"In theory, I'd like to work in a group. But the group I'd like to work in, all the musicians in them are long since dead"
About this Quote
There’s a wicked little trapdoor in Wyatt’s phrasing: he opens with the dutiful, grant-application sentiment - collaboration, community, the band as ideal - then immediately yanks it away. “In theory” does a lot of work here. It’s not just a hedge; it’s a confession that the romance of the group exists safely in the abstract, where egos, deadlines, money, and taste can’t get their hands on it.
The punchline is also a self-portrait. Wanting to work with “musicians… long since dead” isn’t mere old-head nostalgia; it’s an admission that Wyatt’s real collaborators are records, ghosts, and the private canon inside his head. Dead musicians don’t argue about arrangements, don’t dilute a strange idea into something “usable,” don’t demand the compromises that turn an idiosyncratic voice into a committee product. They’re perfect bandmates because they’re silent - and because history has already edited them into legend.
Context matters: Wyatt came out of Soft Machine and the intense, often combustible ecology of late-60s/70s British experimental rock, then built a solo career defined by fragile intimacy and political edge. After survival and reinvention, the quote reads less like bitterness than boundary-setting. It’s a sly defense of solitude as artistic fidelity: if the only group that feels right is impossible, then the choice to work alone stops looking like failure and starts looking like principle.
The punchline is also a self-portrait. Wanting to work with “musicians… long since dead” isn’t mere old-head nostalgia; it’s an admission that Wyatt’s real collaborators are records, ghosts, and the private canon inside his head. Dead musicians don’t argue about arrangements, don’t dilute a strange idea into something “usable,” don’t demand the compromises that turn an idiosyncratic voice into a committee product. They’re perfect bandmates because they’re silent - and because history has already edited them into legend.
Context matters: Wyatt came out of Soft Machine and the intense, often combustible ecology of late-60s/70s British experimental rock, then built a solo career defined by fragile intimacy and political edge. After survival and reinvention, the quote reads less like bitterness than boundary-setting. It’s a sly defense of solitude as artistic fidelity: if the only group that feels right is impossible, then the choice to work alone stops looking like failure and starts looking like principle.
Quote Details
| Topic | Music |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
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