"Life is a cabaret old chum!"
So I'm listening to Punishing Kiss by Ute Lemper. Caroline gave it to me yesterday as we had coffee and drinkies at the Staff Club of the university. It's awfully posh up there... clearly where our fees go. I'm only up to track 5 so far, but to be honest I think I much prefer it when she sings auf Deutsch. It's far more exciting.Another Ute album I have is Berlin Cabaret songs, which she released in both English and German. I bought the German version, natürlich. It's a fabulous album which I adore, probably due to its intensely decadent and erotic 1930s Berlin ambience. The full and detailed liner notes are particularly interesting, giving heaps of information on how Cabaret flourished during the shortlived Weimar Republic (1918-1933) with composers such as Mischa Spolianksy and Friedrich Hollaender. The album is part of a series called Entartete Musik which London/Decca have released to illustrate music suppressed by the third reich, which I feel is a particularly worthwhile cause.
Sex and politics are undoubtedly the two main themes of the album. Songs such as Raus mit den Männern strike a blow for women's rights with lyrics such as:
Raus mit den Männern aus dem Reichstag,
Und raus mit den Männern aus dem Landtag,
Und raus mit den Männern aus dem Herrenhaus,
Wir machen draus ein Frauenhaus!
Another song, Ich bin ein Vamp! even makes fun of Hitler's moustache! (You can see why they call it Entartete Musik!!!)
The 20s in Berlin were pretty damn liberal in terms of sexuality as well, and many of these songs are distinctly LGBT in character. Wenn die beste Freundin is a song about a Hausfrau who gets rid of her husband and runs away with her best friend. Das lila Lied is a strong statement of gay rights and in fact... here is a link with the song and the lyrics in English/Deutsch. One other hilarious track on the cd is Maskulinum - Femininum which tells of a cross dressing couple who eventually have "einen kleinen Hermaphrodit!" Sehr süß oder?
Anyway Ute is divine; the album is great. I always have been a sucker for cabaret though...
posted by Unknown at 11:09 PM
3 Comments:
Mmmm...Ute. Yum. I like the Cabaret stuff better than Punishing Kiss too though I have spent weeks obsessed with the two duets with Tom Waits. Incidentally if you get the chance you ought, if you haven't, to hear 'Wenn die beste Freundin' as recorded by Margo Lion & Marlene Dietrich (before she was a movie star) - too fabulous to be allowed.
There is a pic of them singing it in the liner notes and they look fantastic! :D I shall have to search out that recording.
Of course ur a nana tourism. but thats ok, la nicole still loves u anyway lol. anyway, dont believe a word flicky says, its all lies.. liiiiieeees i tells you! SLASH maybe its the truth. lol. i didnt know u had a blog darling, flicky just told me tonight. I find it amusing. In fact.. im going to go comment on your blog right now just to amuse myself. haha. night night nana tourism. xxx!!!
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