The Driving Force of The Collective

By the mid-'70s, Soft Machine had moved from the global Columbia Records family to Harvest, a British label specializing in U.K. and European rock bands. After their pivotal albums Fifth, Six, and Seven, the group acclimated guitarist Allan Holdsworth, and eventually John Etheridge, to their more distinctly instrumental jazz-rock sound, while retaining electric bass guitarist Roy Babbington, keyboardist and reedman Karl Jenkins, drummer John Marshall, and keyboardist Mike Ratledge. Long gone were the days when Kevin Ayers and Daevid Allen identified the group's more hippie-ish sound, Robert Wyatt was a driving force in their collective consciousness, Elton Dean was injecting exciting creative improvising saxophone, and Hugh Hopper was their definitive bassist…