Earlier entries of this series can be found here: http://www.acclaimedmusic.net/forums/vi ... ive#p45337
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“Dreh dich nach rechts/ Und klatsch in die Hände/ Und mach den Adolf Hitler”
90. Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft – Der Mussolini
The facts:
Year: 1981.
Genre: Electronic.
Country: Germany.
Album: Alles ist Gut.
Acclaimed Music ranking: #3868.
Song ranking on Acclaimed Music in the artist’s discography: 1st, the only one.
Ranks higher than The Carnival is Over by The Seekers, but lower than Hard in da Paint by Waka Flocka Flame.
Place in the Acclaimed Music Song Poll 2015: Unranked.
The people:
Written by Gabi Delgado & Robert Görl.
Produced by Konrad “Conny” Plank.
Vocals by Gabi Delgado.
Drums by Robert Görl.
Synthesizers by Robert Görl.
The opinion:
Last week the God of Fate (also known as Random.org) threw a song in my lap with an attention-grabbing title: Der Mussolini. The band’s name also had an element of suspicion to it: Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft (translation: German American Friendship). That might sound friendly on itself, but combined with that song title there is more than a hint of sarcasm detectable. It’s going to be one of those weeks, won’t it?
I guess the song can be described as sarcastic in a way. Yes, the title is a reference to the infamous Benito Mussolini, fascist dictator of Italy until halfway through the Second World War. It is also a reference to a dance, invented by the members of Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft (otherwise known as DAF, the name I’m going with from here). Squat, clap in your hands and move your hips: that’s how you do The Mussolini. Indeed, those are the English translations of the German instructions of the song. Thank me later.
There are more dances mentioned. If you turn to the right and clap in your hands you’ll do The Adolf Hitler. Now move your behinds and clap your hands and that’s how you do the Jesus Christ. There is also this dance craze going around that’s called Den Kommunismus (The Communism), but it’s not specified how it goes. I suspect it is something of a communal dance. That joke is unnecessary I guess, because just translating the lyrics give you enough uncomfortable humour.
Is this satire? Is this provocative? In a way it is both, but somehow the song manages to be completely unspecific in its political commentary. It just takes these names – Mussolini, Hitler, Jesus and communism – and makes them silly. But because these four names are loaded with meaning they make for uncomfortable dance titles. Perhaps Jesus is the boldest addition to this roster, as he is the only pro-peace figure here (communism should have joined him like that, but it wasn’t meant to be). He’s not linked to dictatorships, but that doesn’t mean Christianity hasn’t delivered its share of oppression. I’d suspect this to be the most controversial element (especially because Jesus has far more followers nowadays than Hitler and Mussolini) and because his association with dictators through this song is undeniably a move of deep cynicism.
This isn’t the first song that comes up with several silly names for non-existing songs. There is Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag by James Brown of course and there’s The B-52’s Dance This Mess Around. All three are honest to goodness dance songs. No one can deny that Der Mussolini is different though. This is because of its musical palette (more about that later), but also because I think it really is a different thing to dance to a song whose lyrics are so loaded. It could give you a rebellious rush to dance over the virtual graves of fascists or it could for a minute give you a feeling of manic freedom from the dark shackles of the past. I wouldn’t suggest this is the healthiest therapy in the world, but DAF were at least on to something.
They weren’t the only ones though, because believe it or not, they weren’t the first act to name a dance The Mussolini. Cabaret Voltaire, an act that DAF often gets compared with, did it two years earlier in Do the Mussolini (Headkick), part of an early EP. Whether it is a coincidence or not I can’t say. The Cabaret Voltaire song is hardly among their most famous, but that doesn’t mean DAF didn’t know it.
If you think that is all you are wrong. In 1990, nine years after Der Mussolini, the ferocious, cult punk band God Bullies released a song named Mussolini, where people are encouraged to dance The – yes – Mussolini. The spirit of that track is very close to DAF and this is definitely an intended ode to the German dance classic. The bite of the predecessor is there too.
Just searching on “Mussolini” in Spotify is something of an experience in itself. There might be a thematic subgenre there. Besides the three aforementioned songs and covers of them there are a couple of oddities to be found. That Mussolini of all last century’s dictators has probably most been reduced to a joke is probably best proven by the funny rap Mussolini Miscellany by MC Mr. Napkins. There is heartfelt singer/songwriter track by The Corndodgers about a bad person compared to Il Duce in Like Mussolini. There is another ferocious punk outing in the form of Gama Bomb’s Mussolini Mosh and there are oddities like Baby Mussolini by The Qualia and Legacy of Mussolini by Mad Professor. Most curious is perhaps a 1942 Greek song named Rude Mussolini. I don’t have a clue what it is about, but there you have it.
To cap it off, there is also a feminist song named The Mussolini cooperation, in which the female singers lament passionately the way women are locked up by the paternal society. This is perhaps a reference to the fact that Mussolini on his rise to power denied the existence of his first marriage and his first wife, by locking her in an insane asylum where she stayed until she died (their son suffered the same fate). The name Mussolini isn’t mentioned in the song and you have to give props for the group Spitchic for making such a song with a name based on such a reference. The things you find when you write a series like this.
Enough about the weird cultural heritage of Benito Mussolini, let’s get back to DAF. They were (or are, they’ve broken up and got together again so often that it’s hard to tell if they currently exist or not) a German electronic group. If you think about that country and that genre in that time period you are probably thinking about Kraftwerk. That’s not who DAF resemble though. In fact, they consciously wanted to break with that famous band’s legacy, as well as the big influence of the USA on popular culture. They wanted to be something really different.
And so they were. Whereas Kraftwerk went for a clean, smooth sound and pretended to be robots (or Mensch-Machines to be more precise), DAF were all too human. They wanted their electronic sounds to be messy, sweaty, angry and sexy. At first they resembled a typical band of five people, but by the time of the release of Der Mussolini there were only two members left: Gabi Delgado did the vocals, while Robert Görl did all the instrumental parts. Their sound wasn’t directly inspired by punk, but they had something important in common with that genre: they wanted to be beasts.
Delgado’s voice reminds me of a German Ian Curtis, but that’s not where the inspiration came from. He is the son of Spanish immigrants and Delgado always thought that the German language had an aggressive tone, partly because of its staccato delivery. Delgado believed that this was an element that should be highlighted in the singing and so we get to the deep barking and biting vocals. There was more to it though, as sex (both gay and straight; Delgado was bi-sexual) was an important ingredient of the bands image. So the deep voice was to be attractive too. That weird mix between seductive and murderous works wonderfully well.
Robert Görl meanwhile was responsible for the compositional part of the songs. He preferred very minimal, repetitive and simple beats. This has become rather usual for electronic dance music, but there is a significant difference: Görl changed the sounds somewhat every so often in the song to give it a more organic and imperfect feel; more human if you will. He gave the drums the same approach. The result was a sound that didn’t sound as futuristic as Kraftwerk, but more like electronics from the gutters of the day.
Believe it or not, this was an unexpected road to commercial success. Der Mussolini was a big hit across Europe and a mainstay for dance clubs for a while. The album Alles ist Gut (hard to find nowadays, but pretty good if you ask me) also sold really well and for a short while Delgado and Görl were huge stars in Germany. To fully understand their appeal you have to see them live. Below you can find a video-performance of Der Mussolini. The sound and image quality is poor, but you’ll get a feel of the wild energy of Delgado, who delivers some of the most manic dances in music history. It’s perhaps for the better that Görl remains still and seated.
Famous radio disk jockey John Peel named DAF the founders of techno and the years following Alles ist Gut’s release many new acts named them as an inspiration. So why is it, with electronic dance music as popular as ever, that they seem only to be half-remembered. Is it that dance music is considered a young person’s genre and that we talk about the type of young people that definitely-not-ever-nu-uh-f*ck-you-old-person would ever listen to anything that sounds like people 5 years older than them might like. I feel that dance music hasn’t got the historical staying power that it should have. Kraftwerk are doing well, but they aren’t the most danceable of the bunch. So only really New Order remains seemingly unscathed.
I should add to this that I don’t particularly love this song either, but that has more to do with the fact that this genre doesn’t appeal all that much to me. Not from 1981, nor from 2017. Still, Alles ist Gut and Der Mussolini are about as good to me as it get and I admire the weird zest and character of the group. Any dance fans out here who still care (or – for that matter – know) about DAF?
7/10
Other versions:
There are a couple of covers of Der Mussolini. Most prominent is recent DAF-approved remix by no less than Giorgio Moroder, along with Denis Naidanow. It’s basically a more modernized version of the song, although Hitler, Jesus and communism seem to have fallen by the wayside, thereby heavily diminishing the sardonic nature of the song. At least it comes with an odd clip of Japanese girls dancing to the track (although sadly, they don’t follow the instructions).
All the others are quite good too. They don’t mess with the song too much, though the high-spirited female vocals and raging tempo of the Analog Pussy cover are rather nice. By the way, why do bands like this so many times have unmemorable names like KMFDM and OHL. Do they actually want people to forget about them?
The playlist:
Note: The playlist below opens with the Moroder/ Naidanow remix. The DAF original is not on Spotify and is in the YouTube-link below.
The DAF original:
Delgado going ape during a live performance of Der Mussolini:
The clip to the Morodor/ Naidonow remix:
Charlie Chaplin once said he wished he would know what Adolf Hitler thought of The Great Dictator. When I see clips like this I would wonder how Mussolini would have react to those. At least The Great Dictator is clear in its satirical goals. What Mussolini was supposed to have made of something like this is anyone’s guess.