40 Records In 40 Years (25/40 - 1998)

In 1998 was one year which had a basic incision in my life. As I have already indicated in the last post of this series, a final decision has liked. Me and Kerstin decided to go separate ways.We didn't made it easy to decide but I didn't want to move away from my native country to follow my wife to hers. She got more and more homesick to her family and the way of living. It isn't that Cologne was more attractive but she missed the Rhenish way of life so much. It was decisive also that our daughter should be sent to school and we both agreed that it better to make a cut right now than to deliver it on the back of our children. I remember when we sat together for evenings talking about all our options, drinking and having tears in each other eyes. And finally we have separated in friendship and love to allow it to everybody to start a new happy and contented life. The hardest thing was to explain it to the kids because in their age they cannot understand the reasons for separating. Although I have mourned about the loss of the children of the deepest heart, we both had to tell them about a new nice world in which they will live in future. So we packed the things together and moved them to their parents house in spring. I started to sell the house and found me a nice apartment in my hometown and contacted people I haven't seen for long years. Suddenly I recognized that I was back in my older life as a free man with less responsibility, however, also more desire in the life.

In this time I spent a lot of time listening to my old records and looking for the new ones that was released this year.

• Air - Moon Safari: Superb record made in France
• The Notwist - Shrink: German arty new rock music
• Massive Attack - Mezzanine: Another fantastic record
• Tortoise - TNT: Even their second record is great
• Two Lone Swordsmen - Stay Down: First time I recognized the great Andrew Weatherall
• Madonna - Ray Of Light: Maybe her last good record
• Boards Of Canada - Music Has The Right To Children: New great sounds from Scotland 
• Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young - Carry On: A compilation of great songs and voices
• Robbie Williams - I've Been Expecting You: Perfect pop - nothing more or less

A few well known songs that I listen to this year:

Here are some movies that are worth to remember:

• Saving Private Ryan: Steven Spielberg shows us the real World War II
• Life Is Beautiful: It is hard to explain a KZ as a playground to your son
• American History X: Shocking that this could happen in the United States
• The Big Lebowski: One of my favorite movies. No one is cooler than The Dude
• The Celebration: Wonderful Drama about lifelong lies
• Run Lola Run: Every Story has three sides. Fantastic!
• The Truman Show: Are we real or are we in a show?

Somethings that happened in the world:

More massacres in Algeria // Suharto resigns after 32 years as President of Indonesia // India and Pakistan testing nuclear weapons // The second Congo war begins - 3.900.000 people are killed until it ends in 2003 // Hugo Chavez is elected as President of Venezuela // Pol Pot dies in Cambodia // Marc Dutroux a Belgian child abuser and child murder escapes from prison // The era Kohl ends in Germany after 16 year; Gerhard Schröder is elected to the new chancellor // France is the new FIFA World Cup champion // Kaiserslautern becomes as the first promoted team this years champion in the German Bundesliga

"Make my nipples hard, let's go"! This input sentence of Danielle Brisebois directly with the entrance in the CD describes what happens while hearing this CD: Creeps! And if we are honest: When did we have the last time creeps while hearing music?? That's what I thought when I first listened to this record. Gregg Alexander was the leading figure behind The New Radicals. Maybe You've Been Brainwashed Too is one of these records walking on the narrow burr between perfect pop music and pure kitsch. What it makes it worth to listen are his screaming song, the crashing guitars, these catchy, almost in a kitschy way mainstream to seeming ones. This album contains cool good mood wrecks directly beside soulful ballads of this decade. I think it was the right record at the right time this year. After all I have to say that this record is a very underrated diamond in this genre.

The New Radicals - Someday We'll Know
The New Radicals - Crying Like a Church on Monday
The New Radicals - You Get What You Give
The New Radicals - Mother We Just Can't Get Enough

National Day

Today Germany celebrates again the day of German unity. Like most of the times I ask myself what's to celebrate. Of course it commemorates the anniversary of the German reunification in 1990 when they signed the contract to be a united state. But I was more impressed on the day the Berlin wall came down in November 1989 when the people of the German Democratic Republic were able to go to the west as free people. To feel as one nation is worth to celebrate but there happened a lot of things since that time that really are not worth to be celebrated. I still remember our chancellor Dr. Helmut Kohl promised us blossoming sceneries in the newer future. But he and his fucking government cheated us with their lies and the cost of the unity. Even if we don't feel it now in our purse we will feel it when we get retired. More and more retired people have to live on the lowest level even if they have paid their contribution to the social security for more than 40 years. Not that anyone misunderstands me: I feel good with all the united people (except the new right wing fascists) and have a couple of good friends with eastern German origin - it makes me sick when I see them politicians beating themselves on the shoulders, not seeing the real problems we have.

I don't know why but there is just one song in my head that fits to this.

Enjoy and have a good week.

Half Man Half Biscuit - Trumpton Riots

40 Records In 40 Years (9/40 - 1982)

Back in normal life in my first own flat. Also back in my regular job with no big view that there will be no big chances that something real important will happen. My life oscillated between the everyday work, to enjoy the time of my own  with music and books at home and to go out with my mates. Nothing boring but just everyones live at this age. With a few colleges we planed to travel for five weeks through the western states of USA.

We sat together for many evenings to plan our vacation. Our plan was to rent a camper in Los Angeles an move northward on the coast highway to San Fransisco. I remember that I was a little nervous because it was the first time I will take a ride on an airplane. But afterwards it  was the start to travel most of the times by plane. We arrived in LA in a misty afternoon in may and I was a little disappointed because I always thought that there must be sunny weather. After we checked in in our hotel me and one of my colleges wanted to get out for a few beers. This was a good plan but we checked out the wrong place because we stumbled into a bar on the strip - not knowing that this place is filled with whores and junkies when the night comes. So we went to the bar ordered some pints and tried not to get in any trouble.

So we could start a few days later our round-trip that lead us up to Frisco then up to Lake Tahoo. Our travel guide told us that there would be a lot of flowers to see but we arrived in snow around the whole area. That's we decided to move through Death Valley to Las Vegas. Impressed by driving lot's of miles and seeing nothing more than sand and dunes we arrived at our destination by night and one more time surprised by all that neon light that made day out of night.  Next destination were the big canyons. The Bryce Canyon is not as famous as the Grand Canyon but worth to visit. One peaceful moment was when we walked down the Grand Canyon to the Colorado river. We just to a rest near the river listening to some Americans playing guitars and singing.

The next days we traveled over Flagstaff and Phoenix to San Diego to take a short trip across the Mexican border. We met a lot of friendly people over there - don't knowing if it is possible to do this in our days now. All in all it was great experience to stay in this country with people that are open to visitors from other countries. I remember one afternoon when I decided to take the car and go to the next record shop to get me some LP's. Bought myself around 25 records like The Gun Club and The Fleshtones. When it was my turn to pay the cashier, a young pierced girl, was astonished about my collection and asked me where I come from. So we started to talk and talk with the result, that I was invited to a local party. It was really great to listen on this garage-rock, punk, New Wave and also some soul tunes, standing around talking and enjoying some cool drinks.

Although I stayed in the US here's some of the songs from 1982

Joan Jett - A song that rocked every party these days

Dexy's Midnight Runners with their biggest hit

Culture Club mixing soft reggae with pop

The Jam with one of their last masterpiece before they split

Great voices from over the Atlantic ocean - perfect pop

Tears for Fears brought the sadness in songs

ABC: Simply perfect after all the years

Toto - Africa: I used to listen to on every radio station for five weeks

Blancmange with perfect synthie sound

Political statements from NY by Grandmaster Flash

And one we didn't need neither in that time still today:

Records I remember that was published in 1982:

The DB's - Repercussion: Collage rock at it's best.

XTC - English Settlement: Great songs arranged perfectly

Van Morrissn - Beautiful Vision: Van the man is back with a bucket full of great songs - especially 'Scandinavia'

Lou Reed - The Blue Mask: The guitars of Lou Reed and Rupert Quine on separate channels combined with a few very good songs from his later period.

Haircut 100 - Pelican West: Simply wonderful 

Fun Boy Three - same: A great record after the split of The Specials. Very own songs with reggae background.

Level 42 - Strategy, the early tapes: Jazz and funk with a memorable bass

Ry Cooder - The Slide Area: Return to the classic blues and rock sound with a heavy slide guitar

Joe Cocker - Sheffield Steele: The comeback from the white Ray Charles with great songs and a lot of reggae influences with the rhythm section by Sly and Robbie

ABC - The Look Of Love: A monument - nothing more to say

Joe Jackson - Night and Day: Takes us back to the times of barroom music with really remarkable song.

Donald Fagen - The Nightfly: New songs from the former Steely Dan member

Marvin Gaye - Midnight Love: His legacy before he was killed by his father

Violent Femmes - same: Folk punk and independent folk from the US

1982 in movies - what was worth to watch:

ET - Very big hype in the US but a nice movie - nothing more

An Officer And Gentleman - Richard Gere gets famous and it was the start of a lot of movies with the same theme

48 Hours - Nick Nolte and Eddie Murphy. A classical buddy story with great actors. Also the start to movies with the same theme

Gandhi - Biopic about the life of Gandhi with a gigantic Ben Kingsley

Blade Runner - Mr. Scott shows us his version of the future

Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid - Great homage to the classical detective movies of the 1940s with the classical dialog: 'What does F.O.C. mean' - 'It's another word for making love'

Fitzcarraldo - Klaus Kinski as a weired fan of Enrico Caruso trying to built a opera house in Peru

The World According To Garp -  One of the best novels by John Irving transformed to a remarkable movie

What happened in the world in this year:

First computer virus was found on apple computers written by a 15 year old kid; Hama massacre in Syria - the first time the Assad regime starts slaughter; the European Cort of Human Rights rules that teachers who cane, belt of tase children against the wishes of their parents are in breach of the Human Rights Convention; the Falkland war begins - Argentine troops invades and occupy the Falkland Islands; Aston Villa wins the European cup by beating Bayern Munich; the Lebanon war begins when Israel troops invade in southern Lebanon under the order of Ariel Sharon; Italy wins the world championship in Spain against Germany with 3:1 - I still feel ashamed about the shame of Gijon when we stopped playing against Austria. Just keeping the ball over 60 minutes in our own half and Austria wouldn't attack us. It was the first time I stopped watching our team; Helmut Kohl replaces Helmut Schmitt as Chancellor of Germany through a constructive vote of no confidence.

It's another difficult decision which record touched me more this year. For sure - The Gun Club with 'Miami' was the best heavy record of this year. Jeffrey Lee Pierce brought us a unbelievable combination of post punk, punk blues, cowpunk  and deathrock. Pierce former head of the Blondie fan-club in Los Angeles formed this band together with Kid Congo Powers who joined The Cramps beforte their first record. Some backing vocals on this record were sung by Blondie. Every song on this record is a killer. They transported CCR's 'Run through the jungle' as a swamp blues into this days. Also his version of the traditional 'John Henry' is fast ride on speed through this song. I love this record until now and I am sure, that I'll play it often in the future.

The Gun Club - Run through the jungle

The Gun Club - Watermelon Man

The Gun Club - John Hardy

The Gun Club - Carry Home

But the record that impressed me much this year comes from August Darnell's Kid Creole and the Coconuts. It was the new big thing from New York and gave us a superb mixture of variety styles like Caribbean, South American and Trinidadian sounds combining this with Cab Calloway and the golden era of the big bands. The Coconuts were a glamorous trio of female backing vocalists. Their first records were well recommended by critics but not successful. The got their breakthrough with 'Tropical Gangsters'. It is a perfect mixture of great arranged and very danceable songs. It was the record the most of my lads could agree this year and we all went to see them live in Stuttgart. It was a fantastic evening listening live to all them songs and getting a little Caribbean flair. Also their performing on stage was great. We used to watch bands playing their music mostly in rotten clothes and now we saw the musicians dressed up in style. That's what became also popular this year - look over to ABC and it was the start into the new disco and club thing. Kid Creole opened my ears to the forthcoming sound of this kind of music. 

Kid Creole & The Coconuts - Stool Pidgeon

Kid Creole & The Coconuts - Annie, I'm Not Your Daddy

Kid Creole & The Coconuts - I'm A Wonderful Thing, Baby

Kid Creole & The Coconuts - Imitation

The Iron Lady and Red Wedge

The today's breaking news in all media concerns the death of Margaret Thatcher. Even in Germany it was a hot news. All medias told what good she did over her term of office and that she wasn't loved by her own people and that the way she did her job was the best for Great Britain retrospective.

If it was good to call slaughter Pinochet a friend, to raise a war in the Falklands, to do the population in the poverty, to diminish the mining and sending troops to stop strikes - than, yes indeed she did a very good job.

But there's something that will stand the test of time: She united a lot of people under the flag of Red Wedge.

From Wiki:

Red Wedge was a collective of musicians who attempted to engage young people with politics in general, and the policies of the Labour Party in particular, during the period leading up to the 1987 general election, in the hope of ousting the Conservative government of Margaret Thatcher.

Fronted by Billy Bragg (whose 1985 Jobs for Youth tour had been a prototype of sorts for Red Wedge), Paul Weller and The Communards lead singer Jimmy Somerville, they put on concert tours and appeared in the media, adding their support to the Labour Party campaign.

"Beat the Whites with the Red Wedge", a 1919 lithograph by Lissitzky

The group was launched on 21 November 1985, with Bragg, Weller, Strawberry Switchblade and Kirsty MacColl invited to a reception at the Palace of Westminster hosted by Labour MP Robin Cook. The collective took its name from a 1919 poster by Russian constructivist artist El Lissitzky, Beat the Whites with the Red Wedge. Despite this echo of the Russian Civil War, Red Wedge was not a communist organisation; neither was it officially part of the Labour Party, but it did initially have office space at Labour's headquarters. The group's logo, also inspired by the Lissitzky poster, was designed by Neville Brody.

Red Wedge organised a number of major tours. The first, in January and February 1986, featured Bragg, Weller's band The Style Council, The Communards, Junior Giscombe, Lorna Gee and Jerry Dammers, and picked up guest appearances from Madness, Heaven 17, Bananarama, Prefab Sprout, Elvis Costello, Gary Kemp, Tom Robinson, Sade, The Beat, Lloyd Cole, The Blow Monkeys and The Smiths along the way.

Thank you, that our heroes of the past could unite against you. I wish this happened in my time when her friend and our former chancellor Helmut Kohl was on duty.

The Style Council - Long hot summer