“Der Kampf geht weiter”: The Politics of Cover Versions in German Punk Rock

Summary

Punk Covers

IN THE EARLY YEARS, punk rock was concerned neither with political lyrics nor with cover versions. Punk's infamous performative: “This a chord. This is another. This is a third. Now form a band,” first published in a fanzine called “Sideburns,” asks people to create and perform their own songs instead of reenacting well-known tunes. While the aesthetics of early punk rock was not determined by political manifestos, they nonetheless incorporated this kind of practice that would soon become famous as Do it yourself ethics. However, at the starting point of the second wave of punk around 1978 political lyrics became more popular in West German punk rock. Influenced by such bands as Crass—England's infamous Anarcho-punk ensemble—several German punk groups began to perform political messages by means of their lyrics. The text rather than the sound was the message. Since most lyrics of punk songs were written by the bands themselves, it was rather unusual to play cover versions. There are, however, some notable examples of political cover songs in the history of punk rock. These kinds of cover songs were mostly used to give credit to a certain tradition of political songwriting, thereby establishing an intertextual relation between original and cover version. In this essay, I will examine the transtextual structure of punk cover versions in order to highlight the performativity of the songs. I will argue that lyrics play an important role in punk covers, and that most cover songs by punk bands make use of parody, pastiche, or other forms of transtextuality, thereby transforming rock music into performative politics. In this respect, most punk covers differ from the common practice of covering. This can be observed in the recordings of German punk bands as well as in those of bands from the UK or the US which had a strong impact on West German punk rock. But while British or American punk bands such as Sex Pistols or Dead Kennedys often rely on parody as a means of their cover practice, some West German punk combos such as Slime take a different, more earnest approach to pursue their political messages, as will be shown in the following.