Ein deutsches Album: Melt Tracklist
Eein deutsches album is Peter’s German language version of his third self-titled album. It was released shortly after the English language version, in June 1980. The songs were translated with the help of Horst Königstein. In its liner notes, Gabriel talks at length about the cultural openness that led him to make the album:
For me, languages were never a barrier in rock music. When I first went on tour, it was strange to me that the English and American musicians did the same live show in all countries. They did not care about the national differences or the language of their audience. This attitude I found arrogant. The assertion that rock and English belong together is complete nonsense. You can express ideas and emotions in every language, and with some effort, one can work out the peculiarities of each language and use them musically. […] I wanted to convince the record company that I would like to sing in other languages in order to be “understood”. In the end the German company was the only one to show any interest in the idea. Thomas Quast was very enthusiastic and he immediately sought a translator for me and I was lucky to have him recommend Horst Königstein. We met in London in January and checked each other out to see if our heads were in the same place. We really liked each other and began working on the lyrics on the spot: first by singing the songs, discussing what was going on; which images are correct, which are not, etc. Horst’s careful translations are a decisive contribution to this record.
