When Casios cry - Der Peter ist tot

Da Da Da fand ich immer scheisse.

I never really liked Da Da Da, Trio's official hit. I never liked anything that was verging on 'Schlager', the cosy German shit musik niche that Stefan Remmler loved to flirt with and, after 85, built his whole career on: Turaluraluralu, Herz ist Trumpf, Alles hat ein Ende nur die Wurst hat zwei.. bullshit. Neue Deutsche Welle Light. Neue Deutsche Fröhlichkeit.

What I loved was the first album and a couple of live gigs that I only discovered 5 years ago via Youtube. Only the third edition of the first record, now with Da Da Da as single included, was successful. Like Helge Schneider, the Kaiser of German Dada Jazz, needed a vehicle to break into the mainstream [Katzeklo], Trio became famous over night and nothing was the same again.

With success came pressure and with pressure came dependency. The story of Trio post 1983 is a sad story, with Peter Behrens [Drums] and Kralle Krawinkel [Guitar/dead] trying to keep up with co-songwriter and singer Stephan Remmler's commercial pop sensibilities.

 

But in 1981/82 Trio was shit-hot. Remmler's cocky buzz-cutted & suited new wave persona paired with Behrens' and Krawinkel's raw and cool simplicity made them the only real and futuristic German post-punk band. Songs like Los Paul and Ja Ja Ja were pure first generation punk rock with clever German lyrics, urgent and dynamic, dirty and quick sketches of modern urban life, always questioning authority and the general musical forms of the time. 

Like Falco, Trio mixed German and English lyrics, cleverly playing with stereotypes and expectations, transcending the classic form of punk/pop and creating something fresh and unique. This was serious not-to-be-taken-seriously stuff.

Broken Hearts For You And Me

Es ist Zeit für etwas Flottes

Stimmung gute Laune

Die Damen in den Innenkreis

die Herren in den Außenkreis

in Gegenrichtung

Marsch Fox

And the monkey wrapped his tail around the flag pole

to show his arse hole

to the one two three

Broken hearts for you and me

I guess we agree

the party ‘s over now it’s plain to see

Broken hearts for you and me

Why should we stay

you know it’s better if we go our own ways

Broken hearts for you and me

We tried our best

too little future though and too much past

Broken hearts for you and me

Don’t you cry

kiss me good bye

Broken hearts for you and me

We made so many mistakes

we know it better now but it’s too late

Broken hearts for you and me

Why should we stay

you know it’s better if we go our own ways

Broken hearts for you and me

Don’t you cry ie ie ie

just kiss me good bye ie ie ie

you know why ie ie ie there are

Broken hearts for you and me

Don’t you cry ie ie ie

just kiss me good bye ie ie ie

you know why ie ie ie there are

Broken hearts

Later, the aftermath: The inevitable band split because of royalties disputes, Remmler's shallow commercial success with ironic couplets, the slow descent into sad alcoholism, running out of money.. never mind the bollocks, here's the Trio. Unlike John Lydon, Remmler's message wasn't sustainable, probably because he never really had one. What Remmler had was vision, and that somehow saved him.

RIP Peter, Dada Clown und Stehschlagzeuger. Traurig ist das. 

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When Doves Cry - The Kid Is Dead

1984. An epic year for pop music. Welcome To The Pleasuredome by Frankie Goes To Hollywood, Some Great Reward by Depeche Mode, The Gun Club's The Las Vegas Story, the first The Smiths record and of course Purple Rain by Prince. I can remember watching the Purple Rain film on VHS with some ex girlfriend, feeling all deep & funky. I remember studying the album artwork and taping the record so I could listen to it in my first car. Driving around the German countryside blasting When Doves Cry.. I never felt more "now" that back then.

And it wasn't just Prince, it was Prince and the fucking REVOLUTION! And that's what it was. I never liked "funk" much, and I never really warmed to Prince's very funky side.. whenever a slap bass appears I'm normally out, but Purple Rain opened up a world of black spunk. I stayed with Prince till the late 80s, Lovesexy the last interesting album.. after that I lost track and somehow interest. I remember a couple of nice tracks on Diamonds And Pearls but that's about it.

Prince was probably one of the most underrated guitarists [and drummers] ever. He could play like Hendrix, and before [and after] he started using these weird 'Symbol' shaped custom guitars he always played a simple Telecaster. Keeping it simple.. I love simplicity. That's why I loved Purple Rain. There's a lot of air and space on that record. It was also the first time that I saw that word shortening shizzle: 4 = for, U = you, etc. that was proper "cool" back then.

So, for me Price will always be The Kid from Purple Rain: Problems at home, problems with authority, problems with the girls, motorbike.. basically a black version of me :D

De-program >> Re-program

I have lost my patience with almost all forms of religion. Oppressive, patronising, smug, violent religions.. just FUCK OFF. All of you. 

As long as you do your "praising God stuff" on your own or with some mates, do as you like, but as soon as you start preaching and "converting", that's it, you can go fuck yourself. 

My parents who were never openly religious [except from my dad who loved being in churches because of the calm atmosphere], had some friends who were really lovely people, they had kids that I used to play with, etc. Then the parents [mostly the dad] got sucked into the New Apostolic Church. They started to go to church 10 days a week and they also started, pressurised by their new church mates, converting other "non-believers". My parents even went with them to the church one weekend after lots of begging from them, just to not be rude. A long story short: Their long friendship broke down, they were just hanging around with their new church buddies and trying to get as many others into the church as possible. There were quotas and when you didn't bring in new people on a constant basis, you got looked down on. That couple's marriage went down the loo a long time ago and the whole family including their two brainwashed kids are not talking to each other any more. The creepy thing is that the kids still have partners [and kids] that are also part of the New Apostolic Church.. like they can't/won't say good bye to that lot. So, these people don't even build real bombs to blow up non-believers, but they were throwing mind-bombs, playing psycho-games. And that's already enough for me. 

So, if you are into organised religion and can't do that without preaching and inciting, you might want to get out of my social bubble, thanks. Like I said, my last bit of patience has gone.

Actually, I can expand this.. any form of fanatics that think that they have to tell or make others do stuff because they think it's the only way: Do fuck off. 

My grandparents were proper Nazis. They were also very nice and there is a long story for another day that explains very well why they became Nazis, but they were basically unable to leave all the brainwash behind after the war. They never killed anyone but they were stubborn and frustrated armchair ideologists. I spent a lot of time with them when I was a boy and a teenager, they loved me like no-one else.. one of their dearest sons got killed after the war in the late 50s in a terrible accident when he was in his early 20s, so my grandparents were very focused on me and were always very protective of me. So I grew up with conservative parents and Nazi grandparents. When I was a teenager, I was [without actually really thinking about it much] a fully fledged neo-Nazi. I was really into war-stuff, weapons and when asked, my career was either German border control or army. My parents were very naive about all of this. I recently asked my mum how much she actually knew about all of this, especially me and all of my stupid countryside/village mates all being juvenile delinquents, getting into fights and talking shit, and she said that she had no real idea. I do believe her, as my mum is VERY naive. But that's also how any extremism thrives: People's ignorance, fear or naivety.

Another long story short: I somehow managed to de-program and re-program myself. I met new friends, away from the village and over the course of some years, we opened our eyes and minds and started questioning everything and anyone. That was a very painful process for me, as I was finally able to see my grandparents and parents as who they were. It also started a long and painful process of arguing about politics and history and our story and history as a family. I had verbal fights with my grandparents and my dad about politics and the state of the world nearly all the way up until they died. I let it go at some point because sometimes you have to let it go when you finally realise that you can't change someone. As long as they don't hurt other people that are dear to you, you need to let them go, as it sucks too much energy and just creates more bad vibes. You have to walk away.

Anyway.. I've been brainwashed and I have seen and dealt with other brainwashed people, so I know how easy it is to end up like that and I also know how hard it is to actually de-program and re-program. We exist in believe systems, our reality is made up of billion fragments of distorted reality. There is not much over-riding truth and if there is a bit, it's hard to find and one man's truth is another man's lie. The world is a rainbow of grey, there is no black and white, red and blue, right or wrong. It's all perception and context. 

So, we need to find our own way through life and it's often confusing and crazy ways and possibilities. The only things that have really helped me during my 30 years since leaving the village are:

Empathy

Love

Respect

Stubbornness

Laughter

..and a bit of ignorance in the right places ; ]

Never take yourself too serious ever. Because you might suddenly discover that you are a bit of an idiot.

I am still a work in progress, I still get irritable with stuff that I should laugh at, I still shout and get angry at stuff that I should let go and I still get upset when I see this theoretically beautiful world descending into chaos. 

I have to be calm and content and be happy that I survived a lot of crazy shit with a functioning brain and bright eyes. The answer is always Love Life. I believe in a positive evolution of the mind. That's my church.

Hate is for losers.


ps: I originally ended this post with "Death is for losers" and then Sharmila said "Shouldn't it be 'Hate is for losers'?", so I thought about it and then changed it accordingly. We all have to die, so death is just another part of life. No death, no life. A terrible paradox ; ]

But I think my original point is: We need to be good and awesome in life and not in death or "the afterlife". I don't say that there won't be any form of afterlife [what do I know?] but the thought that we get rewarded with a glorious afterlife just because we've been cruel arseholes in life is equally crazy and sad.

pps: Additional possible forms of 'religion':
Consumerism
Politics
Fashion
Food
Plastic surgery
..anything that has the power to replace that empty bit inside you that should be filled with love and happiness.

KIDS VS FOOD

As an aspiring half-broken/half-defiant father of two daughters [2 & 4] the only kids thing that can really set me off is "food". Well, that's actually a big part of raising kids.. the crazy dance to make them eat something 'healthy & nutritious' at a certain time. Because they graze all the time.. they grab and munch and snack like there's no tomorrow.. half an apple here, a plum there, little biscuits that my mum always smuggles into the house, ..anything that is not "real food", when they are supposed to eat something properly a.k.a. breakfast, lunch or dinner, the grand spiel begins..

There's a great variety of scenes and plot twists:

I don't like this spoon
I want the red bowl
I'm not hungry
I wanted honey
I wanted golden syrup
I don't like the green bits
It's too spicy
There's not enough sauce / too much sauce
It's too hot
It's too cold
It's too lumpy / not lumpy enough
I want more!! (you make more) I don't want it now!!
I want something different!!
I don't like pasta
I don't like the stuff around the fish fingers
I want water instead of milk
I want milk instead of water
I want the spoon with the flowers on it
etc.

Baked beans are the only hassle-free food in existence. Baked beans are my happy place.. they will eat them without moaning and whining.. again and again .. the only stable thing in dad-world. God, I LOVE baked beans! ..and bacon.

‪#‎BreakingDad‬