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Portrait of Robert Wyatt

Robert Wyatt

(1945) Drummer United Kingdom

82 quotes in 437 categories

Robert Wyatt reflects on living in a wheelchair and how it makes collaborating with other musicians harder, but also brings relief when he finally finds a group to work with. He shares his love for jazz and how he enjoys mixing characters in songs to create adventures. He notes that humiliation can hurt people a lot.

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Robert Wyatt is a drummer from the United Kingdom, best known for Storm Beneath the Glass.

Quick Facts About Robert Wyatt

Born: January 28, 1945
Nationality: United Kingdom
Profession: Drummer
Notable works: Storm Beneath the Glass
Spouse: Alfreda Benge

About Robert Wyatt

Robert Wyatt is an English retired musician. A founding member of the influential Canterbury scene bands Soft Machine and Matching Mole, he was initially a kit drummer and singer before becoming paraplegic following an accidental fall from a window in 1973, which led him to abandon band work, explore other instruments, and begin a 40-year solo career.

Awards & Honors

MOJO Awards Honorary doctor of the University of Liège

Quotes by Robert Wyatt

I don't do live things.

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The missing links in my life's work, no less!

Inspirational

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Being big and famous doesn't get you more freedom, it gets you less.

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What hurts people a lot is taking humiliation.

Humiliation

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People who had empires, unfortunately, want them back eventually, somehow, someway.

Empires

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On the whole, I tend not to listen to my peers.

Communication

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The most effective instruments do have a vocal quality.

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What keeps me going is a constant sense of disappointment with what I've already done...

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I have never felt in tune with the whole rock industry.

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The United States is a country where everybody can start again.

America

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We did not get any money from the early records. It was all taken by crooked managers. It is just a gangster's…

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The things that I draw on, and the world that I feel part of, aren't particularly youth culture.

Culture

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“I maintain that the greatest crime committed by America - with the possible exception of the carpet-bombing of Laos - was the…

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What I like about popular culture is its accessibility, and I've covered popular songs because they are amazing things.

Accessibility

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I find writing songs hard, because it does not come naturally to me. I never set out to be a songwriter or…

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I'm not a soldier for anything, either. I'm only a singer and I don't think it makes a difference what we sing.

Differences

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I can't imagine my life without the extraordinary bebop jazz revolution in New York in late '40s and '50s.

Bebop

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I think the people who did well, or are happy, in a youth industry, they define themselves out of the business after…

Business

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I get slightly irritated by people who say they're natural rebels because it just means that they're going to be against whatever…

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Love is blind. My politics has been, too. I think you can fall in love with ideas, and you can fall in…

Blind

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I'm naturally quite conformist, really. If I go to a country and they say, "You've got to drive on the right," I'm…

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If you've never felt that you quite got a hold of it, you just feel that before you die, you've got to…

Energy

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The gap between rich and poor is, in fact, widening enormously. This idea of building up the powers of people who are…

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It was physically difficult, adjusting to wheelchair life, but I remember a great relief and happiness that I was finally getting somewhere,…

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I play music a lot but on my own mostly, so it was nice to be around other people. There was a…

Being nice

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Potentially, America is really the greatest, but it's not yet, I don't think. It's too much like an old-fashioned empire, waving the…

America

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I'll probably lose every friend I've got, but I think the Russians are about the only people who have behaved decently in…

American people

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I think it's hypocritical to complain about the rise of China. For 50 years, we were telling everybody in the world that…

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I think there are deep structural things that are wrong in the world. The US is the Western empire of the 19th…

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In fact, when the fires of empire get hidden, they still stay burning underneath the moss, seething away. This is true with…

Country

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I don't think losing things - in my case, the use of my legs - really damages or hurts you. What hurts…

Exploitation

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I get slightly irritated by people who say they're natural rebels because it just means that they're going to be against whatever…

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I understand why Vladimir Putin is very popular in Russia - he's probably the first Russian leader to not apologize for being…

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I would encourage people to realize that you don't have to panic if you're not part of a mainstream, or if you…

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There's no field of music which doesn't have good ideas.

Brilliant ideas

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I don't want to be a professional cripple. And I don't see the suicide stuff as tragic.

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I prefer the mystic clouds of nostalgia to the real thing, to be honest.

Being honest

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I'm just a very primitive, infantile folk singer.

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I do think there are deep structural things that are wrong in the world.

Thinking

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I'm not, by nature, a collaborator. My biggest influences were people like painters and poets. These are solitary workers.

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Robert Wyatt by topic

People (30) Thinking (22) Song (14) Music (12)