Max Raabe.
Found this the other day while looking around at other stuff. I remember in high school, when it was first released, thinking -- as I still do -- that this and its companion, "We Are the Champions," were expressing remarkably fascist ideas. In other words, the lyrics could be transferred wholesale to the mouth of a young Hitler and not seem out of place.
That's not to say I condemn the song or its sentiments; it simply is a statement of overcoming perceived injustice to a position of superiority -- "No time for losers, 'cause we are the champions." And certainly the bizarre racial theories of Hitler and his fascists is totally absent. It was just interesting to me that you could have performed it, probably to rousing cheers, in the beer halls of Munich in 1929.
Max Raabe and his Palast Orchester also fascinate me in general. I happen to like 20s style music, but I also truly enjoy taking things out of context and looking at them again in a radically different way.
There's also an excellent version of Bohemian Rhapsody done as bluegrass ...
Don't forget this scene from Richard III (lyrics start at 2:00). It's 30s, not 20s, but eminently fascist. Here are the lyrics: http://www.bartleby.com/106/5.html (Marlowe, not Shakespeare).
ReplyDeleteForgot the link to the scene: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luplp0Vzd38
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