Robert Wyatt is in my e-book. Robert is a musician, and is famous , but I don’t think he fusses much with computers etc. so I sent him a print-out of the book by mail. Within a few days, before I thought he’d even got it–all the way from Santa Fe to Louth in England–he wrote to me. Robert, one of Britain’s avant-garde national treasures, of Soft Machine fame, and a lifetime creating music in his own idiosyncratic way, had put pen to paper and wrote: “Blimey, that’s some work you done there. Unique, I think. Congratulations, it’s terrific stuff, a real record of the times, and a totally personal subject with a story too. Quite a feat.” Yes, Robert, I shall reply, it was indeed a feat. I started back in 2004, as I explain in the book, and after a couple of long drawn-out versions, arrived eight years later with a much edited, somewhat censored (I might post the unabridged version one of these days), distillation of the original. Robert also wrote, as a ps. “Thanks again for doing this for us.” I wrote it in memory of my late husband, but his life was so bound up with other musicians of that so brilliantly naive but daring era that I couldn’t avoid writing about those he’d known best.
I had asked Robert to let me know if I had got anything ‘wrong.’ His only response was to my description on p. 44, “He looked the epitome of rock-world celebrity with his straggly blond hair and crumpled linen suit that spoke of money.” “My crumpled clothes (he wrote) spoke of not doing any ironing, and not having much in the way of clothes to change into! I had just enough money to live on (this, when Soft Machine were big, and touring with Jimi Hendrix). We got not a penny from the records, and our manager was a thief.” That was of course part of the naivete of those days, trusting in those who wanted to ‘promote’ us. Well, nothing stopped Robert, least of all money. Thank you Robert for reading and responding so thoughtfully…..
