Formerly of mid 90s electro-indie bands The Auteurs and Black Box Recorder,… Read Full Bio ↴Formerly of mid 90s electro-indie bands The Auteurs and Black Box Recorder, this legendary front man has gone solo with a hip-hop/pop pastiche sound to play to a well establised following of fans.

Relentlessly highbrow, Haines's dark-but-mischievous lyrics typically fall into three groups: musings on obscure Anglicana (The Mitford Sisters, Freddie Mills is Dead), bitter attacks on modern society, particularly the arts (The Death of Sarah Lucas, Christ) and twisted 1970s anti-nostalgia (Leeds United, Here's to Old England) - with the odd dash of self-aggrandisement thrown in for good measure.

Despite cultivating an image as a sinister misanthrope over the past fifteen years, Haines's live sets are notable for his self-deprecating humour and between-songs banter - and for their surprising brevity. But considering that most of his songs are well under three minutes, this doesn't necessarily mean a short set list.

Baader Meinhof
Luke Haines Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

We made the cops look dumb
On the border line
Springer said 'must be the mood of the times'
Rudi says "we've got to get wise"
And we've got to get armed'
Its a surveillance state operation
Rich kid with a gun

Al-fatah in Palestine against the P.L.O.
Andreas says 'She's not the girl that I used to Know
Rudi says

Child of Eva, your Christianity
I had a dream it was the end of the Seventies'

Overall Meaning

The lyrics of Luke Haines's song Baader Meinhof seem to be touching upon the story of a German far-left militant group called the Red Army Faction (RAF), also known as the Baader-Meinhof Group, which was active in the 1970s. The opening line "We made the cops look dumb, on the border line" suggests that the group was involved in some sort of criminal activity where they outsmarted the police. The following line, "Springer said 'must be the mood of the times'" is a reference to the then-popular German tabloid newspaper, Bild-Zeitung, owned by Axel Springer, which was known for its sensationalist and right-wing reporting.

The next lines, "Rudi says 'we've got to get wise', and we've got to get armed', it's a surveillance state operation, rich kid with a gun" echo the radical and militant ideology of the group, who believed in using violence to overthrow the capitalist structure of society. The reference to "a surveillance state operation" shows their distrust of the government's intelligence agencies, which they saw as intrusive and oppressive. The final verse, "Child of Eva, your Christianity, I had a dream it was the end of the Seventies" seems to be a reference to the group's leader, Andreas Baader, who had a Christian mother.

Line by Line Meaning

We made the cops look dumb
We embarrassed the police with our actions

On the border line
We are on the edge of what is legal

Springer said 'must be the mood of the times'
Springer believes our actions are a result of the current social climate

Rudi says "we've got to get wise"
Rudi wants us to become more knowledgeable

And we've got to get armed'
We need to arm ourselves for protection

Its a surveillance state operation
Our actions are being monitored by the government

Rich kid with a gun
The one who is armed is wealthy

Al-fatah in Palestine against the P.L.O.
A comparison to the conflict between Al-fatah and P.L.O. in Palestine

Andreas says 'She's not the girl that I used to Know
Andreas realizes someone has changed

Rudi says
Rudi speaks in response

Child of Eva, your Christianity
The influence of Christianity on your life