As part of our holiday season. we usually pick up some of those Mozart marzipan candies. A couple of days ago, when I looked at the wrapper, I thought “rapper” and then “Falco” because of “Rock me Amadeus,” which led to ymages of “Der Kommissar” and of course Nena and the anti-war song “99 Luftballons” (where the escalation and aftermath are more stark in the German lyrics). (There were many more associations, but I am pruning this description for the sake of brevity. You’re welcome.)

Naturally, I started thinking more about the context in which those songs came to life.

Governmental control of culture and art is ultimately a futile endeavor, but it is particularly hopeless when the music of the dominant paradigm can’t be banned by the DP. So when (a) the music of the likes of Mozart and Bach gets identified in the lands of its very cradle with (b) the voice of the counter-revolution, the days of (c) the totalitarian system are (d) numbered.

I was working on the lyrics (with very limited German at my command… or rather at my polite begging) when I got squirreled by a separate idea, namely one that led to Dickens!; however, earlier today (by my family’s kind of coincidence, and Dickens’ kind, for that matter) someone messaged a group chat to see who remembered Falco and “Rock Me Amadeus.” I was gonna just keep my mouth shut, but then someone asked me directly.

So I figured that I should finish this song and then get back to differentiating the voices in the other.

Lyrics

Alles Mozart underground

Die Symphonie geht round und round

In basement clubs in East Berlin

Wo Revolutionen begin

Der young ones dance to Wolfgang's beat

Während Party men patrol die street    [While Party men…]

Hey kleine Stasi was you gonna do?    [little Stasi…]

Wenn Mozart's rocking through und through

Die kids are trading tapes at night

Klassische rebellion, hold on tight!

Oh-oh-oh! Revolution!

Mozart's auf dem Radio

Oh-oh-oh! Constitution!

Watch der old guard go

In Prenzlauer Berg, der sound von Bach

Strikes midnight on der Eastern block

Mozart's Requiem in D

Macht die Party fall to knee

Jede note's eine revolution    [Every note’s…]

Jede score's eine resolution

Klassische solution!

Amadeus im Plattenbau

Breaking through das here und now

Eine Kleine klingt so true

Durch concrete walls, durch und durch    [Through concrete…]

Sie say Musik has keine class

Aber symphonies break walls of glass    [But symphonies…]

Jupiter steigt high und frei    [Jupiter rises…]

Through den Eastern European sky

Watch das system come undone

Bei Symphony Forty-One

Klassische defiance!

Oh-oh-oh! Revolution!

Mozart's auf dem Radio

Oh-oh-oh! Constitution!

Watch die Mauer go!    [Watch the wall go!]

Mozart's auf dem Radio

Mozart's auf dem Radio

Mozart's auf dem Radio