Song lyrics: Background & meaning
Kastelburg, just above Waldkirch
By the end of November, Jonas had a hole in his stomach from the old feeding tube that just wouldn’t heal. He ended up with sepsis, which caused a really high fever and some other complications. Because of the intensive care he needs, I always have to go with Jonas to hospital and I usually only manage to sleep for two hours a night. As always, it was a bit of a rollercoaster, but the hospital was great, as was the view. That’s when I wrote the English version. It’s good for focusing on the positive. I used three AI systems for it.
Lyrics
Background/Meaning
Versatile in every way
You might think that lines like “You were so versatile” and “You wanted to go down every path” or “You wanted to know everything” are just clichés. You hear that sort of thing in lots of songs. Or parents just gush about their “oh-so-gifted” little ones. But all of this has deep meaning for me: when Jonas was about six years old and already loved hiking, always wanting to have a map, we were standing in a small town once. And Jonas wanted to walk down every single street there. Even later on, he always wanted to go on countless hikes. That is what I have in mind in the line “walk every path”. Jonas wanted to take every subject at school, especially the sciences. (English wasn’t his favourite.) Professionally, he would probably have been as versatile as a Swiss Army knife. From nursery teacher to beekeeper to chemist, anything was possible. That’s why I chose the word “versatile” in the English lyrics. But I had a problem with the video. I had almost nothing but footage of hiking! Loads of it. For anyone interested, here’s a list of what I have in mind when I say “versatile” and of which there are no or hardly any pictures. At least not from me. I can’t get hold of Jonas’s photos. Nor do I want to.
Endless hiking photos
I had time to take some snaps when I was on holiday, but not so much otherwise. One thing that’s noticeable is that Jonas always seems to have our map or our guidebook to hand. Back then, you couldn’t use a smartphone for that sort of thing. And his ‘best bro’ Julian is always around. They’re very close. A great team.
Silly Samba
English line: ‘We played our music loud and were endlessly silly — you and your brother, quite a pair!’ In the German version, the meaning of the first part is exactly the same, but then it reads ‘— das Einhorn und der Bär’, which means ‘the unicorn and the bear’. That’s why you see them in the music video.
Jonas and Julian already had their own groups of friends, but they’re not just brothers, they’re best mates too. “Best Bro.” They’d have a bit of a go at each other most days, but they were always together. When Andrea was away, I’d often crank the stereo up loud. From Gilberto Gil (samba) to Van Halen and Scorpions. Sometimes I’d tell the kids off, telling them to swear more and finally learn to burp loudly at mealtimes, and then I’d do it myself. JoJu often watched some pretty daft videos featuring Charlie the Unicorn. We used to watch Monty Python a lot, or send each other links to comedians. And for years, they gave the same stupid answer to every question: “The bear.” For example, when asked which of their friends was coming to visit or who’d left the fridge open again.
