DAF's most famous song is the grimly sarcastic "Der Mussolini" from the album "Alles Ist Gut", a pulsing dance song featuring the lyrics "Dance the Mussolini, move your behind, clap your hands, and now the Adolf Hitler, and now the Jesus Christ, and now the communism ...". The song caused a scandal amongst the more humourless elements of German liberal society.
In interviews they claimed to not target anything or anyone specific while creating lyrics to be taken as a parody of words and phrases floating around in the public media. "Sato-Sato" and "Der Mussolini" are both examples of songs written around Delgado-Lopez's fascination with the sound of a particular word.
The album "Alles Ist Gut" (All Is Well) received the German "Schallplattenpreis" award by the "Deutsche Phono-Akademie", an association of the German recording industry.
Following that they released two more similar albums called "Gold und Liebe" and "Für Immer", all produced by legendary Conny Plank.
After experimenting with more mainstream attempts of their particular style of contemporary dance music on the 1986 album "1st Step to Heaven" but with limited success DAF split up (1986).
A few months before the 2003 invasion of Iraq DAF released "Der Sheriff (anti-amerikanisches lied)" (An Anti-American Song) criticizing perceived American imperialism.
In the hiatus of DAF 1985-2002 both Robert and Gabi had their own careers. DAF was more or less resurrected by Gabi alone when he toured in 1994-5 as DAF OPD (On Public Demand) touring with classic and remixed DAF material. Following the success of that partial comeback he started Daf.Dos with Wotan Wilke. They released two more techno oriented albums and toured much until Gabi and Robert reunited for the album "Fünfzehn Neue DAF lieder" in 2003.
Notable is also Robert Görls contribution to Eurythmics first album In the Garden where he unmistakably plays the drums on the tracks Belinda and Caveman Head.
Gabi Delgado continued releasing music under his own name, creating the following albums: 1 (2013), X (2014), and 2 (2015).
Gabi Delgado died in March 2020, thus ending his career, but forever immortal in the music and style he created, which would inspire and spawn whole music genres in decades to come.
El Basilon
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
El basilon. El basila.
Bis ich einfach nicht mehr kann. El basilon.
El basila. El basilon. El basila. El basilon. El basila.
The lyrics of the song "El Basilon" by Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft suggest a sense of endlessness, both in the act of dancing and in the repetition of the words "El basilon" and "El basila". The singer expresses a desire to keep dancing, no matter how exhausted they become, using the phrase "Bis ich einfach nicht mehr kann" to suggest that they will keep going until they physically cannot continue. The repeated phrases "El basilon" and "El basila" add to this sense of endlessness, becoming almost hypnotic as they are repeated over and over again.
The meaning behind these lyrics is open to interpretation, but they could be seen as a commentary on the addictive nature of dancing and the club scene. The singer is caught up in the moment, unable to stop dancing even if they wanted to. The repetition of the words "El basilon" and "El basila" could represent the monotony of the club scene, with the same music and movements repeated over and over again.
Overall, "El Basilon" is a catchy and hypnotic song that captures the energy of the club scene while also commenting on its addictive nature.
Line by Line Meaning
Ich werde immer weiter tanzen.
I will keep dancing endlessly.
El basilon. El basila.
The rhythm passes through me. (Repeating phrase)
Bis ich einfach nicht mehr kann. El basilon.
Until I can't go any further. The rhythm pushes me forward. (Repeating phrase)
El basila. El basilon. El basila. El basilon. El basila.
The rhythm takes over my body, I'm powerless to stop it. (Repeating phrase)
Contributed by Madison N. Suggest a correction in the comments below.