Silly (band)
Encyclopedia
Silly is a German
rock
band
. Founded in East Germany in the year 1978, Silly was one of the country's most popular music acts, and was well known for its charismatic lead singer Tamara Danz
. Her death in 1996 ended the band's recording career for 14 years. In 2005 the surviving members began to perform as Silly again, first with several guest singers, before choosing actress Anna Loos to replace Danz. The first album with the new line-up, Alles Rot, became the band's most successful to date, reaching number 3 on the German charts in 2010.
in 1978 as Familie Silly (The Silly Family) by guitarist Thomas Fritzsching and bassist Mathias Schramm, evolving from Fritzsching's previous band Phönix. They added Familie to the band's name after East German authorities refused to allow Silly by itself, as they saw it as an anglicism
; the band claimed that Silly was the name of their mascot, a cat, who behaved in a silly manner.
The early band also consisted of keyboardists Ulrich Mann and Manfred Kusno and drummer Mike Schafmeier. They recruited singer Tamara Danz, the daughter of a diplomat who had previously studied linguistics; she had previously worked as a singer in both the Oktoberclub, a politically charged vocal group, and the Horst-Krüger-Band, a popular progressive rock
ensemble.
Silly's first notable concert appearances outside East Germany were in Romania
, where the band gained a strong following; it helped that Fritzsching and Danz could speak Romanian fluently. They participated in several music festivals, and in 1981 won the Lyra
in Bratislava
, the communist bloc's best-known music prize (akin to the Sanremo Music Festival). The band was also allowed to perform in Norway
.
Unusually, the band's first, self-titled album was released first in West Germany
in 1981, where it sold moderately well; this was due in part to the enthusiasm of West German record promoters (including photographer Jim Rakete) for the band, in contrast to the East German state record label Amiga's reluctance to produce an album.
After the album was released, the band made the acquaintance of poet Werner Karma, who would write the lyrics for the band's albums until 1989. His complex and often politically charged lyrics gave the band a strong intellectual appeal, but frequently landed them in trouble with the censors, who demanded changes before allowing a song to be performed. With the West German album a fait accompli, Amiga was forced to issue it domestically, as Tanzt keiner Boogie? (Isn't Anyone Going to Boogie?), where it was immensely popular; the revised version dropped two songs in favor of two new recordings with lyrics by Karma, one of which, the atypical Der letzte Kunde (The Last Customer), a paean to alcoholism sung by drummer Schafmeier, became the early band's signature tune.
In 1982, Danz's then-boyfriend Rüdiger "Ritchie" Barton joined the band, replacing its two keyboardists. His first appearance was a note-for-note cover version of Kim Carnes
' hit "Bette Davis Eyes
", which, following long-standing practice, the state recording label Amiga issued to avoid having to pay performance royalties for the original song. While it earned the band substantial publicity, they showed their evident unhappiness with it by performing it on television dressed as schoolchildren eating ice cream (Eis, in German, is pronounced much as "eyes"). The song was the only Silly release not to be in German
; it was also their last release under the name "Familie Silly".
Barton's synthesizer playing lent a New Wave
edge to the band's subsequent album, Mont Klamott, named for the "rubbish mountain" in Berlin
's Friedrichshain
district that was built over the debris of a World War II
flak tower
. The title track, a massive hit in East Germany, is typical of Karma's narrative writing style, with several overtones. It concerns a conversation between two women, one old and one young; the younger one thanks the city fathers for the hill, which for her is only as a place to catch some fresh air; the older replies to her that it was the city mothers — Germany's Trümmerfrau
en — who had built the hill from the city ruins.
Mont Klamott was voted East Germany's Album of the Year, cementing Silly's popularity. At the time, the band toured constantly, spending most of its time on the road. Schafmeier was forced to leave the band for health reasons, and he took the band's best-known song "Der letzte Kunde" with him, joining the cabaret trio MTS. He was replaced by Herbert Junck, formerly of NO 55.
Silly's censorship problem became more acute in 1985 when their planned album Zwischen unbefahr'nen Gleisen (Between Untraveled Tracks; presumably those between the two German states), was blocked by East German officials, who had taken exception to the "subversive" message of several tracks.
It was eventually released as Liebeswalzer
(Waltz of Love), containing rewritten lyrics. The offending songs, "Tausend Augen" ("Thousand Eyes"), "Nur ein Lied" ("Only a Song"), and the title track, were re-recorded with new lyrics and arrangements and renamed "Psycho", "Großer Träumer" ("Big Dreamer"), and "Berliner Frühling" ("Berlin Spring"). In 1990, as East Germany was in its dying days, Liebeswalzer
was re-released with the three songs in their original form. The unaltered album was finally released on CD
with both versions, in 1994.
Despite the controversy, Liebeswalzer again was voted Album of the Year, and Silly won one argument with the censors over the word Titten (tits) in the song "So 'ne kleine Frau" (Such a Little Woman), which was left unaltered.
Bassist Jäcki Reznicek, formerly of Pankow, played fretless bass on the title track to the next album, Battailon D'amour (Battalion of Love, 1986), which proved to be one of the best-known songs ever to come out of East Germany (the main bass line was played by Schramm). The album was released on CBS Records
in West Germany, although CBS rejected the East German cover artwork as amateurish and supplied their own. The song "Schlohweißer Tag" (Snow White Day) was later used in Heiner Carow
's 1989 film Coming Out. After the album was released, Schramm was asked to leave the band, and was replaced by Reznicek.
Following the success of Bataillon d'Amour, the band took a two-year break from recording, during which they split with Karma. He contributed only two songs to Silly's next effort, Februar, released in that month in 1989 (in West Germany; the domestic release was a month later). After a falling out with Werner Karma, Danz sought the assistance of up-and-coming singer-songwriter Gerhard Gundermann
in writing lyrics, who had already drawn notice for his witty wordplay on his 1988 debut album. Recorded in West Berlin
, the album was, like its predecessor, state-of-the-art, and as a co-production with a West German label, there was, for the first time, no censorship. Joining the band was guitarist Uwe Hassbecker, Danz's new paramour, formerly of Stern Meißen
, whom she had met while singing in the East German supergroup
, Die Gitarreros, in 1986. His heavy metal
-inspired playing contrasted with Thomas Fritzsching's more melodic approach, causing Fritzsching to be marginalized; although technically the bandleader, he was excluded from the recording sessions.
Again, it was released on a West German label, this time Ariola, and again the cover artwork was replaced with a more sophisticated version. While not an enormous hit in the west, the track "Verlorene Kinder" (Lost Children) received some airplay. The track "Ein Gespenst geht um" (A Ghost Haunts), an oblique political commentary which drew on a quotation by Karl Marx
about political change in the air (although the ghost here haunted a Mitropa
restaurant rather than Europa), and the song seemed somewhat prescient in light of the fall of the Berlin Wall
in November that year.
However, the end of communism did not lead to a breakthrough for Silly. Although Danz had petitioned the East German government for change during 1989, and illegally read out petitions during the band's concerts, interest in East German bands plummeted after November 9, 1989, when East Germans were able to cross into West Germany and easily get their hands on western rock music. Danz performed as a backup singer at a massive free concert featuring the likes of Joe Cocker
following the Wall opening. She later expressed skepticism that her involvement with the Neues Forum reform movement had produced any results.
At the same time, however, the West German label Ariola believed Silly could be turned into a household name across all of Germany. The band were invited to Bavaria
to work on a new album. But Danz felt constrained by the Ariola executives, who deemed the band's songs not commercial, and provided them with chart-friendly music and lyrics by outside writers. Silly walked out.
Instead, Silly's next album would be the self-produced Hurensöhne (Sons of Bitches), released in 1993 on DSB, the successor label to the state-run Amiga. Again, the lyrics were penned by Danz and Gundermann, separately and together; as the album's title suggests, they were angry. The song "Neider" (The Enviers) addresses the band's treatment at the hands of Ariola. The album closer, "Traumpaar" (Dream Couple) imagines the two German states as a dancing pair, die Schlampe und der Held — the whore and the hero.
Largely ignored in western Germany, Hurensöhne reestablished Silly as an important band in the east, as fans returned in droves amid disillusionment with German reunification
. The group's concerts once again sold out. After the album, Danz, Hassbecker, and Barton began building their own recording studio in Berlin, named Danzmusik. Fritzsching, the band's founder, whose guitar contributions had become overshadowed by those of Hassbecker, was asked to leave the band.
Late during the recording for the follow-up, Paradies, in 1995, Danz was diagnosed with breast cancer
. Although she was operated on immediately, the disease had spread, and she refused chemotherapy
, instead choosing an ineffective alternative medicine
treatment. She died the following July, five months after the album had come out. Shortly before her death, she married Hassbecker, her live-in partner of many years; she said this was in part to avoid taxes on her share of the studio.
Paradies was the first album on which Danz alone had written the lyrics, and several of its song seem to reflect on her impending death, although Danz denied this, saying that the words had been written before her diagnosis. The album was photographed by the band's old friend Jim Rakete. Despite minimal publicity, and the lack, for obvious reasons, of a tour, it sold reasonably well, and its title track became a radio hit.
The band did not break up after Danz's death; the remaining members (Barton, Hassbecker, Rezniczek, and Junck) completed two unfinished tracks for inclusion on a pair of greatest hits
albums, the first of which sold well over 100,000 copies, no small achievement for a compilation of an East German band. The remaining members performed Silly's songs on tour on two occasions, the first "borrowing" singer Toni Krahl from the band City
for a number of one-off performances, and in 2005 using several well-known singers on a German tour promoted as a tribute to both Danz and Junck, who had died of cancer earlier in the year.
In 2006 Hassbecker, Barton, and Reznicek announced a new electro-acoustic tour with actress and singer Anna Loos; the live band included Reznicek's son Bastian on drums, Hassbecker's son Daniel on cello, and former Rockhaus guitarist Reinhard Petereit. Initially billed as "Silly with Anna Loos", the band asked Loos to join the band permanently following the tour.
At Loos' suggestion, the band approached, and reconciled with, lyricist Werner Karma. In early 2010, the band, which had no members from its original lineup, released its first new album since 1996, Alles Rot (Everything Red), with all its lyrics written by Karma. Thanks in part to the attention drawn by Loos, Silly was able to sign to the major label Universal Music. The album proved to be the band's most successful to date, reaching number 3 on the German charts, and the band toured to numerous sold-out venues.
had a hit in Germany with a cover version of "Battailon d'Amour." The Polish
goth metal band Batalion d'Amour was also named for the song.
Supported live by:
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
rock
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
band
Musical ensemble
A musical ensemble is a group of people who perform instrumental or vocal music. In classical music, trios or quartets either blend the sounds of musical instrument families or group together instruments from the same instrument family, such as string ensembles or wind ensembles...
. Founded in East Germany in the year 1978, Silly was one of the country's most popular music acts, and was well known for its charismatic lead singer Tamara Danz
Tamara Danz
Tamara Danz was the lead singer and lyricist of the East German rock group Silly. She died at age 43 of breast cancer.- Life and work :...
. Her death in 1996 ended the band's recording career for 14 years. In 2005 the surviving members began to perform as Silly again, first with several guest singers, before choosing actress Anna Loos to replace Danz. The first album with the new line-up, Alles Rot, became the band's most successful to date, reaching number 3 on the German charts in 2010.
Band history
The band was founded in East BerlinEast Berlin
East Berlin was the name given to the eastern part of Berlin between 1949 and 1990. It consisted of the Soviet sector of Berlin that was established in 1945. The American, British and French sectors became West Berlin, a part strongly associated with West Germany but a free city...
in 1978 as Familie Silly (The Silly Family) by guitarist Thomas Fritzsching and bassist Mathias Schramm, evolving from Fritzsching's previous band Phönix. They added Familie to the band's name after East German authorities refused to allow Silly by itself, as they saw it as an anglicism
Anglicism
An Anglicism, as most often defined, is a word borrowed from English into another language. "Anglicism" also describes English syntax, grammar, meaning, and structure used in another language with varying degrees of corruption.-Anglicisms in Chinese:...
; the band claimed that Silly was the name of their mascot, a cat, who behaved in a silly manner.
The early band also consisted of keyboardists Ulrich Mann and Manfred Kusno and drummer Mike Schafmeier. They recruited singer Tamara Danz, the daughter of a diplomat who had previously studied linguistics; she had previously worked as a singer in both the Oktoberclub, a politically charged vocal group, and the Horst-Krüger-Band, a popular progressive rock
Progressive rock
Progressive rock is a subgenre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s as part of a "mostly British attempt to elevate rock music to new levels of artistic credibility." John Covach, in Contemporary Music Review, says that many thought it would not just "succeed the pop of...
ensemble.
Silly's first notable concert appearances outside East Germany were in Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
, where the band gained a strong following; it helped that Fritzsching and Danz could speak Romanian fluently. They participated in several music festivals, and in 1981 won the Lyra
Lyra
Lyra is a small constellation. It is one of the 48 constellations listed by the 2nd century astronomer Ptolemy, and remains one of the 88 modern constellations recognized by the International Astronomical Union. Its principal star, Vega — a corner of the Summer Triangle — is one of the brightest...
in Bratislava
Bratislava
Bratislava is the capital of Slovakia and, with a population of about 431,000, also the country's largest city. Bratislava is in southwestern Slovakia on both banks of the Danube River. Bordering Austria and Hungary, it is the only national capital that borders two independent countries.Bratislava...
, the communist bloc's best-known music prize (akin to the Sanremo Music Festival). The band was also allowed to perform in Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
.
Unusually, the band's first, self-titled album was released first in West Germany
West Germany
West Germany is the common English, but not official, name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG in the period between its creation in May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990....
in 1981, where it sold moderately well; this was due in part to the enthusiasm of West German record promoters (including photographer Jim Rakete) for the band, in contrast to the East German state record label Amiga's reluctance to produce an album.
After the album was released, the band made the acquaintance of poet Werner Karma, who would write the lyrics for the band's albums until 1989. His complex and often politically charged lyrics gave the band a strong intellectual appeal, but frequently landed them in trouble with the censors, who demanded changes before allowing a song to be performed. With the West German album a fait accompli, Amiga was forced to issue it domestically, as Tanzt keiner Boogie? (Isn't Anyone Going to Boogie?), where it was immensely popular; the revised version dropped two songs in favor of two new recordings with lyrics by Karma, one of which, the atypical Der letzte Kunde (The Last Customer), a paean to alcoholism sung by drummer Schafmeier, became the early band's signature tune.
In 1982, Danz's then-boyfriend Rüdiger "Ritchie" Barton joined the band, replacing its two keyboardists. His first appearance was a note-for-note cover version of Kim Carnes
Kim Carnes
Kim Carnes is an American singer-songwriter. She is a two-time Grammy Award winner noted for her distinctive raspy vocal style. Some people have called her "The Female Rod Stewart" due to her raspy voice....
' hit "Bette Davis Eyes
Bette Davis Eyes
"Bette Davis Eyes" is a song written in 1974 by Donna Weiss and Jackie DeShannon and made popular by American singer-songwriter Kim Carnes.-History:...
", which, following long-standing practice, the state recording label Amiga issued to avoid having to pay performance royalties for the original song. While it earned the band substantial publicity, they showed their evident unhappiness with it by performing it on television dressed as schoolchildren eating ice cream (Eis, in German, is pronounced much as "eyes"). The song was the only Silly release not to be in German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
; it was also their last release under the name "Familie Silly".
Barton's synthesizer playing lent a New Wave
New Wave music
New Wave is a subgenre of :rock music that emerged in the mid to late 1970s alongside punk rock. The term at first generally was synonymous with punk rock before being considered a genre in its own right that incorporated aspects of electronic and experimental music, mod subculture, disco and 1960s...
edge to the band's subsequent album, Mont Klamott, named for the "rubbish mountain" in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
's Friedrichshain
Friedrichshain
Friedrichshain is a part of Berlin's borough of Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg, and like Kreuzberg across the river it has its own distinct character, with the result that the new double name is hardly ever used outside government administration. From its creation in 1920 until Berlin's 2001...
district that was built over the debris of a World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
flak tower
Flak tower
Flak towers were 8 complexes of large, above-ground, anti-aircraft gun blockhouse towers constructed in the cities of Berlin , Hamburg , and Vienna from 1940 onwards....
. The title track, a massive hit in East Germany, is typical of Karma's narrative writing style, with several overtones. It concerns a conversation between two women, one old and one young; the younger one thanks the city fathers for the hill, which for her is only as a place to catch some fresh air; the older replies to her that it was the city mothers — Germany's Trümmerfrau
Trümmerfrau
Trümmerfrau is the German-language name for women who, in the aftermath of World War II, helped clear and reconstruct the bombed cities of Germany and Austria...
en — who had built the hill from the city ruins.
Mont Klamott was voted East Germany's Album of the Year, cementing Silly's popularity. At the time, the band toured constantly, spending most of its time on the road. Schafmeier was forced to leave the band for health reasons, and he took the band's best-known song "Der letzte Kunde" with him, joining the cabaret trio MTS. He was replaced by Herbert Junck, formerly of NO 55.
Silly's censorship problem became more acute in 1985 when their planned album Zwischen unbefahr'nen Gleisen (Between Untraveled Tracks; presumably those between the two German states), was blocked by East German officials, who had taken exception to the "subversive" message of several tracks.
It was eventually released as Liebeswalzer
Liebeswalzer
Liebeswalzer was the fourth album by the East German rock group Silly. It was released in 1985.Liebeswalzer was originally recorded as Zwischen unbefahr'nen Gleisen . But the album - pressed, printed, and ready for release - was ordered destroyed by East German officials for "unapproved" lyrics...
(Waltz of Love), containing rewritten lyrics. The offending songs, "Tausend Augen" ("Thousand Eyes"), "Nur ein Lied" ("Only a Song"), and the title track, were re-recorded with new lyrics and arrangements and renamed "Psycho", "Großer Träumer" ("Big Dreamer"), and "Berliner Frühling" ("Berlin Spring"). In 1990, as East Germany was in its dying days, Liebeswalzer
Liebeswalzer
Liebeswalzer was the fourth album by the East German rock group Silly. It was released in 1985.Liebeswalzer was originally recorded as Zwischen unbefahr'nen Gleisen . But the album - pressed, printed, and ready for release - was ordered destroyed by East German officials for "unapproved" lyrics...
was re-released with the three songs in their original form. The unaltered album was finally released on CD
Compact Disc
The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...
with both versions, in 1994.
Despite the controversy, Liebeswalzer again was voted Album of the Year, and Silly won one argument with the censors over the word Titten (tits) in the song "So 'ne kleine Frau" (Such a Little Woman), which was left unaltered.
Bassist Jäcki Reznicek, formerly of Pankow, played fretless bass on the title track to the next album, Battailon D'amour (Battalion of Love, 1986), which proved to be one of the best-known songs ever to come out of East Germany (the main bass line was played by Schramm). The album was released on CBS Records
CBS Records
CBS Records is a record label founded by CBS Corporation in 2006 to take advantage of music from its entertainment properties owned by CBS Television Studios. The initial label roster consisted of only three artists; rock band Señor Happy and singer/songwriters Will Dailey and P.J...
in West Germany, although CBS rejected the East German cover artwork as amateurish and supplied their own. The song "Schlohweißer Tag" (Snow White Day) was later used in Heiner Carow
Heiner Carow
Heiner Carow was a German film director and screenwriter. His 1986 film So Many Dreams was entered into the 37th Berlin International Film Festival. The following year, he was a member of the jury at the 38th Berlin International Film Festival...
's 1989 film Coming Out. After the album was released, Schramm was asked to leave the band, and was replaced by Reznicek.
Following the success of Bataillon d'Amour, the band took a two-year break from recording, during which they split with Karma. He contributed only two songs to Silly's next effort, Februar, released in that month in 1989 (in West Germany; the domestic release was a month later). After a falling out with Werner Karma, Danz sought the assistance of up-and-coming singer-songwriter Gerhard Gundermann
Gerhard Gundermann
Gerhard Rüdiger Gundermann, who generally performed as simply Gundermann , was a German singer-songwriter and rock musician. An excavator operator, his musical career began in the former East Germany, where he became known for his clever, often melancholy lyrics imbued with social commentary...
in writing lyrics, who had already drawn notice for his witty wordplay on his 1988 debut album. Recorded in West Berlin
West Berlin
West Berlin was a political exclave that existed between 1949 and 1990. It comprised the western regions of Berlin, which were bordered by East Berlin and parts of East Germany. West Berlin consisted of the American, British, and French occupation sectors, which had been established in 1945...
, the album was, like its predecessor, state-of-the-art, and as a co-production with a West German label, there was, for the first time, no censorship. Joining the band was guitarist Uwe Hassbecker, Danz's new paramour, formerly of Stern Meißen
Stern-Combo Meißen
Stern-Combo Meißen is a German rock band founded in 1964 in Meißen, East Germany. - External links :* * *...
, whom she had met while singing in the East German supergroup
Supergroup (music)
In the late 1960s, the term supergroup was coined to describe "a rock music group whose performers are already famous from having performed individually or in other groups"....
, Die Gitarreros, in 1986. His heavy metal
Heavy metal music
Heavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the Midlands of the United Kingdom and the United States...
-inspired playing contrasted with Thomas Fritzsching's more melodic approach, causing Fritzsching to be marginalized; although technically the bandleader, he was excluded from the recording sessions.
Again, it was released on a West German label, this time Ariola, and again the cover artwork was replaced with a more sophisticated version. While not an enormous hit in the west, the track "Verlorene Kinder" (Lost Children) received some airplay. The track "Ein Gespenst geht um" (A Ghost Haunts), an oblique political commentary which drew on a quotation by Karl Marx
Karl Marx
Karl Heinrich Marx was a German philosopher, economist, sociologist, historian, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. His ideas played a significant role in the development of social science and the socialist political movement...
about political change in the air (although the ghost here haunted a Mitropa
Mitropa
Mitropa is a catering company best known for having managed sleeping and dining cars of different German railways for most of the 20th century. Since its reorganization in 2002, the company only provides stationary food services for rail and road customers. The name Mitropa is a derivative of ""...
restaurant rather than Europa), and the song seemed somewhat prescient in light of the fall of the Berlin Wall
Berlin Wall
The Berlin Wall was a barrier constructed by the German Democratic Republic starting on 13 August 1961, that completely cut off West Berlin from surrounding East Germany and from East Berlin...
in November that year.
However, the end of communism did not lead to a breakthrough for Silly. Although Danz had petitioned the East German government for change during 1989, and illegally read out petitions during the band's concerts, interest in East German bands plummeted after November 9, 1989, when East Germans were able to cross into West Germany and easily get their hands on western rock music. Danz performed as a backup singer at a massive free concert featuring the likes of Joe Cocker
Joe Cocker
John Robert "Joe" Cocker, OBE is an English rock and blues musician, composer and actor, who came to popularity in the 1960s, and is most known for his gritty voice, his idiosyncratic arm movements while performing, and his cover versions of popular songs, particularly those of The Beatles...
following the Wall opening. She later expressed skepticism that her involvement with the Neues Forum reform movement had produced any results.
At the same time, however, the West German label Ariola believed Silly could be turned into a household name across all of Germany. The band were invited to Bavaria
Bavaria
Bavaria, formally the Free State of Bavaria is a state of Germany, located in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the largest state by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...
to work on a new album. But Danz felt constrained by the Ariola executives, who deemed the band's songs not commercial, and provided them with chart-friendly music and lyrics by outside writers. Silly walked out.
Instead, Silly's next album would be the self-produced Hurensöhne (Sons of Bitches), released in 1993 on DSB, the successor label to the state-run Amiga. Again, the lyrics were penned by Danz and Gundermann, separately and together; as the album's title suggests, they were angry. The song "Neider" (The Enviers) addresses the band's treatment at the hands of Ariola. The album closer, "Traumpaar" (Dream Couple) imagines the two German states as a dancing pair, die Schlampe und der Held — the whore and the hero.
Largely ignored in western Germany, Hurensöhne reestablished Silly as an important band in the east, as fans returned in droves amid disillusionment with German reunification
German reunification
German reunification was the process in 1990 in which the German Democratic Republic joined the Federal Republic of Germany , and when Berlin reunited into a single city, as provided by its then Grundgesetz constitution Article 23. The start of this process is commonly referred by Germans as die...
. The group's concerts once again sold out. After the album, Danz, Hassbecker, and Barton began building their own recording studio in Berlin, named Danzmusik. Fritzsching, the band's founder, whose guitar contributions had become overshadowed by those of Hassbecker, was asked to leave the band.
Late during the recording for the follow-up, Paradies, in 1995, Danz was diagnosed with breast cancer
Breast cancer
Breast cancer is cancer originating from breast tissue, most commonly from the inner lining of milk ducts or the lobules that supply the ducts with milk. Cancers originating from ducts are known as ductal carcinomas; those originating from lobules are known as lobular carcinomas...
. Although she was operated on immediately, the disease had spread, and she refused chemotherapy
Chemotherapy
Chemotherapy is the treatment of cancer with an antineoplastic drug or with a combination of such drugs into a standardized treatment regimen....
, instead choosing an ineffective alternative medicine
Alternative medicine
Alternative medicine is any healing practice, "that does not fall within the realm of conventional medicine." It is based on historical or cultural traditions, rather than on scientific evidence....
treatment. She died the following July, five months after the album had come out. Shortly before her death, she married Hassbecker, her live-in partner of many years; she said this was in part to avoid taxes on her share of the studio.
Paradies was the first album on which Danz alone had written the lyrics, and several of its song seem to reflect on her impending death, although Danz denied this, saying that the words had been written before her diagnosis. The album was photographed by the band's old friend Jim Rakete. Despite minimal publicity, and the lack, for obvious reasons, of a tour, it sold reasonably well, and its title track became a radio hit.
The band did not break up after Danz's death; the remaining members (Barton, Hassbecker, Rezniczek, and Junck) completed two unfinished tracks for inclusion on a pair of greatest hits
Greatest hits
A greatest hits album is a music compilation album of successful, previously released songs by a particular artist or band...
albums, the first of which sold well over 100,000 copies, no small achievement for a compilation of an East German band. The remaining members performed Silly's songs on tour on two occasions, the first "borrowing" singer Toni Krahl from the band City
City (band)
City is a German rock band, formed in East Berlin in 1972, best known for the song "Am Fenster" from its 1978 first album....
for a number of one-off performances, and in 2005 using several well-known singers on a German tour promoted as a tribute to both Danz and Junck, who had died of cancer earlier in the year.
In 2006 Hassbecker, Barton, and Reznicek announced a new electro-acoustic tour with actress and singer Anna Loos; the live band included Reznicek's son Bastian on drums, Hassbecker's son Daniel on cello, and former Rockhaus guitarist Reinhard Petereit. Initially billed as "Silly with Anna Loos", the band asked Loos to join the band permanently following the tour.
At Loos' suggestion, the band approached, and reconciled with, lyricist Werner Karma. In early 2010, the band, which had no members from its original lineup, released its first new album since 1996, Alles Rot (Everything Red), with all its lyrics written by Karma. Thanks in part to the attention drawn by Loos, Silly was able to sign to the major label Universal Music. The album proved to be the band's most successful to date, reaching number 3 on the German charts, and the band toured to numerous sold-out venues.
Legacy
In 1998, singer Joachim WittJoachim Witt
Joachim Witt is a German musician and actor.- Life and work :Joachim Witt became a major star of the German pop scene during the eighties with huge hits such as "Der Goldene Reiter"...
had a hit in Germany with a cover version of "Battailon d'Amour." The Polish
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
goth metal band Batalion d'Amour was also named for the song.
Members
- Anna Loos (born Brandenburg an der Havel, November 18, 1970) — vocalsSingingSinging is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments...
(since 2006) - Ritchie Barton (born WeferlingenWeferlingenWeferlingen is a village and a former municipality in the Börde district in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Since 1 January 2010, it is part of the town Oebisfelde-Weferlingen....
, March 3, 1954) — keyboardsKeyboard instrumentA keyboard instrument is a musical instrument which is played using a musical keyboard. The most common of these is the piano. Other widely used keyboard instruments include organs of various types as well as other mechanical, electromechanical and electronic instruments...
(since 1982) - Uwe Hassbecker (born LeipzigLeipzigLeipzig Leipzig has always been a trade city, situated during the time of the Holy Roman Empire at the intersection of the Via Regia and Via Imperii, two important trade routes. At one time, Leipzig was one of the major European centres of learning and culture in fields such as music and publishing...
, November 17, 1960) — guitarGuitarThe guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
(since 1986) - Jäcki Reznicek (born DresdenDresdenDresden is the capital city of the Free State of Saxony in Germany. It is situated in a valley on the River Elbe, near the Czech border. The Dresden conurbation is part of the Saxon Triangle metropolitan area....
, November 29, 1953) — bass guitarBass guitarThe bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
(since 1986)
Supported live by:
- Reinhard Petereit — guitar (formerly of Rockhaus)
- Daniel Hassbecker — cello, keyboards
- Bastian Reznicek — drums
- Ronny Dehm — drums
Former members
- Tamara DanzTamara DanzTamara Danz was the lead singer and lyricist of the East German rock group Silly. She died at age 43 of breast cancer.- Life and work :...
(born BreitungenBreitungenBreitungen is a municipality in the Schmalkalden-Meiningen district, Thuringia, Germany....
, December 14, 1952, died July 22, 1996) — vocals (1978–1996) - Thomas Fritzsching (born LeipzigLeipzigLeipzig Leipzig has always been a trade city, situated during the time of the Holy Roman Empire at the intersection of the Via Regia and Via Imperii, two important trade routes. At one time, Leipzig was one of the major European centres of learning and culture in fields such as music and publishing...
, January 7, 1949) — guitar (1978–1994) - Mathias Schramm (born September 5, 1949, died August 5, 2007) — bass (1978–1986)
- Michael Schafmeier — drumsDrum kitA drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
, vocals (1978–1984) - Ulrich Mann — keyboards (1978–1981)
- Manfred Kusno — keyboards (1978–1981)
- Herbert Junck (born November 25, 1949, died May 31, 2005) — drums (1984–2005)
Discography
- Silly, 1980 — released first in West GermanyWest GermanyWest Germany is the common English, but not official, name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG in the period between its creation in May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990....
- Tanzt keiner Boogie? (Isn't Anyone Going to Boogie?), 1981 — East German version of their first album
- Mont Klamott (Rubbish Mountain), 1983
- LiebeswalzerLiebeswalzerLiebeswalzer was the fourth album by the East German rock group Silly. It was released in 1985.Liebeswalzer was originally recorded as Zwischen unbefahr'nen Gleisen . But the album - pressed, printed, and ready for release - was ordered destroyed by East German officials for "unapproved" lyrics...
(Love Waltz), 1985 - Battaillon D'Amour (Battalion of Love), 1986
- Februar (February), 1989
- Hurensöhne (Sons of Bitches), 1993
- ParadiesParadies (album)Paradies is the final album by East-German rock group Silly before the death of lead singer Tamara Danz. It is also the only Silly album without band founder and guitarist Thomas Fritzsching.-Track listing:#Köter...
(Paradise), 1996 - Bye Bye... (The Best of Silly, Vol 1), 1996 (compilation)
- P.S. (The Best of Silly, Vol 2), 1997 (compilation)
- Traumteufel (Dream Devil), 1999 (compilation)
- Silly + Gundermann & Seilschaft Unplugged, 1999 — Live albumLive albumA live album is a recording consisting of material recorded during stage performances using remote recording techniques, commonly contrasted with a studio album...
with Gerhard GundermannGerhard GundermannGerhard Rüdiger Gundermann, who generally performed as simply Gundermann , was a German singer-songwriter and rock musician. An excavator operator, his musical career began in the former East Germany, where he became known for his clever, often melancholy lyrics imbued with social commentary...
, recorded in PotsdamPotsdamPotsdam is the capital city of the German federal state of Brandenburg and part of the Berlin/Brandenburg Metropolitan Region. It is situated on the River Havel, southwest of Berlin city centre....
in 1994 - 25 Jahre Silly, 2003 (DVDDVDA DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
) - Silly - Die Original Amiga Alben (The Original Amiga Albums), 2006 — Eight-CD box set with first appearance of Silly's debut album on CD, not available separately
- Silly + Gäste (Silly and Guests), 2006 — Live CD and DVD of 2005 tour with guest singers
- Alles Rot (Everything Red), 2010 - now with Anna Loos
External links
- Official website (in German)
- Patricia Jung's website on Silly
- Semi-official Silly website (in German)
- Ostrock24: Silly (in German)
- Ostrock24: Gitarreros (in German)
Literature
- Alexander Osang: Tamara Danz: Legenden. Ch. Links Verlag, Berlin 1997, ISBN 3-86153-124-0