Ute Lemper sings on the album, and her voice is just right. These are not beautiful melodic songs, though there are beautiful moments in them. Instead they demand a rougher vocal style, and the ability to convey satire, irony, humour and vampishness.

The first song ‘It’s All a Swindle’ ridicules both personal corruption among the population, and economic and political corruption. “The left betrays, the right dismays / the country’s broke and guess who pays.”

‘Sex Appeal’ is sung from the perspective of a woman who desires sex appeal and imagines herself becoming a film star like Garbo. It’s a wonderful tongue-in-cheek camp song where men become nervous wrecks in her presence, and film directors come courting: ‘I’ll terrify whole movie lots / twist moguls’ stomachs into knots.’

‘Peter, Peter’ looks back regretfully on a former relationship with a man who pretty much let the woman do whatever she wanted. Only now does realise her mistake in ending things.

‘The Smart Set’ returns to a camper style, sending up those who see themselves as part of a smart elite of jaded souls who have done everything. But it’s clear that this pretentious existence is empty and constricting.

‘When the Special Girlfriend’ is a song Marlene Dietrich used to sing with Margo Lion. There’s a lesbian theme to this number. The humour continues in ‘I am a Vamp.’ This song has some fabulous lines. The narrator’s bed belonged to Pompadour, she has Lulu’s red hair, Mata Hari’s dress, and the ring of Marie Antoinette. ‘It’s true that some of my collections / I have found in other’s trash / like the Weimar constitution / also Hitler’s first moustache.’ The musical arrangement, Ute Lemper’s singing, the lyrics are all gloriously over the top.

‘L’heure bleue’ is a slower song, and more melodic, but even here the humour is present, as it is with ‘Take it off Petronella.’ In the case of the latter, the targets are strippers and the rage for strip shows. ‘I act Maeterlinck wearing only mink.’

‘Chuck out the Men’ is something of a German feminist national anthem. The lyrics are brilliant. Men should be chucked out of the Reichstag and the courthouse. ‘They’re ruining the country while we mop up the floor / They’re flushing this whole nation down the drain.’

There’s a strange discordant musical and vocal quality to ‘The Washed-Up Lover.’ But again the lyrics are wonderful. This song really has that feel of Weimar Cabaret. It’s followed by ‘O Just Suppose’ which suggests that two women, finding out they’ve both been cheated on by the same man, get together themselves. ‘I don’t know who I belong to’ deals with an independent woman who suspects she can’t settle for one lover.

The gay anthem, ‘The Lavender Song’ comes next, and has a kind of marching rhythm. ‘We’re not afraid to be queer and different.’ Although the song is both provoking and celebratory, it also contains an eerie foreshadowing of what’s to come in the future:‘Round us all up, send us away / that’s what you’d really like to do.’

‘Maskulinum-Femininum’ is a gender-bending delight, consisting of a male and female pair who each start cross-dressing as the other sex. The lyrics are brilliant, clever and humorous. In fact, this couple produce a hermaphrodite. ‘The child’s an undisputed neuter / a well-suited neuter there’s no cuter neuter.’

The attraction some women feel for brutal, dominant men comes under humorous attack in ‘A Little Attila.’ However, the woman in the song is unable to find one of these men, even though she’s searched Germany high and low, and she’s left to retreat into fantasy.

‘A Little Yearning’ is one of the more beautiful songs on the album. But bitter satire takes over again in ‘Oh, How We Wish That We Were Kids Again.’ The lyrics to this song are razor sharp, ridiculing German militarism, the unsuccessful post-War revolution, and the nudist movement. The song actually gives a good account of events from the War through the naval mutinies and the murders of the Spartacists Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht, to the political collaboration between the Social Democrats and the old military establishment. Economic collapse and low living standards too are covered. ‘We demand a raise right now or else we’ll go on strike / doff our clothes and naked we’ll go out for a brisk hike / After all the horrors to which we have been a witness / it makes perfect sense to pursue physical fitness.’

The most bitter and poignant song on the album is the last, ‘Munchhausen.’ The narrator of this song describes a world where militarism is gone, racial discrimination no longer exists in the courtroom, and where women have the right to abortion. It’s also a world where the old Imperial flag has been replaced with the Republic’s black, red and gold, and where the Swastika is nowhere to be seen. War too is ended. The problem is that these things are described by Baron Munchhausen, a notorious liar. It’s a fool’s dream. Hitler came to power sixteen months after the first performance of this song.

‘Berlin Cabaret Songs’ is a brilliant slice of Weimar culture, humour and politics. It comes with an extremely informative booklet which includes the full song lyrics, photographs of Weimar performers, and an introduction from Peter Jelavich who wrote the book, ‘Berlin Cabaret.’ Lemper’s delivery of the tracks is raw and full of gusto, but also softer, or more poignant when required. A German language version of the album is available.

Kara Kellar Bell is a film and media graduate from the West of Scotland, with a passion for European novels, French films, silent cinema, and Brazilian music (everything from Daniela Mercury and other pop stars through to bossa nova). As a writer, she likes to have room to move around creatively, so she’s not located in one genre. She writes realism and also stories of a more fantastic nature, usually grounded to some extent in the real world. She also takes delight in writing across the sexual spectrum, and as a bisexual, considers it important to remind people that things are not always black and white, either/or, in sexuality or in gender. She is currently completing her first novel. For a selection of Kara’s writing on the Showcase section of this site, click here

© 2004 Laura Hird All rights reserved.