Unter Toten Hosen

And another old and dear one

Die Toten Hosen - unter falscher flagge LP - 1984 Totenkopf TOT 21, Virgin 206 845

This band was so good in their early days. I have fond memories of the tapes friends recorded for me back in the late eighties when I was still in school with no money. It's a shame what they turned into these days... and not just recently. Really embarrassing.
That aside this is still a great record.

The cover of this second press, released the same year as the first press, is censored because they used a rip off HMV logo on the flag of the ship they are depicted on. But for some reason they didn't have to censor they printed innersleeve which shows exactly the same image only way bigger. Strange how those major label politics work.
I'm not too concerned with owning a first press which is why I grabbed it from the same dude who sold me the Die Ärzte LP which you may remember from my previous post. I took three more records of his hands but more about that later...

Debile Ärzte

Today I'll take you back to my punk rock roots. I can't imagine anyone in Germany into Punk not having listened to this band at some point. Well, maybe the younger generation because lately they don't really release good records anymore.

Die Ärzte - debil LP - 1984 CBS 26 237

Maybe for nostalgic reasons but maybe because this stuff is really good. But who cares? No matter what I really love this record. When I was young I didn't have the money to buy their records and then for a year or two I didn't mind much. Recently though I decided I have to have their early albums on vinyl. So here we go with their debut full length.
Die Ärzte are the biggest german band that was ever considered punk and to me still is. They never sold out or changed their attitude. Now I'm aware that some people would be well advised to change their attitude but not them. From what I know their heart and soul were always in the right place.

Good thing a friend of mine is thinning his collection and let go of this for cheap. It's an original 1984 pressing. Apparently there were two different ones made that year with different matrix numbers but pretty much identical otherwise. So who knows which one came first. At this point probably no one. I didn't even care about what pressing it is which is why I'm definitely perfectly happy with this copy.