After a good three weeks, I returned from my annual vacation in Sri Lanka at the beginning of the year. It was relaxing, but unfortunately I had problems with my back and my spinal discs the whole time and couldn't enjoy myself as much as usual, so I came back early to see my family doctor at the beginning of next week to locate the cause of my complaints and take countermeasures. I don't want to complain here, as dengue fever has been rampant in Sri Lanka since the cyclone a few weeks ago. During this time, I have seen enough people who have contracted this disease and had to be hospitalized with high fever.
For this reason, here are some songs about doctors.
As I turned into 60 four weeks ago my working colleges surprised me with a gift I never expected. They know very well that I am some kind of music maniac and they agreed to take me out for a concert. When I was surprised that they did it, the more I was surprised what band they found. It was UFO, an English band formed in the late 60's and well known for their groundbreaking hard rock and heavy metal. It was a band I knew well in my younger days but I have to admit that I forgot them during the last decades. So I grabbed out the old records and listened once again to their songs and I have to say that they work well, even it is not the music that I usually listen to. Michael Schenker, a former member of German hard rock band Scorpions made the difference on guitar. He was probably the best guitar player in this genre at these days. UFO started with cover songs beside their own songs and turned with their second record into psychedelic spheres (maybe more next Monday). In the early 70's they were very big in Japan and they released a superb live recording called UFO Landed In Tokyo. So last Monday four guys and everyone crossed the border 60 went to the gig and weren't surprised that we see young folks. UFO played what many people would like to hear but for they should have played more songs from their early days. Nevertheless they have still power and Phil Mogg's voice is still firm. After all the concert made fun and we all had a wonderful evening out.
It was decades back when Terry Reid appeared on the scene as a fantastic guitar player. He started his career at the age of 14 and impressed many popular musicians in the early 60's. Jimmy Page wanted him as a guitar player and singer after he left The Yardbirds to form another band. Sadly he denied this offer and Robert Plant got the job singing for Led Zeppelin. It was not the only fault in his career. He also signed a contract with Mickie Most who wanted to make him a balladeer. He didn't got out of his contract and had to earn his money as a side musician for many artists like Jackson Browne, UFO or Bonnie Raitt. Sadly his name is forgotten because many other artist that made hit records while he was trying to find his own way in music. I remembered him while I was sorting my albums during the last weeks and it is great to listen to him once again. One more forgotten giant of blues influenced rock music.
I have thought long about whether I can write in this series about German-speaking crime film series. At last I have said myself, why not. Most from you will have never belonged from this series and I am sure also that these series were never emitted beyond the German-speaking space. Since by a translation would get lost a lot from the pun and the typical mood. Kottan ermittelt was an Austrian television series that was aired by Austrian and German television between 1976 and 1984. In the early episodes it started as a drama with the typical melancholic Vienna spirit and turned later into satirical appearance.
Major Adolf Kottan investigates for the Viennese security office. Kottan lives together with his wife Ilse and his mother who reads with pleasure crime films and develops theories on the perfect murder. Kottan is usually decayed and always roughly to his official assistant Schrammel who presents himself with pleasure as a pattern policeman, but Kottans Viennese Reviling does not understand.
Schrammel means to be able to educate further itself by the reading of crime films, and estimates particularly Mike Hammer-Romane of Mickey Spillane. Schrammel cannot always keep up intellectually with his colleagues.
Paul Schremser who has lost a leg by amputation will appeal later to the department leader and thereby Kottan early who stays at this time with inquiries abroad. Kottan uses him in the beginning as assistants, is much friendlier to him, nevertheless, than to Schrammel. His crutch is used by Schremser every now and then as a machine gun or is also used to bring brief to case. If three are unfully occupied professionally, they make music in the films together as a „Kottans Kapelle“ (playing their songs in a full playback).
Chief constable Pilch worries constantly about the respect of the police. His biggest enemies are in the first results a room aviation with whose hunt he falls several times from the window. Later he often fights with a coffee vending machine which was put up by major Kottan. Pilch accepts with the time more and more the trains of a mental patient.
It never was, actually, about the criminal cases, but how one can insert possibly many references and commentings in the respective episode. I remember one episode when the intro was the same as the intro from Rockford files. And Kottan lived in the same trailer Rockford did and working as a private eye. Songs were also often used to comment on scenes. For example, the investigators were called to a corpse. The name of the dead people was Irene - and in the background they played Leadbelly's Goodnight Irene.
In the 80s they got more and more anarchic by testing how far they could go with this series. In the episode emitted for the first time in 1981 on the German television 'Kansas City' the run writing ran in the first third: „Unidentified flying objects near Duisburg landed. Special broadcasting after this contribution …“ about the screen. Besides, it concerned a joke (by analogy with H.G.Wells' war of the worlds). The city of Duisburg was chosen because of the then popular scene commissioner Schimanski who solved there his cases. The ZDF news followed the radiation, however, in those was not reported about a such incident, then there were many reactions of German spectators who called at the police and partially immobilised the telephone networks. A complaint followed in ORF as well as an excuse on the part of the TV-station.
A few days ago George from the inspiring Jim McLean's rabbit has objected that I hadn't done too much heavy metal. It's true and therefor I decided to feature on this series today Germany's best selling hard rock / heavy metal band ever: Scorpions.
Since its inception in 1965 they have played in the meantime 3000-5000 Concerts worldwide. In Germany they are an institution for this kind of musical genre. I think they hit the nerve of the time with this kind of music. Based on heavy guitars from Michael and Rudolf Schenker and added with the voice of Klaus Meine they created their very own style. Lot's of bands tried to do it their way but didn't reached their level. In 1973 Michael Schenker left the Scorpions to join to the British hard rock band UFO that was also a very very good band and their story should be told once a day on this blog. Not only their powerful songs made them famous. They also made some good ballads and have coined the term power ballad. In their earlier times they were well known for their record covers. Some of them was banned because of too offensive images.
Even if you don't be close to this kind of music the Scorpions should be respected for what they did in the last 40 years.
