Gib mir Musik [English translation]

In the windy market hall, which I'd pass on my way to school,

there was a small vinyl shop and all day it would play

the same vinyl. There was one song,

the kind of song that grips you and makes you lose your bearings on reality.

And I would freeze and listen and I didn't have a choice:

I had to hear it again and again and over and over.

But that meant waiting: ten songs one way and then ten songs back.

Every time it took almost an hour for 3 minutes of bliss.

That got me in trouble at school, but I didn't complain,

the music was worth all the aggravation and the beatings!

Give me music! Everything mean has faded away,

all the bullying, the failures, the humiliations.

The bitter defeat is really a victory.

Give me music! [x4]

In the early morning, the first flight between Frankfurt and Berlin,

wedged between two businessmen with my breakfast balanced on my knees.

Wearing headphones, the music is loud and clear,

and I barely dare to breathe and I have goosebumps.

The music is like a powerful stream of warmth that flows through me

and suddenly, involuntarily I have water in my eyes.

And I know I don't have a tissue in my jacket

and I just start crying onto my breakfast tray.

Men in suits to the left and right of me and I'm weeping in the middle.

Can these good people imagine how happy I am?

Give me music, to light a fire in me,

to explore the depths of my soul,

my desires and my pain, scars that I hid from myself.

Give me music! [x4]

Stumbling home to the empty hotel lobby at 3am.

Yet another evening full of songs and yet another party is now over,

the receptionist is dozing behind the counter. Was this all there is to life?

Just sitting together for a short while, the last, last glass of wine...

and now there's this piano and my friend moves the chair closer,

caresses the keys softly, starts to play, and then -

he makes notes sparkle and pearl and dance in the air like star dust,

makes melodies flow, makes little wonders happen.

And he moves you and he stirs you and rips you apart note by note,

until you believe your heart is bursting in an explosion of joy!

Give me music! The dreams that I had given up,

that were withering buried deep inside me, are starting to bloom again,

and I know that I will regain each chance that I had lost.

Give me music![x4]

[x3]

• Artist:Reinhard Mey
• Album:Leuchtfeuer (1996)