The title track of this album, "Es ist an der Zeit" is a german cover version of Eric Bogle's "No Man's Land", also known as "The Green Fields of France". It is set at the grave of a young man who died in the First World War . The narrator wonders how the soldier could have died and whether he would have recognized his “real enemy”. In the chorus he establishes a connection to the present with the knowledge that nothing has changed. The last stanza ends with the title line: "It's about time."
From Eric Bogle's text, Wader adopts the soldier's age and year of death, the fear that his death might have been horrific, the realization that the same thing will repeat itself over and over again. Wader renounces the scene depicted in the original refrain that the deceased could have had a solemn burial to the sound of drums, bagpipes, horns and flute.
An important difference between the original and the German translation is the namelessness of the victim. Wader shows the fate of the war dead using the example of a single soldier - in contrast to Georg Danzer's 1981 song "Frieden" ("Peace"), which speaks of "four billion dead" (the entire world population). In the last stanza, however, Wader also speaks of the billions of deaths that a next war could bring. This verse ends with the hope that more and more people will find each other to prevent this war: "It is time."
"No Man's Land (The green fields of France)" was created in 1976 after Eric Bogles toured France. The soldiers' graves in northern France and Flanders had moved him so much that he wrote this song shortly afterwards. Eric Bogle was born in Scotland but has lived in Australia for over 30 years and has been Australian since 1982.
Hannes Wader's adaptation "Es ist an der Zeit" ("It is about time") became a hymn of the peace movement . Millions of people sang the song at demonstrations, including on February 15, 2003 in Berlin at the demonstration against the Iraq war. Wader, Konstantin Wecker and Reinhard Mey performed this title there.
Hannes Wader - Es ist an der Zeit
Weit in der Champagne im Mittsommergrün
Dort wo zwischen Grabkreuzen Mohnblumen blüh'n
Da flüstern die Gräser und wiegen sich leicht
Im Wind, der sanft über das Gräberfeld streicht
Auf deinem Kreuz finde ich toter Soldat
Deinen Namen nicht, nur Ziffern und jemand hat
Die Zahl neunzehnhundertundsechzehn gemalt
Und du warst nicht einmal neunzehn Jahre alt
Ja, auch Dich haben sie schon genauso belogen
So wie sie es mit uns heute immer noch tun
Und du hast ihnen alles gegeben:
Deine Kraft, Deine Jugend, Dein Leben
Hast du, toter Soldat, mal ein Mädchen geliebt?
Sicher nicht, denn nur dort, wo es Frieden gibt
Können Zärtlichkeit und Vertrauen gedei'n
Warst Soldat, um zu sterben, nicht um jung zu sein
Vielleicht dachtest du Dir, ich falle schon bald
Nehme mir mein Vergnügen, wie es kommt, mit Gewalt
Dazu warst du entschlossen, hast dich aber dann
Vor dir selber geschämt und es doch nie getan
Ja, auch Dich haben sie schon genauso belogen
So wie sie es mit uns heute immer noch tun
Und du hast ihnen alles gegeben:
Deine Kraft, Deine Jugend, Dein Leben
Soldat, gingst du gläubig und gern in des Tod?
Oder hast zu verzweifelt, verbittert, verroht
Deinen wirklichen Feind nicht erkannt bis zum Schluß?
Ich hoffe, es traf dich ein sauberer Schuß?
Oder hat ein Geschoß Dir die Glieder zerfetzt
Hast du nach deiner Mutter geschrien bis zuletzt
Bist Du auf Deinen Beinstümpfen weitergerannt
Und dein Grab, birgt es mehr als ein Bein, eine Hand?
Ja, auch Dich haben sie schon genauso belogen
So wie sie es mit uns heute immer noch tun
Und du hast ihnen alles gegeben:
Deine Kraft, Deine Jugend, Dein Leben
Es blieb nur das Kreuz als die einzige Spur
Von deinem Leben, doch hör' meinen Schwur
Für den Frieden zu kämpfen und wachsam zu sein:
Fällt die Menschheit noch einmal auf Lügen herein
Dann kann es gescheh'n, daß bald niemand mehr lebt
Miemand, der die Milliarden von Toten begräbt
Doch finden sich mehr und mehr Menschen bereit
Diesen Krieg zu verhindern, es ist an der Zeit
Tracklist:
1. Nun muss ich gehen 4:55
2. Emma Klein 4:36
3. Blick zurück 2:50
4. Erinnerung 7:48
5. Ballade vom Fisch 7:25
6. Begegnung 3:45
7. Hafenmelodie 4:35
8. Es ist an der Zeit 6:19
Hannes Wader - Es ist an der Zeit (Pläne, 1980)
(192 kbps, cover art included)
Originally posted in July 2018:
"There can be no-one better than Sarah Gorby for interpreting these popular Russian and Gipsy songs which she collected and selected so lovingly, for Russia was the land of her childhood and Russian her mother-tongue.
Until his death, Vladimir Vysotsky was a prophet without honor in his own country; although he wrote more than a thousand highly popular songs, he died without an official record release to his name. The reason for this studied neglect lay in the political tenor of his material. Vysotsky, who began performing in the 1960s, was quite critical of the Communist regime, and his lyrics took position on the Soviet status quo. His songs derived from the blatny pesny (literally, delinquent song) tradition, with its celebration of sex, drink, and street fights. Informally distributed cassettes ensured Vysotsky a wide and enthusiastic following. After his death, in 1980, Gorbachev granted his music an imprimatur and a 20-album retrospective was released.
On this album, some of today's leading Yiddish artists - like David J. Waletzky, Adrienne Cooper, Josh Waletsky, Irena Klepfisz, Michael Alpert, and Henry Sapoznik - perform music (and recite poetry) associated with the Jewish partisans in the Vilna area during World War II.
The Chilean composer and singer/player Rolando Alarcon (1929 - 1973) is one of the pioneers of the New Chilean Song movement.
Until his death, Vladimir Vysotsky was a prophet without honor in his own country; although he wrote more than a thousand highly popular songs, he died without an official record release to his name. The reason for this studied neglect lay in the political tenor of his material. Vysotsky, who began performing in the 1960s, was quite critical of the Communist regime, and his lyrics took position on the Soviet status quo. His songs derived from the blatny pesny (literally, delinquent song) tradition, with its celebration of sex, drink, and street fights. Informally distributed cassettes ensured Vysotsky a wide and enthusiastic following. After his death, in 1980, Gorbachev granted his music an imprimatur and a 20-album retrospective was released.
Mark Aizikovitch, with his "In a Yiddish Word" (2000) ("in jiddischn wort"), demystified Jewish life in eastern Europe. Paying tribute to the Jewish poets murdered in the Soviet Union between 1933 and 1948, Aizikovitch´s record denoted the shtetl as a place of persecution.
An album from Russia's greatest rock musician is long overdue, and this collection is more than worthwhile. Like some American singer/songwriters, Grebenshikov has found himself coming closer and closer to roots music over the years, and these songs are very much the product of that. Whether putting his mark on the traditional song "My Little Loom" or writing an ode to his changing homeland with "Russian Nirvana," he's masterful. The songs themselves (with lyrics provided in four languages) are gems, the product of mature thought and frequently poetic, although the images, which seem obscure to Westernerners, probably resonate with Russians. But the beauty is best-illustrated by the settings, usually stripped-down, but with just the right touches to set off the voice and words, even if it takes some strange left turns, like the pseudo-'50s arrangement of "Gertruda." Accordion is prevalent, of course, but the oboe that courses through "Nikita of Riazan" gives an aching tone to the song. He's often compared to Dylan and Springsteen, which is unfair; the traditions are utterly different. Only the quality of the writing and performing is comparable - listen to the gentle "Dubrovsky" and you'll be convinced. Grebenshikov is world class. 
