Right now I´m reading "Satan, kannst du mir noch mal verzeihen". A book about Otze Ehrlich, the man behind the legendary Punk band SCHLEIMKEIM, from the German Democratic Republic. For you dull fuckers: Eastern Germany has been united with West Germany in 1989. I have to say, the more I read about Otze Ehrlich the more I come to the conclusion that he was just an antisocial drug and alcohol addict with a violent temper. Some of the contemporary witness who have been interviewed for this book characterize these attributes and his attitude as PUNK. Well I have different view on Punk but that not the subject here. But the book is the reason why I got the Lp from my record shelf again and realized how great this album still is. I haven´t heard it for years so it was like meeting an old friend. I immediately remembered the simple German lyrics and sang along.
SCHLEIMKEIM have been a great band. Basically it was just Otze with frequently changing band members. Otze wrote (almost?) all the music and he did an incredible good job here! Catchy Deutschpunk, raw and pissed. The songs on this Lp were written during 1985 - 1992 but they were recorded in 1992 after the GDR and West Germany became one nation. They still have the charm of the 80ies in my opinion. It was the first SCHLEIMKEIM Lp that were suitable for everyone. The recordings for their very first Lp called "DDR von unten" were smuggled into West Germany, pressed on Lp by Aggressive Rockproduktionen and only about 5 copies made their illegal way back into Eastern Germany. SCHLEIMKEIM even had to use the alias name of SAUKERLE for this album. You have to understand the policies of the former nation GDR to understand why Punk should have been banned from their streets. That subject is far too complex to explain it here properly.
Back to "Abfallprodukte der Gesellschaft": You don´t have to understand the German lyrics to love this album. It´s really catchy like I said before. Check out their hits like "Mit dem Knüppel in der Hand", "Mach dich doch selbst kaputt" and "Satan". Some people don´t like the way Otze squeaks or even growls sometimes when he sings, but you´ll get used to it. It´s kinda funny. A real classic Deutschpunk album!
R.I.P. Otze!
