Herbert Grönemeyer at the LMU Munich: This is how his lyrics are created!

Created: 12/09/2022, 11:50 am

By: Katja Kraft

Visiting the LMU Munich: Herbert Grönemeyer, whose new album will be released in March.

© babiradpicture/AndyKnoth

Herbert Grönemeyer was invited by the Munich Poetry Cabinet to visit the LMU Munich.

He analyzed his lyrics with writer Michael Lentz.

A somewhat different evening of poetry.

A poetry evening that takes on the lyrics of Herbert Grönemeyer.

You can already hear them slapping their thighs, the scoffers: “What is there to analyze?

He swallows half of the verses while singing.” Of course Grönemeyer knows that. The “Herr Bert” imitations are as old as his career.

And of course he plays with it.

With his planed, undisguised, philanthropic sense of humor, cultivated in Westphalia and the Ruhr area.

"When I told the studio bosses in the 80's that the new record should be called '4630 Bochum', they had a heart attack.

They were sure: 'Nobody buys that anymore in Bottrop!'”, the 66-year-old recalls with a grin.

And makes the many listeners who came to lecture hall A140 of the LMU Munich laugh once more.

Everyone here knows that the bosses back then were wrong.

The Bochum record is cult.

Awarded gold eleven times.

And that's on an album with a title track whose chorus reads, well, a bit silly on paper.

"Bochum, I come from you.

Bochum, I'm attached to you.” Grönemeyer dryly: “If I were to write that today, I would throw it away immediately.

But back then I was young and fresh and I thought to myself: 'It's okay.'” Yep, okay.

Anyone who has experienced what happens when Grönemeyer sings these lines in Bochum knows what happiness sounds like.

But back then I was young and fresh and I thought to myself: 'It's okay.'” Yep, okay.

Anyone who has experienced what happens when Grönemeyer sings these lines in Bochum knows what happiness sounds like.

But back then I was young and fresh and I thought to myself: 'It's okay.'” Yep, okay.

Anyone who has experienced what happens when Grönemeyer sings these lines in Bochum knows what happiness sounds like.

Michael Lentz and Herbert Grönemeyer played a humorous game of ping-pong in the LMU lecture hall.

© kjk

As reported, the Munich Poetry Cabinet - supported by BMW - had invited to this somewhat different poetry seminar.

Writer Michael Lentz, who has been friends with the singer for decades, takes the matter very seriously in a cheerful way.

And while he philosophizes about rhythm and meter ("'sorry, we're at the university here!"), Grönemeyer suppresses his laughter.

An amusing game of ping pong is the one between the two word artists.

Which crystallizes what Grönemeyer never tires of emphasizing: the lyrics, to which he is often limited, are hard work for him.

The banana texts that he recites while creating a song would be enough for him.

But it doesn't help: people also love him for his twisted metaphors.

For his play with the German language,

which for him “has something of wholemeal bread.

She has a big bite.

Wringing out the beauty of the German language is a lot of fun for me.”

Fan moment: Herbert Grönemeyer patiently gave autographs in the LMU Munich.

© babiradpicture/AndyKnoth

Whereby he unabashedly admits that he doesn't cling to the point.

“Of course, a reasonably reasonable melody also carries the text.

Do you know how often my 'I love you' is played at weddings?

It's a song about a breakup." It doesn't matter.

A song is a good song if it leaves you feeling.

“The listeners get stuck there.

It doesn't matter whether that's the feeling I wanted to convey.

Everyone takes what they want.”