TON STEINE SCHERBEN Gesamtwerk (13-CD, 1 Buch, Limited)

Ton Steine Scherben

"Dreams are over when there's no one to dream them." (Rio Reiser)

"No other political rock group, probably no singer-songwriter, has had such a lasting effect and inspired so many musicians and lyricists to deal with their everyday lives and their political implications in their native language. This is how Holger Böning describes the meaning of Rio Reiser (1950-1996) and the group Ton Steine Scherben in his book 'Der Traum von einer Sache'. Founded in Berlin in the summer of 1970, at a time when the Federal Republic was undergoing radical change, Ton Steine Scherben became the musical mouthpiece of a young generation rebelling against parents, teachers and bosses. Especially songs like "No power for nobody" and "Power broken what breaks you" became hymns of the left. Rio Reiser and his fellow musicians called for disobedience, rebellion and upheaval. But they also articulated - as in the song Mein Name ist Mensch - the dreams of a better world that were formulated in the student movement and in the youth protest of those years.

I know we'll fight,
I know we will win,
I know we're gonna live,
and we're gonna love each other.
Planet Earth
will belong to all of us,
and everyone will have what they need.

In the foreword to his Rio Traveler biography, published in 2006, Hollow Skai writes: "The resonance he received after his death, especially from younger fans who met him not as the singer of Ton Steine Scherben but as the 'King of Germany', justifiably leads one to hope that the fight for a better life was not entirely in vain and that the dream of a more just society has not yet come to an end.

In August 2006 the David Volksmund Produktion released the complete works of Ton Steine Scherben on 13 CDs. Since 1997 there has been a competition with the 'Rio Reiser Song Prize', which encourages "young talents to carry on cosmopolitan and humanistic thoughts through their own songs".

www.tonsteinescherben.de
www.rioreiser.de
www.rio-reiser-songpreis.de

Extract from
Various - songwriter in Germany
Vol.2, For whom we sing (3-CD)
/various-songwriter-in-Germany-vol.2-for-who-who-we-sing-3-cd.html