The Pied Piper (Album)

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The Pied Piper
Studio album by Hannes Wader

Publication
(s)

1974

Label (s) Philips

Genre (s)

Chanson / singer-songwriter

Title (number)

7th

running time

39 min 04 s

occupation

production

Jürgen Pohlmann

chronology
7 songs (1972) The Pied Piper Low German songs (1974)

Der Rattenfänger is an album by the songwriter and singer Hannes Wader from 1974.

Emergence

In 1973, Hannes Wader moved to a windmill in North Frisia . There has been much speculation as to why he retired to the mill. Some claimed he would retire from everything, maybe even end his career. The songwriter, annoyed by constantly moving and stricken by political difficulties, just wanted to calm down and work on his songs in a withdrawn manner. In the mill he also wrote the songs for this album and many other titles. He also worked there on the arrangements for his albums, which should make him known as a folk singer .

style

The album is a mixture of poetic songs, some of which sound melancholy (e.g. "Another night" or "It's been many years"), and political songs (e.g. "Der Rattenfänger" and "Talking- Bad dream blues ”).

Track list

  1. The Pied Piper - 7:47
  2. A woman I knew - 4:28
  3. Some city - 4:40
  4. It was many years ago - 3:27
  5. Talking Bad Dream Blues - 6:32
  6. The ballad from Hanna Cash - 5:10
  7. Another night - 7:00

particularities

After this album, Hannes Wader became a popular singer. His preoccupation with German songs began with the album Plattdeutsche Lieder (1974). Other albums are Hannes Wader: Volkssänger von 1975, Hannes Wader sings workers' songs (1977) and Hannes Wader sings Shanties (1978). With the album Hannes Wader singt Volkslieder (1990) he took up this tradition again.

Jürgen Pohlmann was the producer of this album. He also produced the album Plattdeutsche Lieder , which was made in the same year .

One of the political songs on this album is “Der Rattenfänger”, in which Hannes Wader tells his version of the legend about the Pied Piper of Hameln . The Pied Piper is shown here as an immortal person who “cannot die, rest and cannot flee”. Here criticism of the system and behavior of the officials who run the state is made. In such cases he calls on people to defend themselves against injustice, moral courage , resistance and civil disobedience .

With the title "Manche Stadt", which can also be found on the album Liebeslieder from 1986 and on the album Appearance: Hannes Wader from 1998, he sings a song for the first time by the English folk singer Colin Wilkie, who lives in Germany .

The "Talking Bad Dream Blues" is a story in which the protagonist suddenly finds himself in the year 2095 after waking up. He is in an institution that freezes people who want to go on living in another time, on the one hand because they did not like it in their time and on the other hand because they failed because of corruption and affairs. The protagonist was brought in drunk and accidentally frozen because he had no ID. Here too there is plenty of social criticism. Wader predicts that politics will drive humanity to its extinction. He sees an eternal cycle: the survivors rebuild the world in order to destroy it again. But he lets hope ring on. Wader suggests that it is up to us how things will go with humanity, that we can prevent doom and build a positive future with appropriate behavior.

“The Ballad of Hanna Cash” is the setting of a poem by Bertolt Brecht , music by Ernst Busch. In 2004 poems were to be set to music on the album ... and the times change the focus.

“Another night” is a graphic ballad that deals with the loneliness of people in the big city. People are lonely and alone, despite being among crowds of people, and they have no one to talk to about their problems, thoughts and ideas. This puts you in a difficult situation.