From The Wilde Flowers to Whitney: What was the relationship of Whitney Houston to the Canterbury Scene?

By Ángel L. Martínez

In 1999, Whitney Houston hit the charts via “My Love is Your Love,” the title track of her album released the previous year. Written and produced by Wyclef Jean and Jerry Duplessis (musician/co-producer and producer of The Fugees respectively), the song was a radical departure from her previous single releases.

“My Love is Your Love” was not an uncharacteristic song title for Houston. Everything else about the composition was. It is an aural Venn diagram of bass-driven minimalism, dark neo-psychedelia, and a post-apocalyptic lyrical landscape of poverty and war, all seemingly sifted through Lee “Scratch” Perry’s studio with an orchestration worthy of Charles Stepney. As to the latter, the string arrangement borders on otherworldly.

And the apocalyptic part broke heavily through all the understatement:

If I wake up in World War III 

I see destruction and poverty

And I feel like I want to go home 

It's okay if you're coming with me

For such a song as “My Love is YourLove,” a good female voice fitting for a low-key vibe, let alone Houston’s, would have been sufficient to augment its haunting quality. With her voice, it not only became a rich addition to her repertoire, it became an echo to a lesser-known part of her roots.

Seventeen years previous, Houston was a guest lead vocalist on One Down, the 1982 album by Material, a New York-based no wave band (at the time transitioning toward soul and funk in its experimental mix) that featured a revolving lineup of musical guests led by bassist-producer Bill Laswell. Her heartbreaking voice appeared on “Memories,” a minor-key ballad written by Hugh Hopper, who composed it during his days with The Wilde Flowers and its successor, Soft Machine. Another intriguing guest  weaved between Houston’s verses: a stirring tenor saxophone solo by special guest and free jazz legend Archie Shepp (Attica Blues).

In other words, to those familiar with UK prog-rock, Houston emerged in the Downtown Manhattan scene interpreting a song from the Canterbury Scene. As an aside, it is worth to note, coincidence or not, that the song was written by a bassist and recorded by a band led by another bassist!

Canterbury in the 1960s and early 1970s entered the rock lexicon with music that was foremost characterized as “whimsical,”  that is, a mixture of psychedelia and jazz fusion with offbeat lyrics.  The Wilde Flowers were at the heart of the sound Their role in the formation of Soft Machine - and Gong - shows how a pop and R&B singer was linked - doubly - to this legacy. Also interesting is how Houston, daughter of gospel singer Cissy Houston, began her career singing in a church in Newark, New Jersey, while Canterbury is better known outside the avant-garde world for being the seat of another. 

The choice of Hopper’s “Memories” for Houston’s voice is telling, given the second part of her Canterbury connection. Material was formed by the nucleus of New York Gong, the NYC offshoot of Gong, both founded by former Wilde Flowers and (early) Soft Machine guitarist Daevid Allen. Whoever incorporated “Memories” into the Material catalog was perhaps Allen himself or a serious student of the Canterbury Scene. The curious part of this story, though, is that “Memories” as The Wilde Flowers recorded it would not be released officially until more than a decade after Material’s version. To hear it would not have been a memory. Allen recorded it for his 1971 album Banana Moon, with Soft Machine’s Robert Wyatt on lead vocals. Wyatt, in turn, recorded his own version in 1974 as the B-side of his take (ironically, a similarly unexpected remake) of The Monkees’ “I’m a Believer.” Further,  his voice appears on both The Wilde Flowers track and another recording done by Soft Machine, similarly unreleased for decades. 

With consideration to the transition from New York Gong, in its original incarnation as a short-lived addition to the Gong universe, to Material, it is remarkable by itself that Houston was amid the no wave stalwarts’ vast network that ranged musically from experimental rock to free jazz to funk. 

Houston’s musical journey can as well serve as proof, even tangentially, that Phil Collins’ ventures in blue-eyed soul are not the collective head-scratcher (or bait for unfavorable remarks) that they may have seemed.. 

Had Houston chosen to pursue avant-garde or progressive soul further, and not had Clive Davis as a mentor or signed with Arista, her career trajectory might have resembled more that of her One Down album-mate Nona Hendryx (formerly of Labelle). “My Love is Your Love” may have come to be in any case. The rhythm duo Sly & Robbie may have been probable partners if not at least influences on the reggae fusion that is at the core of the Jean-Duplessis composition. Elsewhere, Hendryx may have been a collaborator. Or maybe even Buckethead.