Johannes Schult

On Saturday, July 4th, 2015, I finally got to see Help! A Beatles Tribute. Two band members used to play with The Brandos, which is why I became aware of this Beatles cover band in the first place. Still, I went to the concert primarily to hear Beatles songs – and, hopefully, to get an idea what a Beatles concert would sound in the year 2015 if John, Paul, George, and Ringo had magically travelled through time (and had even more magically solved their conflicts). So I drove to Schramberg in the middle of the Black Forest. It was a particularly hot summer day and the town seemed very sleepy. As the sun set, however, people flocked to the venue, a beautiful garden area. About 350 people had arrived when the four musicians appeared on stage.

The music sounded terrific, mostly because the songs were and are amazing, but also because the band brought the tracks to life with fervent passion and dedication. This wasn’t about creating an exact copy of the original in terms of looks, chronology, or stage banter. Yet, the songs themselves were performed faithfully to the point where you could just close your eyes and pretend to witness the magical journey through time mentioned above. Here was a group of musicians with strong voices and even more impressive melodies. Song after song, hit after hit, classic after classic – it was a barrage of the very best that music has to offer. The first set was a blazing journey through 2-minute pop symphonies. The second set was more of the same with a few songs off the later albums. I just loved that Help! A Beatles Tribute focused on songs that work in a live setting.

There was hardly any pause between songs. There were no solos, no pointless animation attempts, no tiresome history excursions. Only once in every set did the band encourage singing along (“Yellow Submarine” and “Hey Jude”). Plus, there was a conga-line (Polonaise in German) during “Ob-la-di Ob-la-da”. Naturally, people sang along during most of the songs, anyway. The song selection left nothing to be desired. A few lesser known songs spiced up the show – and similarly to the original, there were a few driving cover songs sounded oh so good. I don’t remember the exact setlist, but the list below should be rather complete. If you get the opportunity to see the band (tour dates can be found here), go to their concert!

First Set:

A Hard Day’s Night
Eight Days a Week
Ticket to Ride
Love Me Do
I Should Have Known Better
Please Please Me
It Won’t Be Long
Rock and Roll Music
I Feel Fine
We Can Work It Out
The Night Before
From Me to You
Please Mr. Postman
Yellow Submarine
Can’t Buy Me Love
I Want to Hold Your Hand
Long Tall Sally

Second Set:

Help!
Day Tripper
Drive My Car
Paperback Writer
Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds
I Saw Her Standing There
Get Back
Here Comes the Sun
Come Together
Revolution
Back in the U.S.S.R.
Ob-la-di Ob-la-da
I Wanna Be Your Man
She Loves You
Let It Be
Twist And Shout
Get Back
Don’t Let Me Down
With a Little Help From My Friends
Hey Jude

Encores:

The Ballad of John and Yoko
All My Loving
Yesterday
Roll Over Beethoven
Something

The Hooters are touring Germany relentlessly. Having seen more than 20 gigs and having written about several of them here, I find it a bit tiresome to write about the regular stuff afterwards. The trend away from lots of jamming towards a tight collection of classic songs and a few other tunes continued at the concert in Neuleiningen on July 3, 2015. The small town near Mannheim used a (gorgeous) castle ruin to stage the show. It was a really hot day, but it became bearable towards the evening. The walls around the court provided some shade and nobody seemed to mind the absence of an opening band. The show was sold-out.

I find it funny that I have never seen the Hooters in the same venue twice. They keep branching out into small towns and other pampa regions. The audiences are remarkably similar (unless it’s a big, big festival thing like Sound of Pop with about 100,000 people in the audience). The front row consists of die hard fans. They are rocking out from the first note on. The rest of the audience needs a few songs until they start grooving along. It helps when “Day by Day” appears early on. The Neuliningen concert featured a surprisingly large number of songs off “Nervous Night”. I was happy to hear “Hanging on a Heartbeat” for the first time. I’d suspect, however, that German audience are well familiar with the subsequent albums, too. From what I read in interviews, “Zig Zag” isn’t the band’s favourite album, so that might explain the reluctance to go beyond “500 Miles” and the occasional “Deliver Me”. The first encore, “Give the Music Back”, made a strong case that the album does deserve some of the limelight.

From “Karla With a K” onwards, everybody was eagerly cheering, singing along, and simply having a great time. Naturally, “All You Zombies” had paved the way, and the German parts of “Private Emotion” elicited a strong reaction. All in all, it was yet another excellent gig that underscored band’s reputation as a live band.

1. I’m Alive
2. Hanging on a Heartbeat
3. Day By Day
4. Silver Lining
5. Morning Buzz
6. Private Emotion
7. South Ferry Road
8. All You Zombies
9. The Boys of Summer
10. Graveyard Waltz (Slight Return)
11. 500 Miles
12. Where Do the Children Go
13. Karla With a K
14. Twenty-Five Hours a Day
15. Satellite
16. And We Danced
17. Pissing in the Rhine
18. Give the Music Back
19. Johnny B
20. Major Tom (Völlig losgelöst)
21. One of Us
22. Time After Time

Dieses Lied ist doppeldeutig. Und es gibt ein Video dazu.

#37 Fremde Leute

Du sagst, das hier ist unsere Küche
Doch ich finde mich darin nicht zurecht
Im Kühlschrank sind seltsame Gerüche
Und ich fühle mich irgendwie schlecht
Und überall sind fremde Leute
Überall sind fremde Leute
Du sagst, das hier ist unser Schlafzimmer
Doch wo ist der Teppich vor dem Bett
Du seufzt und du sagst, ich muss halt brav immer
Die Schuhe ausziehen wegen dem Parkett
Und überall sind fremde Leute
Überall sind fremde Leute
Du sagst, das hier ist unser Bad
Doch ich weiß nicht, wie man die Dusche bedient
Die Luft hier hat über 40 Grad
Womit habe ich dieses Schicksal verdient?
Und überall sind fremde Leute
Überall sind fremde Leute
(words and music by Johannes Schult 2015 Creative Commons by-nc 4.0)

Dieses Stück Unfug entstand unter Zeitdruck gerade eben. Mir fehlt wohl oder übel momentan die Zeit für ausgeklügelte 52-Sekunden-Lieder. Dafür entsteht gerade im Hintergrund eine neue Manticess-Veröffentlichung, die ungleich melodischer und seriöser klingen wird als dieses Tauben-Lied.

#36 Tauben

Tauben sind Vögel mit vielen schönen Eigenschaften
Zum Beispiel, äh, mh, tja, öhm, oh, mh, tja, ffh, also, puh, mh
Wo war ich denn stehen geblieben?
Ach ja, Tauben. Die machen oft (Taubengeräusche)

(words and music by Johannes Schult 2015 Creative Commons by-nc 4.0)

Vorgestern war ich zum ersten mal auf einer Fantasy- und Rollenspielmesse. Dort fand ich reichlich Inspiration für ein Lied und hattte auch sonst eine schöne Zeit. Da ich mal wieder wenig Zeit übrig hatte, arrangierte ich die Musik bewusst tralala-ig. Gerne hätte ich was Griffigeres, Folkigeres gemacht. Aber momentan stecke ich den Großteil meiner Musizierzeit in die laufenden Manticess-Aufnahmen (die dann am Ende hoffentlich gut klingen).

#35 Auf der Rollenspielmesse

Auf der Rollenspielmesse
Trifft man fantastische Gestalten
Zum Klang der Mittelalterrockbässe
Sieht man Zwerge, die Äxte und Handys halten
Sturmtruppen, die etwas hinken
Mit Blasterwaffen, die blinken
Geisterjäger aus Hessen
So ist das auf Rollenspielmessen

Auf der Rollenspielmesse
Habe ich mich leider verlaufen
Ein Vampir mit blutiger Fresse
Meint, ich sollte mir einen Übersichtsplan kaufen
Elben, die Apfelsaft trinken
Dunkle Zauberer, die freundlich winken
Ein paar Zombies, die Pizza essen
So ist das auf Rollenspielmessen

(words and music by Johannes Schult 2015 Creative Commons by-nc 4.0)

Es war mal wieder Sonntag und ich hatte noch kein Lied für diese Woche. Es regnete.

#34 Es regnet

Eine Großstadt im August und es regnet schon seit Stunden
Eine Großstadt hier in Deutschland und es regnet schon seit Stunden

Es regnet auf die Dächer, es regnet auf die Straßen
Es regnet auf dich und auf mich
Es regnet auf die Autos, es regnet auf die Menschen
Und es ist keine Sonne in Sicht
Hundertausend Regentropfen fallen hier auf diese Stadt
Und ich finde es faszinierend, obwohl man das schon zigmal erlebt hat

(words and music by Johannes Schult 2015 Creative Commons by-nc 4.0)

This happened when I went through an old Manticess song (“The Sun’s Song” – unreleased) and tried to remember the middle part. At some point I thought I could just write something new. The result is what you hear here.

#33 The Sun’s Jig

(music by Johannes Schult 2015 Creative Commons by-nc 4.0)

This is one of three or four song sketches that I came up with once I had caught the idea of writing a song about not listening to music all the time. Music is good, don’t get me wrong. Still, it can be just too much when it’s everywhere, always, nonstop. This song is, of course, a paradox.

#32 Don’t Listen to the Music

Every day you rise to the sound of the radio
Every day you jog with your ear plugs in
Every day you drive to work with the radio on
Don’t listen to the music all the time
Don’t listen to the music all the time
Don’t listen to the music all the time

Everywhere you go there’s a song on the radio
Every night you listen some mp3s
Every night you dream of a world that is silent and quiet
Don’t listen to the music all the time
Don’t listen to the music all the time
Don’t listen to the music all the time

(words and music by Johannes Schult 2015 Creative Commons by-nc 4.0)

This is apparently the sequel to Part 1. It came about pretty much like the first installment – minus the journey to Norway. Ironically, there’s no Mellotron on this song, not even cheap samples. There are some counterpoint vocals by yours truly. I had to include those somewhere in this trilogy/quadrology/whatevergy.

#31 The Bittersweet Progressive Rock Opera (Part 2)

But the Mellotron is too heavy

(words and music by Johannes Schult 2015 Creative Commons by-nc 4.0)

Lucy Wainwright Roche once sang the line “eight weeks away from home now” (in a great songs, by the way). The line stuck in my head and made me wonder what it actually means. I still have no idea. Still, I like it! And I put some chords to my thoughts for this week’s 52-second song.

#30 Five Weeks Away From Home

Five weeks away from home
What does it even mean?
Is it a period of time?
Another chance to make you mine?
To tell you of the things that I have seen?

Five weeks away from home
Does it mean you left in May?
Or does it mean that you
Will be away till June?
Does it make you happy or does it make you sad?

(words and music by Johannes Schult 2015 Creative Commons by-nc 4.0)