DAS KAPITAL - Lili Marlene 1984

Well folks, now an interesting band from the far north of Europe and you know, extremely cool music comes from there, sometimes snotty and cheeky, sometimes melancholic and dreamy and these Gentlemen are more in the second area, but read for yourself: Das Kapital was a short-lived band, fronted by Bubba Morthens, at a time when he was living fast. By this time Bubbi had been drinking heavily and was burned out, he had released five solo albums over a four year period, three albums with Utangarðsmann and three albums with Egó. When news broke in early 1984 that he was going to the United States to act in films, the nation went along with it and wished him well, unaware of his drug use. He also said in interviews that he had formed a new band with Danny Pollock and other western musicians under the name Das Kapital. The name, as most of course know, comes from the work of Karl Marx. Bubbi went west in the spring but came back a few weeks and still hadn't formed a band. In July, however, news broke that Das Kapital had become a reality. Besides Bubba, the members of this group were Mike (guitars) and Bubba's friend Björgvin (guitars), Jakob (bass) Guðmundur (drums), but the last two came from Tappi Tíkarrass. Bubbi himself was the third guitarist and vocalist and Gunnar played keyboards for a time.

Initially, the intention was probably to play only at Laugahátíð during the shopkeeper's weekend, but then it was decided to continue the collaboration and make an album. Bubbi had suggested songs that were actually all in English, but the lyrics were quickly translated into Icelandic. Before the band went into the studio, guitarist Björgvin left. However, two assistants were hired for the recordings, saxophonist Jens and cellist Arnþór. The album was made in a hurry and was released by Gramm and was titled Lili Marlene after the only cover song on the album, the wartime hit immortalized by Marlene Dietrich. Lili Marlene was generally well-received and sold well, even though the critics of the newspapers were unimpressed, the album barely got anything but shitty reviews in Morgunblaðin and Þjóðvillin, but much better in Helgarpóstinum, and became the third best-selling album of  1984. In the same year, they held a solidarity concert at Lækjartorg  but then there was a BSRB strike, the strikers were invited to give speeches between the band's songs, but by the time it was over, the band had been pushed off the stage and the strikers were taken over the program, Das Kapital thus became guests in a secondary act at their own concert. Soon after the end of the year or in January 1985, the news arrived that Das Kapital had gone on hiatus, but she had then retired, the reason being that Bubbi had admitted his problem and gone to treatment. He would re-emerge later that year after the treatment with one of his best albums, Woman. However, Das Kapital's story was not completely over, because they reunited at Bubba's birthday concert on June 6, 2006, which was recorded and released under the name 06.06.06, where you can hear three songs with the band. (source: glatkistan)

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