Nina Hagen

Exactly 25 years ago I bought Nina Hagen's debut album simply called 'Nina Hagen'. Nina, graduated classic music singer, formed a band in West-Berlin (Germany). Their music can be described as Prog Related in my opinion. The album contains intellectual music, changing music styles and moods, and, overall, Nina's remarkable voice with a wide reach (which is obvious). I play the album (now on CD) occasionally.

After this debut album several other were made but with less succes. I must admit I only have its successor, 'Unbehagen', which only has a few good songs.

My question is 'Can Nina Hagen be considered as Prog?' Maybe some Dutch and German readers have an opinion on this.


Herman

     I think lots of stuff on "Unbehagen" is really prog, odd times and synths,
but her spirit remained truly punk...she also went quickly New Wave with
New York New York, and remained in a dance/kitsch mode, so probably not
enough prog to be included here. I love her version of the Tubes "White
Punks on Dope", which she changed to mean "I Watch TV", this became a
German classic.

yeah, definitely not prog, but for those times very
progressive and certainly inventive and EXCITING!

she is still one of my favourite female artists ever
from my home turf...

a lot of her then-success of the aforementioned
albums had to do with her backing band though. they
parted company with her around 1980, however,
continued recording under the name SPLIFF. they
were quickly lumped together with the new german
wave of pop ("neue deutsche welle") which in itself
became quite unbearable by the early-mid-80s,
which did them very little favour, because, in my
opinion, here were four of germany's most creative
and talented people at work and their albums "the
spliff radio show" (a satirical take on mass media),
85555 and "herzlichen glückwunsch" are still some
of the best music in german language you are ever
likely to hear.

their drummer, herwig mitteregger, has had some
pop success later on and especially their keyboard
player reinhold heil (VERY unfortunate last name...
) had become quite a happening film composer,
among others scoring ""run lola run" and "winter
sleepers", two excellent german 90s movies.

and nina? there is a LOT to enjoy on her subsequent
albums, too but a knowledge of the language is
essential. she's totally off her head of course but a
great artist.

anyway, now back to prog rock...

Hagen is not "prog" (as I interpret the term), but excellent nonetheless.

She had an amazing band (I also have a terrific "solo" Hagen-less album by her band - "Spliff"), & was great fun! Very original.

 

Hagen started out as an opera singer (awesome vocal range!) in (communist) East Germany, before defecting to the West.

Wonder what she's up to these days?

Edited by Peter