Phew! We’ve finished German classes! Not that we know the language now – far from it. We’ve just finished our eight weeks of 4 x 3 hour lessons (plus homework) and decided to take a breather. While we are relieved (we have our little lives back!) we’re a bit worried that, as shut-ins, we won’t practice and will forget what little Deutsch we managed to learn. That’s why I came up with the idea of combining our love of music with our eagerness to improve our language skills: by listening to songs with German lyrics. Here’s our taster course.
David Bowie – Helden
Obvious choice, but potentially helpful. Knowing the English version forwards and backwards helps make connections, especially with this sync of the original video with the German language recording. Chock full of useful personal pronouns like “ich” and “du” and practical words like “Tag” (“day”), “Zeiten” (“times”), “Mauer” (“wall”; very useful here in Berlin). Although I’m not sure I’ll ever have to tell someone that I wish they could swim as dolphins can swim.
Peaches – Keine Melodien
This version of Berlin band Jeans Team’s “Keine Melodien” by the city’s resident electroshocker is like punk rock Sesame Street. You need to learn numbers right? Well, listen to this earworm just once and you’ll never forget “eins, zwei, drei, vier”. I’ve had a quick search and it doesn’t look like Peaches has done a German version of “now I know my ABCs next time won’t you sing along with me”. Schade.
Nena – 99 Luftballons
Apart from getting into double-digit numbers (“ninety nine” = “neunundneunzig”), Germany’s most famous pop song is of limited use. With good reason, no one really remembers badly-translated English lyrics like “everyone’s a Captain Kirk, with orders to identify”, so hearing the original won’t spark flashes of comprehension. Still, required listening when you’re preparing to board the Hi Flyer, the Die Welt-sponsored Heliumballon that hovers over Berlin.
Lady Gaga – Scheiße
“I don’t speak German but I can if you like”. This song from Gaga’s new album is shocking (not in the way she hopes), but it’s a good guide to the mangled AngloDeutsch that Berlin’s international community speaks. Plus its scatological celebration of freedom is like the Disney version of the crazy shit (LITERALLY) that goes down in the city’s underground dark rooms: “I’ll take you out tonight / Do whatever you like / Scheiße-scheiße be mine, Scheiße be mine”. And, seeing as our German teacher didn’t agree that the first thing you need to learn in a foreign language is the swear words, this’ll have to do for now.
Ellen Allien – Sehnsucht
We grown-up emos need words like “longing”, and it doesn’t take Google Translate to tell you that’s what this song is about.
Peter Gabriel – Schock den Affen
The phrase “(don’t) shock the monkey” could only ever be of use in a zoo, and even then it pretty much goes without saying. Regardless, there’s something infectious about Gabriel’s love of words, English or otherwise, that we find inspiring. This was a labour of love, as Gabriel originally struggled to find a label willing to release an album’s worth of German versions of his songs. And like one of the few YouTube comments not whining about his accent says, “Peter is a genius in any language.”
There’s something very Berlin about Tempelhof. When the former “City Airport” closed in 2008, the land didn’t become the site of yuppie flats, public housing or a big ugly entertainment centre – but a public park. And when it reopened a year ago, it hadn’t been landscaped within an inch of its life, or filled with concessions and other “attractions”, with the “support” of one of the city’s corporate entities.
To this day, it looks like they’ve just hosed down the runway, painted on a bike track and taken away the worst of the debris. (Though they did leave behind the wreckage of a plane the fire crew used to practice on.) Unfortunately you can’t get inside what was once one of the 20 largest buildings in the world, but you admire it from behind a fence, as you can all of the little shed-like structures that used to house generators and the like.
Go early on a weekday (the park opens at 6am) for maximum “just woken up after zombie apocalypse” vibes, or on a sunny weekend to check out all the cheery Berliners running, cycling, rollerblading, windskating, playing with kites, remote control cars and planes, grilling, chilling etc etc. Or for this: Berlin Festival 2011.
I used to live here — in the airport, that is, during the “Hot Years” of the wall. My job was to spy on the East German military. If you think the place is spooky now, it was even moreso then. I’m so very glad the place is now used for recreation and joy. I’ll have to visit again on my next trip to Berlin.
the lust is there, hidden somewhere underneath all the dust and pieces of furniture lying around everywhere. I’ll commit once our dates with Steffi are over (hoffentlich).
cool, you went! we’ve been wanting to go since we got here… will do as soon as we’re not spending our weekends on furniture hunting! weekdays at 6a.m. is a little out of my comfort zone.
Only the most tenuous Berlin connections here (Booka Shade, and, er… Mathew Jonson and Emika live here… oh, and Iggy Pop used to!), but what can I say? I love music. That’s why I’m Music Editor for BANG BANG BERLIN, and that’s why I write for Resident Advisor. That’s why, even when I’m not being paid for it, I love to bang on about music, and that’s why I enjoyed doing the Facebook 30 Day Song Challenge so much. For anyone lucky enough not to be my friend on Facebook, here are my nominations in full… (BONUS BEATS! For anyone lucky enough to have access to Spotify – sorry Germany! – here’s a link to a playlist of most of the tracks)
Day 01 – My Favourite Song: Kate Bush – Running Up That Hill I hated having to chose just one favorite song, but then I played it and got chills and welled up. Perfection.
Day 02 – My Least Favourite Song: Björk – It’s Oh So Quiet It stuck out like a sore thumb on the otherwise perfect album Post; it played into the hands of both critics and fairweather fans who thought of Björk as just a kooky pop pixie (rather than a genius); it’s a Big Band number etc etc.
Day 03 – A Song That Makes You Happy: Cancer Bats – Black Metal Bicycle “Some people call me a nihilist / Say I don’t believe in a thing / Well I know that can’t be true / Cos baby I believe in you!”
Day 04 – A Song That Makes You Sad: Nine Inch Nails – Something I Can Never Have This has been with me, from the first girl to break my heart to the very last.
Day 05 – A Song That Reminds You of Someone: The Cure – Lovesong For Zoë.
Day 06 – A Song That Reminds You of Somewhere: The Grand Spectacular – Being A Dickhead’s Cool ♥ / H8 London Fields. (BONUS BEATS! Read about the whole London Fields dickhead/hipster phenomenon here)
Day 07 – A Song That Reminds You of An Event: Booka Shade – Night Falls (Larry Gold’s ‘Night Falls Over Philly’ String Version) When I got married I walked down the “aisle” to this. It was a tiny room so I only heard about 10 seconds of it; listening back to it confirms that this is the perfect wedding march.
Day 08 – A Song That You Know All the Words To: Vanilla Ice – Ice Ice Baby “Cookin’ MCs like a pound of bacon!”
Day 09 – A Song That You Can Dance To: Mathew Jonson – Marionette
Day 10 – A Song That Makes You Fall Asleep: Emika – Count Backwards No offence to the delightful Em, but this induces sonic somnolence. (BONUS BEATS! Read my interview with Emika here)
Day 11 – A Song From Your Favorite Band: Deftones – Knife Prty I don’t rrrreally have a favourite band but this one have never put a foot wrong. (BONUS BEATS! I did a mix inspired by, and featuring, this track, available over here)
Day 12 – A Song From A Band You Hate: Oasis – Champagne Supernova During the Oasis VS Blur “Britpop wars” of the 90s I was firmly on the side of FUCK YOU ALL. This was the least shit song to some out of the whole tiresome affair.
Day 13 – A Song That Is A Guilty Pleasure: Phil Collins – Against All Odds Only, I don’t feel one iota of guilt.
Day 14 – A Song That No One Would Expect You To Love: Kelly Clarkson – Because of You
Day 15 – A Song That Describes You: Gary Numan – Me! I Disconnect From You The “Cars” star presages my social media addiction: “You could tell from conversations / I was waiting by the screen… Please don’t turn me off / I don’t know what I’m doing outside”
Day 16 – A Song That You Used To Love But Now Hate: Korn – Twist I don’t have much hate left – it took a lot out of me just championing nu metal on a daily basis. But looking back, there is plenty to be embarrassed about, particularly in Korn – all neatly encapsulated in these 50 seconds of Tazmanian-devil nonsense.
Day 17 – A Song That You Hear Often On The Radio: Iggy Pop – Blah Blah Blah I’ve always hated radio, because there’s not enough music and there’s too much of this: blah blah blah. (BONUS BEATS! To find out what I hear on the closest thing to radio that I listen to, check me out on last.fm)
Day 18 – A Song That You Wish You Heard On The Radio: John Cage – 4’33” What’s with all the radio questions? Last time I checked we lived in the 21st Century and had more ways than ever to *choose* what we listen to. Why do we need radio? Here’s what I like to hear from the radio: silence.
Day 19 – A Song From Your Favorite Album: Faith No More – Kindergarten
Day 20 – A Song That You Listen To When You’re Angry: Glassjaw – Pretty Lush Pure screamo sadomasochism. No one plays both the victim and the aggressor quite like Glassjaw. “I wish you a broken heart and a happy new year”
Day 21 – A Song That You Listen To When You’re Happy: Beastie Boys – Hey Ladies When I’m what? Just kidding… “Hey ladieeeeeeeeees – Get – Funkay”
Day 22 – A Song That You Listen To When You’re Sad: Kanye West – Welcome to Heartbreak This is different how to Day 04 (A Song That Makes You Sad)? Luckily I have endless reserves of miserable music. Here’s some from Kanny’s (genius) emo period. Nice jumper. (BONUS BEATS! Here’s the EMO TEARZ ;_( playlist I put together to coincide with an article I wrote for the print version of Pamflet. Sorry, Spotify again!)
Day 23 – A Song That You Want To Play At Your Wedding: Art of Noise – Moments in Love I’ve already used mine and Zoë’s wedding march (Day 07), so this is for when I take a second wife. By then I’ll be so cursed I won’t worry it being a bad omen (it also soundtracked Madonna and Sean Penn’s nuptials).
Day 24 – A Song That You Want To Play At Your Funeral: Haste The Day – When Everything Falls Because of the triumph-over-death lyrics, because of the Christian message that my parents may be able to tease out, but mostly because I’ll have a captive audience. “I will stand, I will stand / When everything falls away / I will fight this war forever, or until I die” (BONUS BEATS! An article I wrote when I first discovered Christian metal † m/ † )
Day 25 – A Song That Makes You Laugh: Liam Lynch – United States of Whatever “…that’s cool”
Day 26 – A Song That You Can Play On An Instrument: Nirvana – About A Girl The first few chords at least.
Day 27 – A Song That You Wish You Could Play: Fleetwood Mac – Big Love I’m normally of the opinion that acoustic guitars are for gays, but Lyndsey Buckingham rips it with this.
Day 28 – A Song That Makes You Feel Guilty: Estelle – Someone Like You
Day 29 – A Song From Your Childhood: Michael Jackson – Thriller One of my few childhood memories is pouring over the sleeve of this record on our dining room floor.
Day 30 – Your Favorite Song At This Time Last Year: Obituary – Final Thoughts Who can remember back that far? I can’t, but I faintly listening to a lot of Obituary after seeing them live (the night before this video was recorded). Enjoy!
We recently asked our Facebook fans what they wanted to see more of on the blog and the top answer so far (go vote!) has been “cool things to see and do in Berlin”. Now we don’t get out much, and if we do, we don’t stray from our Kiez – but that’s OK, because the area around Graefestrasse in Kreuzberg has everything we need (except for great coffee).
I decided that a niftybobs way of introducing you to the neighbourhood would be a personalised Google Map marked up with our highlights. As well as a dangerous number of eateries (I’m writing this with a gut-full of ice cream), there are bars, Hard Wax records (which I’m claiming even though its located over the canal), an expert tattooists and – what the what? – a licorice shop??!!
So have a click around Graefekiez. Let us know if we’ve missed anything, and why not make a map of your area? We’d love to get an insider’s view on other parts of Berlin. Ciao!
Last night Battles were awesome and awkward, and astounding in every way. As you can hear on new album (leaked today!) their songs are better than ever, but they could have a problem with singers.
Last year they lost their quasi-frontman Tyondai Braxton to his side projects, and had to record Gloss Drop with a clutch of guest vocalists. Now their live show sticks the star singers in the background (on screens, when they work) and off to the side – as with sole live singer Matias Aguayo – a kind of metaphor for their disconnection from the band proper.
While the use of vocalists (relatively) unprocessed makes the fresh material more like songs than sonic experiments, video footage of them proves distracting; in the flesh, the trio revolve around ex-Helmet drummer John Stanier, a mancrush of mine and a serious machine. The new music he propels along is at once less fragmented and more wide-open, cocking an ear to G Funk, trance and epic instrumental rock – and on encore track Sundome, both Screamadelica and tweakin’ hip hop. The clear highlight was Gary Numan collaboration My Machines, a little underwhelming on record compared to a live rendition which edged into Angel Dust-era Faith No More, a melodramatic metal nightmare.
So the three-piece’s live show is a qualified success. Now we just have to see how they ride out this pesky leak. They may have won the Battles (ouch!), but will they win the war?
Fritzrl 
James 
Raquel 
the lust is there, hidden somewhere underneath all the dust and pieces of furniture lying around everywhere. I’ll commit once our dates with Steffi are over (hoffentlich).
except I don’t feel like a blogger yet…haven’t had the zeit..
Zoe 
Markus 
Great post – great discoveries, a few new ones for me (Lady Gaga sings “German”. Geez…).
I have the feeling you may really appreciate the Ermöbel album: “No. 1 Hits” – all German versions of foreign-language chart toppers.
If you don’t learn German with “Riecht wie Teen Spirit”, I don’t know how else you will…
https://www.erdmoebel.de/info/hoeren/no1hits.html
Thanks… I think!
Derderdumdumdumdum JAH!
Instead of Bowie’s Helden, look up Apocalyptica’s version with Till Lindemann — in the hands of a native speaker, the words really come alive.
Thanks Ann! I’m a fan of Apocalyptica’s Metallica covers, but I haven’t heard this one. Will check it out.
Afraid, very afraid.
Peaches?