About the band: BAP are a German rock group formed in 1976. Lead singer Wolfgang Niedecken mostly sang their songs in Kölsch, the dialect of Cologne. They released dozens of albums - with eleven albums reaching the number one in the German record charts, BAP is one of the most successful rock acts in their home country. BAP currently have one song in my list of about 200 best pop/rock songs of all time.
About the song: Kristallnaach is the absolute highlight in BAP's repertoire. This track from the 1982 album Vun drinne noh drusse likens the rise of neo-nazism in Germany of that time to the period before the second world war - the song title refers to the night in which the windows of houses and shops of Jewish citizens were thrown in in a fit of nation-wide antisemitism. The images they evoke in their lyrics are unusually strong, and depressing in their continued relevance, almost forty years later. The instrumentation suits the song perfectly, starting with sinister low sounds and ending in a fury of drums. Run time 4:59.
