{"id":8377,"date":"2026-01-28T11:34:36","date_gmt":"2026-01-28T11:34:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/robert-wyatt-nick-mason-im-believer-made-rules-liked-99106\/"},"modified":"2026-01-28T11:34:36","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T11:34:36","slug":"robert-wyatt-nick-mason-im-believer-made-rules-liked-99106","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/robert-wyatt-nick-mason-im-believer-made-rules-liked-99106\/","title":{"rendered":"Robert Wyatt and Nick Mason on \u201cI\u2019m A Believer\u201d: \u201cWe made our own rules\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Originally published in Uncut Take 201 [February 2014 issue], Robert Wyatt, Nick Mason and their co-conspirators recall making their own Top 30 hit from a Monkees’ cover…<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Click here to subscribe to Uncut<\/strong><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Originally published in Uncut Take 201 [February 2014 issue], Robert Wyatt, Nick Mason and their co-conspirators recall making their own Top 30 hit from a Monkees\u2019 cover\u2026<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

From the psych pop of early Soft Machine to the cerebral jazz-fusion of Matching Mole, by 1974 Robert Wyatt was intent on following his own singular muse. You would imagine, though, that even Wyatt\u2019s closest collaborators were shocked when he decided to release a cover of The Monkees\u2019 Neil-Diamond-penned \u201cI\u2019m A Believer\u201d as his debut solo single. <\/p>\n

\u201cNo, Robert has always been most peculiar,\u201d laughs Pink Floyd\u2019s Nick Mason, who produced and played drums on the recording, \u201cso nothing very much surprises me with him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wyatt has been in a wheelchair since June 1, 1973, when he fell out of a window at a Maida Vale party. But rather than hindering him creatively, his paralysis allowed the drummer to put down his sticks and concentrate on singing, keyboards and songwriting, crafting the experimental, pastoral Rock Bottom<\/em>, produced by Mason and featuring Fred Frith and Richard Sinclair.<\/p>\n

Far from starting a more commercial era in his career, though, things didn\u2019t run smoothly after the release of \u201cI\u2019m A Believer\u201d. An appearance on Top Of The Pops<\/em> led to arguments with the show\u2019s producer and threats of a ban, then Virgin refused to release his follow-up single. The irrepressible Wyatt wouldn\u2019t have had it any other way, though \u2013 the only reservation he has about the track is his own \u201cjigging about\u201d when miming on TV.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re going to do it, do it properly, like Wilko Johnson\u2026 I just thought, note to self, don\u2019t do that anymore. But we all learn from our mistakes,\u201d he says, mock-philosophically. \u201cThat well-known saying \u2013 well, not that well-known, because I made it up \u2013 \u2018we live and learn, but in that order, unfortunately.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

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ROBERT WYATT<\/strong>: I\u2019d said in NME or Melody Maker that I really liked pop music \u2013 to me, it\u2019s the folk music of the industrial age, it\u2019s what people sing and dance to on a Saturday night. Simon Draper at Virgin, he saw this and he called my bluff, saying \u201cWould you do a pop song?\u201d I\u2019d intended to do \u201cLast Train To Clarksville\u201d, \u2019cause I like that, but I got muddled up.<\/p>\n

NICK MASON (drums, production):<\/strong> I met Robert at UFO, then we did some gigs together \u2013 we certainly spent time together in New York when Soft Machine were touring with Hendrix. We were all holed up in the same hotel there in 1968. Then I produced Rock Bottom.<\/p>\n

DAVE MACRAE (keyboards):<\/strong> Was I surprised Robert was doing a Monkees song? Working with Robert, surprises were the norm! He has great mental energy, always looking for new ways to express his ideas.<\/p>\n

RICHARD SINCLAIR<\/strong> (bass): <\/strong>In The Wilde Flowers with Robert, I remember doing things like Chuck Berry numbers, so \u201cI\u2019m A Believer\u201d wasn\u2019t anything unusual from Robert. He always wanted to be a popular singing artist. Blond-haired, quite good-looking, bouncing about \u2013 he liked that idea of entertainment, still does!

WYATT<\/strong>: One of my friends said, \u201cBut Robert, is it a great song?\u201d In one exhibition, Peter Blake had a lot of paintings by monkeys, and somebody said to him, \u201cOh, they\u2019re not very good paintings.\u201d He said, \u201cWell, they\u2019re pretty good for monkeys!\u201d So for a Monkees song, it\u2019s a pretty good song. I don\u2019t feel the need for any hierarchies [in music] and there was a slight statement I was making about that. Not being in a group you can do one-off things, have a particular band for a particular thing. And for \u201cI\u2019m A Believer\u201d it was the right group.<\/p>\n

FRED FRITH<\/strong> (guitar\/violin):<\/strong> Robert used to show up at Henry Cow gigs and never failed to say nice things about us. Bill McCormick and Francis Monkman approached me about joining the reforming Matching Mole, but then Robert had his accident and that was the end of that. I visited him in hospital and we became close. Henry Cow had opened for Pink Floyd on numerous occasions between 1969 and 1972, so Nick and I had brushed shoulders. I\u2019d had the unnerving experience of David Gilmour sitting at my feet checking me out while performing\u2026 I think Robert and I felt an affinity on many levels, musical, political and especially a shared enjoyment of life\u2019s absurdities.<\/p>\n

WYATT<\/strong>: I did take the liberty of buggering around with the chords to \u201cI\u2019m A Believer\u201d. I played the piano part to Dave, and he played what I played him really. Dave\u2019s great like that, he can just sort of do anything. Amazing man.<\/p>\n

MACRAE<\/strong>: Robert would certainly have indicated what he wanted played and I may have thrown in an idea. I think the arrangement was largely osmotic and a natural process. Robert has great mental energy, and this energy acted as a catalyst in generating ideas from others involved.<\/p>\n

WYATT<\/strong>: I wouldn\u2019t have thought the recording took any longer than a day, maybe another day for mixing? I would have thought I\u2019d have done the vocals after, especially as there is some double-tracking there. I remember there was a bloke from Neil Diamond\u2019s publisher who hung around all the time, not doing anything at all, and I thought, \u2018That\u2019s an easy job.\u2019 He just traipsed around after us. \u201cI\u2019m from the publishing company.\u201d Just helping himself to the freebies knocking about\u2026<\/p>\n

MASON<\/strong>: Producing Robert didn\u2019t entail an enormous amount of hard work. He really just wanted a bit of assistance in the technical side. But I certainly didn\u2019t need to tell him anything about how the music went.<\/p>\n

WYATT<\/strong>: Nick made some crucial decisions. He\u2019s also funny. He used to come out of a take and you\u2019d say, \u201cThat\u2019s great.\u201d And he\u2019d say, \u201cYes, it does a bit, doesn\u2019t it.\u201d A very funny man!<\/p>\n

MASON<\/strong>: We probably did the backing tracks in an hour or two. We spent longer putting Fred\u2019s stuff on than anything else, the violins and so on. That was all Fred\u2019s idea, we let him loose on it.<\/p>\n

FRITH<\/strong>: There was the instrumental break which they didn\u2019t have a plan for, so I wrote the string arrangement on the spot and recorded it. Then I finished up with the lead guitar stuff, which was a first take, just doing whatever came to me in one pass of the song, using my 1958 Gibson 345, volume pedal and Electro Harmonix Big Muff distortion \u2013 that was pretty much all I had. I remember Nick being super-complimentary about it and me feeling like a million bucks!<\/p>\n

WYATT<\/strong>: Nick used to make this joke about a \u201cPink Floyd tempo\u201d. We said, \u201cWe\u2019re going to\u00a0do it a bit faster,\u201d and it was the first time he broke into a bit of a sweat!<\/p>\n

MASON<\/strong>: It was probably faster than all the Pink Floyd tempos throughout history. We always kept to about 70bpm max. My doctor told me never to play faster than my pulse rate\u2026 But I was a lot younger and fitter, then, so it was fine.<\/p>\n

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WYATT<\/strong>: It hit No 29, did it? I\u2019m too posh to think about charts\u2026 It\u2019s not the chart side of pop music that interests me, it\u2019s the music itself and what it means to people. There\u2019s a competitive edge to charts which I find very tiresome. Most of the records I liked, jazz records, probably sold about 5,000 tops, ever. I remember somebody advising me, \u201cDJs would rather have the chorus first, if they\u2019re going to play it on the radio.\u201d I thought, \u201cHang on, wait a minute, music should be about expanding your freedoms and possibilities, not about contracting them.\u201d<\/p>\n

FRITH<\/strong>: My brother [sociomusicologist and journalist] Simon was impressed when we appeared on Top Of The Pops! But my memory of it is mostly around the sadness and futility. Seeing The Tremeloes buttoned into awkward-looking satin suits and looking sulky and resentful as their manager told them what to do, just observing the pop game from close up. We had to be in the studio at 11am on call for rehearsal. We were hustled onstage at about 5.40pm and when we were supposed to run it through, everyone disappeared \u2013 union-mandated break \u2013 so we never actually rehearsed or had any idea what was going on.<\/p>\n

SINCLAIR<\/strong>: I\u2019d been on with Caravan in 1970, playing \u201cIf I Could Do It All Over Again\u2026\u201d. It was funny doing it for Robert and his pop tune!<\/p>\n

MASON<\/strong>: Pink Floyd had been on TOTP in \u201967. It hardly changed from its first to last show as far as I remember. The same slightly uncomfortable dancing and some DJ shouting. We appeared with Robert two weeks running, and the second week they didn\u2019t want us to show the wheelchair.<\/p>\n

WYATT<\/strong>: The producer said, \u201cI\u2019m embarrassed by that wheelchair, it\u2019s not entertaining, can you go and sit in this wicker-work thing?\u201d I told him to fuck off, and he said, \u201cYou will never work on this programme again\u201d \u2013 but as I just told you, I am too posh to care, frankly. I mean, I can\u2019t wheel a wicker chair, and I need to be able to get out quick in case the cops are coming, for fuck\u2019s sake!<\/p>\n

FRITH<\/strong>: Richard Branson went out and bought an antique wheelchair, and insisted that if the BBC was going to object to Robert\u2019s wheelchair, they surely couldn\u2019t object to this beautiful antique version. The whole thing was irrational to the point of absurdity, but Richard insisted and won the day, making the BBC look extremely foolish in the process. And, of course, Ian MacDonald made sure there was a picture in the NME afterwards.<\/p>\n

WYATT<\/strong>: We were on the cover of the NME, all in wheelchairs, it looked great \u2013 most of us who played at my Drury Lane concert are on there, Mongezi Feza\u2019s just behind Julie Tippetts, and Mike Oldfield is there. Nick Mason\u2019s face is stuck on. It was a real laugh doing it, although there were, I believe, people who wrote to the NME saying it was a bit tasteless\u2026 I can\u2019t think why. I thought it was a very good idea. Especially on steps \u2013 wheelchairs on steps are dangerous, they\u2019re rubbish! There are people in wheelchairs and with other disabilities, who I know from letters and so on, who were very encouraged that far from my career as a musician being over, it actually got much stronger in terms of my contribution to it. But there were others who thought that I should have been more militant and proactive in terms of disability rights and so on. And I accept that, but the fact is I\u2019m not a professional cripple, I\u2019m still just a musician.<\/p>\n

FRITH<\/strong>: I remember almost nothing about Drury Lane [Sept 8, 1974], except being told which movie stars were in the audience. But listening to it now, I almost prefer the live version of \u201cI\u2019m A Believer\u201d!<\/p>\n

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WYATT<\/strong>: It made a good encore, it was a good laugh. We had Julie Tippetts singing, Mike Oldfield and Fred fiddling away at guitars, two drummers, Laurie Allan and Nick Mason, and Hugh Hopper on bass. And Gary Windo and Mongezi Feza doing little horn parts. Dave Stewart was on the organ, and he came up with that live fairground coda, and it\u2019s funny, because it was Drury Lane which, of course, 150 years beforehand, had music exactly like that.<\/p>\n

MASON<\/strong>: That was the only time the song was performed \u2013 unless you count The Monkees. I remember it being fun, there were a lot of people who were fond of Robert there. It was very much a one-off show, and they\u2019re difficult as they\u2019re always under-rehearsed, but it was fun.<\/p>\n

WYATT<\/strong>: My follow-up single was \u201cYesterday Man\u201d, a song by Chris Andrews. We never pretended to be reggae but it was obviously influenced by that feel, which was very much the heartbeat of London around that time.<\/p>\n

MASON<\/strong>: Did I produce that? Right. I can\u2019t remember what happened to that.<\/p>\n

WYATT<\/strong>: The boss of Virgin said it was a\u00a0bit \u201clugubrious\u201d. I thought, \u2018Oh, that sounds good,\u2019 and I looked in the dictionary, and it isn\u2019t. He wouldn\u2019t put it out. I wouldn\u2019t have minded, but I had to pay for the recording. If you sold millions like dear Mike Oldfield did, then you still got a lot of money, but if you only sold, what did I sell in the end? 50,000? I\u2019d never get any of that back because of the cost of the second LP and so on\u2026 So I just said I can\u2019t do this stuff with Virgin anymore. So they said, \u201cWell, you\u2019re not doing anything with anyone else.\u201d So I didn\u2019t for a while, I just went into politics. But there\u2019s no money in that, of course \u2013 it\u2019s mostly charity donations at the Morning Star bazaar, so that\u2019s not making a living, is it? I like pop music, but that show side of it, I can\u2019t be bothered. When you get to a certain profile in pop, you\u2019re told what to do and you have to fit into a format, and that was completely alien to me. So I couldn\u2019t have been a pop musician, really. I started out playing pop songs, but we made our own rules and did what we liked. No-one was gonna be pushed around by any of these people.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The post Robert Wyatt and Nick Mason on \u201cI\u2019m A Believer\u201d: \u201cWe made our own rules\u201d<\/a> appeared first on UNCUT<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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