R.I.P. EffJott

Frank Jürgen Krüger was better known in Germany as "EffJott" Krüger. You have three guesses now whom I nicked my nickname from. EffJott was the guitar player for Ideal, a Berlin-based band too often labelled sadly NDW (Neue Deutsche Welle).

This "New German Wave" was an early 80ties phenomenon that didn´t have much to offer musically. Some kind of bubblegum pop punk without attitude, message or craftsmanship and sung in German - sounds like a threat, right?

There were exceptions to the rule and as it often goes, bands like Spliff, Trio and of course Ideal didn´t want to be called "originators" of a genre they didn´t feel part of, they just wanted to be original and create great music with German lyrics. In fact none of the aforementioned bands wanted to be associated with the term NDW at all, and when you look at what came after them, you see why.

Ideal was fronted by singer / keyboarder Annette Humpe but the coolest member was EffJott, an innovative player and real Gentleman - always stylissimo from top to toe.

Today he´s dead for five years and in his honor I give you a live version of "Hundsgemein" which roughly translates to rotten or scurvy. 

It´s a pissed off song and "sung" by the late great EffJott Krüger! Enjoy.