Gunter Gabriel

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Gunter Gabriel, 2008
Gunter Gabriel, 2006

Gunter Gabriel (born June 11, 1942 in Bünde / Westphalia , actually Günter Caspelherr ; † June 22, 2017 in Hanover ) was a German country and pop singer , composer , lyricist, producer , voice actor and television presenter . He got his stage name "Gabriel" from the first name of his first wife.

Life

Gunter Gabriel grew up with his younger sister in Bünde and Kirchlengern . His mother died when he was four after his father urged her to have an abortion with a knitting needle. Gabriel's father remarried after a year; he often hit his son. Gabriel dropped out of elementary school early in order to earn money. He made his way through various works in different countries in Central Europe. In the end, he graduated from high school and studied mechanical engineering at the Hanover University of Applied Sciences , but dropped out without a degree. He then devoted himself entirely to music, was a DJ and eventually became a promoter for a record company. In this way he came into contact with various artists for whom he began to write songs. He composed his first song in 1970 for Norman Ascot .

His first own hit in 1974 was the trucker song Er ist ein Kerl (the 30 tonne diesel) , for which he received the Golden Europe and which paved the way for German-language hits in country music style with interpreters such as Truck Stop , Tom Astor or Linda Feller , which are still successful today. Another big hit for Gabriel was Hey Boss, I need more money . Many of his songs were broadcasts that kept very close to their US originals, including Johnny Cash's Wanted Man (I'm wanted in Bremerhaven) or Shel Silverstein's The Winner (The Winner) .

In addition, he wrote other hits for other artists, such as Juliane Werding ( When you think, you think ) , Frank Zander (I drink to your health, Marie) , Wencke Myhre ( That would never have happened to John , A Sunday in Bed ), Siw Inger , Peter Alexander , Tom Astor and the Zillertal Schürzenjäger . Finally he got his own TV show on Bayerischer Rundfunk with “ Country Music with Gunter Gabriel ” .

Economic ruin followed in the mid-1980s. He lost millions in real estate investments, his marriages failed, and professional successes failed. In 1993 he and Tom Astor received the German American Country Music Federation (GACMF) award for the song Sturm und Drang , which he received again in 2002 for his album Gunterwegs . In 1993 the GACMF accepted him into the German Country Music Hall of Fame.

Gunter Gabriel, 2013

In 2003 he recorded an album with Cash songs in German in the studio of Johnny Cash in Hendersonville (Tennessee) , Gabriel sings Cash - Das Tennessee-Projekt , which was produced by his son John Carter Cash . Already drawn from a serious illness, Cash contributed a spoken intro that appeared on Love, Cars, Adventure - a total of 54 artists from a wide variety of musical styles took part in this tribute album. Johnny Cash died a short time later. Gabriel's album Sohn aus dem Volk , released in 2009, was a further homage to Johnny Cash and is subtitled German Recordings , a counterpart to Cash's American Recordings . The album was - just like the "living room tour" started in 2007, on which he played for 1000 euros for anyone who asked him - a turning point in Gabriel's career. It was discussed in the feature sections of the serious press and its ability to overcome its own economic difficulties was appreciated.

Gabriel made negative headlines when he developed alcohol problems and allegedly abused his wife. At an appearance in Eisleben in September 2004, he caused a scandal with statements that were perceived as insulting the unemployed (“You have so much time, otherwise you wouldn't be here in the afternoon. Unfortunately, I don't have time, I have to always keep my ass moving so that the clay is right. "). The audience had previously reacted with displeasure to Gabriel's delay. This sentence also became the basis of a song by DJ Koze in the form of a sample .

In August and September 2010, Gabriel played his first major theater role as the title character in the play Hello, I'm Johnny Cash (directed and written by Volker Kühn ), alongside singer Helen Schneider , who took over the role of Cash's wife June Carter Cash . At the beginning of 2012 he played in an episode of the metropolitan area (episode: When do you have time for love? ).

In an interview with the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung on September 2, 2012, Gabriel took stock of his 70th birthday. When asked if he was afraid of death, the singer replied: “Not at all. I'll tell you why: because I've done a bunch of good things in my life. Don't beget children. Anyone can do that. And as a father, I ended up being a total failure. Married four times, then I didn't smear myself with fame. But I wrote some great songs. And I've lived a super interesting life with all the amplitudes. ”Personally, he sees himself as an outsider. “But of course I also want to be part of society.” However, he himself is not that important. What counts is the philosophy of his songs.

Memorial stone for Gunter Gabriel in the Heerstraße cemetery in Berlin-Westend

Gabriel was married four times. He had four children and three grandchildren.

Gabriel lived for 20 years on the former GDR workers' ship Magdeburg . The 400 square meter houseboat, which he bought in 1995 for 80,000 DM, was most recently anchored in the Harburg inland port in Hamburg . After Gabriel's death, Olli Schulz and Fynn Kliemann bought the boat, who wanted to refurbish it and then use it for cultural purposes.

Gabriel was the narrator for the Asphalt Cowboys television program on DMAX . In January 2016 he was a candidate in the show I'm a Star - Get Me Out of Here! , from which he left prematurely after five days at his own request.

Gabriel died on June 22, 2017 in the hospital of the Hannover Medical School as a result of operations following a triple fracture of the first cervical vertebra , which he sustained eleven days earlier - on his 75th birthday - in Herford when he fell down stairs. A funeral service for Gabriel was held on July 22nd, 2017 in the Hamburg Riverboat Church. He was buried in the close family circle on the day after the funeral in the Baltic Sea off Travemünde . There is a memorial stone at the Heerstraße cemetery in Berlin.

Discography

Studio albums

year title Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placementsTemplate: chart table / maintenance / without sources
(Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes) 		Remarks
DE DE AT AT CH CH
1973 Searched DE32 (20 weeks)
DE 		- -
First published: 1973
1974 This is my way DE26 (12 weeks)
DE 		- -
First published: 1974
1975 Gunter Gabriel - - -
First published: 1975
1977 My heroes and other unlucky ones DE35 (6 weeks)
DE 		- -
First published: 1977
1978 Ladies want guys - - -
First published: 1978
1979 The greatest country songs of all time - - -
First published: 1979
Restless cowboys and respectable girls - - -
First published: 1979
1982 Washable - - -
First published: 1982
1983 The eternally wild western songs - - -
First published: 1983
1989 Diesel servants - - -
First published: 1989
1995 Street dog - - -
First published: 1995
1996 A hallelujah for a trucker's heart - - -
First published: 1996
2002 G on the way - - -
First published: June 14, 2002
2003 Gabriel sings Cash - The Tennessee Project - - -
First published: October 20, 2003
2009 Son from the people - German Recordings DE61 (3 weeks)
DE 		- -
First published: October 23, 2009
2011 Gabriel sings Cash - - -
First published: August 12, 2011
2017 LickLab acoustic session - - -
First published: April 14, 2017

gray hatching : no chart data available for this year

literature

  • Gunter Gabriel, Oliver Flesch: Who ever sat deep in the cellar. Memories of a rebel. Edel, Hamburg 2009, ISBN 978-3-941378-17-9 .

Web links

Commons : Gunter Gabriel  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Gunter Gabriel at laut.de
  2. ↑ Gunter Gabriel is dead. In: bild.de. June 22, 2017. Retrieved June 22, 2017 .
  3. ↑ a b c d e f g Torsten Hampel: The road cruiser . In: Der Tagesspiegel online . January 2, 2011.
  4. ↑ Gunter Gabriel / Oliver Flesch: Whoever sat deep in the cellar: memories of a rebel . noble edition, 2009, ISBN 978-3-941378-17-9 .
  5. ↑ One to One The Talk: Gunter Gabriel  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . In: br.de .@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / cdn-storage.br.de  
  6. ↑ chartsurfer.de: He Is A Guy (The 30 Ton Diesel)
  7. ↑ Christian Schröder: I am my greatest enemy. In: tagesspiegel.de. April 26, 2003. Retrieved June 24, 2017 .
  8. ↑ Andreas Weihs: Gunter Gabriel and Helen Schneider shine in Hello I'm Johnny Cash. In: countrymusicnews.de. August 27, 2010. Retrieved June 24, 2017 .
  9. ↑ Germany's most famous houseboat inhabitant: A visit to Gunter Gabriel. (No longer available online.) In: roomido. May 6, 2016, archived from the original on May 17, 2016 ; accessed on April 15, 2019 .
  10. ↑ Gunter Gabriel's houseboat is back in Harburg's inland port - harburg-aktuell.de. Retrieved August 8, 2020 .
  11. ↑ Asphalt Cowboys - The Series. In: dmax.de. Retrieved June 24, 2017 .
  12. ↑ Andreas Grabahn: Gunter Gabriel moves to the 2016 jungle camp. In: countrymusic.com. January 7, 2016, accessed January 8, 2016 .
  13. ↑ Peter Steinert: Gunter Gabriel fell in the Hotel Waldesrand. In: Neue Westfälische online. June 22, 2017. Retrieved June 24, 2017 .
  14. ↑ Without any celebrities, but with the whole family: Quiet farewell to Gunter Gabriel . In: focus.de . July 24, 2017, accessed August 1, 2017.
  15. ^ Klaus Nerger: Memorial stone for Gunter Gabriel. In: knerger.de. Retrieved July 14, 2018 .
  16. ^ Gunter Gabriel: Burial at sea. In: youtube.com. August 1, 2017, accessed July 14, 2018 .
personal data
SURNAME Gabriel, Gunter
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Caspelherr, Günter (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German country and pop singer, composer, lyricist, producer, voice actor and television presenter
DATE OF BIRTH June 11, 1942
PLACE OF BIRTH Frets
DATE OF DEATH 22nd June 2017
Place of death Hanover