Nothing against it

headstrong songs, that have become dated and decayed
These are songs from a different period, but not from a different life.
These are songs
that have been overtaken by the lapse of time, however, when I wrote them in the seventies and in the beginning of the eighties they had been real protest songs in the true sense of the word: topical and clearly political.
For this recording I slightly rearranged the songs only as far as the years that had passed were not ignored.
The recording might have been a reason to sing them once again.
In that way these are songs from the archive for the archive and for those, that might feel some sentimental (or any other kind of) pleasure in looking back in time:
“Do you remember,
when we did sit-ins …
in front of the hoarding …
at that demo…

1 The days are getting shorter
a song about a daydream-imagination; first written to a melody composed by Jackson C. Frank from a song with lyrics that have nothing to do with the new lyrics I wrote. When I realized how many words and phrases came to tell the story, I tried to find a different music to add more variety.
It was written at the end of the seventies

2 Speculator song
the first own political song that I dared to sing in public. Squatting was a big topic in the headlines of that time. I’d never been involved, but I felt sympathy for those who were…
written in 1972

3 Three old boxes
another song about squatting that was written from a distance, some kind of  second-hand rioting romanticism with a revolutionary Raggae rhythm, written in 1981. My rock band “Krise” played  an alternative rock version of this song 

4 Again
apart from squatting of residential building there was also squatting of building plots and access roads as well as human chains and many more romantic and creative kinds of civil rights movements against planning and provision measurements of the authorities which were supposed to save energy or keep peace. The opponents were always the same: The authorities against the common people. The song was written in 1972 seeing the eviction of the building plot in Brockdorf and 25 years later I tried to modernize this song by writing an alternative version “Again 2”…

5 scared out of your wits
same scenerio: those in uniforms who have to act on orders from above against disobedient civilians, who cannot talk to each other any more. With this song I tied to mix with those in uniforms and let my thoughts run wild. Written in 1981. There was an alternative rock version with my rock band “Krise” too.

6 Computer
when in the end of the seventies the government planned to count the population, they had hardly expected their plans to be pulled to peaces as it happened. Finding personal data in files kept in computes and everybody being x-rayed was exactly what we read in Orwell’s novel “1984” presenting the idea of the ”big brother“. A frightening idea, especially because computers were more or less a big secret representing observation without any limits… written in 1979

7 Count as well
the authorities in Nuremberg, which was the town of the Nazi Conventions, ordered a raid on the youth centre “Komm” because they suspected it to be a pocket of resistance.The police reacted totally exaggerated and arrested 141 children of upright citizens so there was an outcry within the scene of liberals; written in 1981. 

8 Socialist act
there was something to celebrate: the centenary of the Socialist Act of the German Empire. This law helped Chancellor Bismarck to mark all socialists as criminals who had to be persecuted. This “anniversary” was celebrated at a time when people were disqualified from public service by the government of the social-liberal coalition. This was based on a ban on the employment of teachers and civil servants with radical political views. To be a member of a party that secret service considered to be “anti-constitutional” was enough to be thrown out of your job like at the time of McCarthy…  written in1978

9 Friend in Potsdam
The German magazine „Stern“ published the surprising story that the West-German secret service opened and read private letters to East-German addressees in order to find spies or to get information that seemed to be relevant for security matters. Nobody doubted that the East-German state security service did the same. I was studying law in Bonn at that time and a social-democratic fellow student made a constitutional complaint to the supreme court against it. Some years later her complaint was granted… written in 1979


10 Credibility marching tune
a mocking proposal for a new party hymn of the (West)German Communist Party DKP or the successor of the SED, which used to be the former East-German Socialist Party, the Party of the Democratic Socialists PDS. They could sing and clap along at all party conventions of their party-newspapers. It could also be used by singers/songwriters or song groups in the old or new states of the Federal Republic of Germany. When I wrote this song in 1979 I was irritated by the hypocrisy of the DKP members in the discussion about the security of nuclear power plants: People in the west considered it to be a big danger for people and those in the east considered it to be completely safe. Just think of Tschernobyl.

11 Death of young socialists
a historical song about how some leading members of the Jusos, a group of young socialists in the Social Democratic Party SPD changed, for example, from a verbal radical to a conformist official who is willing to do everything for his political career– even self-denial. Kasten Voigt and Wolfgang Roth had been the first two leaders of the Jusos of that new type, when they became more radical in 1968. Their predecessors had got to the top up to that time, just look at Gerhard Schröder who became chancellor. When “the Greens” founded their party at the end of the Seventies, Andrea Nahles was the only leading person of the later Jusos who caught attention because of her acting radically, but I’m sure she will climb on the bandwagon sooner or later…

12 Nothing against it
Ronald Reagan was elected president of the United States. He was a sacked cowboy-actor who had earned his dollars in B-movies and changed into politics as a reactionary big talker. As soon as he entered White House he startled friends and enemies in the Cold War by saying that he wanted to develop so-called neutron bombs that would not cause any damage except killing life. In other words: everybody would be dead but nothing destroyed. A clear word of protest from our Chancellor Helmut Schmidt was not heard. So peace movement had another topic to yell about – written in 1981

13 Sixteen Nations
In 1978 Argentina was host of the world championship of soccer – the ruling fascists ordered mass murders but the ball kept rolling … in March 2004 the German red-green government proposed a petition for extradition of the former junta boss Videla to take him to court. He was responsible for the disappearance of Elisabeth Käsemann and Klaus Zieschank. They disappeared 26 years ago at the time of the junta, when Germany had another social democratic chancellor. How intensively had Germany protested against murder and torture of the Argentine regime’s opponents before? Well, perhaps we should consider that Argentina had been a much more lucrative market than it is today, at least from the loan sharks’ point of view …   written in 1978


Gerd Schinkel sings his own songs 
in his own German langage   

Gerd Schinkel singt auf deutsch eigene Lieder  

CDs für Erwachsene:

Es gibt CDs mit Liedern für Erwachsene in quasi chronologischer Zusammenstellung (drei vorwiegend aus dem vorigen Jahrtausend), eine CD mit meinen besten Liedern aus dem vorigen Jahrtausend und - als besondere Zusammenstellung - einen Viererpack mit meinen besten Liedern.

00 - "Nix dagegen" - eigen(sinnig)e Lieder

01 - „Nicht als Eigentum" - eigen(artig)e Lieder

02 - „Stück des Wegs" - eigen(willig)e Lieder

03 - „So gesehen" - eigen(mächtig)e Lieder

04 - „Weit und offen“  - eigen(ständig)e Lieder  

05 - "Draufgänger" - eigen(händig)e Lieder

06 - "Unentdeckt" - eigen(tümlich)e Lieder

07 - "Du bist schuld" - eigen(wüchsig)e Lieder

08 - "Spuren" - eigen(wertig)e Lieder

09 - "Ausgeliefert" - eigen(nützig)e Lieder

10 - "Bestes Stück" - eigen(brötlerisch)e Lieder

11 - "So ist gut" - eigen(verantwortlich)e Lieder

12 - "Im Handumdrehn" - eigen(süchtig)e Lieder

13 - "Na klar" - eigen(gesetzlich)e Lieder

14 - "Geh ma weg" - eigen(formatig)e Lieder

15 - "Muss was passiern" - eigen(gewächsig)e L.

16 - "Was denn sonst" - eigen(förmig)e Lieder

sowie die besten eigenen aus dem vorigen Jahrtausend :

- "Sternschnuppen" - 

CDs in besonderer Zusammenstellung:

- "DIE BOX: gnadenlos anachronistisch - aber nicht hoffnungslos"  enthält meine mutmaßlich besten Lieder:
             - DIESE
             - AUCH DIESE
             - AUCH NOCH DIESE
             - WOHL AUCH NOCH DIESE
             - Dann wohl auch noch diese

- "Schicksalsglück" - CD mit 19 Liedern zu meinem  Buch :   „Bin ich ihr ähnlich?" 
             - Adoptivtochter auf Spurensuche in Korea“ -
             erschienen Dez. 2005 bei Books on Demand,
             Norderstedt, ISBN 3-8334-33915-7, 260 S., 14.90 €
             Buch ist im Handel und bei mir erhältlich, CD nur bei mir

"- "1-fach" Beispielsweisen 
             vorzugsweise auszugsweise 

 

- "4-fach" Beispielsweisen 
             vorzugsweise scheibchenweise
             als 4er Box angelegt, aber auch jede CD einzeln 
             ( erschienen 2003, thematisch sortiert mit meinen bis 
             dahin geschriebenen besten Liedern):

- „Gegenseitig geschenkt“
     „Beziehungsweisen“ schönste Liebeslieder
- „Woher – wohin“ – 
            „Betrachtungsweisen“ beste Lebenslieder
- „Nichts ist ideal“ – 
            „Sichtweisen“ trotzigste Trotzlieder 
- „Papa backt“ – 
            „Singweisen“ aus der Kinderwelt   

Es gibt fünf CDs mit eigenen Liedern für Kindern in altersentsprechender Zusammenstellung sowie zwei CDs mit den besten Kinderliedern (einmal laut, einmal leise):

CDs für Kinder:

- "Igitt! Da drin sind Zwiebeln" - für Vorschulkinder

- "Ich bin groß" - zur Einschulung       

- "Papa repariert" - für "frische" Grundschulkinder

- "Der geklaute Gameboy" - für erfahrene Grundschulkinder 

- "Mama, mach Mam'lade" - für große Grundschulkinder

sowie als "beste" Kinderlieder:

- "Aufräum'"   (laut genug)

- "Mach die Tür zu" (leise)

---------------------------------------------

erhältlich (aber auch nicht im Handel!):

  • "Überlebenslieder - Lieder übers Leben" 60 Lieder
    Textbuch z.T. mit Noten, RADIUS-Verlag 1982
  • Texthefte zu den Kassetten nach Anfrage (auch mit Griffe)

    außerdem CD-Kopien von uralten Studioproduktionen:

14 ForeiGn Eyes
in the seventies not only the East German GDR became a new home for refugees from countries all over the world which were ruled by rightwing juntas but also the Federal Republic of Germany was chosen by some of these refugees who wanted to stay here while waiting for better times in their home country and a life without persecution. Lots of refugees found asylum in West Germany, however without the warm welcome that they had hoped for. After the dark time of the Nazi regime when many Germans had to leave their homes and found asylum abroad, a warm welcome would have been appropriate. By the way, people in the GDR did not welcome others very warmly either.. written in 1978

15 charles the starchy
The conservative parties CDU and CSU elected Karl Carstens into various leading positions and I never liked him because he came across as very snappy. And then it came to be known that he had shown very little distance to the Nazi regime – nevertheless he ran for presidency of the Federal Republic although it was clear that there was a majority to elect him and there was no doubt he would win. For the cheerful Mr. Scheel there was only one term of presidency as Mr. Carstens followed and it seemed that a „brown past“ had become the normal case again as if there had never been a try to make a real new start… written in 1978

16 New start
no commissioned work but more or less something that was done out of a sense of duty when I was asked to sing at an event of a trade union in memory of the end of World War II which had been 40 years ago… written in 1985

17 When the curtain falls
At the end of the seventies Martina and I had the opportunity and the pleasure to see some of the dramas at the Theatre Stuttgart that had been directed by Claus Peymann and which were played by his actors. We were caught like never again by that power and enthusiasm which was created on stage. And then Claus Peymann put a sheet of paper on the black board of the state theatre asking for donation for a dental treatment which a German terrorist of the RAF, who was behind bars, needed. Next thing that happened was a mad rush against this left director, who had become a red rag for the ruling prime minister of Baden-Württemberg, Mr. Filbinger, because of his saucy and disrespectful theatre. Even Manfred Rommel, the ostensibly liberal mayor of Stuttgart, did not not back up Peymann any longer, so he and his team of actors moved from Stuttgart to Bochum. That was a bloodletting which the theatre of Stuttgart was not to  recover from for decades. My song was just an attempt to write a sort of a suite to express my gratitude for so many wonderful plays, after the final curtain had fallen. The song was being written over a long period at the end of the seventies and in the beginning of the eighties –some final corrections were done in 2003…

lots of love for Suva Schachner for her translation and interpretation 

mehr infos - über kurz oder lang - schau mal wieder rein