Lindenberg (born May 17, 1946 in Gronau) started his musical career as a dr… Read Full Bio ↴Lindenberg (born May 17, 1946 in Gronau) started his musical career as a drummer. In 1969 Lindenberg founded his first band Free Orbit and also appeared as a studio and guest musician (with Michael Naura, Knut Kiesewetter). In 1970 he collaborated as a drummer with jazz-saxophonist Klaus Doldinger in Munich. In 1971, a band founded by Lindenberg, Passport put out its first album, with Lindenberg on drums. He also played drums for the theme music for the German TV series Tatort. The first LP of the Jazz rock group Emergency was released in 1971 but met with little commercial success.

The LP Lindenberg (also 1971, and sung in English, already with Steffi Stephan on bass) was likewise unsuccessful. In the following year, the fist LP in German was released: Daumen im Wind (produced by Lindenberg and Thomas Kukuck, who also produced the next five albums together), from which the single "Hoch im Norden" became a radio hit in northern Germany. The year 1973 brought a breakthrough with the album Andrea Doria and its catchy "Alles klar auf der Andrea Doria" and "Cello". Over 100,000 copies sold, and Lindenberg quickly received the largest record deal of any German-language musician up to that time. Lindenberg was earning a special place in the new German-language music of the 70s: Between internationally-oriented Krautrock and pop music, he found his niche. German-language rock had previously been confined to predominantly political message bands whose music was directed at a narrow audience.

Lindenbergs brash style, everyday subject matter ("Bei Onkel Pö…") and his feel for language were an unprecedented combination in German-language music. His pioneering work helped other artists such as Stefan Waggershausen and Marius Müller-Westernhagen get record deals of their own. In 1973 Lindenberg first went on tour with his Panikorchester (Panic Orchestra).

1976 was one of Udo Lindenberg's most productive years. Besides the LP Galaxo Gang he also published under the name Das Waldemar Wunderbar Syndicat I make you feel good, a first Best of Panik Udo and the first in a series of foreign-language publications No Panic, on which Lindenberg translated his songs to English. In the same year (and on another LP: Sister King Kong) with the song "Rock ’n’ Roll Arena in Jena", Lindenberg first mentioned a Panic Orchestra tour in the GDR. In 1976, Lindenberg discovered Ulla Meinecke and produced her first two albums. She was a guest artist and co-author of the 1977 LP Panische Nächte (Panic Nights) and the 1978 Dröhnland Symphonie. On Lindenbergs Rock Revue (1978) Lindenberg and Horst Königstein "Germanized" rock classics from Little Richard to The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, and went on a big tour. The Nr.-1-Hit "We Gotta Get out of This Place" was also published with German lyrics.

The subsequent Dröhnland-Symphonie-Tour was staged by Peter Zadek as a big multimedia stage show with a plethora of costumed extras. The result was Lindenbergs first live album Livehaftig. In 1979, Der Detektiv was the second Rock Revue, in which more international hits such as "Candle in the Wind" by Elton John, "Born to Be Wild" by Steppenwolf, "My Little Town" and "As Time Goes By" (from the film Casablanca) were "Germanized". Also 1997 was published "Belcanto - Udo Lindenberg & das Deutsche Filmorchester Babelsberg" which included hits like "Horizont", "Bis ans Ende der Welt" along with a song by Bertold Brecht and Udo's own interpretation of The Windmills of Your Mind - "Under the drunkard moon" ("Unterm Säufermond").

One of his most famous songs is Sonderzug nach Pankow (Special train service to Pankow), an adaptation of Chattanooga Choo Choo, released as a single on 2 February 1983. It originated from the refusal of eastern German authorities to allow Lindenberg a concert in the German Democratic Republic (GDR).

On June 3, 2011, Lindenberg performed at Kampnagel unplugged. The recording was later released as an album within the MTV unplugged series. Lindenberg was the 8th German artist in that series. The album became the second No.1 album for Lindenberg declared Platin status for 200,000 sold units after two weeks. The second single from the album "Cello" (feat. Clueso) went No.4 giving Lindenberg the highest chart position in German singles charts ever reached.

Lindenberg has worked collaboratively with various local and international recording artists (Eric Burdon, Helen Schneider, David Bowie, Tom Robinson, Keith Forsey, Gianna Nannini, and Nena) on a number of projects. He currently lives in Hamburg in the Hotel Atlantic (for several years now). His somewhat hoarse voice is the result of too much liquor and cigarettes. In 1989, he survived a heart attack. In 2010, he designed two stamps, themed on his songs "Andrea Doria" and "Sonderzug nach Pankow", for the Deutsche Post.

Messer
Udo Lindenberg Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

Wie ‘n Planet
um dich rum
herumkreisen
hab‘ gedacht
du die Sonne
meine Sonne
hell und warm
und nie Nacht

hinter meinem Horizont
nur ‘ne steile Absturzwand
ohne dich
geht‘s nicht weiter
alles Ende
Niemandsland
Und du sagtest:
Es wird immer alles nur noch besser
und ich rannte voll ins Messer

Telefone
keine Antwort
ich am Durchdreh‘n
du nicht da
Ich auf Horror
ich in Panik
nur Generve
‘n halbes Jahr
denn Planeten
ohne Sonne
sie erlöschen
kalt und tot
geh‘n verloren
geh‘n unter
und kein Morgenrot

Und ich sag dir:
Es wird alles immer nur noch besser
nie wieder renn‘ ich voll ins Messer

Ich bin selber die Sonne jetzt
die durch die Himmel fetzt

Overall Meaning

The lyrics of Udo Lindenberg's song "Messer" depict a person who is lost without their partner. The partner is portrayed as the sun that brightens the singer's life and without whom everything is bleak and hopeless. The lyrics compare the partner to a planet that orbits around the singer, providing a sense of stability and security. The singer's world is shattered when the partner is no longer there to answer their calls, and they spiral into panic and despair. The singer realizes that they had been blindly following their partner's promises of a better future, and now it is too late as they have been hurt by them.

The song touches upon themes of love, loss, and betrayal. It tells the story of how blind faith in someone's promises can lead to disappointment and pain. The metaphor of the sun and the planet adds to the emotional depth of the song, as it amplifies the singer's sense of dependence on their partner.

Overall, "Messer" is a powerful song that poetically represents the agony that a person can go through when they blindly trust someone and it turns out to be a mistake.

Line by Line Meaning

Wie ‘n Planet
Comparing oneself to a planet, feeling isolated

um dich rum
Around oneself, one's surrounding

herumkreisen
Going around in circles, feeling stuck in one's situation

hab‘ gedacht
Thought to oneself

du die Sonne
Someone else being the sun, the center of one's world

meine Sonne
Referring to someone else as "my sun", indicating dependence

hell und warm
Bright and warm, bringing happiness and comfort

und nie Nacht
And never night, always being present

hinter meinem Horizont
Beyond one's horizon, outside of one's comfort zone

nur ‘ne steile Absturzwand
Only a steep fall, a big loss

ohne dich
Without that person