Oktoberklub - Sing mit - 3 Jahre Oktoberklub (Eterna, 1969)

"Singe-Bewegung" and "Oktoberklub" in East Germany, part 3.
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Political song in the GDR did not, contrary to what is often assumed, start and finsih with Wolf Biermann. "Singegruppen" and "Liedermacher" were to play a significant cultural role in society from the early 1960s right up until the "Wende". On the one hand, the political song was a proudly coveted and officially nurtured "Erbe", but on the other, it was viewed with suspicion because of its potential as a means of subversion.

GDR singers, treading a precarious tightrope between prohibition and tolerance, enjoyed an elevated status as bearers of unofficial tidings. Concert halls, student clubs, or informal gatherings were invariably packed, and editions of the records released on the state record label "Amiga" were snapped up immediately.

There was a metamorphosis from the loyal teenagers of the "FDJ-Singeklubs" in the 1960s and 1970s into the critically-minded "Liedermacher" of the 1980s. The beginning of this story lie in the "Hootenanny-Klub". Formed in 1966, it incorporated many of the various influences which had been seeping into East Berlin in the period of political thaw since the building of the Wall in 1961. There was an emergence of beat and jazz music and the resident Canadian Perry Friedman introduced the new culture of folk songs from the American civil rights movement. These influences were incorporated into the repertoires of groups hitherto dominated by Brecht/Eisler and international portest songs and lead to the diverse repertoire of the "Oktoberklub".

In 1969 the Eterna label released the album "Oktoberklub - Sing mit", celebrating the first three years of the Oktoberklub with a recording of a concert at the Kongresshalle Berlin, February 16s, 1969.
Tracklist:
Vietnamesisches Siegeslied - Oktoberklub
Träum nicht von den gläsernen Sternen - Gebrüder Conrads
Lutschina - Lutschina-Gruppe Moskau
Meinst du, die Russen wollen Krieg - Hartmut König
...gehört dem Volk - Oktoberklub
Körösporti - Gerilla-Gruppe Budapest
Die Fahrt ins Holz - Singeklub der Lessingschule Hoyerswerda
Gulesta - Singeklub der Lessingschule Hoyerswerda
A la huelga - Joan & José
Streiklied der Fliesenleger - Gebrüder Conrads
Wer-wen - Hartmut König
Treptower Park - Oktoberklub
Russisches Volkslied - Lutschina-Gruppe Moskau
Eine kleine Frage -  Gruppe "pasaremos", Dresden
Zwei Stunden vierzig Minuten - Oktoberklub

Oktoberklub - Sing mit - 3 Jahre Oktoberklub (Eterna, 1969)
(320 kbps, cover art included)


To be continued...