From Herzeleid · 1995 · Track 5
Seemann
«Seaman»
More from the album · Herzeleid
In context
The ballad on the first album invites you to climb into a boat. It ought to be a gesture of rescue, and in any other lyric it would be; here the invitation comes with a storm overhead and no promise of getting anywhere.
- Rescue
- Storm
- German heritage
- Origin
- From the debut album “Herzeleid”; single released on 8 January 1996. In the video the band drags a boat across the sand, with Till inside and Flake wearing a plague doctor's mask, and it ends with a keelhauling scene —the punishment of dragging a man beneath the ship's keel— and the boat in flames.
Our reading
As early as 1995 the band had its basic mechanism worked out: a gentle image delivered in a tone that is anything but. Everything else, from Goethe's “Heidenröslein” to the Germany of “Deutschland”, is that same operation with more resources. That in 2003 it was Nina Hagen who sang it with Apocalyptica is no small detail: she is one of the most important voices to come out of the GDR, and she left in 1976; Rammstein are the band that stayed and grew up there until the end.
The archive's interpretation, not an official account.
Original (German)
Komm in mein Boot
Translation
Come into my boat
Verse cited for the purpose of analysis.
An invitation that does not reassure
The song invites you into a boat. It ought to be a gesture of rescue, and in any other lyric it would be; here the invitation arrives with a storm overhead and no promise of reaching anywhere.
Already in 1995 — on the first record — the band had its fundamental mechanism worked out: a kindly image delivered in a tone that is not. Everything after, from Goethe’s “Heidenröslein” to the Germany of “Deutschland”, is that same operation with more resources.
The Nina Hagen version
In 2003, the Finnish cello band Apocalyptica recorded “Seemann” with Nina Hagen on vocals for the album Reflections; it was released as a single on 6 October that year.
That it was Hagen singing it is not a small detail. Nina Hagen is one of the most important voices to come out of East Germany, and she left the country in 1976; Rammstein is the band that stayed and grew up there until the end. Her taking a song from their first record connects two generations of the same German story.
The video
The band drags a boat through sand, with Till inside and Flake wearing a plague doctor mask. It ends with a keelhauling scene — the punishment of dragging a man under a ship’s keel — and the boat on fire. Period aesthetics and historical cruelty: two constants the band would keep for thirty years.
Context
From the debut album Herzeleid; single released 8 January 1996.
Translation and notes by Rammstein Colombia, for the purpose of analysis. The full original lyrics belong to their authors.