Ivor Cutler

One of the most unique figures on the pop music fringe, Ivor Cutler is a musician, singer, songwriter, poet, actor, painter, author of books for children, and humorist. His droll, often surreal, sometimes melancholy humor permeates all of his work. His singing voice, a mordant baritone with perhaps the thickest Scottish burr ever captured on tape, is as singular as his idiosyncratic worldview. Born on January 15, 1923, Cutler grew up in a large middle-class family in Glasgow, Scotland. Memories of his childhood, both sweetly funny and painful, figure prominently in much of his work. The 1978 spoken word album Life in a Scotch Sitting Room, Vol. 2 is particularly autobiographical. After a brief stint as a navigator in the Royal Air Force during World War II, Cutler moved to London and took a position with the Inner London Education Authority teaching music, dance, drama, and poetry to students ages seven to 11, a job he would hold until his retirement in 1980. Cutler has said that his experience as a teacher triggered his development as an artist, and indeed, there's a childlike playfulness in the tradition of Edward Lear and Lewis Carroll in much of Cutler's work, particularly in his hilariously surreal short stories. Cutler studied painting and sculpture in London in the 1950s, but took to songwriting and poetry in the latter part of the decade, largely because they seemed more likely to help support his growing family. Cutler began writing and recording songs and poems and quickly landed a recurring gig on the BBC Home Service, making 38 appearances on the weekly Monday Night at Home show between 1959 and 1963, most often backed by his trademark droning harmonium. His growing popularity on the radio led to a series of records beginning with the 1959 EP Ivor Cutler…of...