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Stalin Wasn't Stallin'

from Covers EP by Gunther Prague

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We heard this on Robert Wyatt's album "Nothing Can Stop Us" from 1982. His version is a cover of a 1943 US propaganda song performed by the Golden Gate Jubilee Quartet.

The song's lyrics are in support of Stalin's efforts to repel the German invasion of Russian. According to Wikipedia Robert Wyatt "wanted to remind the West of the selective memory they had during the Cold War about this earlier alliance".

We were fascinated when we heard it and learned a crude version as a cover. Singing words like "Fuhrer" over a backing track of distorted guitars can feel a little bit uncomfortable, but the song's is very much anti-Hitler. In fact, the original includes an early verse where Hitler is created by the devil himself.

Of course, Stalin's regime was guilty of terrible crimes too - but it is hearing this song completely out of the context of the time it was written that makes it interesting.

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from Covers EP, released January 7, 2018

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Gunther Prague Coventry, UK

GUNTHER PRAGUE are a band from Coventry, England. Think of Shellac vs Cardiacs or Minutemen playing metal.

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