It is difficult to exactly pin down the style of today’s song. A melancholy ballad from Rainer Fassbinder’s 1970 disaffected “noir” The American Soldier, it sounds nothing I can quite put my finger on. With over the top lyrics (especially when played over the ridiculously extended histrionics of the titular character’s effete brother), and the cyclical repetition as the song continually restarts, it’s a dreamlike artifact of a 1960s that never was:
Sung by Fassbinder collaborator (and lover, along with Rabin) Günther Kaufmann, the lyrics are pure Fassbinder:
Alone you start my friend,
Alone is now an end.
I feel the storm my friend
And it was borne again.
So much tenderness is in my head,
So much loneliness is in my bed,
So much tenderness over the world…
Thirteen days in another land
No chance for hand in hand.
Light and sea of blue
Your words are never true.
So much tenderness is in my head,
So much loneliness is in my bed,
So much tenderness over the world…
No more a love is in my arms,
When life decides so hard,
No feeling for the time,
The change for me is on the ground.
So much tenderness is in my head,
So much loneliness is in my bed,
So much tenderness over the world…
Rabin went on to score almost all of Fassbinder’s subsequent films, and his songs are always uniquely identifiable. Songs of their time, and yet also seemingly out of place in any time period. Melancholy, bizarre, and full of, if you will, tenderness.
Comment
The article beautifully captures the essence of Rabins music—melancholic yet tender, timeless yet deeply rooted in its era. His work resonates with a unique emotional depth that transcends time.