Iki Maska

The more you learn about Nina Hagen, the more you realize that she really is as insane as her music suggests. For example, she married a seventeen-year-old when she was 32. Wouldn’t we all like to do that? Or, on a less inspiring note, she believes that UFOs are a real thing and AIDS isn’t. All in all, she’s probably an extremely interesting and fun person, but you wouldn’t trust her to operate heavy machinery or coach Little League.

I Love Paul

Hello and welcome to the new year! Let’s start it off with some hare krishna hare krishna krishna krishna hare hare courtesy of Nina Hagen. Who is Paul? I don’t know. Let’s imagine it’s Paul McCartney. Does that make sense? No, but this is Nina Hagen, a crazy moon bat who thinks she’s deep. Take it from me, anyone who doesn’t have the attention span to decide on a hair color can’t be trusted to deliver a deep spiritual message. At least, not intentionally. Sometimes Nina says some pretty dumb shit, and sometimes she gets in way over her head with misbegotten political causes, and sometimes it seems like she’s not even in on her own joke. But since most of the time her music is so high spirited and fun, everything else can be forgiven. Yeah, she’s loony, but she’s not the fist loony pop star and she wears it so well.

He Shiva Shankara

Why has chanting and Eastern mysticism (which I know next to nothing about) been cropping up frequently at this time? Is something telling me that I need to get a mantra and bone up on spirituality? Or just coincidence that yet another mystifying mantra has come up, and on my birthday, as it happens? I can’t think too deeply about the implications right now. But I’ll vouch that this is gonna be the weirdest thing you see all day. Nina Hagen usually has that distinction, and today she’s singing in Sanskrit. I’m not entirely sure the woman is human and not an alien singing machine from a small planet near Betelguese. Most normal people have a specific vocal range, be it on the high end of the register or low, which limits them in what kind of material they are suited to. Nina Hagen has no limitations on her voice. She can sing the full spectrum of the regular human register, then she goes above and below and makes sounds that are impossible to believe. So of course, she can tackle any musical style with no sweat off her brow. Chanting in Sanskrit is just another day at the office for her.

Hand Grenade/Hollenzug

I find a lot to admire about the fearlessly iconoclastic Nina Hagen, but if there’s one place where she’s really fucked up, it’s her support of the ‘alternative’ AIDS movement. Hagen wrote the songs Hand Grenade and Hollenzug based on the ideas of activist and AIDS denialist Christine Maggiore, and has supported Maggiore’s Alive & Well organizations. The AIDS denial movement claims that AIDS is not caused by the HIV virus, that AZT and other antiretroviral drugs do more damage than good and the whole thing is a conspiracy between drug companies and the government to swindle, oppress and exterminate undesirable populations. While it’s true the pharmaceutical companies have a lot to answer for, and have made a killing (haha) on antiretrovirals, only making the drugs cheaper and more readily available to the impoverished  after enraged worldwide political pressure, the science behind those drugs is valid. There is no ‘natural alternative’ AIDS treatment that’s been proven to work on a more than anecdotal level, and there’s no scientific doubt that HIV does cause AIDS, and the miserable deaths of millions of untreated sufferers offer pretty clear proof AIDS and HIV are a death sentence unless antiretroviral drugs are administered. Those things are accepted as fact by the NIH, WHO and practically every scientist, doctor and politician on the planet. The activism of Maggiore drew a lot of publicity in the 90′s and gained a bit of a  popular following, but she lost many supporters when she allowed her HIV-postive infant daughter to go untreated. The child died of an AIDS-related illness. Maggiore contested the autopsy findings, but the doctor she hired turned out to be a veterinarian, further damaging her credibility. Maggiore, HIV-positive since 1992 never took ‘the deadly pills’ and in 2008 she herself died of an AIDS-related disease. As new research leads to greater understanding of the AIDS virus and leads to more effective therapies, Maggiore’s cause moves further and further into the outer fringe of insanity. When the disease was poorly understood and available therapies truly were risky and prohibitively expensive, there was room for doubters and promoters of their own ‘alternatives’, but today such ideas are simply in the realm of bigfoot hunting and alien abduction. Not to mention damaging and irresponsible. Supporting and publicizing such beliefs is on a moral plane somewhere below Holocaust denial, more irresponsible but somehow less controversial. I don’t know whether or not Nina Hagen still supports the cause, or if she has moved on to saner pastures, nor do I know the precise extent of her activism. It seems like a case of a pop star latching onto a cause that seems to suit her own ‘outsider’ self-image without bothering to learn the full extent of the issue. She is also someone who does believe in UFO’s and alien abductions and is known for picking through popular religions for bits she likes and agrees with, without being able to commit to just one fully. In other words, she’s kind of a flake, so maybe we shouldn’t judge her too harshly for her misguided and ignorant ‘activism’.

 

Related articles

• Death by denial: The campaigners who continue to deny HIV causes Aids (denyingaids.blogspot.com)
• How AIDS Denialism Can Kill You Part II: Accountability and Liability for Spreading Medical Disinformation (denyingaids.blogspot.com)

Future Is Now

Well, this sounds even less like a song on stage. Some of Nina Hagen’s songs are pretty straightforward in structure – verse, chorus, verse and all that. Nunsexmonkrock is like none other, and her best work because of it. It’s not so much recognizably music, but a transmission from another universe. Nina Hagen does things with her voice that are like the vocal equivalent of what Warner Bros cartoon characters did with their bodies. Things that should not be physically possible in the real realm. Nunsexmonkrock was all about Nina playing with her voice, with the music and lyrics following to suit. It’s chaotic experimentation, fascinating, unique. Singing Future Is Now live, there’s no pretense of conventional song structure. Just vocal exercise. And what vocals!

Frequenzkontrolle

Here’s somebody who looks like she might believe in alien abductions. Nina Hagen believes everything, sometimes with dubious moral results, like her belief that antiretroviral drugs are a scam. She’s highly outspoken but not always entirely coherent, so it’s best not to take her too seriously. I think she’s taking a stand against media mind control or something here. I’d understand better if I spoke German. But understanding German or not isn’t the point. The point is to sit back and be amazed that any human can produce sounds like Nina does.

Dread Love

In our days of Autotune, it seems like nobody can handle singing even the simplest pop song unassisted. Every mindless chorus is backing-tracked. Who the hell sings live anymore? It’s depressing that being able to carry a tune is no longer a requirement for having a singing career. Compare the ‘singing’ of today’s robot pop stars to the superhuman sounds Nina Hagen can produce. Her range is commanding enough on record, but with a visual the effect crosses over into the surreal. Can she really be hitting those notes? Yes, she is a trained opera singer, she can hit any note on the scale and does. The song doesn’t even have to hold together as a song. The point of the show is one girl making a range of sounds that go beyond musical. We’re in the shady territory of performance art, where sound and vision exist for their own sakes. And it’s punk.

Dr Art

I suggest that, before scrolling down to song itself, you take a minute and get really dosed. It’ll help. Though I confess I’ve never dosed to Nina Hagen. Like, maybe it’s a redundant thing to do? I’ll have to try it sometime. There’s surely levels of appreciation that the sober mind can’t wrap itself around, which need to be opened. And in general, I clearly need to do more drugs. I need mind expansion.

Der Wind Hat Mir Ein Lied Erzahlt

It occurs to me, belatedly, that Nina Hagen would be a great Halloween costume. Well, this year I spent All Hallows Eve on a trancontinental airplane flight, but next year for sure. Nina has a unique sense of style. While it’s a little too high-effort for everyday emulation, it’s still inspiring. Nina has no use for convention, and that’s inspiring.

Cosma Shiva

Admittedly, Nina Hagen can be a little bit terrifying for those who’ve never heard her before. With her outlandish self-created image – she was manga before there was such a thing – and superhuman vocal range, and her infinite capacity for weirdness…Well, the knee-jerk reaction is usually “WTF?” It’s easy and natural to assume she’s a scary person with a possibly dark agenda. Because a woman in black lipstick shrieking in German about god-knows-what can’t not be part of some sick underground cult of pagan/goth/Satan worshiper/feminazi/self cutter/heroin freak/carnival barker/anarchist/*insert undesirable lifestyle*/what-have-you. Though no one can deny Prima Nina is loopy, it’s wrong to associate her with ‘dark’ lifestyles. She’s the most light-seeking person ever. Her message, garbled as it may be, is one of spiritual redemption, strength and love. And animal rights. And Hare Krishna – she likes Hare Krishna. A shocked reaction to Cosma Shiva is expected – starts with an ominous countdown, and equally ominous synthesizer noises and then it really gets weird – but your reaction to the song should change radically when you learn what it is she’s howling about. You see, Cosma Shiva is the name she gave her baby daughter. She chose that name in reference to an extraterrestrial visitation she experienced while pregnant. Cosma Shiva is all grown up now (29!) a successful actress in Germany (and gorgeous, normal and well-adjusted.)