Ego On The Rocks, Album: “Acid In Wounderland” (1981), a rather intellectual disputation between pseudo-democtaric Capitalism, radically-indoctrinated Communism, meaning-well Socialism and anti-establishment Anarchy… and all of that against the background of the best (progressive-) Krautrock that I would know... actually some of the best music I would know beyond all genres.
In the following description I also translated some parts of the German text (displayed in italic whereas I display the German lyrics and those that are already in English language in non-italic font). I hope this might help those not understanding German but still interested to an easier approach to this brilliant ”opus”.
1st title) “7 To 7 Or 999 To 99 Hope”
“Dass wir schon am Anfang zu stolpern beginnen”
„So that we stumble before we even started“
In the following songs the music is “spacing up” while on one hand confronting with statements of fascistic and absolutistic nature and related border-lining philosophical statements, and on the other hand voices of those who oppose…
2nd title) “Erste Unallgemeine Bestuerzung / first uncommon consternation”
A voice from an supposedly American TV show or movie speaking with an ironic and authorative voice to an outsider or dissident: “Good luck, I’m sure you’ll fit in somewhere…”
Then:
“Ruhe, Ruhe bitte
Unsere Aufgabe ist es, die Regeln die der Richter der Weisheit aufgeschrieben hat aufrecht zu erhalten.
So bewahren wir die perfekte Zivilisation
Denn wir wollen nicht
dass unser so vollkommenes Dasein zersetzt wird
durch die bösen Sitten der Vergangenheit die so voll Übel waren
zersetzt wird, zersetzt wird von Zerstörern“
„Quiet, quiet please
Our duty it is to keep upright the rules which were passed on to us by the judge of wisdom.
Thus we will conserve a perfect civilisation.
Because we do not want,
that our so very perfect existence is being decayed,
by the evil morals of the past which were so full of ill,
is being decayed, decayed by destroyers“
(…)
“Der Mensch ist das Beste in seiner Art.
Was ich so großartig an ihn finde, dem Menschen, das ist seine Unverwüstlichkeit“
“Human is the best of its kind.
What in my opinion is so very remarkable on humans, is their indestructibility.”
3rd title) “Erected Error”
„Das ist die Selbstinszenierung der Psychose / Und ihre Selbstherrlichkeit“
„This is the self-staging of psychosis and its high-handedness“
Then there are some lyrics inspired by Alfred Lord Tennyson, the last verses ending with:
“(…)
I climb to the mountain top
Where the dream’s unconcerned
Hanging gardens do not sing
But the spirit is learning
You’re clinched to the mighty clock
I’m a wheel in machinery
We’re all on the mountain top
Inside the wrong scenery
Ours is to do or die
Where’s who? …and how is why?
We’re not here to reason why
Ours is to do or die!
5th title) „Asylum“
„Through the shadows of the dusty road
Led my way, tall and strong
Where the angry men stand in line
Dropping fire on people’s mind
When you’re walking on this dusty road
Beware of my way
(…)
Within progress without self-control
The fruit grows wrong and cold
(…)
Naked we come, guilty we go
To the Asylum”
Then, after some really great music, poems and lyrics there is a life-tape documenting the detention of members of the “Red Army Fraction” in Germany’s late 1970s. They were wanted and charged as left-wing-intellectual anti-capitalistic and anti-imperialistic terrorists.
6th title) “Hazard”
Police officer: “Wenn er mit Geiseln rauskommt, dann schmeißt euch dazwischen,
Wenn er ohne raus kommt wird sofort geschossen“
“If he comes out with hostages then go in-between them,
if without hostages, shoot as soon as he comes out”
Followed by Leo Tolstoy’s
“To me happiness is not that I do what I want,
It rather more means that I want what I do”
Then the 7th title follows, “Godbluff”, one of the best interactions between rhythm and melody I ever heard… imagine, a rhythm always stays the same, but by a changing melody around it you have the impression that the rhythm is constantly modulating with the music… to an extent that you might not even recognize the original rhythm anymore at all… even if it was still exactly the same. Ultra hypnotic… And then, at the end of it a female voice:
“Ich möchte nur noch bescheiden bemerken, dass es darauf ankommt zu erwachen, und vorerst mal aufzuräumen.“
„I just would like to moderately remark that it is essential to wake up now, and to tidy up for the time being.”
Then there is two track-vehicles passing by… I interpret it as first a digger, and second a tank… tanks against diggers…
8th title) “Civilization Song”
An interview with Herbert Marcuse, a German / American philosopher, sociologist, and political theorist, associated with the Frankfurt School of critical theory:
“Haben Sie eigentlich jemals daran gezweifelt ob das, diese These die Sie ausgearbeitet haben, von der anderen Gesellschaft, ob die stimmt?“
Marcuse: „Selbstverständlich, und zwar deswegen, weil keiner von uns voraussehen kann, wie unter den gegebenen Machtverhältnissen der Kampf für eine bessere Gesellschaft ausgehen wird. Die Konzentration der Macht, der nun bestehenden, ist so ungeheuerlich, dass das niemand voraussehen kann. Das darf aber und sollte unter keinen Umständen eine Entschuldigung dafür sein, die Anstrengungen und den Kampf aufzugeben.“
„Did you ever doubt your thesis of a different society that you developed, whether this is correct?”
Marcuse: “Of course, and the reason is, that under the actual power-structure none of us can predict how the struggle for a better society would end. The concentration of power, as actually existing, is monstrous to such an extent, that nobody could predict this. But this must not and should not be an excuse to give up the efforts and struggles.”
The music slowly drifts away into the sound of breaking waves with children’s voices playing on the beach. Out of this sound-collage a female voice is asking:
“Das Boese? …das Boese ist da. Wieso?
Wer spricht? Wer spricht! – Ja wer spricht?
Wer spricht und wer nicht spricht…”
“Evil? …yes, there is evil. Why?
Who talks? – Who talks! Yes, who talks?
Who talks and who doesn’t talk…”
...but still, the answer to the question about the existence of evil is kind of drowning into the sound of the waves of the ocean and remains unheard….
Here one of the tracks of this remarkable recording. I chose Godbluff since it is not as lyrics-loaded as the other titles but very well portrays the musical nature of the CD. As such I guess it could be the easiest way into this music for non-Germans...
...those who want the complete one will find it here on YouTube...
...still better try to get hands on a CD or LP since the sound is also simply divine. Recent issues of the CD (as the one shown above) also have some bous tracks on it; to me such bonus tracks are not essential, to me the CD ends with "Civilisation Song"... and sound-wise the earlier copies before this "digitally remastered" one sound just as excellent... so just look out for any copy of "Acid in Wounderland"...
