writing that "the concert [was] a beautiful event for [him]" and that "[he felt] so honored and so grateful".[40] The album was performed live again at Cafe Oto on 27 June 2019.[39]

Track listing

All songs written by Robert Wyatt.

Side one
No.TitleLength
1."Sea Song"6:31
2."A Last Straw"5:46
3."Little Red Riding Hood Hit the Road"7:40
Side two
No.TitleLength
4."Alifib"6:55
5."Alifie" ([a])6:31
6."Little Red Robin Hood Hit the Road"6:08

Personnel

Production

  • Nick Mason – producer
  • Steve Cox – engineer (at The Manor and on Delfina's Farm)
  • Dick Palmer – engineer (at CBS London)
  • Toby Bird – assistant engineer (at CBS London)

References

Notes

  1. ^ Titled "Alifie" on the initial release's labels, but identified as "Alife" on the sleeve due to a misprint. Some reissues use "Alifie," others "Alife," but the song is copyrighted as "Alifie."[41]

Citations

  1. ^ a b Powers, Jim. "Rock Bottom – Robert Wyatt". AllMusic. Archived from the original on 31 May 2012. Retrieved 8 July 2018. Rock Bottom, recorded with a star-studded cast of Canterbury musicians, has been deservedly acclaimed as one of the finest art rock albums... It is also considered an essential record in any comprehensive collection of psychedelic or progressive rock.
  2. ^ "Hitting 'Rock Bottom': How a fall from a window redirected Robert Wyatt's muse". In Sheeps Clothing. 10 October 2022. Retrieved 17 November 2022.
  3. ^ Aston 1991.
  4. ^ Wyatt 1998.
  5. ISBN 9781787591769
    .
  6. ^ O'Dair 2015, pp. 201–204.
  7. ^ O'Dair 2015, pp. 125, 203.
  8. ^ O'Dair 2015, p. 203.
  9. ^ a b c d Barnes, Mike (November 2005). "Robert Wyatt and Friends: Theatre Royal Drury Lane 8th September 1974 Hannibal CD". Reviews: Soundcheck. The Wire. No. 261. London. p. 52 – via Exact Editions.
  10. ^ a b c d O'Dair 2015, p. 210.
  11. ^ Aston 1989.
  12. ^ a b c O'Dair 2015, pp. 215–16.
  13. ^ Murray, Charles Shaar (26 October 1974). "I Played Robert Wyatt at 78rpm and Saw God". New Musical Express. London – via Rock's Backpages.
  14. ^ a b c d e O'Dair 2015, p. 215.
  15. ^ a b Murray, Charles Shaar (14 September 1974). "Robert Wyatt: Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, London". New Musical Express. London – via Rock's Backpages.
  16. ^ Hammond, Derek (December 2005). "Robert Wyatt & Friends in Concert – Theatre Royal, Drury Lane 1974". Record Collector. No. 318.
  17. ^ Stubbs, David (November 2008). "Robert Wyatt: Rock Bottom Domino CD, Ruth Is Stranger Than Richard Domino CD, Nothing Can Stop Us Domino CD, Theatre Royal Drury Lane Domino CD". Reviews: The Boomerang. The Wire. No. 297. London. p. 73 – via Exact Editions.
  18. ^ Hermes, Will (April 2006). "Reissues: More proof it was better before you were born". Spin. Vol. 22, no. 4. New York. p. 92 – via Google Books.
  19. ^ Powers 2001, p. 450.
  20. ^
    ISBN 089919026X
    . Retrieved 23 March 2019 – via robertchristgau.com.
  21. ^ Gill, Andy. "Classic Album: Robert Wyatt, Rock Bottom (Domino)". The Independent. Archived from the original on 27 March 2010. Retrieved 3 June 2012.
  22. ^ Paytress 2005.
  23. ^ a b Wolk, Douglas (4 November 2010). "Robert Wyatt: Rock Bottom / Ruth Is Stranger Than Richard / Nothing Can Stop Us / Old Rottenhat / Dondestan (Revisited)". Pitchfork. Archived from the original on 5 November 2010. Retrieved 8 July 2018.
  24. ^ Segal 2014.
  25. ^ Evans 1992, p. 787.
  26. ^ Sharp 1998, p. 144.
  27. ^ Cavanagh, David. "Album review: Robert Wyatt – Reissues". Uncut. Archived from the original on 2 January 2011. Retrieved 3 June 2012.
  28. ^ MacDonald 1974.
  29. ^ Lake 1974.
  30. ^ Peacock 1974.
  31. ^ Harvey 1974.
  32. ^ See:
  33. ^ Dahlen, Chris (23 June 2004). "The 100 Best Albums of the 1970s: Robert Wyatt Rock Bottom". Pitchfork. p. 1. Archived from the original on 13 March 2009. Retrieved 8 July 2018.
  34. ^ Beaumont 2015, p. 8.
  35. ^ "Robert Wyatt's Masterpiece: 50 Years of "Rock Bottom"". Café Américain. 3 May 2024.
  36. ^ "memories fade dot com – Sea Song Lyrics". 4 August 2009. Archived from the original on 4 August 2009. Retrieved 1 May 2021.
  37. ^ "North Sea Radio Orchestra with John Greaves & Annie Barbazza – Folly Bololey: Songs from Robert Wyatt's Rock Bottom". theprogressiveaspect.net. 17 August 2019.
  38. ^ "North Sea Radio Orchestra with John Greaves & Annie Barbazza". thequietus.com. 5 June 2019.
  39. ^ a b "Album Review: The North Sea Radio Orchestra feat. John Greaves & Annie Barbazza". backseatmafia.com. 18 May 2019.
  40. ^ Folly Bololey: Songs From Robert Wyatt's Rock Bottom (album liner notes). Dark Companion. 2019. DCLP012.
  41. ^ "ACE Repertory". ASCAP. Retrieved 18 August 2022.

Sources

Bibliography

Further reading

  • Gonin, Philippe (2017). Robert Wyatt Rock Bottom. "Discogonie" series (in French). Vol. 5. Paris: Éditions Densité.
    ISBN 978-2-919296-04-0
    .
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