Robert Wyatt — The Saddest Voice in Modern Music
The man who lived one of his album’s titles: ‘Ruth Is Stranger Than Richard’
Sometime in 2014, Robert Wyatt, with more than 40 years in music decided to officially retire from creating it. Maybe he just got tired. Maybe it was his poor health. Maybe both. He himself said that it was his age and greater interest in politics. “There is a pride in stopping, I don’t want the music to go off.”
But, whatever the reason is, he leaves behind a musical legacy that seems to have the strongest impression on musicians themselves — particularly in his native Britain. Even considering that, he didn’t have a lot of singles breaking onto the British charts. Maybe it was exactly his left-oriented politics and his very direct presentation of political views, through music or otherwise.
Still, the legacy is there, and his influence on music creators who see no point in genre boundaries nor repressing their views on social and political issues is undeniable. So much so that in January 2015, Wyatt’s biography Different Every Time was featured as BBC Radio 4’s Book of the Week, abridged by Katrin Williams and read by Julian Rhind-Tutt.
So, what is the story of Robert Wyatt? A man whom many consider to be “a key player during the formative years of British…
