Franz Josef Degenhardt – Mit aufrechtem Gang (1975)

Learned and versatile, German poet, novelist, folksinger, and noted attorney Franz Josef Degenhardt was born December 3, 1931. He began releasing records in the early '60s and hasn't let up, with some 50 album titles in his personal discography, the most recent appearing in 2006. Degenhardt is also an accomplished novelist, with a half dozen largely autobiographical novels to his name.

From the early 1960s onward, in addition to practicing law, Degenhardt was also performing and releasing recordings. He is perhaps most famous for his song (and the album of the same name) "Spiel nicht mit den Schmuddelkindern" ("Don't Play With the Grubby Children," 1965), but has released close to 50 albums, starting with "Zwischen Null Uhr und Mitternacht "("Between 00:00 and Midnight," 1963), renamed "Rumpelstilzchen"; his most recent albums Krieg gegen den Krieg ("War against the War") and Dämmerung ("twilight") came out in 2003 and 2006. 

In 1968, Degenhardt was involved in trials of members of the German student movement, principally defending social democrats and communists. At the same time, he was – in his capacity as a singer-songwriter – one of the major voices of the 1968 student movement. In 1972 he translated the song "Here's to You" under the title "Sacco und Vanzetti" with five new verses. On his 1977 album "Wildledermantelmann" he criticized many of his former comrades from that era for what he saw as their betrayal of socialist ideals and shift towards a social-liberal orientation. The album's title (roughly, "man with velour coat") mocks the style of clothing they had supposedly adopted.

Degenhardt lived, until his death in 2011, in Quickborn, Kreis Pinneberg, in Schleswig-Holstein.

Tracklist:

A1 Emigranten-Choral 3:47
A2 Zündschnüre-Song 4:55
A3 Station Chile 4:29
A4 Wolgograd 6:45
A5 Portugal4:01

B1 Immer noch grob sinnlich 4:53
B2 Belehrung nach Punkten 8:52
B3 Mit aufrechtem Gang 2:13
B4 Hört ihr noch den Ruf der Schwäne 5:53
B5 Grandola, Vila Morena 3:32


Franz Josef Degenhardt – Mit aufrechtem Gang (1975)

(320 kbps, cover art included)