Cry out for love

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Cry out for love
The doctors
publication September 10, 1993
length 4:13
Genre (s) Punk rock
Author (s) Bela B. , Farin Vacation
album The beast in human form

Schrei nach Liebe is a song by the Berlin punk rock band Die Ärzte , which is directed against neo-Nazis and was first released in 1993 as the band's first single after reunification.

song

occupation

content

In the stanzas of the song, a fictional right-wing extremist is insulted in a personal narrative (excerpt: "You are really stupid [...] Everything has to be explained to you because you really don't know anything ..."), while in the chorus rather seeming sympathy for him is expressed comes (excerpt: "Your violence is just a silent cry for love [...] your parents never had time for you"). The expressions of sympathy end with the exclamation “Asshole!” At the end of the chorus.

The text contains no reference to specific acts of violence or incidents, not even to the identity of the speaker. The lyrics of the song are so general that the song continues to be perceived as current: even more than 20 years after it was first published, it is considered one of the well-known songs against right-wing extremism.

The lyrics and music of the song come from a joint effort by Farin Urlaub and Bela B. , whereby the verses are mainly from Bela B., the refrain, however, from Farin Urlaub. The idea with the exclamation “Asshole!” Also comes from Bela B. On the recording of the song, the composers sing each other's text parts.

music

The song is a catchy melodic lead guitar - riff coined in the chorus String instruments are used to underscore the text. As a one-minute outro , at the end only an acoustic guitar can be heard, to which the melody of the chorus is whistled.

Music video

A music video was also shot for the song, directed by Detlev Buck . In this Die Doctors are shown how they help especially old and young people who are threatened by three right-wing extremists in a church.

In the end of the music video you can see a light-skinned and a dark-skinned girl wiping the battle paint off one of the neo-Nazis' faces, revealing a much friendlier-looking face.

Importance to the band

Cry for Love was the first song that Die Ärzte published after they were founded and after a five-year hiatus. At the same time, it was also the group's first song in which they publicly positioned themselves politically. Admittedly, it was largely undisputed that Die Ärzte tend to represent left-wing positions; This was not reflected in their songs before their temporary dissolution in 1988, however, as they deliberately renounced political statements and placed the fun factor of their music in the foreground in order to distinguish themselves from political punk. In the early years of the band there were a few right-wing extremists among their fans, but only because the band sang in German. In their early years, the doctors had a song called Eva Braun (unreleased until 2018) in their repertoire, whose ironic treatment of the Hitler lover was ignored by the few right-wing extremists among the fans. In order to avoid any misunderstanding of their political views, Die Ärzte wrote Cry for Love .

At the time of publication (September 10, 1993), the subject of right-wing radicalism due to violent attacks on foreigners (for example in Rostock , Solingen or Mölln ) was topical.

"After Hoyerswerda [...] we could no longer keep silent!"

- Bela B .: in the MTV Masters Die Ärzte (November 2007)

In order to distinguish themselves from so-called political rock , as represented by Herbert Grönemeyer or Wolfgang Niedecken , they composed Schrei nach Liebe as an ironic but also serious song.

According to the will of the record company Metronome, Schrei nach Liebe should not originally be the first single after the band was re-founded, but close your eyes , as this song is better to market commercially. However, the band insisted on wanting to release Schrei nach Liebe as their first single, as political statements seemed more important to them than commercial success, and agreed with the record company to release Close your eyes as a second single.

Boycott and Success

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Because "Asshole!" Is shouted in the song several times, it was initially not played by numerous radio stations. The record company pushed for the promising single Mach die Augen to be released quickly , although the band relied on Schrei nach Liebe to “let something work”. Lidia Antonini, a radio editor at Hessischer Rundfunk , had taken a liking to the song and wrote a letter to other editors asking them to play the song on the radio, even though it was below the level of the broadcasters due to the “asshole!” Exclamations.

Contrary to the expectations of the band and the record company, the song received a lot of airplay . For the group, the song was the most successful single at the time. The band had sold 40,000 singles from their 1988 hit Westerland , and Schrei nach Liebe sold 450,000 copies within a short period of time. The single reached number nine in the German single charts.

"Action Asshole"

At the end of August 2015, Gerhard Torges launched the social media movement “Aktion Arschloch”. The music teacher wanted to sensitize as many people as possible to the racist riots against refugees in summer 2015 and to tolerance. His goal was to get the song Schrei nach Liebe , based on the riots of 1993, back into the charts. In addition to buying the single on CD or MP3 , the appeal also recommended repeated viewing of the music video on video platforms, positive ratings in online shops and dissemination of the campaign on various social media platforms.

The doctors then announced on their website that they support the campaign and will donate all proceeds from the campaign (including the GEMA revenues from Airplays) to Pro Asyl . In fact, the song immediately made it back to number 12 in the German single charts . The following week, on September 11, 2015, the song reached number 1 on the charts for the first time in its 22-year history . It was particularly successful as a download: on the fourth day after the campaign started, it was the most downloaded song of the day with more copies sold than places 2 to 7 combined.

In Austria the song also rose to number 1 (1993 number 6), in Switzerland it was able to place itself in the charts for the first time and reached second place.

Controversy with the attacked bands

The last line of the second verse reads "between Störkraft and the Onkelz there is a cuddly rock LP". This was to be understood as a swipe at the bands Störkraft and Böhse Onkelz ; While the former was clearly to be assigned to right-wing rock , the latter had distanced themselves from it in the mid- 1980s , but were still exposed to sharp criticism, as they were accused of still deliberately addressing a “right-wing” audience.

Farin Urlaub, who wrote this line and who also sings it, changed the line when the band performed at the end of the 1990s to “between Störkraft and the other there is a cuddly rock LP”. It can also be heard in this version on the Unplugged Doctors album Rock 'n' Roll Realschule . This small change in the text meant that fans of the Böhsen Onkelz assumed that Farin Urlaub no longer saw the band as a representative of right-wing radical music, since he no longer names them in the same breath as the right-wing radical band Störkraft. With this change, Farin Urlaub pursued the intention of not only limiting right-wing extremist bands to Störkraft and the Böhsen Onkelz, but also to expand them to “the others”. Since the text change was partially misunderstood, Urlaub decided to sing the original text version again from now on.

“We actually got enthusiastic e-mails from Onkelz fans with the tenor 'You finally got it!' What I actually meant was much harder: 'Disturbing power and the others' - that's even more clear to me that the Onkelz' are a Nazi band. We are now singing 'Onkelz' again for the whole of the blunt. I don't deviate a bit from that. I still don't like them. "

- Farin vacation

In the course of this dispute, the Onkelz released the song you should not praise the day before the evening on the album EINS in 1996 , in which they consciously address the doctors:

"Greetings to Düsseldorf and Berlin [...]
Opium for the people, shit for the masses, yes you made it, I'm starting to hate you!"

( Opium fürs Volk is an album by the band Die Toten Hosen from Düsseldorf .)

Another variation reads "Between Frei.Wild and the Onkelz there is a cuddly rock LP", as the band Frei.Wild is also criticized for their sometimes nationalistic and ethnic lyrics (see there in the section on controversies and political classification ).

Publications

Own recordings

Cry for love appeared on the following Die-Ärzte- records :

Cover versions

  • In August 2000, The Dome Allstars sang an interpretation of the song as part of the campaign The Dome Against Right .
  • The Belgian girls' choir Scala & Kolacny Brothers released a choral version of Schrei nach Liebe in 2003 .
  • The German rap group DNP (Das neue Prekariat) covered the song on their album HIV EP .
  • The intro of the 2006 album Böhse Enkelz by the Berlin hip-hop group KIZ uses the melody of Schrei nach Liebe in the chorus . Instead of an asshole , son of a bitch is sung here . A section from the outro of the original is also used.
  • In 2009 the German rapper Fler covered the song, where he changed the chorus and sang himself. Flers version is a disstrack against the rapper Kollegah .
  • In October 2009, Die Ärzte successfully prevented the release of a cover version of the pop singer LaFee , who wanted to release her version on a best-of compilation and as an independent single.
  • The band The Chainsaw Hollies wrote an English version of the song under the title Cry for Love .
  • In May 2012 , the band Die Toten Hosen released a cover version of Schrei nach Liebe on the anniversary album Die Geister we rufen .
  • There is also a cover version of this song by the German metalcore band Callejon , which is included on the album Man speaks German , released in January 2013 . Bela B. was a guest on the recordings.
  • The Tyrolean German rock band Frei.Wild covered the song on their album Our Favorite Songs, released in 2019 .

Literature and Sources

  • Markus Karg: The Doctors - An oversized guinea pig is eating the earth . Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin, January 2001, ISBN 3-89602-369-1

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://www.fr.de/kultur/gegen-rechts-bela-b-liefert-den-soundtrack-gegen-den-hass-a-745522
  2. ↑ Markus Karg: The Doctors - An oversized guinea pig eats the earth . Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin, January 2001, ISBN 3-89602-369-1 , p. 185
  3. ↑ a b c Markus Karg: Die Ärzte , p. 227
  4. ↑ a b Markus Karg: Die Ärzte , p. 226
  5. ^ "Aktion Arschloch", music against xenophobia. Retrieved September 3, 2015 .
  6. ↑ "Oh-ho-hooo - ASSHOLE!" Retrieved September 3, 2015 .
  7. ^ Doctors' hymn against neo-Nazis from 1993 storms the charts. Retrieved September 3, 2015 .
  8. ↑ “Aktion Arschloch!”: “Scream for love” by Die Ärzte should chart again. Retrieved September 3, 2015 .
  9. ↑ Die Ärzte aktuell: Aktion Arschloch
  10. ↑ Doctors donate proceeds from “Cry for Love”. In: welt.de . September 4, 2015, accessed September 5, 2015 .
  11. ↑ Charts: Motörhead and "Schrei nach Liebe" successful. In: Focus Online . September 4, 2015, accessed September 5, 2015 .
  12. ↑ "Aktion Arschloch": "Schrei nach Liebe" tops the charts. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, September 11, 2015, accessed on September 12, 2015 .
  13. ↑ Thanks to "Aktion Arschloch": Gigantic download run on "Schrei nach Liebe". GfK Entertainment , September 4, 2015, accessed on September 4, 2015 .
  14. ↑ https://www.offiziellecharts.de/news/item/109-jetzt-ist-es-offiziell-schrei-nach-liebe-auf-platz-1-der-offizialen-deutschen-charts
  15. ↑ Christoph Schroeter and Christian Sieben: Frei.Wild want the success of the Onkelz . In: Rheinische Post . March 7, 2013. Retrieved July 23, 2013.
  16. ↑ August 25, 2000 THE DOME AGAINST RIGHT  ( 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. (PDF; 96 kB)@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / gmbh.mme.de  
  17. ↑ "The Doctors" make trouble: Change of the new LaFee single! (No longer available online.) In: smago.de. October 17, 2009, archived from the original ; Retrieved September 5, 2015 .
  18. ↑ CALLEJON cry for love feat. BELA example . youtube.com. Retrieved March 25, 2013.