faith. hope.

Luxembourg University, Auditorium 2 | September 25th, 2012




Okay, this is our first session on the topic of popular culture as literature. Did everyone download the song I’d uploaded to the class forum? And yes, before anyone asks, I’ve spoken to Herr Grönemeyer’s agents and secured the rights to file share for teaching purposes – and no, since I know you're all wondering, Herr Grönemeyer and myself aren’t related in any way whatsoever. I do like his music, though. Yes. Yes, Fraülein Cocteau?

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A poet is a poet by creation, not profession. Whether his work is published in book format or online, released on albums or showcased in paintings, he’s a poet so long as he has created poetry. Not necessarily poetry the few or even the many understand or like, but in the moment it exists it’s poetry and he’s a poet for it. I refer to the chapters of Baumler featured in the compendium in regards to this claim. We’ll be studying her views more closely on Friday.

Back on topic. It was deliberately that I didn’t provide you with the written lyrics for this song. On the surface, it’s not a difficult text to understand - as I’m sure you all thought when transcribing it, but it shouldn’t be disregarded simply because it seems simple. Hit parade popular, right?

Let’s start with the title, shall we? Demo. What does that mean, meinen Damen und Herren?

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It could be a description of the song’s format, yes. As a musical piece, it were perhaps still in various stages of editing when he titled it. It may still be so as we listen to it now, actually, developing and improving – another nuance with poetry like this, conveyed through another medium and thus double dependent on the, in this case, listener. It expands. It grows.

However, the title could also be the slang term for ‘demonstration’, in the original meaning of the term. A demonstration of something. An attitude. Do you follow? If we compare with the imagery of the song, the abundance of complements, this seems very likely. That Demo should be the title of a poem that primarily demonstrates the relation between person and characteristic, person and person.

Now, the second part of the title. Letzter Tag. The last day. With that, our focus is subtly moved from the literary construction of the poem to the content of it. What is it that’s portrayed through this demonstration of parallels and nature imagery? It’s love, obviously. The oldest subject of all art, if we don’t count in the Lascaux cave paintings that are primarily focused on cattle.

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The interesting thing about the use of Last Day is that the lyrics themselves are infused with indicators of a future. I’ll find you. You’re a good forecast. You’re the principle of hope. Why, then, call the song Last Day if life waits ahead? In this, it’s necessary to consider that, unlike Demo which described the format of the poem, Last Day may not be a description of the setting as is. It may be an indication of a sequence of events instead:

I love you now. I’ll love you until the last day.