From Mutter · 2001 · Track 10
Adios
«Goodbye»
More from the album · Mutter
In context
A Spanish title for a lyric that crosses the image of a needle entering a vein with that of music as something that gets into the body, and closes with the idea that whoever has already died has nothing left.
- Addiction
- Death
- Poetry
- Origin
- Tenth song on “Mutter”, recorded in 2000 at Studio Miraval in Correns, France. Part of the lyrics matches the second stanza of “Musik”, a poem Till Lindemann published in “100 Gedichte” (2020), almost twenty years after the song. Before settling on “Adios” it went through several working titles: “Alles wird nass”, “Anos” and “Tod hat ein Gesicht”. It was never a single in its own right, but it was included as a bonus track on the “Sonne” single, released almost two months before the album.
- Live
- Debuted on 16 April 2000 and was played 80 times up to 13 July 2002, always within the Mutter Tour. On stage Flake moved from the keyboard to a snare drum at Oliver Riedel's position, while Riedel in turn moved to the keyboard, and Richard Kruspe's guitar was accompanied by pyrotechnics.
Our reading
The ambiguity is what holds the song up: it never decides between being a song about addiction and a song about death spoken as a farewell, and both readings feed on the same image.
The archive's interpretation, not an official account.
From the poetry collection to the song
Part of the lyric matches the second verse of “Musik,” a poem Till Lindemann published in 100 Gedichte (2020), nearly twenty years after the song: it’s not known whether the poem predates Mutter or grew out of it. The finished lyric blends the image of a needle going into a vein with the idea of music as something that gets inside the body, and closes on the idea that whoever has died is left with nothing — not even what they once had. That ambiguity — is this a song about addiction, or about death itself, spoken as a farewell? — is what holds the track together.
Before it settled on “Adios,” the song went through several working titles: “Alles wird nass” (“everything gets wet”), “Anos,” and “Tod hat ein Gesicht” (“death has a face”).
Context
Tenth track on Mutter, recorded in 2000 at Studio Miraval in Correns, France. It was never a single in its own right, but was included as a bonus track on the “Sonne” single, released 12 February 2001 — nearly two months before the full album came out.
Live
It debuted on 16 April 2000 and was played 80 times through 13 July 2002, always within the Mutter Tour. On stage, Flake moved from keyboard to a snare drum set up at Oliver Riedel’s usual spot, while Riedel moved to the keyboard, and Richard Kruspe’s guitar came with pyrotechnics — first green strobes, later flames. A video recording exists of a performance at Escena, Monterrey, Mexico, on 6 August 2001.
Notes by Rammstein Colombia, for the purpose of analysis. The original lyrics belong to their authors and are not reproduced in this entry.