Honor researched the Portugal book in 1953, travelling on a shoestring with eight-year-old Robert and his older half-sister Prue. «We travelled by bus a lot of the time,» remembers Prue, «although sometimes we were lucky enough to get a lift in a truck or cart or something like that. We slept wherever, in blankets that my mother had stitched up – they were old army blankets of George’s. We were just camping, but we had no tent. We’d sleep under the stars: in woods, in florests, wherever we could.» Robert also remembers the trip with affection. «I absolutely loved the place,» he recalls. «Dirty poor, I now realise, but magical to me at the time.»

[…]

Though he hides it well behind the beard and avuncular grin, Wyatt is a worrier. When in Portugal with Honor and Prue, he had been so embarrassed at the poverty he witnessed that for a period he refused to wear any shoes That empathy has remained: it’s almost as if he failed to develop the so-called compassion fatigue with wich the rest of us slowly become inured. Alfie describes Robert as missing a layer of skin, and that quality is perhaps what makes his music so affecting. But it also left Wyatt, as a human being, vulnerable, and quick to blame himself when things go wrong. His constant self-effacement is not merely English ‘after you’ etiquete.

Marcus O’Dair, Different every time: The authorised biography of Robert Wyatt

Robert seems to have inherited his dad's sense of humour, as well as his iconoclasm. «George and Robert had these silly jokes about sausages,» recalls Prue, shaking her head at the memory. «They thought the word ‘sausage’ was just the funniest word in the world. Everytime the word ‘sausage’ was mentioned, their shoulder shook. One day George came back from work with a bag in wich he had what would be the equivalent of about four pounds on pink cotton sausages. He’d got somebody at the workshop to make them. Ohm they fell about, it was the funniest thing. Or George might say, “What mark did you get in your english?” And Robert would say: “Sausages over Sausages.” It was just ridiculous.»

Robert’s sense of humour, in particular his love of word games, also derived from Lewis Carol and Edward Lear, This pair of Victorian writers – surrealists before their time  – helped to inspire Robert’s love of fun, puns and nonsense, crucial ingredientes in counter-balancing, in Wyatt’s adult make-up, what would otherwise be seen as his slightly po-faced politics. To Robert, However, there is not necessarily a disntinction. He lists Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland – along with bubble and squeak, the Spanish city of Granada, the saxophonist Gilad Atzmon and the Morning Star newspaper – as one of the five things that makes his world a better place. «People will probably say, “Oh that’s his infatilism showing”, he explains, “but I think it’s one of the greatest political satires written. There’s na aspecto that becomes more meaningful as you grow older, the whole ‘off with your head’ culture. Very scary.»

Marcus O’Dair, Different every time: The authorised biography of Robert Wyatt

Pronuncia-se schlag tanz

Quando os Slayer acabaram de gravar o álbum Reign in blood, o produtor, Rick Rubin, disse-lhes: «Do you realize how short this is?» De facto, o álbum não chega aos trinta minutos de duração; porém, o grupo tinha em mente gravar, apenas, o material que achava ser mais válido e, sobretudo, mais pujante. Kerry King, um dos guitarristas, terá mesmo respondido a Rubin: «Neat, you could listen to it, flip it over, and play it again.»

Lembrei-me desta história, que li na Decibel Magazine, a propósito do novo álbum dos Magma, Slag tanz. Tal como Reign in blood, não chega aos trinta minutos de duração, tempo que seria de esperar como sendo o mínimo em registos deste tipo; contudo, quando chego ao fim da sua audição, não fico com a sensação de que algo tenha ficado de fora. A obra, homónima, é de uma força tal que dispensa acrescentos ou, até, a inclusão de uma outra peça que pudesse 'compor' o tempo de duração do disco.

Tudo legal? Tudo legal!

Discos que me fartei de ouvir em mp3 e que, ou comprei, ou me ofereceram nos últimos tempos. Isto por falar em pirataria, ou streaming, enquanto forma de promoção.

Chris Squire, sobre o The yes album

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We were kind of lucky with The Yes Album. When it was released there was a two month postal strike in England. None of the record stores could mail in their chart returns. So the music papers took their charts from Richard Branson's Virgin store. Whatever he sold there was the chart.

Fortunately because we had most fans in London obviously our album sold really well in the Virgin record store and for that reason it got to number one in the chart.

By the time the strike was over all the other record stores accepted it was the number one record and they all stocked and sold it too. Everyone thought it was a great record to go out and buy because it was number one. There was a lot of luck involved there and that got us noticed over in New York by the American staff at Atlantic. 'Oh my God, this little folk group seem to have a number one album! We'd better do something about promoting them in America.'

I have a lot of fond memories of that album. We felt we were making a statement and it was our third album for Atlantic and if it hadn't been a success I'm not sure they would have kept on financing us.

Chris Welch, Close to the edge: The story of Yes

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2005-2009: Os discos mais ouvi

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Os discos que mais ouvi de 2005 a 2014*

– John Coltrane, Blue train (1957; 191 audições);

– Miles Davis, Kind of blue (1959; 122 audições);

– John Cale, Paris 1919 (1973; 108 audições);

– Ars Nova Ensemble, Portuguese polyphony (1995; 106 audições);

– Egg, The civil surface (1974; 100 audições);

– Oregon, Music of another present era (1972; 98 audições);

– Field Music, Plumb (2012; 93 audições);

– Gustav Leonhardt, Johann Sebastian Bach: Goldberg variations (1978; 91 audições);

– Weather Report, Black market (1976; 87 audições);

– Robert Wyatt, Old rottenhat (1985; 87 audições);

– Roy Harper, Stormcock (1971; 83 audições);

– Ensemble Ambrosius, The Zappa album (2000; 80 audições);

– Frank Sinatra, In the wee small hours (1955; 76 audições);

– Jan Garbarek, Dis (1975; 75 audições);

– The Pentangle, Basket of light (1969; 74 audições);

– Randy Weston, Tanjah (1973; 74 audições);

– Frank Zappa, The grand Wazoo (1972; 74 audições);

– Townes Van Zandt, The late great Townes Van Zandt (1972; 74 audições);

– Univers Zero, Phosphorescent dream (2014; 70 audições);

– Chick Corea, Children's songs (1984; 69 audições);

– Wayne Shorter Quartet, Without a net (2013; 68 audições);

– Bill Evans Trio, Sunday at the Village Vanguard (1961; 67 audições);

– Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers, A night in Tunisia (1957; 65 audições);

– Fleet Foxes, Helplessness blues (2011; 65 audições);

– Led Zeppelin, Led Zeppelin (IV) (1971; 62 audições);

– Northen Sinfonia, Joly Braga Santos: Music for strings (2001; 62 audições);

– Frank Zappa, Hot rats (1969; 61 audições);

– Frank Zappa, Apostrophe (') (1974; 59 audições);

– Hopkinson Smith, Johann Sebastian Bach: Works for lute (2009; 59 audições);

– Ahmad Jamal, Blue Moon: The New York session (2012; 59 audições);

– King Crimson, Discipline (1981; 57 audições);

– Genesis, Selling England by the pound (1973; 55 audições);

– King Crimson, Larks' tongues in aspic (1973; 55 audições);

– The Mothers of Invention, We're only in it for the money (1968; 53 audições);

– Robert Wyatt, Ruth is stranger than Richard (1975; 53 audições);

– Miroslav Vitous Group, Miroslav Vitous Group (2014; 53 audições);

– Ravi Shankar, Ragas and talas (1964; 52 audições);

– Father John Misty, Fear fun (2012; 52 audições);

– CAN, Future days (1973; 51 audições);

– Chick Corea, Return to forever (1972; 50 audições).

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Os discos que mais ouvi em 2014*

– Univers Zero, Phosphorescent dream (2014; 70 audições);

– Miroslav Vitous Group, Miroslav Vitous Group (2014; 53 audições);

– Pat Metheny Unity Group, KIN (←→) (2014; 48 audições);

– Transatlantic, Kaleidoscope (2014; 48 audições);

– Motorpsycho, Behind the sun (2014; 46 audições);

– David Byrne & St. Vincent, Love this giant (2012; 36 audições);

– Roy Harper, Stormcock (1971; 34 audições);

– Ibibio Sound Machine, Ibibio Sound Machine (2014; 30 audições);

– Opeth, Pale communion (2014; 29 audições);

– Vincent, St. Vincent (2014; 25 audições);

– Marc Perrenoud Trio, Vestry lamento (2014; 25 audições);

– Wishbone Ash, Blue horizon (2014; 25 audições);

– Bobby McFerrin, The voice (1984; 23 audições);

– Herbie Hancock, Maiden voyage (1965; 23 audições);

– Esperanza Spalding, Radio Music Society (2012; 21 audições);

– Beck, Morning phase (2014; 20 audições);

– Deep Purple, Stormbringer (1974; 19 audições);

– The Ocular Concern, Sister cities (2014; 19 audições);

– Alfredo Rodriguez, The invasion parade (2014; 18 audições);

– Dexter Gordon, Gettin' around (1965; 18 audições);

– Kris Bowers, Heroes + misfits (2014; 18 audições);

– Scott Walker + Sunn O)), Soused (2014; 18 audições);

– Trioscapes, Digital dream sequence (2014; 18 audições);

– John Coltrane, Blue train (1957; 17 audições);

– Wes Montgomery, Movin' along (1960; 17 audições);

– Bill Evans Trio, Sunday at the Village Vanguard (1961; 16 audições);

– Kelis, Food (2014; 16 audições);

– Ambrose Akinmusire, The imagined savior is far easier to paint (2014; 15 audições);

– Deep Purple, Come taste the band (1975; 15 audições);

– John Lurie National Orchestra, The invention of animals (2014; 15 audições);

– Linda Perhacs, The soul of all natural things (2014; 15 audições);

– Marius Neset, Lion (2014; 15 audições);

– Ornette Coleman, The shape of jazz to come (1959; 15 audições);

– Sunn 0))) & Ulver, Terrestrials (2014; 15 audições).

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(*) Listas compiladas a partir da plataforma Last.fm, através do método: número de faixas tocadas / número de faixas em cada álbum = número de audições.