''Ruth Is Stranger Than Richard'' is the third solo album by

Robert Wyatt Robert Wyatt (born Robert Wyatt-Ellidge, 28 January 1945) is a retired English musician. A founding member of the influential Canterbury scene bands Soft Machine and Matching Mole, he was initially a kit drummer and singer before becoming para ...

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 (either friends –

Phil Manzanera Phillip Geoffrey Targett-Adams (born 31 January 1951), known professionally as Phil Manzanera, is an English guitarist, songwriter and record producer. He is the lead guitarist with Roxy Music, and was the lead guitarist with 801, and Quiet Sun. ...

Fred Frith Jeremy Webster "Fred" Frith (born 17 February 1949) is an English multi-instrumentalist, composer, and improviser. Probably best known for his guitar work, Frith first came to attention as one of the founding members of the English avant-rock ...

Mongezi Feza Mongezi Feza (11 May 1945 – 14 December 1975) was a South African jazz trumpeter and flautist. Biography Feza was born in Queenstown, Cape Province, Union of South Africa, into a family of musicians, His elder brother, Sandi Feza, who ...

, former Wilde Flowers bandmate

Brian Hopper Brian Hopper (born 3 January 1943) is an English guitarist and saxophonist. Hopper was born in Whitstable, Kent, England, and is the older brother of the late bassist Hugh Hopper. With Hugh, he was a member in the early Canterbury scene band W ...

– or influences –

Charlie Haden Charles Edward Haden (August 6, 1937 – July 11, 2014) was an American jazz double bass player, bandleader, composer and educator whose career spanned more than 50 years. In the late 1950s, he was an original member of the ground-breaking ...

) with Wyatt adding his own lyrics in much the same way as he had done on

Matching Mole Matching Mole were an English progressive rock band associated with the Canterbury scene. Robert Wyatt formed the band in October 1971 after he left Soft Machine and recorded his first solo album, '' The End of an Ear'' (4 December 1970). He c ...

's Little Red Record. Apart from "Sonia", recorded for the shelved "Yesterday Man" single in October 1974 (again with

Nick Mason Nicholas Berkeley Mason, (born 27 January 1944) is an English drummer and a founder member of the progressive rock band Pink Floyd. He is the only member to feature on every Pink Floyd album, and the only constant member since its formation in ...

as producer), the entire album was recorded and mixed at Virgin's

The Manor Studio The Manor Studio (a.k.a. The Manor) was a recording studio in the manor house at the village of Shipton-on-Cherwell in Oxfordshire, England, north of the city of Oxford. Overview The Manor and its outbuildings are Listed building#England and ...

with Wyatt himself handling production duties. Much of the album features Wyatt (on lead vocals and keyboards) backed by a "band" consisting of bassist

Bill MacCormick William MacCormick (born 15 April 1951) is an English bassist and vocalist. He is also a politician and author. Early life He is the second son of Ewen and Olwen MacCormick who married in 1946 after serving together in the RAF. His older broth ...

, drummer

Laurie Allan Laurie Allan (born 19 February 1943, London) is an English drummer, best known for stints in Delivery and Gong. Biography Allan started drumming when he was 12. His professional career got going in the early 1960s. He was in The First Real Poe ...

and saxophonists George Khan and

Gary Windo Gary Windo (7 November 1941, in Brighton, England – 25 July 1992, in New York City) was an English jazz tenor saxophonist. Career Windo came from a musical family in England. By age six he took up drums and accordion, then guitar at twelve and ...

, with

Brian Eno Brian Peter George St John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno (; born Brian Peter George Eno, 15 May 1948) is a British musician, composer, record producer and visual artist best known for his contributions to ambient music and work in rock, pop an ...

adding his own idiosyncratic "anti-jazz" touch. Two years earlier Wyatt had provided the hypnotic soundtrack to the experimental film ''Solar Flares'' by Arthur Johns. The nine-minute film, "a personal essay on colour effects", had been produced by Nick Mason and recorded at his home studio. Wyatt had been involved at an early stage and his music became an integral part of the project. The music itself would reappear on his 1975 album "in a more 'digestible' form".

Reception

''Ruth Is Stranger Than Richard'' was released in May 1975. Unlike its predecessor ''Rock Bottom'', it received a mixed critical and public response. Not counting 1982's ''Nothing Can Stop Us'' (which brought together a series of previously released single A and B sides, most of which were cover versions), ''Ruth...'' would be Wyatt's last solo studio album until 1985's ''

Old Rottenhat ''Old Rottenhat'' is the fourth studio album by Robert Wyatt. It was released in November 1985, and in 1993 it was reissued in its entirety as part of the CD ''Mid-Eighties''. The album was produced and performed solo by Wyatt, and is dedicated ...

''.

Track listing

Reissues from 1998 onward have the track order reversed, with "Side Richard" first and "Side Ruth" second.

Personnel

Source: *Robert Wyatt – vocals, piano, imitation electric piano (Ri4), organ (Ri2), drums (Ru2, Ri2) *

– guitar (Ri4),

synthesizer A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and ...

(Ri4), direct inject anti-jazz ray gun (Ru3) *

–

bass clarinet The bass clarinet is a musical instrument of the clarinet family. Like the more common soprano B clarinet, it is usually pitched in B (meaning it is a transposing instrument on which a written C sounds as B), but it plays notes an octave bel ...

(Ri2, Ru2),

tenor saxophone The tenor saxophone is a medium-sized member of the saxophone family, a group of instruments invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s. The tenor and the alto are the two most commonly used saxophones. The tenor is pitched in the key of B (while th ...

(Ri4, Ru1, Ru3, Ru4),

alto saxophone The alto saxophone is a member of the saxophone family of woodwind instruments. Saxophones were invented by Belgian instrument designer Adolphe Sax in the 1840s and patented in 1846. The alto saxophone is pitched in E, smaller than the B tenor ...

(Ri4, Ru2, Ru4) *Nisar Ahmad "George" Khan – tenor saxophone (Ri4, Ru4),

baritone saxophone The baritone saxophone is a member of the saxophone family of instruments, larger (and lower-pitched) than the tenor saxophone, but smaller (and higher-pitched) than the bass. It is the lowest-pitched saxophone in common use - the bass, contra ...

(Ru1, Ru4) *

–

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standard ...

(Ru2) *

– piano (Ri1, Ri3, Ri5) *

– bass guitar (Ri2, Ri4, Ru1, Ru3, Ru4) *

John Greaves John Greaves (1602 – 8 October 1652) was an English mathematician, astronomer and antiquarian. Educated at Balliol College, Oxford, he was elected a Fellow of Merton College in 1624. He studied Persian and Arabic, acquired a number of old ...

– bass guitar (Ru2) *

– drums (Ri4, Ru1, Ru3, Ru4)

Album cover

The artwork for the cover of the album was by Wyatt's wife

Alfreda Benge Alfreda Benge is a lyricist and illustrator. She was born in 1940 in Austria to a Polish mother, and came to England in 1947. Her stepfather, Ronald Benge, was a prominent librarian who established library schools in developing countries. She has b ...

References

{{Authority control Robert Wyatt albums 1975 albums Virgin Records albums Albums produced by Robert Wyatt