The Grouchy Gaijin's Thoughts on Music and Such

OK I made that up - but Rant could be a neuter noun in German

The other day I found a really cool version of 99 Luftballons done by a band called DDR.  The MP3 is here.  See the video below.

This prompted me to send GabeO a link to the video with a note to check this out.  Not to be outdone GabeO the magical mystical Mexican fired back with a You Tube video of 7 seconds doing a cover of the English version of the song.  See the video below.

I had heard 7 seconds a long time ago and thought they were pretty cool - I like their version but I really like the way the singer pokes fun at Nena (who based on interviews I read way back when I really cared about all things Deutsch is one of the stupidest pop stars ever - yes, she is in Brittany Spears' league).  If I may digress, I've noticed that a lot of German speakers have some really interesting hyper correction problems.  What I mean is that while they have both a sound similar to the English letter W and a sound similar to the English letter V mistakes with these two sounds/letters are common.  For example the letter W in German is pronounced similarly to the English letter V while the German letter V is pronounced similarly to the English letter F (Confused yet?)  This often produces the accent we associate with German speakers for example  "Vee hafe vays of making you talk."  With the English letter W pronounced like a German W (or a V sound).  The odd thing is that the hyper correction gets in the way and really screws up some words.  I have known a lot of Germans who say things like "I live in a wary small willage."  So here we have an English V being pronounced like an English W - you wascally  wabbit.

OK back to 7 seconds - listen to the song.  It sounds to me like he is singing "Wary Wary Super Scawey" Which came from Nena's attempt to say "Very Very Super Scary".

Now before anyone gets "offended" and says but Americans are the worst in the world at foreign languages - mellow dude.  The Germans have their own thoughts about how Americans speak - namely to sound American you need to try to speak like you have a big mouthful of potatoes - warm potatoes work even better.  I have a bit of an accent when I speak German - NEWS - It's a FOREIGN Language. Enough said; on to more German music.

The Good

The Bad

and

The Ugly

Coming in on the Good we have Nena Hagen I dig this chick.  Check out her cover of Ziggy Stardust

I also like Udo Lindenberg.  His live album Sonderzug nach Pankow is a favorite.  I liked the way he stuck it to Erich Honecker

On the Bad we have the band BAP from Köln (Cologne). Verdamp lang her just doesn't do it for me.

1.  I don't like the music.

2. I have little clue what he is singing in that funky dialect.

On the Ugly we have Trio.

Part of me likes these guys - they had a hit song with THREE words - DA DA DA.  I find that funny.

99 Luftballoons by DDR

99 Red Balloons by 7 Seconds

Viel Spaβ Kinder bis zum nächsten Mal

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