Tosh and Kimley discuss Side by Side: Selected Lyrics by Robert Wyatt and Alfie Benge. Wyatt started his music career as a founding member of The Soft Machine in the 1960s and released his first solo album in the early 70s. Alfie, his wife, manager, and creative partner is an artist who has done all of his cover art as well as writing many of his lyrics. Robert and Alfie are former card-carrying members of the Communist Party of Great Britain and avid followers of ‘pataphysics – the science of imaginary solutions. The tension between serious and playful, political and dreamy is a key feature in their work. This collection of lyrics and artwork is a beautiful testament to their inspiring collaboration.
Theme music: “Behind Our Efforts, Let There Be Found Our Efforts” by LG17
I never met anyone who dislikes a Robert Wyatt album. That's impossible. It's like saying that there are people who don't like good weather. I first discovered Wyatt's music when he was in The Soft Machine. I followed his music path in a very unorganized manner. I was (and still am) blown away by his masterpiece "Rock Bottom."
Nonetheless, then again, the majority of his work is in that Masterpiece category. Wyatt is a songwriter/singer, but he also sings other people's music and words. What's remarkable about his talent is that once he does a song, it becomes a Robert Wyatt song. His cover of The Monkees' "I'm a Believer." However, the original is lovely; the Wyatt version becomes something profound and moving by his understated jazzy and somewhat hairy vocal. In such a manner, he reminds me of Nina Simone in that he can capture something deep and personal when he covers another's song.
For years now, since "Rock Bottom," Wyatt has worked with his wife Alfie Benge in such a manner that they become one body. Either by her doing the art for the covers or writing the lyrics, it's hard to separate the essence of their working relationship. "Side by Side" (boy, that is an accurate title) is the two's selected lyrics, mostly on the Wyatt solo recordings. Benge did contribute words to other composers, but the majority seem to be for Wyatt recordings.
Faber & Faber, the publishers, has put out "Selected or Collected Lyrics" books that are remarkable. Other artists covered have been Kate Bush, Scott Walker (a personal favorite), Jarvis Cocker, and Billy Bragg. They all have a similar design and look, and it is a superb series. "Side by Side" is remarkable on various levels. Wyatt and Benge are very literary, and the words stand out well on a page. Without looking at the back credit for copyright permission, it can be challenging to know who wrote which lyric. Throughout the book, Benge writes a brief afterword expressing what the song is about, but not for every piece. Wyatt's lyrics are either playful or very direct when it concerns politics. In that sense, Wyatt reminds me a bit of Bertolt Brecht. Both have a talent for sharing a sense of time and place. The works they did together on a beachfront home in Spain are sensual, witty, and observant of their neighborhood. There is a travel diary or journal touch in their work that you pick up enlightened and profound information. One is always placed as the narrator confronting what's around you. A point-of-view is an essential aspect of reporting a journey or place. Wyatt and Benge have that talent.
Benge was an assistant film editor on the Nicolas Roeg film "Don't Look Now" (1973) and a good pal of the actor Julie Christie. There are cinematic touches in her lyrics/poetry that give the work a layered texture essential in all writings. Wyatt is full of wordplay, but he can also be forthright, primarily when he writes about a political topic, which he does with great moral ability. Politics can be a turn-off for many people. Still, Wyatt and Benge have a technique of inviting the listener/reader into their world. Therefore you are looking at an issue through their eyes. Although, they do pretty much point out atrocities worldwide due to Fascist or corporate capitalist interests.
"Side by Side" works as literature as well as song lyrics. If you know the songs, some pieces you can't avoid the melody in one's head. The Wyatt/Benge book opens up the textures in the songs, and therefore a deep dive into the beautiful ocean that is Robert Wyatt and Alfie Benge.
-Tosh Berman
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| James Kaplan (Doubleday) |
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| Samuel Fuller (Hard Case Crime) |
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| Brian Dillon (Sternberg Press) |
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| Max Jacob (oberlin) |
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| Sarah Gerard (Two Dollar Radio) |
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| Marcel Bénabou (Bison Books) |
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| Terayama Shūji (Merwin Asia) |
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| Ian F. Svenonius ( Akashic Books) |
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| Robert Scotto (Process) |
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| Rudolph Wurlitzer (Two Dollar Radio) |
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| Louis-Ferdinand Cèline (Atlas Press) |
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| Honore de Balzac (Wakefield Press) |
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| O. Nicolai & J. Wenzel (Spector Books) |
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| Frank O'Hara (Grove Press) |
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| Georges Ribemont-Dessaignes (Wakefield Press) |
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| Charles Jackson (Vintage) |
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| Rosemary Tonks |
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| C.D. Rose (Melville House) |
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| Ludwig Bemelmans |
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| Glyn Johns (Blue Rider Press) |
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| Benjamin Piekut (University of California Press) |
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| Mark E. Smith (Penguin) |
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| Ludwig Bemelmans |
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| Ludwig Bemelmans (Viking) |
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| Mohamedou Ould Slahi (Little Brown Press) |
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| Kim Gordon (Dey Street) |
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| Ludwig Bemelmans (Viking) |
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| Ludwig Bemelmans (Viking) |
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| William Hackman (The Other Press) |
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| Mark Webber (The Visible Press) |
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| Hunter Drohojowska - Philp (Henry Holt) |
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| Cookie Mueller (Semoitext[e]) |
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| Ken Emerson (Viking) |
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| Jim Krusoe (Tin House Books) |
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| Robert Fripp (Rare Bird Books) |
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| Keith Porter (Cambridge University Press) |
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| Steve Reich (Oxford University Press) |
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| Italo Svevo (Melville House) |
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| Bernard Cooper (W.W. Norton & Co.) |
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| Rachel Kushner (Scribner) |
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| Phillip Glass (Liveright) |
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| Alfred Hayes (NYRB) |
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| Don Ryan |
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| F.T. Marinetti (Sternberg Press) |
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| Alain Robbe-Grillet (Calder) |
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| Don DeLillo (Picador USA) |
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| Ralph Rumney (Manchester University) |
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| Shinobu Hashimoto (Vertical) |
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| Pierre Michon (Yale University Press) |
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| Friedrich Reck (NYRB) |
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| Robert Benchley (Ameron House) |
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| Enrique Vila-Matas (New Directions) |
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| B.S. Johnson (New Directions) |
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| Howard Devoto (Black Spring Press) |
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| Albertine Sarrazin (New Directions) |
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| Royston Ellis (Kicks Books) |
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| David Castronova (Continuum ) |
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| Dennis Duncan (Atlas Press) |
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Janis Londraville & Richard Londraville (University of Nebraska Press)
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| Mark Gluth (Akashic Books) |
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| Joris-Karl Huysmans (Wakefield Press) |
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| Shigeru Mizuki (Drawn & Quaterly) |
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| Yasunari Kawabata (Counterpoint) |
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| Nik Cohn (Knoph) |
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| Edogawa Rampo (Kurodahan Press) |
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| Kenkō (Penguin) |
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| Ryūnosuke Akutagawa (Penguin) |
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| Eve Babitz (NYRB) |
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| Emmanuel Bove (NYRB) |
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| Morrissey (Penguin) |
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| Marcus O'Dair (Soft Skull Press) |
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| Simon Critchley (OR Books) |
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| Patti Smith (Knoph) |
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| Boris Vian (Black Widow Press) |
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| Richard Hell (Soft Skull Press) |
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| Deborah Davis (Atria Books) |
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| Boyd McDonald, Introduction by William E. Jones (Semoitext[e]) |
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| Bruno Corra (Atlas Press) |
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| Roland Barthes (Seagull Press) |
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| Lee Falk & Phil Davis (Nostalgia Press) |
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| Edouard Levé (Dalkey Archive Press) |
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| Stéphane Mallarmé (Berg) |
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| Michael Peppiatt (Bloomsbury) |
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| Fred Goodman (Eamon Dolan/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt) |
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| Greil Marcus (Yale University Press) |
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| John Wieners (City Lights Publishers) |
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| Roland Barthes (Seagull Books) |
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| Alexander Vvedensky (NYRB Poets) |
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| Nell Dunn (Virago) |
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| Linda Rosenkrantz (NYRB) |
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| Brigid Berlin (Reel Art Press) |
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| David Hurn (Reel Art Press) |
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| Peter Guralnick (Little Brown & Company) |
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| Duffy (ACC Distribution) |
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| Luc Sante (Vintage) |
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| David L. Ulin (University of California Press) |
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| Hunter Barnes (Reel Art Press) |
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| Burt Glinn (Reel Art Press)
To read the reviews of the above books, go here: https://www.goodreads.com/user_challenges/1926501
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