Marble, stone and iron breaks
Marble, stone and iron breaks is the title of a hit by Drafi Deutscher from 1965. The melody was written by Christian Bruhn , the lyrics by Günter Loose . The piece became an evergreen and Deutscher's greatest success.
History of origin
In October 1965, 19-year-old Drafi Deutscher appeared in the music publisher Edition Intro Gebrüder Meisel GmbH and trilled "dam-dam, dam-dam". The pop composer Christian Bruhn, who worked with the publisher, asked for the continuation, to which Deutscher replied: “Det you do.” Under the provisional working title “Marble stone and iron breaks”, the author Günter Loose wrote a text, Bruhn provided the melody.
Drafi Deutschers backing band Magics was responsible for the instrumentation and consisted of Walter Stein (lead guitar), Lothar Ferchland (rhythm guitar; see Papa Binne's Jazz Band ), Andy Nielebock (bass guitar) and Tom Wetzel (drums). Wetzel's drums play a double-time in the respective repetition of the refrain - in which Deutscher also sings in a higher pitch - a doubled rhythm within the unchanged bar structure. The drums are supported by a ring collar. Two power chords with minimalistic playing of the electric guitar (root note - fifth, here partly with an alternation between fifth and sixth) are the hallmarks of the song. The chords of the electric guitar repeat after the intro as background music for the verses. Shortly before the chorus, the second electric guitar starts. E-bass and drums are added in the chorus.
Publication and Success
The single from "Drafi Deutscher And His Magics" was released in October 1965 under the title Marble, Stone and Iron breaks / These are the lonely years (Decca D 19 735). On December 4, 1965, it first reached first place on the German charts , which it held for five weeks. The record sold more than 800,000 copies in Germany alone by April 1966 and over a million copies worldwide with the help of the English-language version that was added in May 1966. In Germany, marble, stone and iron breaks received a gold record . For the US market, Marcel Stellman had written an English text entitled Marble Breaks and Iron Bends , which at least made it to 80th place on the US hit parade. The piece also became a number one hit in Austria, and in the Netherlands the title came third.
According to Coverinfo, there are 50 cover versions , including parodies. The bronze version of the title was given at the 14th award of the Lion by Radio Luxembourg in 1965 in Essen. A film of the same name with Drafi Deutscher was released on August 13, 1982, but it was only partially based on Drafi Deutscher's life.
Grammar in the title
It is sometimes asserted that the enumeration of marble, stone and iron is correctly followed by the verb to break in the plural form instead of breaks in the singular form; Because of this alleged error, the song was even not played on Bavarian radio for a long time. Christian Bruhn didn't understand the excitement. After all, like “Glück und Glas, how easily it breaks”, it is a “singularis materialis” that is quite common in poetry.
Individual evidence
- ^ Christian Bruhn: Marmor, Stein und Liebeskummer , 2005, p. 130
- Jump up ↑ Joseph Murrells: The Book of Golden Discs: The Records That Sold a Million . 2nd Edition. Limp Edition, London 1978, ISBN 0-214-20512-6 , pp. 188-189 .
- ^ Günter Ehnert: Hit balance sheet - German chart singles 1956-1980 . 1st edition. Verlag popular music-literature, Norderstedt 2000, ISBN 3-922542-24-7 , p. 443 .
- ↑ Dutch Charts December 1965
- ↑ Bastian Sick : Onion Fish - Broken Marble Stone , Der Spiegel from June 14, 2006; Matthias Heine: Dam Dam; Dam Dam , Die Welt, June 12, 2006