Nina Hagen ,  Universal Radio 1985  , German Punk Queen
Channel: Evie  Vonck 's  Crib 
Date: 04/02/2022

Nina Hagen performing in Sept. 1985.
Listening to a Nina Hagen album is like stumbling into a simulated haunted house 
while also being on psychedelic drugs. Her songs are quotable, theatrical flights 
of fancy, often serving as political satire and sprinkled with surprise operatics 
(her vocal range once spanned around six octaves).
 My favourite of her spoken monologues is on Antiworld, where she recounts the exorcism of the Gerasene demoniac (‘Once upon a time…when Jesus was walking-down-this-way on Earth, he met this man who was possessed… BY A DEMON!’),
 but I also love Atomic Flash Deluxe, which, with its low-register refrain of ‘
Babylon must fallllll’ is the actual musical equivalent of the ‘powerful sense of dread- bit fr
om Peep Show. Another song deserving of attention is 1993’s ,  Gypsy Love, 
and its spoken interlude ‘On wild wild horses of cosmic evolution 
and across deserts of DEATH’.
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4kUPUS0YGI   


Her Street album appears comparatively toned-down at first listen, but really deserves acknowledgement as the foremost camp masterpiece of its time – 
a little bit of the ’60s, shifted forward thirty years without really even 
being aware of it. Blumer für die Damen, for example, samples Rex Harrison (!)
 in My Fair Lady (1964) (!!!) In Love-Hi, she serves Elizabeth Taylor a catty put-down 
(possibly because nothing else would rhyme with ‘failure’) and thus also invites instant comparison. Gretchen is a Schubert lied but disco-style 
– it would not be out of place in Mae West’s last film. One notable thread 
across Hagen’s discography is her obsession with Zarah Leander 
(the Third Reich singing Nazi version of Greta Garbo). 
Her own theatricality, homosexual appeal and half-Jewish background 
create an interesting conflict here, culminating in a  fan favourite ,  Nina Hagen song, 
the homage-parody Zarah:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFtIhGbTdbU