Franz Josef Degenhardt - Mutter Mathilde (1972)

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 was also an accomplished novelist, with a half dozen largely autobiographical novels to his name. He died died 14 November 2011 in Quickborn, Germany.       

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 Null und Mitternacht" ("Between 00:00 and Midnight," 1963), renamed "Rumpelstilzchen" ("Rumpelstiltskin"). 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. 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.        

"Mutter Mathilde", released in 1972, includes the great "Befragung eines Kriegsdienstverweigerers", a song for Angela Davis and one dedicated Sacco and Vanzetti.

Tracklist:

Angela Davis	4:51
Nostalgia	3:49
Bodo, genannt der Rote	6:22
40	4:14
Sacco und Vanzetti	3:12
Befragung eine Kriegsdienstverweigerers	4:00
Natascha Speckenbach	5:19
Auf der Hochzeit	2:03
Mutter Mathilde	5:57
Ja, dieses Deutschland meine ich	3:45

Franz Josef Degenhardt - Mutter Mathilde (1972)
(256 kbps, cover art included)