Lyr Req: Nordsee Kyste

Subject: Nordsee Kyste
From: Dinty
Date: 07 Oct 99 - 11:59 AM

I'm looking to the words of a sailor song that I've heard sung in the bars of Hamburg, Amsterdam, Copenhagen, and Bergen. The tune is always the same and the translated title of the song is the "North See Coast." (Or at least that a line in the chorus.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Nordsee Kyste
From: Susanne (skw)
Date: 07 Oct 99 - 07:50 PM

Ugh! - Sorry, but I suppose you are thinking of 'An der Nordseeküste', a set of rather cheap and awful German words, no more than ten years old and certainly no sailor song, to the tune of 'The Wild Rover'. I'm happy to say I cannot remember the words and don't know where to find them, but they were a big hit for a German Laurel&Hardy type duo called Klaus & Klaus. If you really want them I'll think of a way to dig out the words, but why not sing 'The Wild Rover' instead? :-) - Susanne

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Nordsee Kyste
From: Dinty
Date: 08 Oct 99 - 01:36 AM

I guess you have to understand the context. I was an exchange student with the Norwegian Armed Forces and attended their staff school which included their Naval Officers. Our entire class loved to sing it in Norwegian. Which is also why I spell it differently. I have a lot of fond memories of singing it with them in some great places. These places might also meet your definition of "cheap and awful." Does a song that actual sailors sing make it a sailor song? I don't know. Anyways, that is why I like it and want to sing it.

Dinty

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Nordsee Kyste
From: MudGuard
Date: 08 Oct 99 - 02:09 AM

An der Nordseeküste, am plattdeutschen Strand
Sind die Fische im Wasser, und selten an Land.

is all I remember of the lyrics to that awful attempt of a parody to the song The Wild Rover. And I think it is an insult to Laurel&Hardy to compare them to Klaus&Claus!

I'll post more of the lyrics as soon as it comes back into my memory (from where I tried to erase it).

MudGuard

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Nordsee Kyste
From: Dinty
Date: 08 Oct 99 - 02:19 AM

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Nordsee Kyste
From: Dinty
Date: 08 Oct 99 - 02:22 AM

I had no idea that I was going to cause such universal pain with this request. I've just started getting into singing through the diligent efforts of a friends of mine. As is the case with all novices, I seem to be wandering through a minefield when I thought I was taking a stroll through the park.

- Dinty

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Nordsee Kyste
From: MudGuard
Date: 08 Oct 99 - 02:39 AM

That's the lyrics I found on www.ingeb.org:

An der Nordseeküste

Damals, vor unendlich langer Zeit,
Da machten wir Friesen am Wasser uns breit.
Die Jahre vergingen wie Saus und wie Braus,
Aber breit sehen wir Friesen auch heute noch aus.

Chorus
An der Nordseeküste,
Am plattdeutschen Strand,
Sind die Fische im Wasser
Und selten am Land.

Nach Flut kommt die Ebbe, nach Ebbe die Flut;
Die Deiche, sie halten mal schlecht und mal gut.
Die Dünen, sie wandern am Strand hin und her
Von Grönland nach Flandern, jedenfalls ohn' Gewähr.

Die Seehunde singen ein Klagelied
Weil sie nicht mit dem Schwanz wedeln können, so'n Scheet!
Die Schafe, die blöken wie blöd auf dem Deich,
Und mit schwarzgrünen Kugeln garnier'n sie ihn reich.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Nordsee Kyste
From: Dinty
Date: 08 Oct 99 - 02:54 AM

Thanks! However, I'm seriously reconsidering whether anybody in our group would want to hear me sing this.

- Dinty

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Nordsee Kyste
From: Snobby
Date: 08 Oct 99 - 04:35 AM

Please replace Scheet by Schiet (plattdeutsch=Scheiße, but not as vulgar like engl.: shit) in the last verse in the line:

Weil sie nicht mit dem Schwanz wedeln können, so'n Scheet!

By the way - I think the parody contains a lot of typical Northern German humor and many Germans learnt "The Wild Rover" melody for the first time. When I am a little bit drunk I like to sing it too!

Snobby

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Nordsee Kyste
From: Susanne (skw)
Date: 08 Oct 99 - 08:40 PM

I knew someone would come up with it! Also, Dinty, please don't take my remarks too seriously. I'm sure the song has its place. It certainly is a good tune to sing in enthusiastic company, and the words don't matter that much. It is just when a commercial recording of something like this reaches the top of the German hit parade that I'm beginning to lose faith in my countrymen's (and -women's) good sense. The song depicts North Germans in the way 'stage Irish' songs used to depict Irishmen as dumb and drunk, and Sir Harry Lauder and his imitators used to depict the Scots in similar stereotypes. As a North German and speaker of the ancient language of the country, Plattdeutsch, I resent this cheapening approach and I don't understand how Germans can accept this kind of thing. It's different for foreigners, and I certainly wouldn't show you the door for singing it!

MudGuard, my abject apologies for unintentionally offending Laurel and Hardy. I was merely thinking of the shapes, not of any comic genius in Klaus&Klaus! - Susanne

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Nordsee Kyste
From: Dinty
Date: 09 Oct 99 - 01:53 AM

Susanne,

Thanks for explaining your feelings about the song. I think I would feel the same way. I think I vaguely remember Klaus and Claus from when I was stationed in Germany in the early 80's. I take it that they are not North Germans? My maternal grandfather's family were Rhinelanders (Kamps) from a little village on the Dutch border. I'm told that folks from this area are known for their love of low humour. Perhaps, I've inheritated some of this.

Dinty

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Nordsee Kyste
From: Susanne (skw)
Date: 09 Oct 99 - 09:41 PM

Dinty, those guys are North Germans all right! Even (!) we aren't above making a little money when we get the chance (I never seem to do ...), and even (!) we aren't above a liking of low humour. Who is? It is just that there are different kinds of low humour. Me, I love dirty jokes but I hate toilet jokes. Must be why I could never understand other people's fascination with Monty Python.
So don't brood on it. You're as welcome to your tastes as I want to be to mine, and I'm sure if we got together we'd find a few common ones. It's only human. :-) - Susanne

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Nordsee Kyste
From: Vega
Date: 10 Oct 99 - 01:27 PM

I just feel the urge to bud into this animated exchange on Nordsee Kueste lyrics. Hailing from the alemannic language area of the Mutterland (to be politically correct), and being an avid proponent of maintaining linguistic automony (which means I grew up with an already bastardized version of alemannic in a city setting and am envious of/ but happy for those who were more lucky than I) I greatly enjoyed this. I might suggest we all tune in to a different song, a Schnulze (engl. transl.??) but authentic, and perhaps reflective of the "broad" Friesen character, and certainly not offensive to anyone: Wo de Nordseewellen trekken an den Strand ... Vega

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Nordsee Kyste
From: Dinty
Date: 11 Oct 99 - 12:36 AM

Where can we find this? - Dinty

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Nordsee Kyste
From: MudGuard
Date: 11 Oct 99 - 06:45 AM

Sorry for the typo, I just copied and pasted the lyrics without looking too closely at them.
Bavarian MudGuard

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Nordsee Kyste
From: Susanne (skw)
Date: 11 Oct 99 - 07:39 PM

Here it is - entirely from memory. I learnt it from my grandmother who was a North Frisian from the island of Pellworm, off the North Sea coast. It is not exactly unsentimental either - a feeling reinforced by a waltz tune - but it makes me feel at home. I'll translate it another time, if anyone needs a translation.

(Incidentally, I have been told the original comes from the East Prussian coast of the Baltic Sea, and it was appropriated by North Sea dwellers at some point in the 19th century.)

Wo de Nordseewellen trecken an den Strand
Wo de geelen Blomen bloehn in't groene Land
Wo de Moewen schrien grell in't Stormgebruus
Dor is mine Heimot, dor buen ick tohus

Welln und Wogenrauschen weer min Weegenleed
Un de hogen Dieken sehn min Kinnertied
Sehn ok all min Sehnsucht, all min groot Begehr
In de Welt to flegen oeber Land un Meer

Lang hett mi dat Leben min Verlangen stillt
Hett mi allens geben wat min Hart erfuellt
Allens is verswunnen wat mi quaelt un dreev
Heff dat Glueck nu funnen - doch de Sehnsucht bleev

Sehnsucht na dat schoene groene Marschenland
Wo de Nordseewellen trecken an den Strand
Wo de Moewen schrien grell in't Stormgebruus
Dor is mine Heimot, dor buen ick to hus

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Nordsee Kyste
From: Wolfgang
Date: 13 Oct 99 - 12:16 PM

Of course, I share MudGuard's and Susanne's feelings. I was playing in a German folkgroup for a long time. We were playing Irish and Scottish music with very few German songs in between. At our best, we copied a couple of Planxty tunes and songs, far from the original but nothing to be ashamed of. With that musical taste of ours, you can imagine how much we liked it that invariably some German came up to us after the show and said that it was fine what we did and he liked it but why didn't we play that fine song The Wild Rover or, even better, the German version of it. If he didn't ask for the Wild Rover, he asked for Whisky in the Jar, the only other Irish folksong any randomly met German knows.
I was so fed up with these requests that I wrote a parody on "An der Nordseeküste", using of course the tune of Whisky in the Jar, for a change.

An der Deutschen Norseeküste

An der Deutschen Nordseeküste
in 'ner Stadt mit Namen Norden,
war Jan, der Fischer, Vater
von Drillingen geworden.
Er konnt' des Nachts nicht schlafen,
so schrie'n die kleinen Fresser,
mit Korn statt Milch im Fläschchen
da schlafen sie jetzt besser.

Ja, wir trinken den starken Korn...

(At the German Northsea coast, in the town of Norden, Jan, the fisherman, became father of a triplet. He couldn't sleep at night for the noise, now with grain whisky replacing the milk in the bottle, they sleep better...)

I think you get the idea. The other verses used other well know towns from that region (Emden, Aurich) to the same effect (how much better life goes with a lot of drinking). We had to stop playing that song for the audience liked it too much or, rather, they like it for the (in our eyes) wrong reasons.

Wolfgang