Mother (song)

mother
publication	March 25, 2002
length	3:40 (single version) 4:28 (album version)
Genre (s)	New German Hardness
Author (s)	Rammstein
Producer (s)	Jacob Hellner , Rammstein
Label	Motor Music
album	mother

Mother is a song by German New German Hardness - band Rammstein . It was written by Rammstein and produced by Jacob Hellner together with the band. The song is the fourth single from their third studio album Mutter and was released on March 25, 2002.

content

The text written by Till Lindemann describes the situation of a motherless person who cries for an identity and - as a paradox - wants to take revenge on his mother because she was never there for him:

"To the mother who never gave birth to me
I swore tonight
I will give her a disease
and then sink her in the river"

- Excerpt from mother's text

The lyric self is identified as a clone in many interpretations . However, Lindemann's poetry is full of references to horror literature and often cannot or cannot be fully understood without it (e.g. " My heart burns " as a processing of ETA Hoffmann's " The Sandman "). For the song "Mutter" the identification of the lyric self with Frankenstein's monster is obvious. Lindemann's performance in the accompanying video corresponds - fittingly - to several modern film interpretations of the monster; So the worn contact lenses are reminiscent of Robert de Niro's Frankenstein embodiment from 1994 . Just like a clone, Frankenstein's monster has at most a father, but not a mother.

At the beginning there are soft bells and the wailing of a baby to be heard. Then Lindemann sings the stanzas in a calm voice. In contrast, there is the screaming “mother” in the chorus, with powerful guitars playing to a catchy string melody. At the end, the chorus is played a second higher. According to Flake Lorenz, the composition comes from lead guitarist Richard Kruspe .

Music video

The music video for Mutter was shot by Joern Heitmann in the winter of 2001/2002 in Germany and premiered on March 25, 2002.

In the video, Till Lindemann is the only actor. He takes turns playing a dark-clad man who travels in a boat across a lake at night and drifts under water with his eyes closed in some sequences - a visual reminiscence of the cover of the album of the same name - and a barely dressed man, possibly a clone who lives in is locked in a hole dug in the ground under a grid. Since Lindemann had a shaved head at that time, he said he wore a wig for the role of boatman.

In the course of the making-of for the video, which was subsequently created for the DVD Videos 1995–2012 , the band reported that in the original planning, as usual, all group members were intended as protagonists. But since the musicians had returned from a tour just a few days before the scheduled recording date and the majority of them wanted a vacation, the shoot was only done by Lindemann in the end. In addition, the participation rights of the absent members of the otherwise strictly democratic band were restricted. According to Christoph Schneider, the finished video later led to such differences of opinion that the group almost split up.

single

Cover design

The single cover shows the face of the Rammstein singer Till Lindemann, who has closed his eyes. The white lettering Rammstein and Mutter is located on the right in the picture , while the Rammstein logo can be seen in the top left. The cover has an orange cast .

Track list

1. Mother (Radio Edit) - 3:40
2. Mother ( Vocoder Mix) - 4:32
3. 5/4 - 5:30
4. Mother ( Sono's Incubator Mix) - 7:22

• The single was also released as a 2-track CD, only with the songs mother and 5/4 .

Chart successes

On April 8, 2002, Mutter entered the German charts at number 47 and stayed in the top 100 for four weeks. In Austria and Switzerland, however, the single did not reach the charts.

Chart placements

Charts	Top ranking	Weeks
Chart placements
Germany (GfK)	47 (4 weeks)	4th

Trivia

The following year (2002) the song "Show me how to live" by the American rock band Audioslave was released , in which the lyrical self can be identified as Frankenstein's monster who accuses and implores his father (Frankenstein). In terms of content, "Show me how to live" can therefore be seen as a counterpart to Rammstein's "mother". Rammstein's version receives special originality through the change of the usual perspective of creation (= monster) vs. Father (= Victor Frankenstein) on creation vs. Mother or the lack of a mother. An influence on the author of "Show me how to live", Chris Cornell , by Rammstein's "mother" is unlikely, since Chris Cornell's inspiration came directly from reading the original novel by Mary Shelley according to his own statement .

Web links

• Lyrics with interpretations on genius.com
• Music video for "Mother" on YouTube

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Flake: Today is the world's birthday , p. 157, S. Fischer Verlag, 1st edition 2017, ISBN 978-3-10-397263-4 .
2. ↑ Universal Music Domestic Division, Rammstein Videos 1995-2012 , 2012, DVD 2, Making-of zu Mutter
3. ↑ Single cover
4. ↑ Chart tracking mother on officialcharts.de
5. ↑ Chart sources: DE AT CH