Mike Ratledge - Soft Machine

blobb

Oh dear. 

Just heard the very sad news that Soft Machine Keyboard player Mike Ratledge has passed away aged 81.

Only Robert Left of the original Softs.

{Kevin Ayers, Wyatt, Ratledge, Daevid Allen]

https://www.loudersound.com/news/he-was-the-backbone-of-soft-machine-founding-member-and-keyboard-player-mike-ratledge-dead-at-81

Rest easy Mike. One of the standout musicians of the 60's psychedelic scene.

blobb

Nice tribute from Bill MacCormick:

I didn’t know Mike Ratledge particularly well.

In the 60s we passed one another a few times on the stairs in Robert’s mum’s house in Dalmore Road with a brief nod of acknowledgement. We played cards a lot on the Softs/Mole tour bus during the tour of Belgium and Holland in the late summer of 72. But he was a quiet man, taciturn even, behind those regulation shades. And tall. Robert would jokingly complain about how the early Softs member all towered over him. Pale, pasty even, Robert hinted he existed solely on a diet of ice cream.

But, as a composer and soloist Mike was unique. The sounds he strangled out of the Lowery organ/fuzz box combination were like nothing produced before or since. Like Hugh Hopper, he wrote complex music, utilising time signatures not normally heard in western popular music. But, however complex, the pieces were always organic, they flowed, they had drama, and they had melodies you could sing along to, well I could anyway. Still can.

His peak, IMO, was in the first two trios when he was the main solo voice. If I had to make a choice between the Kevin and Hugh versions then, marginally, it would be the latter. Back in 69 and 70 I saw the Softs play at almost every gig they did in London. Perhaps the most extraordinary was at the intimate country club in Hampstead. That night, amongst a small crowd and sitting feet from the stage, I was reduced to tears by the emotion and power of the band and Mike’s playing most especially.

The intro to Facelift recorded at the Fairfield Hall in early 1970 testifies to the nature of the man and his music at the time. I was sitting about four rows back right in front of Mike when he sauntered on stage to deliver this unbelievable intro to the second half of the gig. I still shiver just thinking about it. Nothing like it, before or since.

I will admit to being disappointed when the Softs subsided into bland jazz rock when Robert left. But the legacy Mike left with the first four Softs albums will never diminish or grow dull. Few musicians leave such a memorable body of work and can lay claim to a sound so instantly recognisable.

I leave you with the Softs and Mike breaking what was then not just new but completely unknown musical ground. Music which changed my musical life.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSv2gLT0jkU

crosstownvamp

Third is one of the best albums of all time - by this point they were barely psychedelic, serious jazz meets rock and no widdling.

 RIP.