“Das Meer” (The Sea) is – long before micro plastic became a word - about the mistreatment of the oceans, the huge amount of waste and our ignorance of the importance of this ecosystem. Back in 1988 he wrote a song that was the first I ever heard from him, because it was in my school book. Being FatherĪfter Mey married and got children, his songs turned naturally to his growing children, like “ Aller guten Dinge sind drei” (Every good things are three), a light hearted song about the problems with his three young children (“the small girl finished all post by tearing it apart”).īut Mey also started to worry more about the future of the small, growing humans in his care. Other titles made fun of typical German things, like “ Ein Antrag auf Erteilung eines Antragformulars”, which can be translated as “Application for granting an application for a permit”. Reinhard Mey started his career with funny, satirical songs like “Die heiße Schlacht am kalten Buffet” (The hot fight at the cold buffet), where he describes the eating habits of a certain kind of people, where the buffett-veterans have “scars on hand and face wherever the fork hits” and where the last line is that 10% of the proceedings go to “Bread for the World”.īut at first it looked like Reinhard Mey would end as a pub singer, until the song “Der Mörder ist immer der Gärtner” made him famous, and the title line “The murderer is always the Gardener” entered German as a winged word.
Generally a Liedermacher writes lyrics that are very personal and often political. But there are some songs even I come back to again and again and, as for some of Mey’s songs, cry again and again. It feels like an honorary title, a knight of songs, and Reinhard Mey might well be the reason for this feeling.ĬC-by-sa Sven-Sebastian Sajak / Wikimedia I like the difference to the English term, because the Liedermacher – at least that is my feeling – is more than just someone who writes songs. In German a Liedermacher is someone who makes (machen) his own songs (Lieder) and of course sings them, generally alone with his instrument only. I will try something tricky today: Talk in English about a German “Liedermacher” (singer-songwriter): Reinhard Mey and his German song texts.
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