Rio Reiser - Live in der Seelenbinder-Halle, Berlin (DDR) (1988) - Happy Birthday Rio!

Today (January 9th) Ralph Christian Möbius aka Rio Reiser would have been 70 years old. A devouring lifestyle and altogether far too much alcohol made him bless his time at the age of 46; Circulatory failure and internal bleeding were the cause of death.

Next September Heinrichplatz in Kreuzberg will be renamed “Rio Reiser Platz”. A few meters away, on Mariannenplatz, the success story of Ton Steine ​​Scherben began. In the “Rauch-Haus-Song” they sang about the cast of the Bethanien hospital in 1971: “This is our house / finally throw Schmidt and Press and Mosch out of Kreuzberg”, it says about notorious real estate investors at the time. With the renaming of the square, the squatter scene is also implicitly recognized. “Rio Reiser and Ton Steine Scherben have shaped rock history and the history of Kreuzberg,” said the district office of Kreuzberg-Friedrichshain.

Many of his fans from the Ton Steine Scherben days unjustly thought that Rio Reiser was selling out to mainstream, capitalist music business, with his solo albums. They blamed him for becoming - at least for a period of time - a commercially successful musician. However, when listening closely to the lyrics, it can be noted that Reiser never abandoned his personal approach to music, politics, life and love, although the message was delivered in a more subtle way now. Reiser sometimes admitted that the objections to his solo music, even hatred by some old-time fans was a serious problem for him. Wandering on the edge of commercial adaptability, while trying to conform with the expectations of old friends, fans and political movements which he supported meant a difficult struggle for Reiser which sometimes drove him to despair and depression. At the same time, he continued to be a very creative, productive musician and song-writer who collaborated with other musicians and friends and underwent strenuous concert tours which often brought him close to physical exhaustion. 

One of the highlights of his career were two concerts performed in East Berlin in 1988 where he faced a sold out concert hall filled with young people on the verge of the revolution which one year later led to the collapse of the political system of the German Democratic Republic and the opening of the Berlin wall. Recordings of the concerts prove that the east German audience knew the lyrics of his solo songs, and in particular all of the Ton Steine Scherben songs which he performed, by heart, even though the albums were hard to come by in the GDR.


Tracklist:

1-1 Alles Lüge
1-2 (Ich bin irgendwo) zwischen null und zero
1-3 Blinder Passagier
1-4 Menschenfresser
1-5 Bis ans Ende der Welt
1-6 Jenseits von Eden
1-7 Halt dich an deiner Liebe fest
1-8 Zauberland
1-9 Für immer und dich
1-10 Lass mich los
1-11 Arche B
1-12 Irrenanstalt
1-13 Ich denk an dich
2-1 Laß uns 'n Wunder sein
2-2 Gib mir was ab
2-3 Manager
2-4 König von Deutschland
2-5 Junimond
2-6 Der Traum ist aus
2-7 Wann
2-8 Normal
2-9 Arbeitslosenreggae
2-10 Runter zum Hafen
2-11 Heisser Sommer

Rio Reiser - Live in der Seelenbinder-Halle (1988)

(ca. 192 kbps, cover art included)