Lehrlinge halten zusammen (MP3s)

For Labor Day, here is a perennial WFMU favorite of socialist propaganda songs from 1960s West Germany, the compilation "Lehrlinge halten zusammen" ("Apprentices stick together"). Released in 1969 on the Pläne label, it has never been officially reissued, as far as I know. Most of the lyrics are somewhat failed attempts at sarcastic humor, pointing out the exploitation of German apprentices by evil capitalists, and the virtues of organized resistance against the system. The back cover contains a summary of Karl Marx's position on the question of youth in capitalistic societies, in six easily digestable points.

Why hasn't this faded into total obscurity, you ask? First of all, the music and delivery on many of these songs is original, to say the least, and in addition this has been featured on the famous Nurse With Wound list for the contribution of mysterious Lerryn & dadazuzu, Lehrlings-Machtgebeat. Also, who can resist obscurities from Germany or Japan anyway? Here is the whole album for your enjoyment.

MP3s:
01 Die Conrads - Hoch vom Dach (From high up on the roof)
02 Floh de Cologne - Hallo Stift (Hello apprentice)
03 Interpol - Schaffen Sie sich einen Lehrling an (Get yourself an apprentice)
04 Vorschlaghammer - Ballade von den bösen Lehrlingen (Ballad of the evil apprentices)
05 Vorschlaghammer - Armer Anton (Poor Anton)
06 Die Conrads - Nach Dreißig Jahren (After thirty years)
07 Die Conrads & Hannes Stütz - Dick und Doof in der Fabrik (Laurel and Hardy in the factory)
08 Dieter Süverkrüp - Das Lied vom Nutzen (Song of the benefit)
09 Floh de Cologne - Lehrherr unser (Our Employer)
10 Interpol - Ich bin so glücklich (I am so happy)
11 Die Conrads & Dieter Süverkrüp - Was ein Lehrling alles lernt (What an apprentice learns)
12 Die Conrads - Betriebsgeheimnis (Company secret)
13 Lerryn & dadazuzu - Lehrlings-Machtgebeat (also known as Lehrlinks-Machtgebeat. Honestly, I don't know how to translate this, it is a barely sensical play on words. Maybe someone else can help?)
14 Die Conrads & Dieter Süverkrüp - Lehrlingsbilanz (Apprentice's balance sheet)
15 Münchner Songgruppe - Lehrlinge zusammenhalten (Apprentices stick together)
16 Die Conrads & Dieter Süverkrüp - Wer hat den Lehrling gemacht (Who made the apprentice)
17 Floh de Cologne - Wir werden immer mehr (We grow in numbers every day)

As a bonus, here is the only other track I know by Lerryn & dadazuzu, a song against police brutality with killer horns and lots of sexual innuendo: Lerryn & dadazuzu - Gummiknüppelsong (Rubber baton song). Honestly, I have never heard anything like this, and if you know German, you'll be stunned by the sheer weirdness of the lyrics. If you don't know German, just enjoy the great music and imagine a Phil Ochs song with a bunch of penis references thrown in. Or maybe Siegmund Freud and Karl Marx jamming with some German hippies. Really, it is a great song.

Thanks to Andreas Michalke's blog Berlin Beatet Bestes for this song, snatched from this post (which has cover art for the Lerryn & dadazuzu 7" single).

Comments

[Dirk]

Machtgebiet is sphere of influence in English, so spot the pun here.

[gerdbrunzema]

To explain this wordplay (which feels like explaining a joke...), ge-BEAT also is a combination of the prefix "ge-" and some verb becoming a noun which often means, "to do something for a while with no goal", or "to ... around" (e.g. Ge-rede: bla bla). So in this case: "to beat arround with no pattern or goal".

GREAT Songs, btw.!

And a supermarvelous blog you have.

[Nash Roads]

I love Floh De Cologne, although I wish their guitar player had started playing when he was younger. One of my fav kraut bands and proof of the supremacy of of the NWW list. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0iLTtVgXhbY

[Martin]

Machtgebiet is one thing, the other is Night's prayer:
Nachtgebet, and I suppose that it reminds you of the English word Beat is also intended.

[Stephan]

And not to forget: "Lehrlinks" plays with similarities between the noun-forming suffix "-ling" in expressions like "Erdling" (someone who lives on earth) or "Lehrling" (someone who is been teached (=lehren) and "links" = "left wing". There is also a german Volkslied called "Wanderes Nachtgebet" (Night's prayer of the hiker) written by Carl Maria von Weber, maybe there is another connection.
Thank you for your great blog and its uncountable things to discover.

[Stephan]

And not to forget: "Lehrlinks" plays with similarities between the noun-forming suffix "-ling" in expressions like "Erdling" (someone who lives on earth) or "Lehrling" (someone who is been teached (=lehren) and "links" = "left wing". There is also a german Volkslied called "Wanderes Nachtgebet" (Night's prayer of the hiker) written by Carl Maria von Weber, maybe there is another connection.
Thank you for your great blog and its uncountable things to discover.

[Andreas Michalke]

What a great blog you have! Thank you very much for sending so many people to my blog BERLIN BEATET BESTES.

I bought the LERRYN & DADAZUZU "Lehrlinksmachtgebeat b/w Gummiknüppelsong" 45 about 10 years ago in a local Berlin thrift-store for 50 cents (or rather 1 German Mark back then). The record was not in the record section of the store but buried in a whole batch of communist booklets and flyers. I then started to collect other Pläne record but most of the label`s stuff is pretty dry folk music that was meant to agitate and only to agitate. Politically Pläne was closer to the politics of East-Germany than to the more progressive left in West-Germany and were probably clapping their hands when the tanks rolled into Prague in 1968.
The LERRYN 45 still stands out among those records today because it rocks! And because of the ballsy lyrics. Apart from TON STEINE SCHERBEN and FLOH DE COLOGNE very few krautrockers dared to have a political agenda anyway. Let alone write a song that would compromise their integrity. Hence the lone position of the "Gummiknüppelsong". I dare anyone to play the song today in a club or bar full of German speaking people as I have done many times. And see the people leave the dancefloor confused and disgusted...
What a great achievement for a 37-year old song!

Best wishes
Andreas