Daf

The Deutsch-Amerikanische Freundschaft (DAF) is an influential electropunk / Neue Deutsche Welle band from Düsseldorf, formed in 1978 in Wuppertal, Germany featuring drummer/synth player Robert Görl, vocalist Gabi Delgado-Lopez, guitarist Wolfgang Spelmans, Kurt Dahlke “Pyrolator”, Michael Kemner, bassist and bassist/keyboardist/saxophonist Chrislo Haas. The band’s name is a term that had originally been used in West Germany, without irony, in the early years of the Cold War, at the height of German popular enthusiasm for all things American. DAF’s most famous song is the grimly sarcastic “Der Mussolini” from the album “Alles Ist Gut”, a pulsing dance song featuring the lyrics “Dance the Mussolini, move your behind, clap your hands, and now the Adolf Hitler, and now the Jesus Christ, and now the communism …”. The song caused a scandal amongst the more humourless elements of German liberal society. In interviews they claimed to not target anything or anyone specific while creating lyrics to be taken as a parody of words and phrases floating around in the public media. “Sato-Sato” and “Der Mussolini” are both examples of songs written around Delgado-Lopez’s fascination with the sound of a particular word. The album “Alles Ist Gut” (All Is Well) received the German “Schallplattenpreis” award by the “Deutsche Phono-Akademie”, an association of the German recording industry. Following that they released two more similar albums called “Gold und Liebe” and “Für Immer”, all produced by legendary Conny Plank. After experimenting with more mainstream attempts of their particular style of contemporary dance music on the 1983 album “1st Step to Heaven” but with limited success DAF split up (1983). A few months before the 2003 invasion of Iraq DAF released “Der Sheriff (Anti-Amerikanisches lied)” (An Anti-American Song) criticizing perceived American imperialism. In the hiatus of DAF 1985-2002 both Robert and Gabi had their own careers. DAF was more or less resurrected by Gabi alone when he toured in 1994-5 as DAF OPD (On Public Demand) touring with classic and remixed DAF material. Following the success of that partial comeback he started Daf.Dos with Wotan Wilke. They released two more techno oriented albums and toured much until Gabi and Robert reunited for the album “Fünfzehn Neue DAF lieder” in 2003. Notable is also Robert Görls contribution to Eurythmics first album In the Garden where he unmistakably plays the drums on the tracks PlayBelinda and PlayCaveman Head