From Rosenrot · 2005 · Track 11
Ein Lied
«A Song»
More from the album · Rosenrot
In context
Written in ten minutes in the rehearsal room, and the band kept that very take for the album instead of re-recording it.
- Song about singing
- Original take
- Closing track
- Origin
- Closes “Rosenrot” (2005). On the album version, bassist Oliver Riedel plays guitar instead of his usual instrument. An arpeggio from an earlier performance had already appeared as the intro to another song on “MTV Masters” (2001), four years before the final version existed.
- The German key
- “Ein Lied” — a song — is the plainest title possible, and the piece behaves the same way: no linguistic device, no double meaning.
- What the band has said
- Riedel explained its origin: it was written in ten minutes in the rehearsal room and they decided to keep that take. It is an unusual decision for a production that, on the rest of the album, went through studios in Spain, Sweden and the United States.
- Live
- Never performed live.
Our reading
In 2007 the German singer Nena — of “99 Luftballons” — recorded her own version for “Cover Me”. It is one of the most unexpected crossovers between eighties German pop and the band's catalogue.
The archive's interpretation, not an official account.
Ten minutes in the rehearsal room
On the album version, bassist Oliver Riedel plays guitar instead of his usual instrument. He explained the song’s origin himself: it was written in ten minutes, in the rehearsal room, and the band chose to keep that original take for the record instead of re-recording it — an unusual call for a production that, on the rest of the album, moved through studios in Spain, Sweden, and the United States. A guitar arpeggio from an earlier performance of the song had already appeared as the intro to another track on MTV Masters (2001), four years before “Ein Lied” got its final version.
A covered closer
In 2007, German pop singer Nena — known worldwide for “99 Luftballons” — recorded her own version of “Ein Lied” for Cover Me, her covers album. It’s one of the more unexpected crossovers between 1980s German pop and Rammstein’s catalogue.
Context
Eleventh and final track on Rosenrot, recorded in 2003 at El Cortijo Studio in Málaga, Spain, released 28 October 2005. It was never a single; a piano instrumental version also exists on the XXI – Klavier compilation.
Notes by Rammstein Colombia, for the purpose of analysis. The original lyrics belong to their authors and are not reproduced in this entry.