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Roxy Music = Nazi Music
Posted: Mon Apr 16, 2007 11:21 am
by pzrmeyer2
Note to moderator: Please delete my comments about how I liked the Germans' uniforms. I do not wish to be arrested for thoughtcrime. They were ugly. Terrible, rags really. No style to them at all...
Bryan Ferry apologizes for Nazi remarks
Mon Apr 16, 2007 11:57 AM ET
LONDON (Reuters) - British singer Bryan Ferry apologized on Monday for remarks he made in an interview with a German newspaper in which he praised the Nazis' iconography as "just amazing" and "really beautiful".
The 61-year-old lead singer of Roxy Music told Germany's Welt Am Sonntag newspaper last month: "The way that the Nazis staged themselves and presented themselves, my Lord!
"I'm talking about the films of Leni Riefenstahl and the buildings of Albert Speer and the mass marches and the flags -- just fantastic. Really beautiful."
In a statement, Ferry said he was "deeply upset" about the negative publicity the interview triggered, and added:
"I apologize unreservedly for any offence caused by my comments on Nazi iconography, which were solely made from an art history perspective.
"I, like every right-minded individual, find the Nazi regime, and all it stood for, evil and abhorrent."
Jewish leaders in Britain, some of whom had condemned Ferry's comments and questioned whether he should be dropped by the Marks & Spencer retail chain that employs him as a model, welcomed Ferry's clarification.
"We do welcome the fact that he has issued a swift comment that there was no intention to condone the Nazi regime," said Jeremy Newmark, chief executive of the Jewish Leadership Council.
"Nevertheless, his choice of language was deeply insensitive," he added.
Lord Greville Janner, vice-president of the World Jewish Congress, told Reuters: "His apology was total, appropriate and absolutely necessary. I hope that he will never make the same mistake again."
Marks & Spencer was not immediately available for comment.
Riefenstahl was Adolf Hitler's official film maker who was both admired and condemned for her documentaries that pioneered film techniques but glorified Nazism. Speer was an architect and friend of Hitler's.
Posted: Mon Apr 16, 2007 11:45 am
by phylo_roadking
....and George Harrison never DID explain why he had a portrait of Adolf Hitler in the basement of his house...!
Posted: Mon Apr 16, 2007 12:02 pm
by pzrmeyer2
perhaps he should be exhumed and put on trial or made to apologize?
Posted: Mon Apr 16, 2007 2:51 pm
by phylo_roadking
There's a whole generation of British kids who were born during the mid and late 1940s and early '50s who grew up admiring the Third Reich and Hitler - simply because their parents stood against him and it and stood FOR something different. Take also for example the German officer sequences in "Billy Liar" with Tom Courtenay.
This hit later in the US - and was a LOT more focused, simply because American kids didn't have anything to rebel against for years - there was cash to be earned, jobs as wanted etc, compared to Austerity Britain that had rationing until 1958, and VERY strict limits on consumer spending and credit until 1962. Where it DID materialise and get such a bad press was that legendary "1%" of American motorcyclists who misbehaved, and openly adopted Nazi regalia etc. simply as a way of pissing off their elders. Nowadays - the HA have actually BANNED their members worldwide from displaying ANY Nazi regalia of ANY sort or incoprorating it into emblems etc. Maybe THOSE young rebels amd Wild Ones have simply grown up to be the elder generation that are pissed off by different things?
By the way, its funny how noone chooses to remember that AFTER the war, Leni went to America, married and her and her husband pioneered underwater filmmaking and made some of the most incredible documentary series on acquatic life ever filmed.....!
Posted: Wed Apr 18, 2007 12:27 pm
by Beppo Schmidt
What's wrong with saying the Nazis knew how to put on an impressive visual spectacle? They certainly did, I didn't think most people would deny them that much. That doesn't equate saying their policies were admirable, and a little kid should be able to understand the distinction.
Posted: Wed Apr 18, 2007 12:41 pm
by phylo_roadking
a little kid should be able to understand the distinction
Quite the opposite, Beppo! You only have to look round Feldgrau to find a lot of people who think the Germans were the "good guys" cos they had the coolest kit!!!
Posted: Sat Apr 21, 2007 1:54 pm
by Ian Earl
oh lord! u mean they weren't?
Damn i have been backing the wrong team! You will be telling me Maggie Thatcher has resigned next.
Posted: Sat Apr 21, 2007 1:58 pm
by phylo_roadking
Ian, you must have done a "Captain Falklands" - been preserved in ice for 25 years to fight the super-enemies of another day....
Posted: Sat Apr 21, 2007 1:59 pm
by Ian Earl
No i just dont get out much!
Posted: Sat Apr 21, 2007 4:56 pm
by Commissar D, the Evil
Just a reminder that usually the army with the "coolest kit" loses the war.....
Best,
~D, the EviL
Posted: Sat Apr 21, 2007 5:26 pm
by phylo_roadking
Taken from what respresentative list of examples???
The Falklands? What's cool about thirty year old threadbare U.S. Surplus gear...and planes....and ships...and...and...!
Vietnam? What's cool about loosing to an army who had....NO gear?
Korea? Noone "won", but the guys in quilt jackets had a habit of p1ssing all over the coolly-equiped "good" guys....
WWI? The WINNERS had tanks and the French Zouaves - how much cooler can you get than someone wearing red pyjama bottoms into combat???
Spain? The WINNERS had tanks and planes and the occasional U-Boat "happening past" offshore, the
loosers had...boneyards full of Russian tanks, and a sporadic uniform.....
Posted: Sat Apr 21, 2007 6:14 pm
by Annelie
and George Harrison never DID explain why he had a portrait of Adolf Hitler in the basement of his house...!
Hey, such a question coming from this forum. Cannot a person
perhaps be a collector of "dritte reich?"
Even rock stars are interested in history.
Posted: Sat Apr 21, 2007 6:32 pm
by phylo_roadking
...empty room...one picture...red velvet curtains across it...?
Posted: Sat Apr 21, 2007 6:37 pm
by Hans
After never understanding how the Germans could be fooled by the garbage that emanated from their politicians, I recently had a hell of a shock.
I borrowed a copy of Triumph of the Will from the local library. I thought it was trash, and still could not understand how a German could be influenced by this garbage. Then,
the music blared and along came the Leibstandarte. Then I understood. Had I been around then as a young man, I'm sure I would have dashed of to the recruitment office. Nothing to do with the politics though. Just the spectacle.
- Hans
Posted: Sat Apr 21, 2007 6:42 pm
by phylo_roadking
I borrowed a copy of Triumph of the Will from the local library
The LOCAL LIBRARY??? Did it come under the counter in a brown paper bag???