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Call Me Wesley

(38,187 posts)
21. This was a huge hit from a German band called 'BAP' in 1982.
Sat Nov 9, 2013, 01:43 PM
Nov 2013

It's in German dialect, but below are the English lyrics I could find.



t happens to me I think something is rattling
That something's getting lost inside of me
A noise, not even loud,
Sometimes this rattling is so familiar to me
Seldom so that you immediately comprehend

You wake up, you rub your eyes and see
In a painting between Brueghel and Bosch
You see no one to set great by sirens
Because the sound of the all-clear costs only half as much
It smells of Crystal night

In the calm before the storm, what's that?
On the quiet someone leaves the town
Dignitaries incognito hurry past
Officially they don't like to be involved
When the angry populace - be prepared! -
Is rioting and yelling near the boiling point:
"Hail! Mort!" and boundlessly lecherous shouts for revenge
Trembling of envy
In the Crystal night

But those who're disturbed by what's different to them
Who swim with the tide as is right and proper
Who see gays as criminals
Strangers as scum
Need someone to lead them astray

And then there's no cavalry rescuing
No Zorro will care about
He will be pissing a "Z" in the snow
And then for coolness pass out
"Who cares? Crystal night"

In the church with the Franz-Kafka-clock without hand
With only strokes upon it, there is a blind man reading "The shock-headed Peter" to a deaf one
Behind a triple-locked door
And the guardian with the bunch of keys thinks he's really some kind of genius
Because he powders the ways out and sells them for claustrophobia
In the Crystal night

Meanwhile, perhaps at the market square,
Unmasked, today with its real face
Picking up stones, sharpening the knife
For those who are already squealed
The lynch-mob practices for the Last Judgement
And to load them they're only hastily moored, the galleys have long their steam up
And they're waiting for slaves in the harbor, for the trash of the unequal combat
Of the Crystal night

Where Darwin has to pay for everything
No matter if people are expelled or tormented
Where money hides behind the power
Where strength is as important as everything
Distorted by ducking and standing to attention
Where hymns are even played on a comb
Where in barbarous greed for profit, you can hear them yell "Hosanna!" and "Crucify him!"
When you see there any advantage at all
There'll be daily a Crystal night

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Kristallnacht: 75 years ago in pictures [View all] Behind the Aegis Nov 2013 OP
I saw a scanned version of "Der Giftpilz" on the internet a few years ago krispos42 Nov 2013 #1
Thanks for posting 1000words Nov 2013 #2
The third photograph, above the New York Times newspaper cover... slor Nov 2013 #3
And the others? Behind the Aegis Nov 2013 #5
I hope I did not convey disrespect... slor Nov 2013 #6
It's ok. Behind the Aegis Nov 2013 #22
A Holocaust revisionist on DU!?! slor Nov 2013 #23
Yeah, I meant to put that in my post and forgot! Sorry. Behind the Aegis Nov 2013 #24
Rec... freshwest Nov 2013 #4
K&R Warren DeMontague Nov 2013 #7
K&R meti57b Nov 2013 #8
In 1979 a rabbi let me view the inside of an Augsburg synagogue. no_hypocrisy Nov 2013 #9
This was just two years after the Berlin Olympics which the US refused to boycott. Bluenorthwest Nov 2013 #10
K&R octoberlib Nov 2013 #11
k&r HappyMe Nov 2013 #12
k and r dembotoz Nov 2013 #13
Kick & recommended. William769 Nov 2013 #14
Heartbreaking. ScreamingMeemie Nov 2013 #15
k&r Starry Messenger Nov 2013 #16
never forget Sunlei Nov 2013 #17
What I don't get is JNelson6563 Nov 2013 #18
After the war, the two sides went about it differently DFW Nov 2013 #28
VERY interesting DFW! JNelson6563 Nov 2013 #29
Great OP, BtA, and what's more: PCIntern Nov 2013 #19
Thanks! Behind the Aegis Nov 2013 #25
They comprised less than 1% of Germany's population . . . Brigid Nov 2013 #20
They blamed us for the loss of WWI. Behind the Aegis Nov 2013 #26
This was a huge hit from a German band called 'BAP' in 1982. Call Me Wesley Nov 2013 #21
Amazing Packerowner740 Nov 2013 #27
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