CD reviews [old topic]

Benoit Douville · Post by **Benoit Douville** » 18 Feb 2003 02:57

[Several topics dealing with CD reviews have been merged and renamed. Ivan Ž.]

Have anyone here been listening to this CD:

http://www.hammerwar.com/wwi_cd.htm

If so give me your comments or toughts.

paulus · Post by **paulus** » 30 Oct 2003 12:58

I am interested in buying the following CD: Military Music of Adolf Hitler's Leibstandarte SS, as shown in the link. Can anyone provide me with a review of this CD. Are there better examples of SS music out there in cyberspace?

Thanks.

http://www.tomahawkfilms.com/index.php? ... duct_id=64

mty · Post by **mty** » 20 Dec 2004 18:05

Hi!

I recently purchased 'Military Music of Adolf Hitler's Leibstandarte-SS' cd (a product of Tomahawk films). However I am a bit disappointed to the selection of tracks. I am not an expert regarding Third Reich era military music but I think that of the 14 tracks only some 2 or 3 were actually popular and often played (I guess these are Deutschlandlied, Horst Wessel and Badenweiler).

Were songs like Bruder in Zechen und Gruben and Es pfeift von allen Dachern - which do have rather anti-semitistic lyrics - often heard being played by professional military bands like that of LSSAH's? I think that they were more often heard in beer cellars than played with fifes and drums

Anyone else having similar experiences about that cd?

Claymore · Post by **Claymore** » 26 Dec 2004 12:56

Hi 'mty',

It could be said that those two songs are more associated with the SA in the beer halls, etc, but the CDs produced by Tomahawk Films are still regarded as the best for this range of music collecting.

Along with the likes of the 'Historische Tondokumente' series produced by E.Hocheder & Co.KG - these two companies produce CDs that are by far the best to trust to be authentic. (don't even bother with the likes of the Reichslieder company, these CDs are terrible rip-offs).

There are far too many companies who produce low-budget CDR copies that it is good to find a couple of companies who go to the trouble to produce quality items.

Unless of course you want to go to the trouble of tracking down the original 78's, which is probably quite expensive.

Have you read the book by Stuart C. McKenzie - "Collecting Third Reich Recordings" ?

This book is very good, it shows original record labels with band names and conductors, so it is possible to see if it were an SS, SA or RAD musikkapelle that recorded the song.

Also listed within this book are the names of modern companies who are currently releasing CDs & LP's of marching tunes.

Have you ever bought the CDs of a Swedish company 'RMK' - they produced a few CDs in the late 1990's which contained quite a few hard-to-find songs but unfortunately they stopped production and seem to have disappeared.

Instead you will now find companies (like 'PZG' in America) who produce rip-off copies and who have actually made new CDs which they claim are part of the original RMK series - not true!

So I understand your original concern for the placement of these songs onto a SS music CD but considering all the other rubbish out there, it is something I feel that can be overlooked (who is to say that SS men didn't also sing these songs, they would have been popular with all the men that had to fight the communist gangs in the streetfights on the streets of Berlin in the 1930's)

By the way, have you tried the other Tomahawk releases???

If you want the 'beer-hall' atmosphere, try the "Lieder der Sturm-Abteilung und Hitlerjugend" CD

or better still, try the six CD set "The Military Music of Adolf Hitler's Third Reich"

Regards.

mty · Post by **mty** » 26 Dec 2004 14:01

Hi, Claymore and thanks of a good and thorough reply

I am planning to order some more titles of Tomahawk Films. A book published by the company, titled "Military Music and bandsmen of the Third Reich" is next on my list, to be ordered soon.

I am not so much into the "beerkeller songs" of the SA and early SS. That's why I was a bit amazed to see them included on the cd. I am more interested into "big band recordings", like those marches often seen played by massive military bands on 30's propaganda films and wochenschaus.

Could you - or anyone else - recommend a cd with a good selection of popular Nazi-era martial music? I mean titles like Königgrätze, Wenn alle untreu werden (well, not a march but still a popular one), Hohenfriedberg, Alexandermarsch, Leibstandartenmarsch and such.

To hear those played by the finest military bands of Third Reich era (like LSSAH musikkorps or Grossdeutschland band) would be a real pleasure for a military music enthusiast and a nostalgist like me

Johan Björklund · Post by **Johan Björklund** » 26 Dec 2004 14:36

Try [Link to a neonazi site removed. Ivan Ž.] However they are selling out the records so perhaps not all titles are available. They had a great range to chose from earlier.

Claymore · Post by **Claymore** » 26 Dec 2004 16:06

Hi Mikko,

The "Military Music..." book by Tomahawk Films is a superb book. I bought it when it first came out, it truly is the best book around at the moment on this subject.

As for CDs you may want to look out for, try visiting the web-site of http://www.brandenburghistorica.com, they are based in America and sell a selected range of CDs from the 'Historische Tondokumente' series.

One of which is titled "In Treue Allezeit" - I think you can now buy this as a double CD set. When I bought it a couple of years ago direct from E.Hocheder & Co.KG it was sold as two individual CDs.

(I think it only fair to point out that the web-site mentioned by Johan is a racial pride glory site, definitely not a historical site)

As opposed to your own preference of big band style march music, I have to say that I more favour the SA style of street marching songs for these convey a greater sense of the time period to me, but we each have our own personnal favourite styles

Regards.

Johan Björklund · Post by **Johan Björklund** » 26 Dec 2004 16:47

Claymore wrote:I think it only fair to point out that the web-site mentioned by Johan is a racial pride glory site, definitely not a historical site

Yes, but doesn´t that corresponds very well with tha policy of SA?

The fact is that they provide(d) a unique range of pre-war as well as ww2 marchingsongs.

mty · Post by **mty** » 26 Dec 2004 17:01

This is a well-known problem with the subject like this. Actually many web stores providing Third Reich items like uniforms, medals, insignia, videos and books are actually either pro-Nazi or at least somewhat supporting or positive towards the Hitler regime.

But on the other hand, if they have first class stuff to offer, at least to me it's more important than their political thoughts. Although I personally don't have very warm feelings towards communism and Soviet Union (mainly due to history of Finnish people) I visited a CCCP-militaria store in Tallinn and bought loads of high quality Soviet militaria and even had a good chat with the owner (who was a strong pro-communist

)

Claymore · Post by **Claymore** » 26 Dec 2004 17:37

Hi Johan,

I think you may have misunderstood my point, this web-site you mention supplies items (CDs, etc) in the name of National Socialism, which I don't have a problem with, each to his own choice of opinion, but I object when they sell nothing more than poor copies of original items.

I know of many other web-sites of a similar nature who will provide this style of music, but always as a poor copy. I always prefer to have original, quality made items, which is why I stressed my preferance of another two historical music dealers.

My understanding of this forum was to share historical information from the past, I was merely pointing out the nature of this web-site. This is a good thread / topic that is going at the moment and I didn't want to see it stopped by a moderator for straying into territory best left to other forums because of the web-site you mentioned. It was in no way a personnal attack at you.

My point to Mikko was to highlight more reliable dealers, that is all. I have bought many CDs over the last few years and I wanted Mikko to have the insight from my mistakes

Regards.

Johan Björklund · Post by **Johan Björklund** » 26 Dec 2004 19:16

Claymore: OK point taken. Buy the way, I wonder if the songs (Horst Wessel lied" for example is played rather a bit too fast than it´s supposed to. I mean, if you listen to the song from Triumph des willens it seems to have a slower tempo than the stonecakes from 1930´s.
Is this just my imagination or were the songs/ marches originally played in a slower mode than the "original stonecake" recordings ears them out?

Fubbik · Post by **Fubbik** » 06 Jan 2005 20:04

As far as the marching songs are concerned, the Nazis in many cases used the old trick of putting new words to existing tunes. The samea thing was done by the DDR.

As fas as the tempo is concerned, a band always plays a march faster when standing still (as in a recording studio). The old 78´s (the stone cakes) could contain just so much, and in order to get the whole tune in, one often played it a little faster.

mty · Post by **mty** » 13 Jan 2006 01:58

Hi!

I bought a cd containing 19 songs related to SS-Division "Hitlerjugend". There were couple of very interesting ones, titled "Deutschlands Heldensöhne" and "Heldenjugend", both being instrumental and sounded quite similar. Are they old melodies, perhaps from the Kaiser era or composed during the Third Reich?
Were those songs somehow related to division - such as being played during the parade appearances - or just put into the cd because they thematically referred to young soldiers

I would also like to see photos of SS-Division Hitlerjugend divisional band if it existed. I think they had quite a famous Musikkorps.

Claymore · Post by **Claymore** » 21 Jan 2006 18:37

Hi mty,

I also have the same CD as you (on RMK Records).

For pictures of 12th SS 'Hitlerjugend' musicians, get yourself a copy of 'The Military Music & Bandsmen of Adolf Hitler's Third Reich 1933-1945' by Brian Matthews.

http://www.tomahawkfilms.com/page_10.html

There you will find a chapter about their musikmeister SS-Hauptscharführer Gustav Weissenborn, and also a couple of photos showing the young Hitlerjugend musicians wearing the black tank uniform.

Regards.

mty · Post by **mty** » 21 Jan 2006 19:52

Claymore:

Was Weissenborn really 12. SS musikmeister? I have always thought that he was the deputy of Müller-John in LAH. Perhaps something like transfer with the cadre of LAH when 12th was formed?