{"id":22886,"date":"2022-05-12T05:30:55","date_gmt":"2022-05-12T09:30:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=22886"},"modified":"2022-05-12T08:34:30","modified_gmt":"2022-05-12T12:34:30","slug":"nina-hagen-ten-albums-that-changed-my-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2022\/05\/12\/nina-hagen-ten-albums-that-changed-my-life\/","title":{"rendered":"Nina Hagen: Ten Albums that Changed My Life"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A vintage shot of Nina Hagen<\/p><\/div>\n

Nina Hagen has always cut an unusual figure in pop music. From Berlin in what was then East Germany, she escaped to the West and launched a career as a singer. Nominally working in punk and new wave, her accomplished and powerful operatic vocals transcended those styles. And her music drew from a dazzling array of sources, including reggae, Brecht\/Weill and traditional German folk. A critical and commercial success (especially in Germany and Austria), she served as an inspiration to a generation of punk and new wave artists.<\/p>\n

And Hagen remains a towering figure on the European pop landscape. For German Chancellor Angela Merkel\u2019s official farewell ceremony last year, she chose Hagen\u2019s \u201cDu hast den Farbfilm vergessen\u201d as musical accompaniment. Remarking on the honor, Hagen says, \u201cDiese Frau Merkel liebt gute Pop-Kultur! (This woman Merkel loves good pop culture!)\u201d<\/p>\n

Hagen\u2019s first new release in more than a decade is \u201cShadrack,\u201d a single with lyrics based on the tale from the Bible\u2019s Third Book of Daniel. With a deep groove and prominent analog synthesizers, it\u2019s a worthy successor to her acclaimed \u201870s and \u201880s output. Hagen shares her favorite albums.<\/p>\n

Phoebe Snow \u2013 <\/b>Phoebe Snow <\/b><\/i>(1975)<\/b>
\nMy very first Phoebe Snow vinyl treasure was her debut album, smuggled over from the West into the East by dear friends of mine in 1975. It [played] 24\/7 at my home in East Berlin! This album came as a surprise; it fell from Heaven, so to speak. It opened up new horizons of healing and soul-stretching for me during my departing times from the East to the West. This and all the other Phoebe Snow albums were (and still are) a super treasure for my heart and soul.<\/p>\n

Mahalia Jackson \u2013 <\/b>The World\u2019s Greatest Gospel Singer<\/b><\/i> (1954)<\/b>
\nDuring my childhood, my mom had Mahalia Jackson in her record collection. I was a lucky child when I discovered her singing the Gospel. She said, \u201cI sing God’s music because it makes me feel free; it gives me hope. When you sing the blues, you still have the blues.\u201d Mahalia has taught me to \u201clive the life I sing about in my song.\u201d Thanks and praises for my dearly beloved teacher, preacher and sister Mahalia Jackson.<\/p>\n

The Beatles \u2013 <\/b>Yellow Submarine<\/b><\/i> (1969)<\/b>
\nWords can\u2019t express all the amazing inputs and feelings, that I\u2019ve received from The Beatles during that groovy time in my life, starting around 1968-69.<\/p>\n

David Bowie \u2013 <\/b>Golden Years<\/b><\/i> (1983 compilation)<\/b>
\nThe title song brought so much joy to me. I have sung \u201cGolden Years\u201d and other David Bowie songs live with love many, many times. I am also forever grateful for David praying the Lord\u2019s Prayer for his soul brother Freddy Mercury and all those beloved ones who have gone home for good, before us.<\/p>\n

Dubblestandart \/ Lee \u201cScratch” Perry & Ari Up \u2013<\/b> Return from Planet Dub<\/b><\/i> (2009)<\/b>
\n[This record] means feeling and being at home for me. It means resurrection and reunion; it means multi-dimensional overdubbings. It means heart and soul connection through time and space with amazing grace. It mean ongoing rehearsal time for me, for an upcoming tour in the forever homeland of the souls, with my brother Lee Scratch Perry and my sister Ari Up and all her friends, with God being our best friend, where love and music never end!<\/p>\n

Sister Rosetta Tharpe \u2013 <\/b>Up Above My Head<\/b><\/i> (2018 compilation)<\/b>
\nI love to listen to her so much; she brings Eternity right down to Earth for me!<\/p>\n

Larry Norman \u2013 <\/b>Stranded in Babylon<\/b><\/i> (1991)<\/b>
\nI love Larry Norman and his songs so much that I started to translate them into German and then recorded them on my last album, Volksbeat<\/i>.<\/p>\n

Glenn Kaiser \/ Darrell Mansfield \u2013 <\/b>Trimmed and Burnin\u2019 & Slow Burn<\/b><\/i> (2002 compilation)<\/b>
\nI am a hard rocker too; who knew? I just love Mansfield and Kaiser; I love them ecstatically!<\/p>\n

Hedy West \u2013 <\/b>Whores, Hell and Biscuits<\/b><\/i> (1976) <\/b>
\nI had the great honor of meeting Hedy West in the mid-sixties at my stepdad Wolf Biermann\u2019s home in East Berlin. For one unforgettable afternoon, Hedy took the time and taught me her special banjo and guitar picking style. She would sing and play her sweetest songs, and she sang Wolf Biermann\u2019s [anti-war folk poem] \u201cBallad of William L. Moore\u201d \u2026 in German!<\/p>\n

Wolf Biermann \u2013 <\/b>Aah-Ja!<\/b><\/i> (1974)<\/b>
\nWolf Biermann was not only a stepdad for me; he also was my first teacher in songwriting and guitar playing. He taught me that as an aspiring recording artist, I would need sincerity. And then rest shall follow.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nina Hagen has always cut an unusual figure in pop music. From Berlin in what was then East Germany, she escaped to the West and launched a career as a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22887,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41,50,62],"tags":[4825],"class_list":["post-22886","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interview","category-new-wave","category-rawk","tag-nina-hagen","cat-41-id","cat-50-id","cat-62-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22886","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22886"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22886\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22888,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22886\/revisions\/22888"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22887"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22886"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22886"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22886"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}