Over and Out!

Goodbye

Today something has changed, so goodbye to yesterday. Goodbye yesterday!

"It's So Hard To Say Goodbye To Yesterday"

How do I say goodbye to what we had? 

The good times that made us laugh 

Outweigh the bad. 

I thought we'd get to see forever 

But forever's gone away 

It's so hard to say goodbye to yesterday. 

I don't know where this road 

Is going to lead 

All I know is where we've been 

And what we've been through. 

If we get to see tomorrow 

I hope it's worth all the wait 

It's so hard to say goodbye to yesterday. 

And I'll take with me the memories 

To be my sunshine after the rain 

It's so hard to say goodbye to yesterday. 

And I'll take with me the memories 

To be my sunshine after the rain 

It's so hard to say goodbye to yesterday.

Singen Sie Deutsch?

Today I conducted a short semi-retro journey through German music. So I started with some English-language works of Peter Heppner who started his career in the 80s and in the time of the Neue Deutsche Welle (New German Wave). Beginning of the 2000s he performed two songs with Schiller, a great electronic music band from Germany:


80s and modern electronic music combined, two of my favorite music styles. I truly love both songs until today.

Then youtube led me to Die Ärzte, also a band that became very popular in the 80s. I can remember listening to songs of them as a kid. I went to concerts when I was older. They are still very popular today, a bit more pop and less punk, but they have not changed much. Without doubt they are in my top 5 of favorite acts of all time.

Funny story: During one of their concerts, my first, a girl asked me if she could sit on my lap shoulders. Well, she was not tall and of course I can't say no to such request ;) She went up, well knowing what was happening next - something I was not aware of: After the next song or so I think Bela B., the drummer held a short speech and asked all girls to show him their tits. Ha, and guess what, dozens did. Including the girl on my shoulders... Damn it, I desperately tried to look up, which must have appeared very awkward because all the people I came with were laughing at me. Naturally, from this point of view I could not see any part of her anatomy. That day I swore to myself, if any girl would ever ask me to sit on my shoulders it will have a price. You know what that price is, don't you? After that she wanted to come down. I said to her that I missed quite a show, but unfortunately she would not 'thank' me by repeating her performance she did one level up on my shoulders :/

So here a song from 1998, 1/2 Lovesong. Just one of the many awesome tracks:

I found a translation of the lyrics here:

1/2 Lovesong

I know that you'll miss me,
Even though you have to go now
No more violins when we kiss
I simply didn't know it.
I hope my words don't make it even worse
Just once, forget your pride.
I know you still love me

Should it have been like this? (Like in a Lovesong)
Can we not find a solution? (Like in a Lovesong)
The possibility is far too small (For a Lovesong)
But I only love you alone

Much has fallen into ordinariness
But that is always the danger
Routine has taken up her place
Until it was no longer endurable
I hope my words don't make it even worse
Just once, forget your pride.
I know you still love me

Should it have been like this? (Like in a Lovesong)
Can we not find a solution? (Like in a Lovesong)
The possibility is far too small (For a Lovesong)
But I only love you alone

Love, Love, Love, Love...

I know that you will miss me
I miss you already.
I also miss the violins, miss kissing you
Nothing in this world could replace you
I hope my words don't make it even worse
Just once, forget your pride.
I know you still love me

Should it have been like this? (Like in a Lovesong)
Can we not find a solution? (Like in a Lovesong)
The possibility is far too small (For a Lovesong)
But I only love you alone

Should it have been like this? (Like in a Lovesong)
Can we not find a solution? (Like in a Lovesong)
The possibility is far too small (For a Lovesong)
But I only love you alone

(Like in a Lovesong, like in a Lovesong)
But I only love you alone

Also an epic lovesong from the 80s was their Teenagerliebe.

The list of songs I really like and listen to is almost endless. So this is more or less only a very tiny and more ballad like excerpt of Ärzte songs I adore.

Finally I need to mention Herbert Grönemeyer. He is probably the role model of successful German music. His career started in the 70s but he became famous in the 80s with unforgettable songs like Bochum or Männer. Interesting to know he also has a short career as an actor in Das Boot! I think his style also changed a bit, he reinvented himself a bit every album. I also like his newer works. Mensch was one of the best sold albums in Germany. It tells a sad story, because Herbert lost both his wife and brother to cancer within a few days. Also it is a new start. The music touched millions. I have been to many of his concerts. It was very touching to hear him sing Der Weg, knowing it is about his dead wife. Here with English subtitles:



:'(

I was surprised to read today, that he will have a tour in the United States in September 2013. He lived in London for many years, his English is perfect and he already sang a few of his songs in English. But certainly not all will be in English. I wonder how he will be perceived there, an extremely successful institution in the German music business, but a no-one in the USA.

Farewells

In the 90s there certainly was one movie that caught my attention like few others: Gattaca from 1997. I still remember watching it in the cinema many times because I worked there for a while and had free access to all theaters whenever I wanted. According to Wikipedia Gattaca never even covered its costs. Still, for me it is a memorable movie. Why? First of all I like dystopian scenarios and stories. Secondly I really like the actors, they fit well together and I enjoy watching Jude Law perform. But that is not the essence here. The idea of genetic discrimination alone is very interesting. Taking away the engineered genetic perfection, just looking at people as they are without sci-fi engineering, it applies to any discrimination. I have always been driven by equality, social equality and a strong opponent of discrimination by any kind. I was impressed to learn about the French revolution, the rebels and freedom fighters throughout history. At the same time I was disgusted by the incarnation of discrimination, the history of my own country during the reign of the Nazis. This made me a socialist and a in my heart a rebel against inequality. Sounds like a couch revolutionary? Yes, it does. I am lazy as hell and don't go to demonstrations, but I can argue and discuss well, that is my course of action.

Okay, drifting away, back to the movie and its music. The latter I can really recommend, it is somewhat sad, to downplay it at least. Especially the last song, The Departure:

In fact it is very carrying and pain-stricken. It has also some promising moments, it is played in the very end of the movie when the protagonist Vincent (played by Ethan Hawke) finally steps into the spaceship and leaves earth. After all the struggle of deception and hiding his true nature, just a man with defective and not-engineered genes, something nobody can ever know because only people with perfect genes are allowed in the space program. However, his supporter and friend Jerome incinerates himself the same moment the spaceship engines incinerate, to hide all traces - also probably because Jerome wants to end his life as a paralyzed man with perfect genes. The end of this movie has thus many farewells, Vincent terminally leaving earth, Jerome at the same moment leaving life. Not to mention a love left behind. So enough room to be sad, a sad goodbye. The music expresses very strongly the feeling of farewell. Also it has a few moments that indicate something new, something promising is waiting after the farewell. Not too much though, it is not close to that brink where you think it is getting happier and lighter, just before it falls back into the more darker mood of farewell.

Why am I writing this? I have had some farewells in my life. Some I thought would be permanent, but were not. Others were terminal. Just recently I experienced a farewell that was pained, too much for my taste. Something I was waiting for desperately for a long time. My life seemed to be focused only to this one point in time. I couldn't wait for anything else, around me, the rest of my daily routine blurred into pettiness. The only clearly visible thing lay before me. And when it was over, it was connected to a farewell, one of these farewells for a long time, it felt as if it was forever, the pain unbearable. Just like one of these sad scenes we know from many movies, where lovers need to say goodbye at the airport. There are many uncertainties when they can meet again, or if. Also there is hope, their love is strong, or at least they believe in that. So after their farewell they can make plans to meet again. Some lights at the horizon, kind of.

In the background, in the back of my mind, this song was playing all of the time.

Sail Away

Music for tonight. Just listening to it about the tenth time in a row.

It's very common to be puzzled these days, where friendships are established on the internet, outer appearance helps to decides whether to get a facebook invite to the hippest, seemingly most vital party or not. Old fashioned values and courtesies, like honest friendship, sincerity, and closeness to other people have been been replaced with countless handshakes, small talk and staged photos on Instagram.
In a confused generation where nobody actually knows anymore, and true friendship is a rare trait, it's good to shut your smartphone down from time to time in order to think about what truly makes you happy in the long term.

In our Tale the actress is lost in a world of superficiality and fast love. Sadly her own dilemma is transmitted to the faith and pointlessness of our chief character, who tries to take his own life.

It's time to sail away...

 
The Rapture - Sail Away (Digitalism Remix) from I MADE THIS on Vimeo.

Riddle

This song I remember because it was played often during a summer (maybe 1985, could have been later also) when I spend some time at a youth hostel that was owned by the sports club I was active in. It was like a kids summer camp for members of this club. We build dams in the creek nearby, went to the Karl May Festspiele in Elspe and ran around the woods all day. I connect this song with having a great time there as a kid in the 80s. Interesting fact: Now this youth hostel has been modernized and is an event location for the clubs biggest sponsor and most important employer of my hometown. I am not employed by this company, but I am working at its corporate headquarter. People working with me told me they were going to a workshop or seminar to this (former) youth hostel. I could tell them I spend a few summer there, when it was much different.

Depeche Mode - Somebody 1984

Some years ago I went to a Depeche Mode concert, listened to them quite some more than lately. However, cognitively I don't remember this song at all. I might have heard it before, and if so I didn't give it the credit it deserves. What a great song!



Tonight I had to listen to it over and over again, if a song catches me, I need to do that! Happened to me before.

Thanks! ;)