Dogs want to rock forever
Do you want to rock dogs forever is the first part of the autobiography of the Swiss rock musician and music producer Chris von Rohr . The second part is entitled Banana Flank . The autobiographical work with the subtitle "My trip through the rock jungle" deals with Rohrs' life from his birth to his turbulent expulsion from the hard rock band Krokus, which he founded in December 1983. The author celebrated during the time covered in the book great international successes with his band, u. a. multiple platinum awards or honorary citizenship of the US state of Tennessee .
content
Chris von Rohr introduces the just over 400 pages of his work Do you want to rock forever, not with his birth, but with an excerpt from the rock star life that he and his bandmates from Krokus lived through in 1983 during the headhunter tour. With the help of the first chapter, it offers the reader a foretaste of alcohol, parties, groupies and jetlag during the extensive tour activities. Only then does von Rohr go to work in chronological order and in the course of his birth, in the following chapter, introduce the most important members of his family and his hometown Solothurn , from which he clearly distanced himself in terms of the dreary climate and the staid citizenship at the time the book was written. Furthermore, in chapters two to four, the future rock musician talks openly about his childhood and youth, about his close relationship with nature, his aversion to the school system, his experiences in boarding school or his first great love. From the beginning, von Rohr's relationship to music is at the center of the work. B. his first conscious contact with musical instruments (the in-house “room piano” and a drum kit), his first concert visit (a performance by the German beat band The Lords), the founding of his first band The Scouts and their first appearance as well as the musical influences that made him had a lasting impact in his childhood and youth.
Subsequently, in chapters 4 and 5, von Rohr outlines how his youthful dream of becoming a musician finally developed into a serious intention. He also vividly describes the adversities that arose from his career aspiration: on the one hand, the parents' skepticism, who, due to various problems at school and especially after the decision to drop out of studies at the business school in Neuchâtel, became incomprehensible, angry and completely forbidden financial support; the resulting financial worries and working as a cook; In addition, the difficulty of finding suitable comrades-in-arms for a band and of working up or asserting oneself in the musician hierarchy of the city's music scene. He openly explains the ups and downs in his already eventful musician existence: He describes his rocky but ultimately successful personal rise as a young adult musician in Solothurn, which was made possible by the founding of the bands Plastic Joint and Inside (a trio together with the later Krokus musicians Peter Richard and Tommy Kiefer) reached its peak. He talks about his first and at the same time insane job as a professional musician in the dance band On the Road, as well as about the negative experiences he had to survive together with the organist Michael Szabo as a duo under the name Nighttrain in the regional music business. In addition, von Rohr continues to report openly on relationships, sexual experiences, the first contact with LSD and coping with normal everyday life, e.g. B. about accommodation in a residential ghetto including subsequent evacuation by the police or resumption of the cooking profession for financial security.
From the 6th to the 14th chapter the author devotes himself mainly to his volume Krokus. It describes the initially slowly but steadily increasing level of awareness in Switzerland during the early years, when the author himself was still on the drums and took over the vocals, as well as the consistent style correction from playful progressive rock to straightforward hard rock. The three studio albums Krokus , To You All and Pain Killer (also released under the name Pay It in Metal ) were created during this phase. He talks about an AC / DC concert that turned out to be the key experience to find out what was still missing from the band's sound at that time: a singer with more vocal volume. Von Rohr outlines the sudden international breakthrough of Krokus - after a suitable singer was found in Marc Storace and he himself voluntarily switched to bass - through the fourth studio album Metal Rendez-Vous , the consolidation of the success through the next albums Hardware and One Vice at a Time and the career highlight with the release of the seventh studio album Headhunter . In the course of his experiences with Krokus, the rock musician and music producer u. a. the chaotic recordings for the debut album, the first video shoot, the first recordings in England, the tough recruitment attempts to win Storace for Krokus, the culture shock on returning to Switzerland after the first US tour, the drug problems of Tommy Kiefer and the one that followed beginning era of line-up changes, the endeavor to maintain relationships during extensive tour activities, as well as the look behind the scenes of a rock star according to the motto sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll. This first part of Rohrs' autobiography ends with his turbulent and spectacular dismissal from the band in December 1983.
In the outro, Chris von Rohr briefly describes the most important events between 1984 and 1991, i.e. the period that was not described in detail in either part of his autobiography. In it he mentions the solo album Hammer and Tongue published in 1987 , his brief return to Krokus from 1987 to 1989 and the cover project The Heavy's, in which he covered well-known rock and metal songs together with Fernando von Arb, Jürg Naegeli and Peter Tanner in 1989 Put together medleys and released the final product under the name Metal Marathon .
Creation and publication
Rohr came up with the idea of writing an autobiography in the mid-1980s after he was kicked out of Krokus . The author himself describes these years as "trance years", in which he felt nothing but a great emptiness and a seized disorientation. Von Rohr tried to escape this lethargy by taking refuge in work so as not to think too much and, ultimately, “so as not to go nuts”.
The autobiography, which finally got the title Dogs Will You Rock Forever. A trip through the rock jungle was supposed to take place without the help of a ghostwriter , and took the author about 2000 hours of work. The first edition of the work was finally published in 1991, after the brief return to Krokus between 1987 and 1989. Parallel to the book publication, Rock Power magazine published excerpts from the February 1992 issue in the manner of a sequel. The 11th edition of the book is now available. In 2003, chapters 1 to 8 of the bestseller were also published as a 5-CD audio book. Von Rohr himself took on the task of reading in the sound document, which also contains song fragments from previously unpublished Krokus songs.
Do you want to rock dogs forever has only been published as a paperback and not as a hardback edition.
reception
Fans of hard rock music and the literary trade press was dog you would ever rock mostly well received. In particular, the combination of openness, clarity and pun, with which von Rohr shares the most important experiences of his early years with the reader, was seen as a major plus point of the work.
“ This breathtaking cult best-seller has it all. "
“ The rock book of the decade. "
“ Rigorously honest, absolutely authentic, without whitewashing… And spiced with lots of humor and cheeky sayings […]. "
“ Cheeky, funny, open, philosophical, sharp. "
“ You want to rock dogs forever: That should be on my tombstone. "
“ A book to laugh, cry and think about. "
" Yes. To love rock'n roll means to live rock'n roll. "
“ Dogs you want to rock forever is a cracker in his profession and even if you are not a big Krokus fan, this part remains a must read. "
In 1995 crocus guitarist Fernando von Arb made a good face to the bad game: “It's written in a very humorous way! But not everyone enjoyed themselves as much as I did! "
expenditure
- Chris von Rohr : You dogs want to rock forever. My trip through the rock jungle. 11th edition, Steinblatt, Lugano 1991. ISBN 3-9520081-0-9
- Chris von Rohr: You dogs want to rock forever. My trip through the rock jungle. Part 1 , Magenta Media AG, Zurich 2003. ISBN 9783952286517
Web links
Remarks
- ↑ blick.ch - We are no longer a drunk bunch . Retrieved December 11, 2014.
- ↑ Chris von Rohr: You want to rock dogs forever. My trip through the rock jungle. 1991, pp. 404-405.
- ↑ Chris von Rohr: You want to rock dogs forever. My trip through the rock jungle. 1991, p. 405.
- ↑ Chris von Rohr: You want to rock dogs forever. My trip through the rock jungle. 1991, p. 405.
- ↑ Chris von Rohr: You want to rock dogs forever. My trip through the rock jungle. 1991, back cover.
- ↑ Chris von Rohr: You want to rock dogs forever. My trip through the rock jungle. 1991, back cover.
- ↑ Andreas Schöwe: Do you dogs want to rock forever? Chris von Rohr. In: Metal Hammer . May 1992, p. 158 .
- ↑ Chris von Rohr: You want to rock dogs forever. My trip through the rock jungle. 1991, back cover.
- ↑ Chris von Rohr: You want to rock dogs forever. My trip through the rock jungle. 1991, back cover.
- ↑ Chris von Rohr: You want to rock dogs forever. My trip through the rock jungle. 1991, back cover.
- ↑ Chris von Rohr: You want to rock dogs forever. My trip through the rock jungle. 1991, back cover.
- ↑ - ( Memento of the original from December 13, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. streetclip.tv - specials - rock books, biographies - the legible side of metal. Retrieved December 11, 2014.
- ↑ Andreas Schöwe: Crocus . Spring awakening. In: Metal Hammer . April 1995, p. 126 .
