Learning English Lesson One

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Learning English Lesson One
Studio album by Die Toten Hosen

Publication
(s)

November 11, 1991

Label (s) DEAD, Virgin

Format (s)

CD, LP, MC

Genre (s)

Punk rock

Title (number)

24

running time

49:10

occupation

production

Jon Caffery

Studio (s)

  • Church, London
  • Sigma, New York
  • Nos Nuvens, Rio de Janeiro
  • Dierks , stommels
chronology
On the Crusade Into Happiness
(1990) 		Learning English Lesson One Buy me!
(1993)

Learning English Lesson One is the seventh studio album by Die Toten Hosen and their first album with only English lyrics. It was produced within a year in London, New York, Rio de Janeiro and Cologne under the direction of Jon Caffery and was first released on November 11, 1991.

The album consists largely of covers of punk music pieces that were originally released in England and the USA in the late 1970s. During the recordings for this new production, at least one member of the original band took part as a guest musician on every song.

Emergence

After the success of their album Auf dem Kreuzzug ins Glück and completely sold out tours, the band found themselves creatively at a dead end. In addition, alcohol and drug problems within the group hindered rehearsals for a new album. To gain distance, the band traveled together to England in the winter of 1990 to meet friends there and to take part in the pool billiards championship in Fulham at the "Golden Dragon". On the first evening in London, the musicians met with Honest John Plain and Arturo Bassick, and the idea arose to cover some of the titles of the punk bands whose music had decisively influenced the Toten Hosen. They wanted to invite as many members of the original band as possible to take part in the recordings. A few days later the band recorded Ian "Knox" Carnochan from the Vibrators , John Plain and Matt Dangerfield from the Boys , Arturo Bassick and Pete Stride from the Lurkers and Charlie Harper from the UK Subs one of each of their hit songs. Enthusiastic about the result of the collaboration, the band decided to expand the spectrum considerably and develop a new album from it.

The search for the "veterans" of punk from the 1970s followed. Punk rock had gone out of style. Many “heroes” of the genre had moved away to an unknown extent or were now pursuing a civil profession. Addresses and telephone numbers were not always easy to obtain. Arturo Bassick, who had played in many punk bands and now worked as a furniture driver in order to make a living, was able to arrange various contacts. Most of the former punks were also unknown to the German band “Die Toten Hosen”, and some were skeptical of the project. For example, Johnny Rotten from the Sex Pistols was not ready to take part in the project. The majority, however, were pleased about the interest in their old pieces and accepted the invitation. In the spring of 1991, the London Church Studio was rented for twelve days and additional tracks were recorded.

During the transport to Düsseldorf, with which a courier service had been hired, the recording tapes suffered considerable damage and showed failures in various places, so the band invited most of their guests to Studio Dierks in Stommeln to re-record a few tracks. Due to overlapping dates, the band had to cancel the concerts at the summer festivals that had already been announced for the summer.

In the meantime, Wreckless Eric was found in France, where he was traveling with his mobile home. He continued his journey towards Cologne to take part in the recordings.

The Toten Hosen got the home number of Johnny Thunders through his American record company. He visited the band after their invitation in Cologne and recorded the cover of his composition Born to Lose with them . However, Johnny Thunders could no longer listen to the finished recordings because he died 36 hours later, on April 23, 1991, of complications from his drug addiction.

The telephone number of mail robber Ronald Biggs , who had already made a record with the Sex Pistols, was painstakingly obtained through a journalist friend from the Daily Telegraph . It later turned out that a call to information would have been enough, since Biggs' number was in the Brazilian phone book. In August the band visited Biggs in his exile in Rio de Janeiro . In the studio "Nos Nuvens", in addition to a few cover versions, the song Carnival in Rio (Punk Was) was created , which later appeared as the only first release on the album.

Die Toten Hosen were not an unknown band for Joey Ramone , because Campino had already conducted an interview with the punk icon in 1989 for Musikexpress magazine . In the summer of 1991 the band went into the studio in New York with Joey Ramone, Dick Manitoba and Cheetah Chrome ( Dead Boys ). On November 11, 1991, the album Learning English was released for the first time.

chapter

The album is designed like a teaching record for the English language. "Janet" and "John" guide you through the course and gradually bring the listener closer to the language. The voice of "Janet" belongs to Campino's mother, Jenny Frege. "John" is voiced by Geoffrey Haslam , former producer of The Velvet Underground . The chapters are structured according to topics like in a textbook and divided into individual steps. The individual music titles serve as exercise texts. These are all fast, melodic songs from the heyday of punk rock . Text, rhythm and melody were not changed in principle. The pieces, however, benefit from the improved recording technology and a professional recording.

First step

Excerpt from Blitzkrieg Bop audio sample ? / iAudio file / audio sample

Janet and John present the album as a beginner's course for vacationers and business people, rock 'n' roll fans and the misled. One should listen carefully and have paper and pencil ready for notes. The first chapter is entitled "Relax", but begins with the fast-paced song Blitzkrieg Bop by the Ramones and the ten-fold request "Hey Ho, Let's go!", Sung together by Campino, Joey Ramone and Handsome Dick Manitoba .

In the song Brickfield Nights , the boys once remembered their youth in the sleepy town of Brickfield, where there was neither a café nor a youth club. Every evening they met in the same place to kick a soccer ball and scratch their initials on the school wall. Campino sings the simple melody with Matt Dangerfield. Honest John Plain supports on the guitar.

Second step

The second chapter is devoted to numbers. First, laughing, John calculates that someone who is no longer twelve and not yet 14, simply has to be 13 years old. Then Campino counts up to 13 as an intro for Just Thirteen . The song, which accompanies Pete Stride from the Lurkers on guitar, is about a girl who represents everyone who has exceeded this age limit. Before she was shy, now she is a “wild girl”, before she played in the park in the afternoons, now she waits until it gets dark. Before she had treated her school friends lovingly, now she prefers to look “cool”.

The author bands of the following two songs have numbers in their names. With the song If the Kids Are United , Sham 69 called on young people to unite among punks , skins , Teds , rockers and mods at the time of the gang wars in England at the end of the 1970s . Jimmy Pursey , who sings here with Campino and wrote the song, was always open to anyone who wanted to hear his music. In their song Nasty Nasty, the band 999 speaks directly to a young person and asks him what goes on in him when he goes out on the streets at night to look for a fight. Nick Cash and Guy Days from 999 are involved here.

Third step

Janet and John talk about their hobby, which they share with the radio stars . They love to take pictures, and as they say they are not vacation snaps. In the rock 'n' roll piece Dirty Pictures Campino receives vocals from Andy Ellisons. To the rolling guitar accompaniment and the backbeat of the drums, they sing in 4/4 time: “I wanna take some dirty pictures of you!” In the punk hit Baby Baby by the vibrators , Campino sings with Knox: “Ah, your eyes are so pretty, and the clothes you wear they're so fine. "

The main character in Gary Gilmore's Eyes fears what she will see in the future. She wakes up after a cornea transplant in the hospital and realizes that she has received the eyes of an executed murderer and never wants to open her eyelids again. When T.V. Smith wrote the song in 1977, he had previously read a newspaper article about Gary Gilmore . The man was a convicted murderer who insisted on his speedy execution and that his eyes be used for transplant purposes. Smith wondered if the recipient of the cornea would have read the article without knowing whose eyes he was looking through. The Adverts song had an unexpectedly quick hit in the UK charts in 1977. Ironically, the title was consistently mispronounced by the BBC presenters , and many thought it was about an athlete. Gary Gilmour was one of the stars of the English cricket team .

Without a transition it continues with Johnny Thunders ' Born to Lose , which marks the center of the sound carrier. The album is, according to a statement in the accompanying booklet, “ The Album is dedicated to Johnny Thunders. ”, Dedicated to the late musician. Johnny Thunders had managed to record his guitar playing because of the special acoustics in the bathroom. Every single guest had the chorus “ Baby, I'm born to lose! ”Later sung on tape. The recordings were mixed together so that at the end a choir of all participants can be heard. TV Smith didn't like the lyrics. He said that he had never sung the word "baby" in his entire life and that he would definitely not start that day. Instead he would sing "Maybe".

When the Rockafellas went to America

Janet and John continue the language practice and ask, “ Do you remember the Rockafellas? You don't? - Janet and John do. ”Then they tell of the four lucky guys who went to Hollywood as a band called“ The Rockafellas ”to gain fame and glory, but never heard from again. The first verse to the song Do You Remember has been rewritten. Die Toten Hosen remember how disappointed they drove back to Düsseldorf as quickly as possible after a performance in Birmingham for which they were not paid because the "noise" did not get through. It continues with the original text, which tells of the "Rockafellas", who fared similarly in 1977 in Los Angeles. Wolfgang Rohde writes about the band in the booklet:

“ The Rockafallas were a total cult for me back then. This single came out in the fall of '77. They stormed the indie charts and the New Musical Express dedicated a cover story to the boys. The Rockafellas could have come out huge, but a high-value contract with a US industrial label and their name, which led to constant confusion, earned them an undeserved reputation as "commercial punks". This broke the band. The individual members returned to their bourgeois professions as unemployed and fathers, only bassist Martin 'Mitchel' Rockafella remained connected to rock'n'roll in the broadest sense. Today he earns his bread as a roadie for Blue Öyster Cult . During a three-week tour break with his employers, which Martin used for a short home vacation, we dragged him to the studio in London. "

British refugee Ronald Biggs also remembers old times and answers his little son Robin in Carnival in Rio (Punk Was) to the question: “ Dad, what was Punk Rock? ”: He explains to him that punk was mean, undemanding, tasteless and meant riot. He was cheap, shameless and criminal and every night there was a binge. They didn't let anyone get them down and they didn't care who liked their music.

fourth step

The tutorial continues: “Janet and John worked in a canning factory. Now they are unemployed. Are you unemployed? Yes they are unemployed. They firmly believe that they have a right to work. ”This is how the song Right to Work by Chelsea is popular, whose slogan:“ We have the right to work! “Campino sings with Gene October.

The narrator in Wreckless Eric's song Whole Wide World dreams of the girl who should be made for him alone. Maybe she lives far away in Tahiti or the Bahamas , knows nothing about him and therefore weeps in the tropical moonlight. This is what his mom once told him when he was a little boy. He is ready to search for this girl all over the world. The protagonist in the subsequent song Smash It Up by Captain Sensible says he has cried enough. He wants to smash everything and scream his soul out. He didn't care how he looked, he didn't want to be a fool like all the others. In Stranglehold it is ( "a thirteen-year-old who holds the singer in her spell she's gotta hold on me "), which hugs the vice-like stranglehold ( " stranglehold be"). Charley Harper sings the UK Subs hit with Campino.

Fifth step

Janet and John are sitting in a cocktail bar explaining how it is possible to make a Molotov cocktail using gasoline, a handkerchief and a bottle . "I send you my best wishes and a Molotov cocktail" is the response of a young adult to the constant admonitions of his parents. Neal O'Connor wrote the song Love and a Molotov Cocktail for his band The Flys . He sings here with Campino and accompanies on guitar. Do Anything You Wanna do made it to number 9 on the UK charts and addresses one of the ideologies of punk, not to be dictated by anyone. Eddie & the Hot Rods frontman Barry Masters was unable to attend as he was in jail. Graeme Douglas took his place and accompanied Campino on guitar.

Janet and John say goodbye

The unofficial English national anthem Land of Hope and Glory is playing in the background . Janet and John say goodbye, hoping the listeners enjoyed the classy English lesson and instructions. John says that this language course was an inferior experiment, but that nobody would care about his opinion. As a recommendation he sends afterwards: “ And now play this record until you're sick of it. ”(In German: “ And now play this record until you're tired of it. ” )

Title and guest list

guest list
  1. Step One - 0:31
  2. Blitzkrieg Bop - 1:50 ( Ramones )
  3. Brickfield Nights - 3:34 ( The Boys )
  4. Step Two - 0:11
  5. Just Thirteen - 2:30 ( The Lurkers )
  6. If the Kids Are United - 3:08 ( Sham 69 )
  7. Nasty Nasty - 2:06 ( 999 )
  8. Step Three - 0:17
  9. Dirty Pictures - 2:15 ( Radio Stars )
  10. Baby Baby - 3:13 ( The Vibrators )
  11. Gary Gilmore's Eyes - 2:15 ( The Adverts )
  12. Born to Lose - 3:21 ( The Heartbreakers )
  13. How the Rockafellas Went to Hollywood - 0:18
  14. Do You Remember - 3:25 (The Rockafellas)
  15. Carnival in Rio (Punk Was) - 3:08 (M: Campino , von Holst / T: Biggs )
  16. Step Four - 0:18
  17. Right to Work - 3:03 ( Chelsea )
  18. Whole Wide World - 3:19 ( Wreckless Eric )
  19. Smash It Up - 2:57 ( The Damned )
  20. Stranglehold - 2:11 ( UK Subs )
  21. Step Five - 0:22
  22. Love and a Molotov Cocktail - 2:30 ( The Flys )
  23. Do Anything You Wanna Do - 4:27 ( Eddie & the Hot Rods )
  24. Goodbye From Janet & John - 1:01

Singles

12 inch EP
The Nightmare Continues

In the "Nos Nuvens" studio, Die Toten Hosen had recorded two more tracks with Ronald Biggs, which appeared in 1991 as the B-side on the single Carnival in Rio (Punk Was) . It's No One Is Innocent , a collaboration between Biggs and the Sex Pistols , first released in 1978, and the song Police on My Back , a cover of The Equals .

Sawtooth CD
If the Kids Are United

The second single came out in 1991 with Baby Baby with Do you Remember and the song Richmond by the London band "Pin Point", which Arturo Bassick founded after he had left the Lurkers . Bassick also participates in the cover version as a singer. Whole Wide World and Do Anything You Wanna Do were also released as a single in 1992, which also includes a cover of We Love You . The Rolling Stones wrote the song in 1967 when they narrowly escaped a long sentence for numerous drug offenses to thank their fans and the media for their loyalty.

In 1991, the title appeared Do Anything you wanna do , Baby, Baby , If the Kids Are United and Whole Wide World again as red 12-inch vinyl - EP limited edition, called The Nightmare Continues (English "The nightmare continues" ). Another decoupling of the song If the Kids Are United is on a Shape CD single, which the bands Die Toten Hosen and Sham 69 released together in 1992. The single, in the form of a circular saw blade, also contains the songs Individual and Blackpool by Sham 69.

Music videos

The band had sent their own camera back to Germany for the filming of Carnival In Rio (Punk Was) because the Brazilian customs, after five hours of testing, demanded utopian fees for it. With the equipment rented on site, Markus Herold filmed the band members and Ronald Biggs during the studio recordings, while taking the tram in Rio de Janeiro , strolling through Santa Teresa , or playing football on Copacabana .

A video for the single Baby Baby was also due to appear in 1991, the production of which was initially commissioned by Hanns Christian Müller . It's about trousers that positively change the effect of a person on their surroundings as soon as they put them on. Numerous glossy photos of the filming in a Munich pub were published in Fryderyk Gabowicz's photo book . The video itself didn't convince the band and was therefore discarded. Walter Knofel created a clip in which the band played in front of a glistening white wall dressed in bright colors. In between, black and white shots of a fashion show from the 1970s are shown, on which heavily made-up models with eye-catching hats, glasses and clothes in a checkerboard pattern walk the catwalk.

resonance

Chart positions
Explanation of the data
Albums
Learning English Lesson One
  DE 14th 11/18/1991 (21 weeks)
  AT 38 12/15/1991 (2 weeks)
  CH 23 December 8, 1991 (4 weeks)
Singles
Carnival in Rio (Punk Was)
  DE 36 11/18/1991 (5 weeks)

The band was successfully on tour from March to September 1992 under the motto People, Animals, Sensations , during which a number of musicians who were involved in the album appeared as guests. This included Ronald Biggs, to whom Die Toten Hosen presented his gold record for Learning English Lesson One at a concert in São Paulo . The album was sold over 250,000 times nationwide. Even for Joey Ramone it was the first gold record of his career.

In addition to positions in the top 40 of the charts in German-speaking countries, Die Toten Hosen were also noticed in England after the album was released. The video for Baby Baby was shown frequently on MTV. On March 5, 1992 they played in Borderline, which was sold out within 15 minutes, and on April 9, 1992 in the Marquee Club , where the audience only released them after five encores.

The album was released in Japan in 1991 and in the USA in 1994. In these export versions, the tracks are lined up without transitions and contain the song Richmond as track no. 14 . For the cover photo, the band wrapped themselves in the British flag. Andreas Meurer recalls in 2007: “ Learning English was a matter close to our hearts. And the LP also proved to be a door opener for other countries. We were in the charts in Scandinavia and the record even ran in the USA. One of the best moments of my music career was when I was in a fish and chip shop in Notting Hill and suddenly I heard each other on the radio. Once - only once - I had such a top star feeling. "

In Germany the album was welcomed by the music press. The Musikexpress described it as “the most coherent compilation of the best punk rock hits to date. Everything damn original, just better played and produced than back then, the album shows that punk rock, as the Hosen think, has a lot more to do with melodies and rock'n roll than with alk & noise. ” And writes in another article on the recording of the album more appreciative words: "What U2 with, Rattle and Hum 'have tried to succeed in the pants with, Learning English': So consequently rarely has a band laid bare their roots." the Metal hammer dedicated the album in January 1992 a cover story and describes it as follows: “ A collection of songs, each of which is a highlight in itself, but which all have that connecting element in common, which already defines the pants songs they created themselves: sometimes brute power combined with good hooks and melodies. "

New edition 2007

For the 25th anniversary, Learning English - Lesson One was remastered along with 16 other albums by the band . The new edition contains previously unpublished pieces or pieces that were published as B-sides. An additional booklet contains a new interview with Die Toten Hosen. In conversation with Jan Weiler , the band remembers the creation of the album and tells about its importance in their career from today's perspective.

Additional title

  1. No One Is Innocent - 3:03 Cover by Sex Pistols (Music: Steve Jones / Text: Biggs)
  2. Should I Stay or Should I Go? - 2:43 cover of The Clash ( Mick Jones / Joe Strummer )
  3. Rockaway Beach - 1:59 cover by the Ramones (T. + M .: Colvin, Cummings, Erdelyi, Hyman)
  4. Eddie & Sheena - 4:24 Cover of Wayne County & The Electric Chairs (Rogers)
  5. Richmond - 2:39 cover of "Pin Point" (Billingsley, Allen, Griffiths)
  6. In Still of the Night - 4:11 (Campino, Plain )
  7. Anything but Love - 3:58 (Campino, Dangerfield)
  8. I Met Her at the Jet Grill - 1:56 ( Meurer / Campino, Plain)

continuation

A sequel called Learning English Lesson Two was released in 2017 as an add-on to the album Laune der Natur .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g Jan Weiler : Children, how time flies… Die Toten Hosen tell - Jan Weiler listens to 1982-2007 . Booklet for the new edition 2007, part 8: Learning English, Lesson 1 .
  2. ↑ a b Bertram Job : Die Toten Hosen tell their story , Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne 1996, pages 242–248.
  3. ↑ a b c d Die Toten Hosen: Magazine for the tour people, animals, sensations . Universa Medien Verlags GmbH, Dortmund 1992, pp. 8-11.
  4. ↑ a b Friends of the House - Arturo Bassick. Die Toten Hosen, accessed February 1, 2015 .
  5. ^ Jürgen Seibold : VIP Die Toten Hosen Paul Zsolnay Verlag, Vienna 1992, ISBN 3-552-05005-1 , pp. 22-27.
  6. ↑ a b Over the years they have worked very, very hard on their musical skills. Die Toten Hosen, January 2001, archived from the original on June 25, 2013 ; Retrieved October 20, 2013 .
  7. ↑ Campino : Tote Hose in New York . In: Musikexpress . No. 11 , 1989, pp. 86-88 .
  8. ↑ a b c d Hollow Skai : Die Toten Hosen . Hannibal, A-Höfen 2007, ISBN 978-3-85445-281-2 . Page 93–94.
  9. ↑ Musikexpress, edition 11/1991, page 12.
  10. ^ Text Brickfield Nights on the official website The Boys .
  11. ↑ a b Booklet for the album, 262 310.
  12. ^ TV Smith's Lyrics - Gary Gilmore's Eyes. Retrieved June 23, 2017 .
  13. ↑ Dave Thompson : Your Ticket Out Of Here - The Armchair Guide to TV Smith , E-Book, 21.
  14. ↑ a b Edgar Klüsener: Die Toten Hosen - Learning English the first. Punk rock lives on in Toten Hosen , Metal Hammer , Issue 1, January 1992, pp. 32–35.
  15. ↑ Booklet for the album: “ Lots of thanks to Little Robin for asking his father about Punk Rock. ”
  16. ^ Carnival in Rio. Die Toten Hosen, accessed January 30, 2015 .
  17. ↑ Whole Wide World in the original by Weckless Eric at Discogs as an audio sample , accessed on September 21, 2012.
  18. ↑ Fryderyk Gabowicz : Die Toten Hosen. Live backstage studio: photographs 1986–2006. Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2006, ISBN 3-89602-732-8 , pages 68-71.
  19. ↑ Fryderyk Gabowicz: Die Toten Hosen. Live backstage studio: photographs 1986–2006. Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2006, ISBN 3-89602-732-8 , pages 72-75.
  20. ↑ Hollow Skai: The Dead Pants . Hannibal, A-Höfen 2007, ISBN 978-3-85445-281-2 . Page 132.
  21. ↑ Hit parade Austria
  22. ^ Swiss charts
  23. ↑ Fryderyk Gabowicz: Die Toten Hosen. Live backstage studio: photographs 1986–2006 . Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2006, ISBN 3-89602-732-8 , page 105.
  24. ↑ Federal Association of the Music Industry: BVMI | Database. Retrieved June 23, 2017 .
  25. ^ Jürgen Seibold: VIP Die Toten Hosen Paul Zsolnay Verlag, Vienna 1992, ISBN 3-552-05005-1 , page 56.
  26. ↑ Learning English in the All Music Guide
  27. ↑ Martin Scholz: And now everyone… . Musikexpress , issue 11/1991, page 14.
This version was added to the list of articles worth reading on October 24, 2008 .