Toctronic: Pure Reason Must Never Prevail (Pure Vernunft darf niemals siegen)  
Saturday, 22 .April, 2006, 19:54 - English Entries, Music

Tocotronic - Picture taken from Wikipedia Sometimes it is not easy to be 35 years old and still be blindly fascinated by rock music, unable to criticize it and even forgiving the most stupid songs by saying that they are down-to-earth and beautiful in their simplicity. Under the influence of rolling drums and roaring electric guitars the lack of poetry and content becomes sometimes irrelevant.

But then again, it is not that bad at all and during the last years even some German bands found ways to combine music and message to popular songs. One of these groups is "Tocotronic", who's around already since 1993. The first song I heard from them was "Die Welt kann mich nicht mehr verstehn" (The world cannot understand me anymore), a plain punk-rock song. Some of their songs bombastic and loud, others are of a meditative slowness. Their songs have titles like "The idea is good, but the world isn't read yet", "I want to be part of a youth movement" and "I wish I would be interested in Tennis" and most of their lyrics are suggestive, not to say surreal.

Their latest album was released in 2005 and is entitled "Pure Vernunft darf niemals siegen" (Pure reason must never prevail). The title song of this album is masterpiece, it sounds like a credo, is full of metaphors and nonetheless every line is a statement which can be unambiguously understood. I love this song, it makes me feel like in the very early 80s, when I switched my radio to the only rock channel that existed at that time and after five minutes knew that some noisy boys and girls had understood me better than I have had myself up till then.

So I sat down and translated the text – the translation is not perfect and you can blame me for every incorrectness. Read it, listen to the song, watch the video. Enjoy!

Pure reason must never prevail

Pure reason must never prevail
We urgently need new lies
Which guide us through the universe,
And which prepare us the feast of the world ,
Which enforce the delirium
And which sing us into sweet slumber,
Which warn us of blunt truth,
And which have mercy with deep pain,
Which rock us in bamboo-cradles
Pure reason must never prevail

La la la la la

Pure reason must never prevail
We urgently need new lies
Which show us the treasure of lunacy
And afterwards bow before us
Which crown us to kings
Just to secretly mock us
Which sizzle in our ears
And wish over our eyes
Which make war against those who want to help us
Pure reason must never prevail

La la la la la

Pure reason must never prevail
We urgently need new lies
Which preserve our beauty for us
But which divide us deep within ourselves
In fact which fragment us
And afterwards gently touch us
And guide us into the dark
And obey to our will
And bend us like soft fences
Pure reason must never prevail

La la la la la

We are so light that we fly
We are so light that we fly
We are so light that we fly
We are so light that we fly

» German text of this song
» Video of this song

» Tocotronic Homepage (in German)
» Tocotronic in English Wikipedia
» Tocotronic in German Wikipedia

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Geog 
Sunday, 23 .April, 2006, 18:56 / http://blog.fragmentspuren.de
Thank you for your words Kirsty. Rock Music will never leave us alone, it is one of the very few things I manage to stay faithful to without even thinking about it. And there are so manygreat bands, all the time new ones coming up. Amazing! I never listend to Joy Division, so now you gave me a task!

Thank also for the link to the very good song, I will see to get more from the Editors. What a band name, sounds like books and pages and literature. And "Munich" is the city I worked for many years. Great choice, Kirsty!
Kirsty 
Sunday, 23 .April, 2006, 15:49 / http://kirstylong.blogspot.com/
I was raised to the simple stomp-alongs of bands like The Ramones and The Clash, as well as the bookish lyrics of The Smiths and Joy Division. I was definitely born 10 years too late... Anyway, when I hear 3 chord wonders I still get the same adrenaline rush as when I was 14, and I hope I can always feel something like that, to a certain extent, no matter what age I am. Bottom line: its great that you are still fascinated by rock music!

I really liked the Tocotronic song. It has more levels than the Empire State bldg. My pet sound at the moment is the song 'Munich' by UK band the Editors. They remind of me of joy division on crack. Have a listen, maybe you'll take a shine to them - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWmOZ5YHyTs

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