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Die Toten Hosen - Learning English, Lesson One Audio CD

A fair review of the Die Toten Hosen "Learning English, Lesson One" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all Die Toten Hosen reviews here, or go back to the Die Toten Hosen tabs.

Die Toten Hosen Band: Die Toten Hosen
Title: Learning English, Lesson One
Rating:
Release Date: 2003-10-21
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: Learning English, Step One - Die Toten Hosen 2: Blitzkrieg Bop - Die Toten Hosen, Joey Ramone 3: Brickfield Nights - Matt Dangerfield, Die Toten Hosen 4: No One Is Innocent - Ronnie Biggs, Die Toten Hosen 5: New Guitar in Town - Die Toten Hosen, Honest John Plain 6: If the Kids Are United - Die Toten Hosen, Jimmy Pursey 7: Nasty Nasty - Nick Cash, Die Toten Hosen 8: Dirty Pictures - Die Toten Hosen, Andy Ellison 9: Baby Baby - Die Toten Hosen, Knox 10: Gary Gilmore's Eyes - Die Toten Hosen, TV Smith 11: Diary of a Lover - Die Toten Hosen 12: Born to Lose - Cheetah Chrome, Die Toten Hosen, , Handsome Dick Manitoba, Johnny Thunders 13: Do You Remember - Die Toten Hosen, , Rockafellas 14: Carnival in Rio (Punk Was) - Ronnie Biggs, Die Toten Hosen 15: Richmond - Arturo Bassick, Die Toten Hosen 16: Whole Wide World - Die Toten Hosen, Wreckless Eric 17: Smash It Up - Captain Sensible, Die Toten Hosen 18: Stranglehold - Die Toten Hosen, Charlie Harper 19: Love and a Molotov Cocktail - Die Toten Hosen, Neil O'Connor 20: Do Anything You Wanna Do - Die Toten Hosen, Graeme Douglas 21: Goodbye from Janet & John - Die Toten Hosen

German punk!
This CD here is their "covers" album. Die Toten Hosen (The Dead Trousers) are a German punk band. It features their cover versions of some of their favorite punk songs. The cool thing about it is that all the songs feature one of the original recording artists guest-starring on them. The songs are well performed and fun. I would recommend this album to fans of old school punk.


Punk was?
To keep fans hanging, they knock out a few songs someone else has written. Cover albums are generally a cheap and easy way for bands to release an album when they have not gotten around to doing anything themselves. Some work reasonably well ('Acid Eaters' by The Ramones), some are decidedly average ('Garage Inc' by Metallica, 'Undisputed Attitude' by Slayer) and some are outright rubbish ('The Spaghetti Incident?' by Guns and Roses). 'Learning English, Lesson One', however, is in a class of it's own.

Die Toten Hosen were at one time the biggest punk band in the world, but were generally ignored by English speaking audiences because they performed in German. In their first crack at English, the band produced a highly entertaining album.

Moreover, what we have here is a delightful English language instruction tape, complete with Janet and John discussing the finer points of pronunciation, usage, taking dirty pictures, and making Molotov cocktails. It is a collection of a number of defining moments from the formative days of punk, along with a track written by the Hosen themselves. Most fans of 70s punk will be familiar with "Blitzkrieg Bop", "If The Kids Are United", "Gary Gilmore's Eyes", "Smash It Up" and "Stranglehold", and all are reproduced with great reverence, but with a nice clean 1990s production. There are short stories from the band members as to why the songs were included in the liner notes.

One of the cool things about this album is that musicians who originally recorded the songs made guest appearances on all of the tracks. Some have died since. Included are Joey Ramone, and the last recording of Johnny Thunders, who died just 36 hours after helping record "Born To Lose". Other legends of punk on the album include living fossil Charlie Harper, Captain Sensible, Jimmy Pursey, Handsome Dick Manitoba, and Great Train Robber Ronnie Biggs. Biggs helped write the irreverent tribute to punk "Punk Was".

As you can probably see from the track listing, this isn't the sort of thing that would appeal to fans of Discharge, The Exploited or Agnostic Front. It is too pop-oriented. However, if you enjoy a fresh take on some old favourites, this is addictive stuff. It is almost impossible to listen to this album and not have one of the songs stuck in your head for the rest of the day.


You can see a complete list of all Die Toten Hosen discography, or go back to the Die Toten Hosen tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.

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