I’d like to share a fantastic experience with you all I had last night! (Still singing and dancing in my mind…)
![[excited]](//psfforum.com/Smileys/default/excited-1.gif)
OK, so there’s this German singer/songwriter named Udo Lindenberg who is famous here for having been one of the very first musicians at all who played rock music with German-only lyrics. I grew up with his songs when I was a kid in the 1970s. Now he’s 76, and he still rocks the stage!
I went to one of his concerts last night with my brother and a friend, and we were totally blown away by his performance, the superb band, and most of all, the great atmosphere and all the positive energy that filled the whole place.
I think it’s also worth mentioning that, while Germany was divided, Udo had lots of fans in East Germany too. But his music and lyrics were not tolerated by the authorities, and although trying very hard to get a permission to do a concert tour there in the early 1980s, it wasn’t possible until after the wall came down.
It’s typical of Udo’s cool, witty, cheeky personality that he put his fight with the GDR-authorities into a humorous, catchy song, which musically is a German version of the famous jazz tune “Chattanooga Choo Choo”: “Sonderzug nach Pankow” which means “special train service to Pankow (a part of East Berlin)”. In the lyrics, he leisurely addressed the then-leader of East Germany, Erich Honecker: “Hey, Honni, come on, why won’t you let me play my songs in your state? I’ll bring a bottle of cognac, and then let’s talk…” Honecker and Udo actually met a couple of times and even exchanged presents, but it didn’t help after all. Still, I find Udo’s way of dealing with the situation kind of cool because he could also have just expressed his anger. OK, he did make fun of “Honni”, but still, he did it in a non-aggressive way.
Here’s a clip of that song, it’s from 1983:
This is a more recent one - The meaning of the lyrics is "I'm doing my thing", and it's encouraging people to be what they really are (it has become a kind of hymn to me):
Coming back to my actual point of this whole posting: I think it’s so amazing that such a large amount of people – 20.000 people to be exact! – could come together in a hall and just celebrate a fantastic show, feeling all those good vibes together, peacefully, in good spirits. I believe experiences like this are so important. Always, but especially in terrible times like this. It’s important to gather positive energy and courage.
Thanks for reading!
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