In his Reflexionr column, Jan Müller looks back on his smoking days – and on the cigarette culture of the Hamburg scene in the 90s.
Attention, trigger warning: The Cigarettes, Fluppe, The Cigarettes and smoking. It’s not that there isn’t a connection between smoking and music – that’s sometimes reflected in band names, as the examples just mentioned prove. The most famous band with tobacco in the band name is undoubtedly Cigarettes After Sex. The fact that they are so successful with their beautiful dream pop gives me hope that the world is not completely lost after all.
In the song “Holding You, Holding Me,” Greg Gonzales sings, “Give me just a little more, just a little more, just a little more to calm me.” That’s exactly what I thought at the time with every single puff I took from my cigarettes. I’m so happy that I stopped smoking over 20 years ago. It was only ten years that I was actively addicted to tobacco. During this time, however, I overdid it: before breakfast, during dinner, after sex, before sex – and during.
First embarrassing, then provocative – or at least conforming?
No, the latter was just for fun. It was actually fun to start smoking. As a teenager, I thought smoking was stupid – which it is. In the small DIY and hardcore punk scene in Hamburg where I hung out, smoking was considered embarrassing. Shortly after founding Tocotronic, however, my attitude changed. “I’m already smoking,” Arne said to me one day and looked at me sternly with a cigarette in his hand. I found that so funny that instead of buying a cigarette, I bought a whole pack myself – “Marlboro”, of course, for provocative reasons.
In reality, starting to smoke was probably an act of conformity or even submission. Because in the Hamburg underground music scene of the 90s, everyone smoked. The second-hand suit wearers of the Golden Lemons, Les Robespierres, etc. smoked “Eckstein” or similarly strange working-class brands. For the East Frisians from Neuen Brot and Junge Montag, “Harvest 23” and “HB” were more popular. Myriam Brüger from Lado smoked “West”, Jochen Distelmeyer: “Lucky Strike” without a filter. Bernd Begemann was occasionally seen with a cigarillo.
Smoking yes, not smoking weed
Fortunately, hardly anyone was smoking weed in this scene. Some cigarette machines in St. Pauli were actually stocked with packs of the “Gold Dollar” brand – I didn’t think they were bad at all at the time. Sometimes I even forgot for a moment how ridiculous it is to think that one can create identity through a cigarette brand.
I actually wanted to stop smoking pretty soon, but I realized that I was addicted. No fun for me. A few years earlier, my brother had died of cancer. It was one of my stupidest ideas to become a smoker for ironic reasons. Unconsciously, there must have been other reasons for me. After all, smoking is about indulging in something harmful and completely pointless – the reasons for this can rarely be positive.
Impressive to strange
Serge Gainsbourg, Marlene Dietrich and Marianne Faithfull looked impressive while smoking. Hans Fallada is said to have smoked 150 cigarettes a day. Jonathan Richman, on the other hand, was considered strange at the time because he banned smoking at his concerts. Quitting was made difficult for us because you could smoke almost everywhere: in the club, in the taxi, in the restaurant, on the train, on the plane (sometimes) and in almost everyone’s house. You were even allowed to smoke in the “Oase” cinema on the Reeperbahn.
At least I never put a cigarette on the neck of my bass during one of my band’s concerts – that was too embarrassing for me. But I continued to smoke even when I was sick. It was only a severe flu that made me give up smoking. I find this formulation beautiful: I have given up, perhaps even surrendered. I’m not proud of having stopped smoking. But it didn’t make me a moral apostle.
I especially love my smoking friends – especially when they smoke. They look great then. Nevertheless, I hope that they stop soon: I want them to stay healthy for a long time. But push them to do it? Never!