With the May issue of ROLLING STONE, we are celebrating 40 years of Die Toten Hosen – and releasing a special collector’s item: An exclusive vinyl single with two songs by the band – a high-quality reissue of “Here comes Alex”, their big hit from 1988 and the B-side “Roller Coaster”. (You can pre-order HERE)
Die Toten Hosen: How did the song “Here comes Alex” come about?
The song is considered to be one of the band’s best-known songs: “Here comes Alex”, for which Andreas “Andi” Meurer wrote the music and Campino wrote the lyrics, is the first track on the album “A Little Bit of Horror Show”. The parallels to the novel “A Clockwork Orange” by Anthony Burgess and Stanley Kubrick’s film of the same name about the violent anarcho Alex cannot be denied. And there is a good reason for that: in the spring of 1988, Die Toten Hosen agreed to write the incidental music for Bernd Schadewald’s production of “A Clockwork Orange” and also to take part in the play as extras.
Several songs were written for the performance by the punk band, familiar with the dystopian content of the near-future novel. That’s how the concept album “A Little Bit of Horror Show” came about, whose rocking opener “Here Comes Alex” became a single release.
In a world where you just live
So that you walk robots every day
Is the biggest excitement there is yet
The nightly television pictureEveryone lives like clockwork
Programmed like a computer
There is no one who opposes it
Only a few youngsters are frustratedWhen the sun goes down in the sky
Day begins for the droogs
They gather in small bands
Go hunting togetherHey, here comes Alex!
Curtain up for his horror show
Hey, here comes Alex!
Curtain up for a little bit of horror show
Musically, Die Toten Hosen incorporated the second movement of Beethoven’s ninth symphony. A subtle detail for music connoisseurs, because the character Alex is also obsessed with “good old Ludwig van”, as he calls him chummy at one point in “A Clockwork Orange”. The track “Achterbahn” can also be heard on the original single as a B-side:
Are you ready?
Then let’s get started!
break a leg
And God with usWe drive without a destination and without a plan,
We only care about speed
There is only one commandment for us
We drive to the end stationRelease the track
Get out of the way
if you want to help
say a prayer
The single was not only a great start for the play. It also catapulted Die Toten Hosen into the charts – but they almost didn’t use the song for the album at all. Campino and Co. thought the song was too slow and too rocky for a punk band. However, manager Trini Trimpop disagreed and eventually won over the group.
“Here comes Alex” and “Achterbahn” – this is how you secure the reissue
The 7″ single reissue featuring “Here Comes Alex” and “Achterbahn” comes in a sturdy, carefully designed cardboard sleeve and on heavyweight vinyl. It is only available from ROLLING STONE and not in record stores.
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