Pioneering performance poet Marty Watt returns
Please note: This article is published as an archive copy from Philadelphia City Paper. My City Paper is not affiliated with Philadelphia City Paper. Philadelphia City Paper was an alternative weekly newspaper in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The last edition was published on October 8, 2015.
"He wasn't light years ahead of his time, he was light decades ahead."
Wiry Marty Watt paved the way for post-Beat performance poets in the early 1970s. Even if they never caught his legendary act, Gerard McKeown, Lydia Lunch and Laurie Anderson benefited from the work of the Philly-born improvisational poet/no wave instigator. “Before Marty, there was nothing like ‘performance poetry,’” says singer-songwriter Kenn Kweder, whose stage act takes cues from Watt’s schtick. “He wasn’t light years ahead of his time, he was light decades ahead.”
Watt didn’t read or recite. He hyperactively psycho-babbled his way through spontaneous ruminations on whatever struck his fancy, often with the accompaniment of elaborate stage sets and props. Later, Watt’s manic, panicky performances grew eerily musical with a backing band of then-Philly all-stars — including Chris Larkin and Hank Ransome — mixing elements of noise and dub reggae.
Watt artifacts are hard to come by. He recorded an album that was never released. You can find a Contact magazine featuring Watt alongside poet Ted Berrigan on Amazon, and some used bookstore might be able to scare up a copy of Marty Watt is not Matt Marello and vice verse, which featured his poems illustrated by the one-time Executive Slacks leader. Watts wound up in Almost You, a 1985 Griffin Dunne/Karen Young film (and its soundtrack). In the late ’80s, he retired quietly. Watt’s got a website (dotfur.com) that has to do with dogs, ducks and chickens — is that what he’s been up to for 30 years? “It’s all a mystery,” says Kweder.
And now Watt has reappeared with the new “The Rabbit Seven.” “Mostly I wanted to do a show with my dog Maddie on stage with me,” writes Watt. “‘The Rabbit Seven’ is somewhat autobiographical and ‘a silent film poem,’ so, the first out-loud, spoken performance poet is now the ‘first’ silent poet.” And the mystery continues.
“The Rabbit Seven,” Sun., Oct. 26, 4 p.m., $20, Community Education Center, 3500 Lancaster Ave., martywatt.brownpapertickets.com.
