Category Archives: music

Some remarkable songs

Herman van Veen – Ein ganz dicker Kusshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eLWpN-YRrtw
Herman van Veen is an outstanding artist and I’ve been listening to his songs ever since my childhood. He plays various instruments, obviously speaks Dutch, German and French (maybe even more languages). He came up with the a Dutch theatre show that was used to create the European Dutch-Japanese kids TV series Alfred Jodokus Kwak, which is a comedy-drama according to wikipedia. The theme song “Warum bin ich so fröhlich” is widely-known – at least in Germany.

Anyways, back to this particular song “Ein ganz dicker Kuss”. It’s a song dedicated to his parents and thoughts about what it would be like once they’re gone.

And it ranges from trivial but poetic “the flea market will lose a regular customer”, “the socialist party will lose a true socialist”, “two bikes will be missing in the shed”, but ends in “The best part of me / will be standing on a picture / with a silver frame / 2 persons at the beach”

Herman van Veen – An eine ferne Prinzessinhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCL1OvZUhXM
A beautiful masterpiece “poem-like” song about a love long gone that has never been “loved”. Lying in bed, when the radio plays just the right music. Makes me a little sad. My thoughts are just about you – after all that time. Where might you be? We were friends – you and I. Would do anything – except for one thing.

Lera Lynn – My least favorite Lifehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFh71_ftxLE
From the TV series True Detective Season 2.
Just. An. Amazing. Amazing. Melancholic. Song. Better watch the True Detective Season 2 first and when you come to this song the whole setting will give you goosebumps – at least that’s what happened to me.

A couple of new and old songs

Recently the idea came to my mind to share a couple of songs that I deem good / are important to me. Might even make this a recurring category here. No specific style or genre, just good music that has some meaning (for me).

Here we go:

Gil Scott Heron – I’m new herehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eV_astp3BjM
I had the wonderful opportunity to get to listen to a live (!!!) concert by Gil Scott-Heron around a decade ago at a the Nova Jazz & Blues Festival in Austria. I went there with friends who happened to be colleagues (ok we met in the office) and I had no idea what to expect, what the line up was etc. So we went to this outdoor festival, had some food and drinks, weather was good. Then some bands played and some clouds came and dusk was setting in. It started raining a bit and the crowd tried to pack under the ‘roof’ to be safe from water. Then an old guy came on stage, sat at the piano, lighted a cigarette and started playing some tunes. And began to speak. Gil. Scott. F***ing Heron. I had no idea who he was and what his role in the history of music was (check out his wiki entry – shame on me I didn’t know him before). Wow. Just wow. The voice. The roughness. The coolness. Absolutely stunning and amazing. And the perfect weather for this. I’ll take care of you was the song he started with and oh my god – I still love this song and showed it to so many people (incl. women of course). Check it out and let me know what you think 🙂 However, since I had some rough months in the past year, I chose the song “I’m new here”, because lyrics:

I did not become someone different
That I did not want to be
But I’m new here
Will you show me around?

No matter how far wrong you’ve gone
You can always turn around

Gil Scott-Heron, I’m new here

Die Orsons – Dear Mozart – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9UnRh1Fmqs
German rap song. Basically asking Mozart what he thinks about German rap and this whole autotune hype. He replies along the lines of ‘chill guys, the music is cool and now autotune is Mozart approved. Bam.
Got to know this song through a friend who happens to be a bartender at my local (favorite pub). Thanks & shout out to Nepo!

Juju – Vermissenhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHbYAUs9JCo
A woman showed that song to me. Juju is a team of the singer of SXTN (female German rapper main focus feminism) and Henning May from Annenmaykantereit.

Die Toten Hosen feat. Wölli – Kein Grund zur Traurigkeithttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLtPkwXxmDc
Since Die Toten Hosen are one of my favorite bands (and my first album was Im Auftrag des Herrn live), I came across this gem. Someone I showed this song to said: Wow the German Johnny Cash! Amazing lyrics… along the lines of “I got blood of you in my heart / that’s all that remains / desire in my heart / still no reason to feel sad”.

Red Hot Chili Peppers – Otherside – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rn_YodiJO6k
Know this song since ages but only since a band of some friends recently played a cover version of this masterpiece I had a look at the lyrics and… yeah… nothing to add to these lines

How long, how long will I slide?
Separate my side, I don’t
I don’t believe it’s bad
A slit in my throat, it’s all I ever
I heard your voice through a photograph
I thought it up and brought up the past
Once you know you can never go back
I’ve got to take it on the otherside

Red Hot Chili Peppers – Otherside