Fact #169291
When:
Short story:
Robert Wyatt releases a new single, Shipbuilding, in the UK on Rough Trade Records. The song is co-written by Elvis Costello and Clive Langer.
Full article:
Robert Wyatt : I had spent several years away from performing music. I didn’t have any money, and studio time was expensive, and I like to pay the musicians. I’m actually just a drummer trying to write tunes. It doesn’t come easily to me. I’m not really a pianist or anything like that. I didn’t know what to do. I was stuck a bit.
Alfie, my wife, and I, we sort of went off and that’s when I actually started getting interested in the world.
I was rescued by Geoff Travis at Rough Trade who said, ‘Well, just come along and do a few songs for us’, and I did some, not necessarily by me, but by that time I was listening to music from all around the world, and I did some Cuban songs, some Chilean songs, and I even had the nerve to do a version of Strange Fruit – blimey. It’s a cheeky thing to do. What can you say, you know? I think that was more arrogant than anything Iggy Pop did. There are people who make a career out of being cheeky and living dangerously, but I think me daring to cover Strange Fruit, that was cheeky. That was bold. ‘Fools rush in where angels fear to tread’, comes to mind.
(Source : interview with Johnny Black, January 2009)
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Alfie, my wife, and I, we sort of went off and that’s when I actually started getting interested in the world.
I was rescued by Geoff Travis at Rough Trade who said, ‘Well, just come along and do a few songs for us’, and I did some, not necessarily by me, but by that time I was listening to music from all around the world, and I did some Cuban songs, some Chilean songs, and I even had the nerve to do a version of Strange Fruit – blimey. It’s a cheeky thing to do. What can you say, you know? I think that was more arrogant than anything Iggy Pop did. There are people who make a career out of being cheeky and living dangerously, but I think me daring to cover Strange Fruit, that was cheeky. That was bold. ‘Fools rush in where angels fear to tread’, comes to mind.
(Source : interview with Johnny Black, January 2009)