Message to America from Germany

Brilliant musical send-up of German culture, with some good-natured digs at Americans...and they say Germans have no sense of humor!
(Warning: contains bleepable language from a cute little girl)

BTW, having lived in Germany myself I can attest that they can indeed both take and make a joke. Irony and puns, those they're still figuring out, but other forms of humor are alive and well.

Hi,
 
There has always been some humor in German stuff, even going back to the late 60's and even some bands like Amon Duul ... with the name of their first album consistently being misinterpreted, when the long song was pretty much a "trip" that one took, and ended up in a party ... in other words, it was a take on the commune status of things, that it was just a get stoned and sex'd out party anyway!
 
Later even Guru Guru did one in the album "Tango Fango" and this one was about not the East Germany with its music, or the West, but Chuck Berry in the very end. Sort of like Rock'n'roll was our god, not some nationalistic bs. And it was done BEFORE the Wall came down, if you can imagine that. It's called "Dad Lebendige Radio" ... and I find it hilarious and totally exceptional specially when you consider the bombardment by RADIO FREE EUROPE and the other Radio from America in those days bombarding the East Block nations with Beatles, Rolling Stones and rock and roll in order to get the youth on this side, instead of the other side.
 
AD2 also was dangerous when it came to politics and direct comments. "Mozambique" is murderous in its words, and the ****iness that Renate sings it with is extremely strong.
 
"Every victim is searching for his hangman
Every hunter is stalking his prey
Victim find a victim and hang the hangman
Better to die as a free man than to live as a slave"
... and later ...
"The white beast is in the villages
Dealing only in death
With his soul left behind him
He is
The raper of women
Mutilator of children
Murderer of men"
 
And the song just rips into an assault.
 
Later, I think they took the woman thing (militancy) to a different level, when you hear "De Guadaloop", and Renate sort of marching for women's freedom, and the music making fun of it. And she was known to say that some of the women's this and that was total bs!
 
CAN was not political and stayed in the psychedelic area of things with words, but there were other (more underground) bands that were strong in the political thing, and according to "Future Days" (the book about the so-called "krautrock") it was more located in each specific area, than it was anything else.
 
What is the name of this band? That is indeed really strong stuff and very well done. In America, this would not make radio anywhere, even in experimental places, and unusual places, and I'm glad you posted this.
 
Stuff like this works well if it has some humor ... but America really lacks humor, and I think that mainstream TV is the problem with a laugh track ... you lose the ability to find something funny on your own, and keep waiting for someone else to laugh first so you can follow. In bigger cities, like NY, LA and such, music tends to rebel to this, and come up with something different, but often it is just localized, like Warhol and VUnderground, could not even relate to SF and its scene, as an example, and both had their own "political" comments, although one can easily say that Jefferson Airplane won on that account, based on Grace Slick alone, who was known to really be not only right on, but also totally off kilter, and I think some of it has to do with her not taking herself too seriously, but also losing face because of it when she is deadly serious, as was the case with the bunny!
 
We still don't get it, do we?

bapu
Brilly-ant video.
 
Probably one day the world will teach us to be US again.

Totally agreed! 

Moshkito

bapu
Brilly-ant video.
 
Probably one day the world will teach us to be US again.

Totally agreed! 

Wow!  A two-word post by Pedro!  A new record??!  
 

Moshkito
 
We still don't get it, do we?

I do, so that's we -1.

laconicism isn't pedro's forte.  Long on style, penurious of facts.

soens
... who's "they"?
 
 
 
So true tho. We (which includes at least 5/8ths of me) have the best humor out there. But like the Hindenburg it usually flies too high over their head to catch.
 
... ...

Wait... Didn't the Hindenburg...  ...  ...  never mind. 

That's a gem! Thank you, Bit, for sharing ( I first wrote "shearing". Could it be a Freudian slip...no, your hairy avatar is fine!)

I bet Strummy gave the video in the OP three thumbs up.

bitflipper
Brilliant musical send-up of German culture, with some good-natured digs at Americans...and they say Germans have no sense of humor!
(Warning: contains bleepable language from a cute little girl)

BTW, having lived in Germany myself I can attest that they can indeed both take and make a joke. Irony and puns, those they're still figuring out, but other forms of humor are alive and well.

What a great take on Rammstein!
 
I just LOVE Jan Böhmermann's show on ZDF. Here's an example from last week. Skip to around 2:50 for the Biercademy video if the first part makes no sense. The video's in German, but needs little, if any, translation. Very funny!
 

Message from America to Germany - "Don't make US come over there again!"