Rio Reiser - Jenseits von Eden (East of Eden)

I was nominated by @katharsisdrill to participate in this challenge, where you have to write seven consecutively posts about songs from your high-school/college years, that somehow were important for you.

After yesterday's post, I had a short conversation with @katharsisdrill about the enormous force of music and that it can be used politically or even can be politically without trying. So my third post is about the former vocalist of a very political band called Ton Steine Scherben (Clay Stones Shards).

Ton Steine Scherben were pioneers in German music culture. [...] Their lyrics were at the beginning anti-capitalist and anarchist. [They] had connections to the squatter scene (e.g. Rauch-Haus-Song) and the German Red Army Faction terrorists during the time before the latter turned to violent crime and murder. [...] They also contributed to two full-length concept album about homosexuality which were issued under the name Brühwarm (literally: boiling warm) in cooperation with a gay-revue group.

Source

Before I tell you my story, please listen to the song and see the lyrcis:

Rio Reiser - Jenseits von Eden (Live 1988) [From their double album IV]

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Movement

After the discrepancy between my parent's believes and my own experiences and conclusions had grown dramatically since I started to read books from Hesse and Nietzsche, I finally left my parents' home the day before I started studying at the University. It hadn't been planned, since my parents lived only about half an hour drive away from Dortmund.

But my mother was so disappointed that day, that I didn't want to attend their worship service, that she poured out all my things on the floor of my room and told me: "At least clean up your room!"

When they came back, I had boxed all my things for the move. My father yelled:"We didn't kick you out!" and "Give me the key!" and seconds later I was on the way in my new life.

It took me some time to discover this album after this radical experience, but the song pretty much sums up my feelings and thoughts, I had when I went east of Eden.

East of Eden

There are also some interesting facts about the album:

All the songs on the album aside from Morgenlicht were composed with the aid of Tarot cards from the Major Arcana. The so-called "Tarot secret" was not revealed until years after Rio Reiser's death, as it was worried that the magic of the innovative and sometimes very different texts would be lost.

Source

The song Jenseits von Eden ("East of Eden") relates to the Wheel of Fortune.

The Tarot cards were also used to assign different tasks for each song, i.e. who wrote the lyrics and composed the music. [...] An additional component of the album was the musical variety used in production. Several guest musicians were invited for the recordings [...]. A youth choir from Niebüll was also used for the song Wie in den Tagen Midians. Members of the band also played using less common instruments, such as the hammered dulcimer.

Source

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Dada

Later in my life, I also had a period, where I digged deep into tarot card reading using the Thoth Tarot by Aleister Crowley and also the Dada art movement (to which the lyrics of the song relate) extremely catched my attention.

But that's another story...

Thanks for reading!

@shortcut

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The #musicwaybackchallenge rules:

• Choose one song from your high-school/college years.
• Write a few words about who made you listen to this song for the first time, what this song means to you (was it a breakup song? you blasted it at 100% on your audio system when you were partying with your friends?) whatever you want.
• Write your text while listening to the song. As soon as the song ends, wrap up what you where writing and submit it.
• Do this for 7 days in a row if you get nominated
• Mention one person who should do this on each day.
• Tag it with #musicwaybackchallenge and include these rules at the bottom of your post