Nina Hagen

NINA HAGEN
 
 
Nina Hagen  (born March 11, 1955) is a German singer, songwriter, and actress.  She is known for her theatrical vocals and is often referred to as the “Godmother of Punk” due to her prominence during the punk and new wave movements in the late 1970s and early 1980s.  She was offered a record deal from CBS Records and formed Nina Hagen Band.  Their self-titled debut album was released in 1978 to a critical acclaim and was a commercial success selling over 250,000 copies.  In 1982, Hagen signed a new contract with CBS and released her debut solo album NunSexMonkRock, which became her first record to chart in the United States.  Besides her musical career, Hagen is also a voice-over actress.  She wrote three autobiographies.  She is also noted for her human and animal rights activism.  (More from Wikipedia)
 
 

 

 

Born in East Berlin, Nina Hagen was gaining a reputation for being a flamboyant rock singer before she emigrated to the West in 1976.  With the Nina Hagen Band, she made two albums for CBS Germany Records and then released her first English-language album, NunSexMonkRock in 1982, where she displays the multi-octave range of her voice.  Her music blends an eccentric punk-rock vibe with a true theatrical sensibility.  I remember seeing her perform once, quite by surprise, as some sort of musical festival years ago; and I wish that I could remember the place. 

 

Surprisingly, Nina Hagen’s Christianity simmers beneath the surface of her music.  On “Anti World”, the opening track of NunSexMonkRock – where she poses as the Madonna on the album cover – Nina Hagen relates a Biblical account of an encounter by Jesus with a man who is possessed by a demon: 

 

     Once upon a time

     When Jesus was walking down his way on earth

     He met this man who was possessed by a demon

     And Jesus asked the man :

     Why do you speak so funny

     Why do you behave like that

     And the man said

     Why Jesus ? because I am possessed by a demon

     God ! Jesus said,

     And the demon went down into the pig,

     And the pig was running away screaming.

     And the man was free

     Do you see if you only could believe, Jesus said

     Everything is possible for those who believe.  

 

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In 2010, Nina Hagen released an album called Personal Jesus that is described by James Christopher Monger in Allmusic as:  “German punk icon Nina Hagen’s first collection of new music in nearly four years features 13 faith-based tracks that dutifully blend rock, blues, soul, and gospel into a sound that’s distinctly hers.”  The album includes covers of the Depeche Mode title song, “Personal Jesus”, several traditional gospel songs, a Larry Gatlin number called “Help Me”, and a Woody Guthrie song called ”All You Fascists Bound to Lose”. 

 

(November 2014)

 

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