Remarks:
This song went to #1 on both the American R&B and pop charts in 1975. It was the first German pop song ever to go to number one in the States. American-born Donna Summer, though, came out of the same Munich music scene at the same time. Ramona Wulf, the black singer you see in the video, is German but has a black American father.
Lyrics:
Fly, robin fly
Fly, robin fly
Fly, robin fly
Up, up to the sky
Fly, robin fly
Fly, robin fly
Fly, robin fly
Up, up to the sky
Fly, robin fly
Fly, robin fly
Fly, robin fly
Up, up to the sky
What a strange song. At first listen you’d think it has no B section, just a string of dull A sections. I had to listen to it twice. It actually is in the usual A-A-B-A format of pop music but the song is so static (few chords) and the A sections so bland; the effect on the listener (this listener anyway) is just one long musical lump that you think is just an ad nauseum repeated A section. It sounds like a demo. I wonder if the album was rushed to market.
Wow, it went to number one. When I saw your reproduction of the lyrics, I took it for granted that the music would be electronica and make up for the simplicity of the lyrics, mistaken there. I’m too early looking for electronica in 1975 though, I think. I Feel Love didn’t come out til’ 1977.
Mary Burrell and B.R., I wonder what they would think of this tune.
——————
I did a little net searching to see what else was hot in 1975 and it becomes even more peculiar that this song would have gotten any notice.
Other top songs from 1975:
(disclaimer I’m biased because I dig these songs)
1.) Lady Marmalade – La Belle
2.) Changes – David Bowie
3.) Philadelphia Freedom – Elton John
4.) Fame – David Bowie
5.) Jive Talkin’ – Bee Gees
6.) Fire – Ohio Players
Changes was actually released in 72′ maybe it got re-released or something in 75′.
—————————————————————————————————
More 70s awesomeness
Man, some album covers are everlasting:
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmZU8Q-f9wA)
That was always such a throw away tune for me. It was like elevator music. It was always such a big yawn for me.
Yeah, that’s good to know Mary. I suspect there was massive marketing behind this song, legitimate and not so legitimate.
I clicked on the Ramona link this time. Man, talk about surreal. It’s like looking at a parallel universe that did come into being–our world of today. Just 28 years prior to her performance in that venue The Fuhrer was forced to give up on the version of reality he had been vehemently trying to bring about.
I luv how you put the lyrics in your article – just to be clear. Seriously, I was thinking when are the lyrics going to start lmao.
Good looking women flailing around in form hugging, shiny sh*t probably helped.
As simple as the song is, you have to give it credit for not only going to number one in a foreign market, but winning an award there: it won a Grammy Award for Best R&B Instrumental Performance in 1976.
I think part of what helped it was that it was one of the first disco songs to hit America. The violins, the beat, etc. That sound is old hat now, but back then it was new.
@ Bulanik
Silver Convention did start out as a studio band with session singers. Once they started getting hits they hired professional performers. Ramona Wulf, for example, was a singer in her own right before joining Silver Convention.
@ Bulanik
Thanks for the Herbie Mann link.
Nelson George on Eurodisco, the genre to which this song belongs:
He is mainly comparing it to the soul music of the early 1970s that came before it.
@Abagond, Ramona’s father was likely an American GI stationed in Germany. Most of the brown babies born of German mothers and Black American GI’s were either adopted by Black American families or raised without the fathers.
I think her story maybe similar. Anyway, i’ve heard the song at least one. Not really noteworthy.
Off topic a bit–i never hear of black women having children with German men–was this not allowed or something? Just curious….
Tiffany Lane AKA rapper Charlie Baltimore has an African American mother and a German father. (You may remeber her best as one of Biggie’s girlfriends after he became famous.) I think it is more commonly the other way around (Black man, German woman) because there are more Black men in the military, and men seek out women, whereas women usually wait to be sought out.
@Bulanik, wow! Thanks for the info. I had no idea that the population of blacks in Germany was so small. The way people have talked about it around me made it seem as though there was a sizeable amount.
I didn’t get any of this in world history class.
@Bulanik,
Yes–the experience of Blacks in Germany has always been of interest to me. Lately i have only been able to find the narratives of Black men in Germany either as soldiers or immigrants, but it would be nice to get the perspective of Black women who have been raised there.
I will check out these links and let you know what i think–or have questions about
Again, thank you so much!
@Bulanik
Thanks for all of this B! It’s information I wouldn’t have sought out myself. What Lorde says at 1:22 really bothers me. Feminism is pumped as some noble movement but of course the majority voice in feminism are the voices of white women. And of course feminism was a movement for the de facto promotion and betterment of white women. It was courageous of Lorde to call white feminists (the sincere ones) out on this.
You’ve also reminded me that a bell hooks book I ordered months ago still has not shown up; it’s been so long I forgot all about it. I ordered this book because hooks talks about this ugly (but to be expected if one has common sense) side of Feminism.
The body language of the two women (as Lorde is shining a light on the issue of white feminists looking the other way on racism) speaks volumes. The woman at 1:33 (glasses) looks almost defeated. I think both of these ladies were meeting, in that moment, the challenge of really, really walking the walk as opposed to just talking the talk.
I have never forgotten a quote from Milton that I read in Necessary Illusions (a Chomsky book). I think it was the very first line on the very first page of the book: “Hypocrisy is a crime which walks invisible, save to God alone.”
It can be difficult to show and explain the self deception and hypocrisy we are all capable of. And it is enormously difficult to look our own hypocrisy and self deceptions in the eye. Hypocrisy isn’t like other faults. The damaging effect of other faults can be pretty obvious to see. But something like hypocrisy usually carries one further along in the social environment. If you give up the hypocrisy, you’re giving up massive privilege; very, very hard to do. Who in their right mind wants to say “ta-ta” to privilege?
I could be wrong of course, but I don’t buy Lorde’s argument (as shown in the video anyway, it is perhaps, not her full argument ) that:
racism “affects their [white feminists] lives in every way,” and that their white skin, “does not make [them] safe from the effects of [racism].
• Not being Japanese in America during the Japanese internment, certainly protected one from the effects of anti Japanese racism.
• Not being a black G.I. during the Vietnam War kept one from having to take point duty as often as a black soldier, if there were blacks in one’s platoon.
• Not being a person of colour is a de facto job security enhancement during labour market down turns in the U.S., and most likely in all the countries of The West. You won’t for sure keep your job if you are white but on an aggregate basis “society” will fire the people of colour first, because, of course, the lives of non-whites aren’t as important as the dominant group.
{The exposition in that last bullet point wasn’t for you B, it was for the hapless white person who eventually reads that bullet point and disagrees with it.}
I only see ‘blue sky’ for white feminists when they ignore racism. Their only downside in ignoring racism is knowing that they are carrying out a hypocrisy. If they can suppress or dismiss this hypocrisy then I don’t see that there is much danger to them from, “the effects of racism.” There is danger to their personal integrity, and where and when Miss Lorde’s would have pointed this out, I would agree with her. We notice though in the video she doesn’t bring up compromised integrity as the motivator though. Compromised integrity to a true hypocrite is going to elicit many a shoulder shrug as she no doubt knew. I wonder what dangers Lorde pointed out, to white feminists, they were “not safe from” in a system of racism.
I suspect she was simply trying to motivate white feminists to assist in combating racism; it is a powerful privilege, to have the ability to step aside from a melee and “let the chips fall where they may.” Whomever wins the conflict you can attempt to side with after the battle is over and explain away your inactivity in quite creative ways. It is not convincing to me that there are ‘dangers’ to a white feminist in ignoring racism apart from the compromised integrity issue.
Take your time hon’ no rush ever!
Loved ambivalently.
Feeling like you were almost perfect but fate cruelly made you into a “hybrid”
Jesus! I thought I had heard or privately imagined every mind fuk possible on the subject of racism, Wrong!
Omg. How off-topic can we get? LOL.
LOL, yes! I think Aba will let it slide for a “time out” type of post, I hope.
@ Legion
I was not expecting this thread to get more than like four or five comments. Ramona Wulf makes the subject of Afro-Germans an acceptable tangent. Especially since I have no post on the subject (but should!).
Cool, yeah a tangential connection is still a connection.
I tried to find the story of this one black german guy who lived trough WW2 and the nazi years. He himself saw himself first anf foremost as a german and tried to get into the Hitler Jugend, which caused a bit confusion in that organisation, and if my memory does not play tricks, he also tried to enlist into the army or the Waffen SS (the army/military wing of the SS) believing it was his duty as a german to fight for his fatherland.
His mother was white german woman and father black, and he really believed himself to be a proper german all the way at that time. Sorry I could not find the story in the Net and place a link here. If I do find it, I will put in here.
@Bulanik, going back to what you stated earlier about the hypocrisy of white German women–i have heard on several occasions that the German women who had relationships with Black men were in fact German Nationalists or had pledged some kind of allegiance to the Third Reich prior to Germany losing the war… this is odd as i am told repeatedly that whites in ir relationships are not racists…
I guess i couldn’t imagine what it would have been like for those kids born to these couples….
I also wonder if the low number of marriages that occurred between German women and Black men was because a lot of these guys had sweethearts waiting at home for them and had no intention of marrying their German girlfriends while stationed there…
I do understand that Black GIs would have needed permission to marry from their military superiors–some were denied who actually wanted to marry German women, but so were white American GIs–i am thinking this has something to do with Germany’s rules about true German citizenship. They wanted German women to have children only with German men.
I remember when Boris Becker, famous pro tennis star, married his black girlfriend there was some buzz about that in Germany. On the other hand, such tv-series like Der Alte etc. have had black germans playing cops, politcians, business men etc. at least since late 70′s. So the situation is not so simple, I assume. We should ask from black germans about their experiences.
As for the turks and others, the germans created a fancy way of disguising their attitude: they were not called immigrants or such, but GUEST workers. This name implied that after they would be no longer needed they were going to go back home. This name is still in use in some contexts.
Ah, this improbable thread has grown yet again.
I haven’t read your replies to me yet Bulanik, but I will. (busy…)
On the other hand, such tv-series like Der Alte etc. have had black germans playing cops, politcians, business men etc. at least since late 70′s.
Clearly, these German T.V. programs were works of sci-fi about a Germany similar to our own but with strange alternate reality timelines were equal opportunity had taken root. (*Ok, sarcasm off now*)
Our Germany:
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dejqbtI388Y)
“We don’t mind having foreigners in Germany, we just don’t want them to have political influence.” – NDP Rep.
Uh huh, Schall became a German citizen!, but he’s somehow a “foreigner.”
“Foreigner” of course is code for … well, I believe we can fill in the blank with something appropriately ugly.
I tried to find the story of this one black german guy who lived trough WW2 and the nazi years. He himself saw himself first anf foremost as a german and tried to get into the Hitler Jugend, which caused a bit confusion in that organisation, and if my memory does not play tricks, he also tried to enlist into the army or the Waffen SS (the army/military wing of the SS) believing it was his duty as a german to fight for his fatherland.
Wow Sam, holy shit! That really does sound like a story from a parallel earth. It is disturbing and inspiring what humans can do out of loyalty, misplaced loyalty, and national pride. What I’m stunned by is how did this guy not get deported or sent to a camp when the Nazis started writing race laws and other legislation?
I once heard from an old documentary series (The World At War) that it was illegal for German orchestras to play a high C on trumpets because to do so was to play “negro music”, you know, Jazz! You can’t play swing or Jazz because it’s “black” but here is this guy walking around being half black, how was he able to not be apprehended by the authorities?
An aside:
I just listened to a “high C.”
This is not the note that the Nazis would have written legislation against. “High C” would be the C that is on the second ledger line above the treble staff.
High C: (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69lrWV12YTc)
Ok, that’s banal (by itself).
World at War would have meant double high C. One octave above high C and Two octaves above middle C. Beware negro music:
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69lrWV12YTc)
It’s easy and tempting to make fun but we sometimes miss the ways in which the State is trying to shape identity and behavior. Any state, not just the famous villains we are told to point a finger at. Also, there were real stylistic differences between black jazz musicians and white jazz musicians, speaking in broad terms. But, even knowing all that, it still seems laughable to write legislation against playing into the altissimo region of one’s instrument.
Mistake:
the second link (for double high C) was supposed to be this:
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AxZT6KbJb4Q)
@abagond, legion:
There it is mentioned: some black germans were in Wermacht and in Hitler Jugend. But I try to locate that one guy, his story was really weird. He really wanted to get into Waffen SS. BUT he did not get in, for some reason.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_people_in_Nazi_Germany
PS. They actually had some blacks serving in the Waffen SS multinational forces as part of some arab SS troops but these were not black germans. There was also an indian SS troop and even an russian SS force when the germans became desperate enough, even though the SS was supposed to be the fortress of pure germanian warriors.
And just to clarify: The Waffen SS was the army of the SS and it was directly under Hitlers command. They were not part of the SS police forces who did most of the holocaust things nor they were part of the camp services. One Waffen SS division, Totenkopf, was formed from former camp guards and was notorius even among the other Waffe SS troops.
If my memory does not fail me here, only one Waffen SS division was not accused of the crimes against humanity etc. and that was the Wiking division. All the others did something, like Das Reich, which burned all the people in one french village after somebody shot one of them from that village. Soviet officials claimed that the Wiking also participated in war crimes and at least one finnish guy who served in that division (there was a whole batallion of finns and some others serving in different regiments and units) said in an interview before he died that they had killed civilians.
@abagond, legion:
Here is at least one black guy in German army during WW2. Looks like Wermacht, the regular army, but I am not absolutely sure.
http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c44/blackriot/World%20War%20Two%20Pictures/164549_black_.jpg
Wow!
@bulanik:
Thanks for that video.
@bulanik:
I think the black german in the picture is not an SS soldier but a Wermacht one, that is he propably served in regular army but never the less. Pretty weird concerning the times and the place.
The Waffen SS started to change pretty fast once the war began. At first it was meant to be the aryan army, the army of all the germanic people. Pretty soon they allowed some finns (non germanic) in and once the losses became irreplaceble, they took in anyone who was crazy enough. Or stupid enough. It became sort of the Foreign Legion of the Third Reich.
The arab legion was part of the effort of some extreme islamists and arab nationalists and because the nazis were willing to work with any one who hated the jewish as much as they did.
The Grand mufti of Jerusalem was very eager to work with the nazis in order to eliminate all the jews from the world. A poece of palestinian history which now is not that fondly remembered among the palestinians. Grand mufti’s reasoning was partly “The enemy of my enemy is my friend”, and also partly his ideology which was antisemitic and anti-jewish.
Some arabs really believed that nazi Germany would reward them somehow and nazis of course promised the moon and some. North african arabs believed that they could get rid of their colonial masters with the germans, without realising that would the germans win, they would eventually wipe out all the “wrong” ethnic groups or make them slaves. They had all the plans ready.
The irony is that during the Algerian liberation wars, many former SS men served in the French foreign legion and fought against the algerians in a very bloody and horrific war, which claimed hunderds of thousands of lives.
Yea,
I do remember reading something about Hitler favoring the Arab/Muslim approach to religion–something about he liked that Arabs were willing to fight and die for their religion..
I have seen some videos of young black men in Germany professing a sort of allegiance to Nazism today–not many, but a few have put up videos on youtube. Their claims was that they enjoyed political freedom under the Third Reich.
“Drawing on interviews with the black survivors of Nazi concentration camps and archival research in North America, Europe, and Africa, this book documents and analyzes the meaning of Nazism’s racial policies towards people of African descent, specifically those born in Germany, England, France, the United States, and Africa, and the impact of that legacy on contemporary race relations in Germany, and more generally, in Europe. The book also specifically addresses the concerns of those surviving Afro-Germans who were victims of Nazism, but have not generally been included in or benefited from the compensation agreements that have been developed in recent years.” >>
Hitler's Black Victims: The Historical Experiences of European Blacks, Africans and African Americans During the Nazi Era: The Historical Experience … (Crosscurrents in African American History)
@ sam, regarding the black German soldiers of German stock.
According to the book “Hitler’s Black Victims”, the author says that those black German men who fought in the German army were also compulsorily sterilized.
The author, Clarence Lusane, declares: “the preference to address the problem by sterilization of some would be as coherent as the Nazi policies ever got regarding Afro-Germans and Africans.” (page 99)