Nothing Can Stop Us is a compilation album by Robert Wyatt

Robert Wyatt

Robert Wyatt is an English musician, and founding member of the influential Canterbury scene band Soft Machine, with a long and distinguished solo career...

 released in 1982.

Concept

Consisting primarily of tracks released as singles and B-sides during the late 1970s and early '80s, it only contains one Wyatt composition (the opening track "Born Again Cretin"). The rest of the songs are cover versions, a selection of musically and thematically disparate songs by a very varied collection of original artists, including Ivor Cutler

Ivor Cutler

Ivor Cutler was a Scottish poet, songwriter and humorist. He became known for his regular performances on BBC radio, and in particular his numerous sessions recorded for John Peel's influential radio programme, and later for Andy Kershaw's programme...

, 1940s protest songs, Billie Holiday

Billie Holiday

Billie Holiday was an American jazz singer and songwriter. Nicknamed "Lady Day" by her friend and musical partner Lester Young, Holiday had a seminal influence on jazz and pop singing...

, "The Red Flag

The Red Flag

The Red Flag is a protest song associated with left-wing politics, in particular with socialism. It is the semi-official anthem of the British Labour Party, sung at the end of conference. It is the official anthem of the Irish Labour Party and sung at the close of national conference.-History:The...

", and Spanish-language numbers (including a version of "Caimanera/Guantanamera"). There is a rendition of Chic

Chic (band)

Chic was an African American disco and R&B band that was organized during 1976 by guitarist Nile Rodgers and bassist Bernard Edwards. It is known best for its commercially successful disco songs, including "Dance, Dance, Dance " , "Everybody Dance" , "Le Freak" , "I Want Your Love" , "Good Times"...

's "At Last I Am Free". The two songs not issued as singles are "Born Again Cretin" (taken from an NME compilation cassette) and "Red Flag" (which was previously unreleased.) This was the only full-length LP released by Wyatt in the ten years between 1975's Ruth Is Stranger Than Richard

Ruth Is Stranger Than Richard

-Background:The follow-up to Rock Bottom, for which Wyatt had written all of the music and lyrics, Ruth... consisted of Wyatt's adaptations and arrangements of other people's music with Wyatt adding his own lyrics in much the same way as he'd done on...

and his fourth solo studio album Old Rottenhat

Old Rottenhat

Old Rottenhat is the fifth studio album by Robert Wyatt. It was released in 1985. In 1993 it was reissued in its entirety as part of the CD Mid-Eighties.All instruments and voices provided by Robert Wyatt...

.

The song "Born Again Cretin" is sampled in the 1999 Italian single "Re-Born Again Cretin" by Almamegretta

Almamegretta

Almamegretta are a SKA /rap/dub/world/reggae group from Naples, Italy. Their lyrics are in Napoletano. Their music became quite successful, leading to remix work for Massive Attack. Adrian Sherwood also remixed their album "Sanacore".-History:...

/Dub Colossus

Dub Colossus

Dub Colossus are a band from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Their sound fuses traditional ethio-jazz with dub, and reggae. The band was formed by Dan Harper and Nick Page - aka Dubulah, who drew inspiration from working with singers and musicians in Addis Ababa in August 2006...

, featuring the vocals of Julianna, which originally appeared on the 1998 album Robert Wyatt e Noi - The Different You (compilation on CPI Records).

Release

In America, Nothing Can Stop Us was released on CD paired with Old Rottenhat under the title Compilation.

Reception

Track listing

1. "Born Again Cretin" (Robert Wyatt) – 3:10
2. "At Last I Am Free" (Nile Rodgers
   Nile Rodgers
   Nile Gregory Rodgers is an American musician, producer, composer, arranger, and guitarist.-Biography:...
   
   , Bernard Edwards
   Bernard Edwards
   Bernard Edwards born in Greenville, North Carolina, was a bass player and record producer, both as a member of the Funk/Disco band Chic and on his own. He died of pneumonia while touring in Japan.-History:...
   
   ) – 4:17
3. "Caimanera
   Guantanamera
   "Guantanamera" is perhaps the best known Cuban song and that country's most noted patriotic song.-Music:The music for the song is sometimes attributed to José Fernández Diaz, known as Joseíto Fernández, who claimed to have written it at various dates , and who used it regularly in one of his radio...
   
   " (Carlos Puebla
   Carlos Puebla
   Carlos Manuel Puebla was a Cuban singer, guitarist, and composer. He was a member of the old trova movement who specialized in boleros and nationalistic songs.- Biography :...
   
   , José Fernández
   José Fernández
   José Fernández may refer to:*José Agustín Fernández, Paraguayan judge and human rights activist, found the "terror archives"*José Ramón Fernández Álvarez , vice-president of the Cuban Council of Ministers...
   
   ) - 5:18
4. "Grass" (Ivor Cutler
   Ivor Cutler
   Ivor Cutler was a Scottish poet, songwriter and humorist. He became known for his regular performances on BBC radio, and in particular his numerous sessions recorded for John Peel's influential radio programme, and later for Andy Kershaw's programme...
   
   ) – 2:39
5. "Stalin Wasn't Stallin'
   Stalin Wasn't Stallin'
   "Stalin Wasn't Stallin' " was an American patriotic song written in 1943 by Willie Johnson and originally recorded by the a cappella gospel group Golden Gate Jubilee Quartet in 1943...
   
   (Willie Johnson) – 3:22
6. "Shipbuilding
   Shipbuilding (song)
   "Shipbuilding" is a song written by Elvis Costello and Clive Langer . Written during the Falklands War of 1982, Costello's lyrics discuss the contradiction of the war bringing back prosperity to traditional shipbuilding areas of Merseyside , North East England and Belfast to build new ships to...
   
   " (Elvis Costello
   Elvis Costello
   Elvis Costello , born Declan Patrick MacManus, is an English singer-songwriter. He came to prominence as an early participant in London's pub rock scene in the mid-1970s and later became associated with the punk/New Wave genre. Steeped in word play, the vocabulary of Costello's lyrics is broader...
   
   ) - 3:06 (Bonus track)
7. "Red Flag" (traditional) – 3:09
8. "Strange Fruit
   Strange Fruit
   "Strange Fruit" is a song performed most famously by Billie Holiday, who released her first recording of it in 1939, the year she first sang it. Written by the teacher Abel Meeropol as a poem, it exposed American racism, particularly the lynching of African Americans. Such lynchings had occurred...
   
   " (Lewis Allan)– 3:37
9. "Arauco
   Arauco
   Arauco or Araucanía may refer to:* Arauco, Chile, a city and municipality in Arauco Province, Chile* Arauco Province, a province in the Biobío Region of Chile* Arauco, Argentina, a town in Arauco Department, Argentina...
   
   " (Violeta Parra
   Violeta Parra
   Violeta del Carmen Parra Sandoval was a notable Chilean composer, songwriter, folklorist, ethnomusicologist and visual artist...
   
   ) – 4:35
10. "Trade Union" (Abdus Salique) – 3:44
11. "Stalingrad" (Peter Blackman) – 5:46

Personnel

• Mogotsi Mothle: double bass on "At Last I Am Free" & "Strange Fruit"
• Frank Roberts: keyboards on "At Last I Am Free" & "Strange Fruit"
• Bill MacCormick
  Bill MacCormick
  Bill MacCormick is an English bassist and vocalist. He was a member of the bands Quiet Sun with Phil Manzanera, brother Ian MacCormick and others; Matching Mole with Robert Wyatt and others; 801 with Manzanera, Brian Eno and others; and Random Hold...
  
  : bass on "Caimanera" & "Arauco"
• Harry Beckett: flugelhorn on "Caimanera"
• Kadir Durvesh: shehnai on "Grass" & "Trade Union"
• Esmail Shek: tabla on "Grass" & "Trade Union"