Ohh Nina!

 
I'm listening to old records from my collection. Records as in LP's. And old as in I bought them a long time ago! Here's NINA HAGEN's "Nunsexmonkrock" album from 1982. Check out the (my) writing on the back of the record: "Jack 1984"!!! That was 40 years ago! I bet you weren't even born in 1984! 

I haven't listened to this LP for a really long time (i.e. not since the 80s!!). And that was silly of me cos it's a fantastic record. I'm rediscovering Nina Hagen these days. I listened to her "Angstlos" and "Universelles Radio" LP's the other day (the latter I bought in a country that doesn't even exist anymore!). She was sooo inventive and alternative. Nothing square about Nina at all. She's also the only East German (that I know of) who was actually kicked O-U-T of East Germany. Usually East Germans had to try and escape and risk getting gunned down while climbing that dreaded Berlin wall. Nina was too wild for the East. 

Some of her early records exist in both German and English editions. I think there's only one version of "Nunsexmonkrock". The tracks are in a mix of German and English, and two versions of the album wouldn't make any sense anyway. "My father was a junkie. Wir waren sehr arm. My brother was in the Vietnam war..."

There's a lyric sheet but it's all done in Nina's hand scribbles and slightly hard to read unless you pay attention. But then again, you *should* pay attention to Nina. Incidentally, a great chunk of the lyrics to the opening track isn't listed. Nina gives her more or less direct rendition of the story of Jesus meeting the Devil in the desert. I wonder why it's left out. Maybe she did reckon better to leave it out since the record would be for sale in the States as well and she considered the risk of being deemed blasphemous and have it banned. Who knows. But great record. I have no idea what she's up to these days and I haven't got any of her post 1980s records. My cousin Ronny (who has since disappeared) was a big Nina Hagen fan as well. We shared a big love of Nina Hagen, Toyah and Unknown Gender (obscure band, now completely forgotten). I lent him "Angstlos" and had a hard time getting it back! Haha

I mentioned the intro track to "Nunsexmonkrock". Here it is in all its glory on YouTube: