Something for the Russians honouring the sacrifice of Stalingrad/Volgograd:
Stalin Wasn’t Stalling c/w Stalingrad (picture sleeve - 1980 UK 7" stereo single) Rough Trade (RT 046)
prog/a capella, Robert Wyatt’s cover of a 1940s doo wop hit back with a poem about the battle of Stalingrad.
Well worth buying. Also both tracks appear on Wyatt's magnum opus, 'Nothing Can Stop Us' album:
'Wyatt lay low for the remainder of the '70s, finally reemerging at the turn of the decade with a series of four audacious Rough Trade singles. Those eight sides (two of which are performed by artists other than Wyatt) are collected on the Italian Robert Wyatt, and form the basis of Nothing Can Stop Us. Though basically a singles compilation with only one original composition, the latter is a cohesive and incredibly moving statement, with Wyatt's fragile, plaintive vocals breathing new life (and political content) into material as diverse as Chic's "At Last I Am Free," the obscure American gospel tune "Stalin Wasn't Stallin'," the folk song "Caimanera" (aka "Guantanamera") and the disquieting lynch-mob protest "Strange Fruit" (popularized by Billie Holiday). Though Wyatt personally adheres to a fairly ruthless strain of Stalinism, you'd never know it from the compassion and empathy that radiate from every groove of this record.
Nothing Can Stop Us was subsequently re-released with the significant inclusion of the Elvis Costello/Clive Langer-penned "Shipbuilding" (produced by Costello, Langer and Alan Winstanley), as subtle and insightful an anti-war song as anyone's ever written. The album's US version, released in 1986, ditches the poet Peter Blackman reading his "Stalingrad" and adds "Shipbuilding," plus its British 12-inch B-sides (interpretations of Thelonious Monk's "Round Midnight" and Eubie Blake's "Memories of You") and cover art.'
Stalin Wasn’t Stalling c/w Stalingrad (picture sleeve - 1980 UK 7" stereo single) Rough Trade (RT 046)
prog/a capella, Robert Wyatt’s cover of a 1940s doo wop hit back with a poem about the battle of Stalingrad.
Well worth buying. Also both tracks appear on Wyatt's magnum opus, 'Nothing Can Stop Us' album:
'Wyatt lay low for the remainder of the '70s, finally reemerging at the turn of the decade with a series of four audacious Rough Trade singles. Those eight sides (two of which are performed by artists other than Wyatt) are collected on the Italian Robert Wyatt, and form the basis of Nothing Can Stop Us. Though basically a singles compilation with only one original composition, the latter is a cohesive and incredibly moving statement, with Wyatt's fragile, plaintive vocals breathing new life (and political content) into material as diverse as Chic's "At Last I Am Free," the obscure American gospel tune "Stalin Wasn't Stallin'," the folk song "Caimanera" (aka "Guantanamera") and the disquieting lynch-mob protest "Strange Fruit" (popularized by Billie Holiday). Though Wyatt personally adheres to a fairly ruthless strain of Stalinism, you'd never know it from the compassion and empathy that radiate from every groove of this record.
Nothing Can Stop Us was subsequently re-released with the significant inclusion of the Elvis Costello/Clive Langer-penned "Shipbuilding" (produced by Costello, Langer and Alan Winstanley), as subtle and insightful an anti-war song as anyone's ever written. The album's US version, released in 1986, ditches the poet Peter Blackman reading his "Stalingrad" and adds "Shipbuilding," plus its British 12-inch B-sides (interpretations of Thelonious Monk's "Round Midnight" and Eubie Blake's "Memories of You") and cover art.'
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