The indisputable musical highlight of our recent holiday in Germany and Austria was an unforgettable performance of Lohengrin at Bayreuth – sublime performances, thought-provoking production – but since Wagner is somewhat outside the usual remit of the Spill, I’d like to share with you instead something we discovered on SWR1 radio (good traffic reports, and a reasonable selection of music…). Pop & Poesie is a covers band run by the station, that plays concerts every year; the covers are perfectly competent and entirely forgettable, but what’s brilliant is that each is preceded by a spoken rendition of the lyrics in German. Now, I’m a great lover of the German language and its literature, but there’s no denying that it is very, very funny to play “spot the song” on the basis of what sounds like portentous German poetry. Unfortunately for copyright reasons there are no records, and I can find only two songs on the whole internet, neither of which is nearly as good as their version of Smoke on the Water, but this is the best I can offer…
that is fabulous, it’s a shame there are no records of the radio station! I am also a big fan of the German language, hence the slight Einstürzende Neubauten obsession. I am still seriously considering buying the German language audio book of Nick Cave’s Death of Bunny Munro even though I don’t rate the novel, just to listen to Blixa’s voice.
Isn’t it strange who Radiohead inspire? Have you heard the Darkness’ cover of Street Spirit? I like it, you might too.
Love it.
Nice !
oh..and welcome back Aba. !
Thanks. We actually got back last week, but the PC just made alarming beeping noises when it was turned on – can’t help suspecting MsStepAbahachi, who was in the house for some of the time we were away – and it’s only just come back from the repairman.
Definitely got a touch of the Shatner’s about it!