Robert Wyatt

Robert Wyatt was an influential English drummer who became a driving force in popularizing progressive rock in the 1970s. A drummer in various rock bands throughout England in the early 1960s, Wyatt started to make a name for himself in the music world after he joined the groundbreaking progressive rock band Soft Machine in 1966. However, after three years of nonstop touring, a physically exhausted Wyatt left the group to embark on a solo career. Wyatt's early solo output included some of the most acclaimed experimental progressive rock albums of the 1970s, among them 1970's The End of an Ear. However, his music career was almost permanently sidelined after he was paralyzed by a fall from an upper-story window during a party in 1973. Undeterred, Wyatt promptly switched his primary instrument from drums to piano and continued releasing music, both as a solo artist and with various bands. His musical output slowed when the new millennium rolled around, but in 2007 Domino Records rereleased several of Wyatt's acclaimed solo albums, among them 1974's celebrated Rock Bottom, thus cementing his continued importance among the progressive rock community.