Bryan Ferry And Why The Nazis Didn’t Have All The Best Tunes
BRYAN Ferry is surely not be alone in confronting the fact that the Nazi’s did not have all the best tunes.
Hooked on Reichsmusikkammer lists such great foot-stomping staples as Anton Bruckner’s Seventh Symphony, the ooom-pah strains of Immer wenn Soldaten singen (No mixed blood mix) and Berlin bleibt doch Berlin (We’ll always have Berlin!).
But Ferry has been pricked to comment upon other elements of the Nazi years.
In conversation with German newspaper Welt am Sonntag, Ferry says: “The way that the Nazis staged themselves and presented themselves, my Lord.
“I’m talking about the films of Leni Riefenstahl and the buildings of Albert Speer and the mass marches and the flags – just fantastic. Really beautiful.”
Ah, those Nazi aesthetics. It’s not everyone who can appreciate the chimneys and those wide boulevards. Stand back and enjoy the Nazi Gesamtkunstwerk.
Ferry, of course, could have gone on. He could have remarked on those slimming, oh-so fashionable striped pyjamas worn in the lager. As a working model for Marks And Spencer, Ferry could, perhaps, champion the store’s Herrenvolk In Feldgrau range?
But Ferry is contrite. Sure, he reportedly revealed that he calls his west London studio his Fuhrerbunker, a title associated with Hitler’s headquarters. But he’s not a nutcase.
Says Bryan with a Y: “I apologise unreservedly for any offence caused by my comments on Nazi iconography, which were solely made from an art history perspective.”
“I, like every right-minded individual, find the Nazi regime, and all it stood for, evil and abhorrent.”
Not in an art history perspective, naturally…
Picture: The Spine
Posted: 17th, April 2007 | In: Reviews Comment (1) | TrackBack | Permalink
