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Album: Rammstein (2019)
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Songfacts®:

  • The six Rammstein band members all come from the German Democratic Republic, a state founded in the Soviet occupation zone after World War II. Before the GDR became part of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1990, secretly listening to Western radio stations and their music was prohibited. The opening lyrics translated into English are:

    We weren't allowed to belong
    Couldn't see, talk, or hear anything
    But every night for one or two hours
    I escaped from this world
    Every night a little bit happy
    My ear so close to the receiver


    The GDR government severely restricted citizens' freedom and spies would monitor "system enemies," punishing them if they were caught doing anything deemed illegal. This is the line, "See, talk or hear nothing." Young people such as the Rammstein band members would tune in nightly to Western music beamed in from elsewhere to feel liberated for a few hours.
  • Released as the second single from Rammstein's untitled seventh album, the song topped the charts in Poland and reached the Top 5 in several other countries, including Germany and Hungary.
  • Jorn Heitmann directed the black-and-white music video, which depicts the band performing the song in a 1960s music hall. At the climax of the clip, a police squad tries to break up Rammstein's performance by hitting them with batons. However, it is revealed that the group members are holograms and therefore unaffected by the use of violent force.

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