Forty years of Die Toten Hosen – and 60 years of Campino. The singer celebrates his milestone birthday on June 22nd. While the band itself celebrated with the release of the new single “Scheiß Wessis” (in a double pack with Marteria’s “Scheiss Ossis”) and the work show “Alles aus Liebe: 40 Jahre Die Toten Hosen”), we take a look back at the work of the Düsseldorf punk veterans … to the ten best Toten Hosen albums.
10th place: “False Flag” (1984)
False Flag was the Hosen’s second studio album. It doesn’t quite come close to the debut “Opel-Gang”, but with “Liebesspieler” one of the best known and best DTH tracks ever is included.
9th place: “Women’s Choice” (1986)
Of course, looking back, the sound of “Damenwahl” hasn’t aged all that well. For the most part, the pieces for it — above all the “Wort zum Sonntag”.
8th place: Learning English, Lesson One (1991)
If you have a status like the pants already had in 1991, even the big idols don’t take long to ask. The band covered pieces of British punk history – and invited the original artists to the studio. Joey Ramone, for example, Charlie Harper from the UK Subs, Captain Sensible from The Damned — and legendary postal robber Ronnie Biggs, whom Campi & Co. visited in Rio de Janeiro and recorded the track “Carnival in Rio (Punk Was”) with him.
7th place: “Ballast of the Republic” (2012)
With “Ballast der Republik” the band reported back in 2012 stronger than they had in a long time. With “Days Like This” they created a number one hit that one couldn’t escape for a long time – neither at party conferences nor at carnival events. “Ballast der Republik” is comparable to “Opium for the People” in terms of its variety. From rock bangers (“Ballast der Republik”, “Two Thirds of Love”) to ballads (“Outside the Door”, in which Campino addresses his relationship with his father) to oaths of friendship (“Old Fever”): Die Toten Hosen were good as it hasn’t been for a long time. Marteria, who was on board as co-lyricist, is also responsible for this, as well as the producers Vincent Sorgt and Tobias Kuhn, who tailored a fresh and relevant sound to the band.
6th place: “Away Game” (2002)
“Away Game” showed the proven pants mix – and here, too, there are some parallels to “Opium Fürs Volk”. For example “Venceremos”, which is definitely comparable to the piece “Viva La Revolution”. “Get Up When You’re Down” is the band’s best pledge of friendship — and “Nur zu Visit” is a great ballad in which Campino sings of his mother’s death. They didn’t let a drinking song be taken here either – the last track “No alcohol (is also no solution)”.
5th place: “Buy Me!” (1993)
“Kauf mich!” has some of the best pants pieces — above all, of course, “Make a wish”, “Welcome to Germany” and “Alles aus Liebe”. The silly sketches (“Erotim-Super-3-Feucht”, “The Homolka-Chainsaw”), which were funny in 1993 but didn’t really need it in retrospect, seem less fresh than the songs.
4th place: “Opel Gang” (1983)
The pants debut: chaotic, spirited, bumpy — great. Even if it was to be a few more years before the guys from the Opel gang actually left everyone behind and became one of the most successful German bands of all. “Opel-Gang” can still be heard wonderfully today with tracks like “Reisefieber”, “Bis zum Bitter Ende” and of course the title track.
3rd place: “On the Crusade to Happiness” (1990)
Two years after the band had presented their first masterpiece with “A Little Bit of Horror Show”, Campino, Breiti, Kuddel, Andi and Wölli started the double album. In addition to new pieces (“Alles wird Gut”, one of the best Hosen songs of all time), well-known (“Hip Hop Bommi Bop”) could also be heard, cover songs (Adriano Celentano’s “Azurro”, which the Hosen presented as Punkrock-Kracher published) as well as the multi-part play “Willi – ein loser (drama in three acts)”, for which the Hosen worked together with Gerhard Polt and Biermösl Blosn. With “Auf dem Kreuzzug ins Glück”, Die Toten Hosen landed at number one in the German album charts for the first time.
2nd place: “A little bit of horror show”
At the end of the 1980s, Die Toten Hosen were asked if they could imagine writing the incidental music for a production of A Clockwork Orange. A challenge that the band not only accepted, but mastered with flying colors – and thus won completely new listeners. In addition to the six tracks, the Hosen wrote half a dozen more that fit into the narrative. The first two songs are among the best the band has ever done – the smash hit “Here Comes Alex” and “1000 Good Reasons”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6z8o7qAIIIU
1st place: “Opium for the People” (1996)
“Opium fürs Volk” is a piñata – and the most varied and holistically grandiose Hosen album ever. “Opium” is everything: the search for meaning and God, criticism of religion, politics, punk rock and, who likes it – drinking. On “Böser Wolf” the band sings about the subject of child abuse in a moving way, for long stretches it gets down to business in a very introspective way. With “Bonnie and Clyde” and “Paradise” there are two big hits and live hits, with “10 Kleine Jägermeister” the ode to alcohol, which became number one single … and there is absolutely nothing on “Opium fürs Volk”. Piece that would not be good. Unmatched to this day.