The green donkey (song)

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The green donkey is a song by the Dresden group electra from 1976, which was released on LP 3 in 1980 .

history

The green donkey was created in a phase of the band in which they turned back to song-like pieces after adapting classic songs. From the production phase through songs such as I once, once you, once he or age, age thanks were marked, stabbed the green donkey out and made as still experimental and "very eccentric" and after the release of controversy.

Peter Ludewig found the basis for the lyrics “in an ancient edition - a treat, 160 years old - by chance”. It was about Christian Fürchtegott Gellert 's fable The Green Donkey, written in 1746 . Kurt Demmler adapted the text: There are no preface and syllabus, individual words and groups of words such as “warden” have been replaced by “mother” or “no one thought of him with a syllable” with “no one thought now Man one more thing to him ”. Ludewig composed the song together with the group's keyboardist at the time, Rainer Uebel, and took over the vocals.

The song was not approved for production by the chief producer of the radio station in the GDR because it was considered too experimental. Lyrically it was already in Gellert's time a satire on the superstition and simplicity of the citizens and politics and Ludewig also called the text in a new form "a highly political song". Electra therefore recorded the title as black with two approved songs in the mid-1970s. Producer Luise Mirsch finally took over responsibility for the group going it alone . The song was released in 1976 on the compilation LP Rhythm 76 . In 1980 it came out on the long-playing record 3 by electra.

In 1976 the song was also played on radio in the GDR . The green donkey ran in November 1976 in the rating program DT64 -Metronome of the Berliner Rundfunk , which, along with the Beatkiste, was one of the most important rating programs of the GDR radio. In contrast to the Beatkiste, Metronom specialized in Schlager and Pop, so that Der Grüne Esel was largely alien to the listening habits of the metronome audience. Negative listeners 'opinions were usually kept secret by the broadcasters' presenters.

“The violence of the listeners' letters addressed to the editors [after the performance of The Green Donkey ] prompted the broadcasters to publish negative comments on the broadcast as an exception. However, the editors explicitly expressed their support for this style of the band because it made the 'artistic value' of GDR pop music visible ... "

- Broadcast manuscript DT 64 metronome, November 3, 1976.

description

Peter Ludewig at the presentation of the song in 2009

The Green Donkey is a 3:55 minute long progressive rock title. It is about the fool Neran who paints a donkey: the body is painted green and the legs red. People initially admire the donkey as a sensation and the animal causes a sensation. However, after just a few days, people's interest has turned into disinterest.

Peter Ludewig speaks large parts of the text narrative. He sings the quatrain beginning with "To bring the children to sleep ..." in the style of a lullaby. Individual lines of text are reproduced by several band members as a choir in spoken chants.

The instrumentation was done by keyboard and guitar and is also characterized by Bernd Aust's flute playing. The musical style of Jethro Tull served as a model , the beginning of the song is similar to works by Emerson, Lake and Palmer . Ludewig also gave Arnold Schönberg's Pierrot Lunaire from 1912 as the inspiration for the song.

Typically, Peter Ludewig appears in the live presentation of the song in a fool's costume or with a fool's cap.

Publications

  • 1976: Rhythm 76 (compilation, LP, Amiga )
  • 1980: electra - 3 (LP, Amiga)
  • 1992: electra - Rock from Germany - East (CD)
  • 1996: electra - Die Hits (Sampler, CD, Amiga)
  • 2002: electra - Live (CD, BuschFunk)
  • 2004: electra - 35 years of electra, single hits & rarities (CD, Amiga)
  • 2009: electra - 40 electra Klassik - The anniversary concert (CD)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Andreas Fink: Rock music in the GDR 1971–1983 between recognition and confrontation - using the example of "electra" and "Klosterbrüder" , 2008 ( online ).
  2. ↑ a b Jürgen Balitzki: Electra. Lift. Stern Combo Meißen: Stories from the Saxon three . Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2001, ISBN 978-3896023230 , p. 149.
  3. ↑ a b Jürgen Balitzki: Electra. Lift. Stern Combo Meißen: Stories from the Saxon three . Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2001, ISBN 978-3896023230 , p. 147.
  4. ↑ See ostmusik.de ( Memento from July 25, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
  5. ↑ Jürgen Balitzki: Electra. Lift. Stern Combo Meißen: Stories from the Saxon three . Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2001, ISBN 978-3896023230 , p. 148.
  6. ↑ See ostbeat.de ( Memento from June 5, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
  7. ^ Edward Larkey: Rotes Rockradio: Popular Music and the Commercialization of GDR Radio . LIT, Berlin 2007, p. 140.
  8. ^ Edward Larkey: Rotes Rockradio: Popular Music and the Commercialization of GDR Radio . LIT, Berlin 2007, p. 146.
  9. ^ Edward Larkey: Rotes Rockradio: Popular Music and the Commercialization of GDR Radio . LIT, Berlin 2007, p. 146, footnote 104.
  10. ↑ Jürgen Balitzki: Electra. Lift. Stern Combo Meißen: Stories from the Saxon three . Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2001, ISBN 978-3896023230 , p. 150.
  11. ↑ See also Jürgen Balitzki: Electra. Lift. Stern Combo Meißen: Stories from the Saxon three . Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2001, ISBN 978-3896023230 , p. 146.