Looking back to the future - Wolfgang Niedecken on a journey through time

BAP - Looking back to the future - Wolfgang Niedecken on a journey through time

Wolfgang Niedecken trudges carefully across the rain-soaked meadow in rubber boots and looks out over the rising terrain. Cow pats lie in the autumn leaves, tire tracks criss-cross the mud. It doesn't look particularly memorable here.

"I can still totally remember this place," says Niedecken. It was here, in Morlitzwinden, that the Cologne musician wrote the classic "Verdamp lang her" in 1981 - on Rose Monday. The song became the nationwide anthem of the band BAP and turned the Middle Franconian village with 32 inhabitants into a place of German music history overnight.

42 years later, Niedecken and his wife Tina are visiting Erika Leitel on the fringes of a tour. The 68-year-old grew up in the farmhouse next to the meadow and still remembers exactly what it was like - back then. "When Wolfgang was sitting in the orchard, I only heard snippets of music and didn't understand a word of Kölsch anyway," says Erika Leitel and laughs. "So I thought: if he can't do it, he shouldn't do it." The trees from back then are still standing, the remaining leaves seem to glow for the last time before winter.

The tour starts in Cologne

Niedecken's autumn visit is a meeting with friends ("They knew me when I was nothing") - and a journey through time. This is also the name of the tour, which starts on December 7 in Cologne and runs through Germany, Switzerland and Benelux in 2024. BAP will be playing all the tracks from the albums "Für usszeschnigge!" (1981) and "Vun drinne noh drusse" (1982) - including "Verdamp lang her", of course. The records deal with fundamental issues: Religion, war, love. For fans, it should be an expedition to a special stage in their lives.

Other artists are working on their late work at the age of 72 - Niedecken presents his early work. Why? "When Vladimir Putin came with his partial mobilization, we played 'Zehnter Juni' after a long time with the line 'Don't plan me in with you' for all the young Russians who had fled abroad to escape this war.

We were shocked at how topical the play is," he says. "You notice on stage how the audience is amazed: 'They're actually doing it again!" Time travel, zeitgeist, turning point. BAP wants to present the songs from decades ago without kitsch and nostalgia.

"I have remained me"

After many line-up changes, band leader Niedecken is the only one who played on the albums from 1981/82. How has he changed? What has become of the dreams, the fears, the rock'n'roll? "I'm 40 years older, I have a beard, but I look out of me with the same essence," he says. "I don't even know if I've resolved to stay the way I was back then. Of course, I'm not so naive anymore. I've suffered a few injuries, both in the family and in the band. That kind of thing is painful."

Niedecken ponders and looks serious. "I have remained me." The sentence stands in the cold autumn air. "I can really say that."

With "Verdamp lang her", Niedecken is completely at peace with himself. The past plays no role, the future is not yet of interest. The hit with a sing-along guarantee paved the way for the Rhineland regional band BAP to reach the national top. The song, which is just under six minutes long, has a depressing background. "I fled from Cologne Carnival in 1981, which was still terribly bourgeois at the time, and knew Morlitzwinden from a vacation the summer before," says Niedecken.

Fictional conversation with his father

"In 1980, I sat there under the trees and wrote two songs for BAP. During the carnival escape in 1981, I thought about my father, who had just died, while walking in the snow. In the end, we didn't talk much anymore. At some point it was too late. This resulted in 'Verdamp lang her' - a deeply sad fictional conversation with him."

On this day at the end of October, Wolfgang and Tina Niedecken are walking past the crooked town sign with Erika Leitel and Niedecken's dog Numa, passing fields of harvested grain. Leitel calls the walk to the places from 1980/81 a "crime scene inspection" with a wink.

"I somehow managed to dream dance my way through life," says Niedecken. "I've never let myself down either. I have an indestructible will to create, whether as a painter or a musician."

40 years ago, the circumstances were different. "If you could pay the cover in the pub, had gas in the tank and something to eat in the fridge - that's all we needed. That stops when you have a family. I always pushed these thoughts away."

Instead of taking responsibility, they went to Amsterdam, for example. "At the flea market, a guy was selling the hectographed lyrics of Dylan, the Rolling Stones and the Beatles. We slept in the car one night and triumphantly drove home the next day with these notebooks. I still have them today."

After four hours, Wolfgang and Tina drive on. Erika Leitel and her husband Helmut wave until the blue car disappears into the rolling hills. What remains is the guest book with Niedecken's entry: "Bess demnähx". They want to see each other again at the latest when BAP play on their "Zeitreise" tour in nearby Nuremberg.

In more than 40 years, Niedecken has of course changed, says Erika Leitel. "Outwardly, yes. But in essence, he's remained the same as he was back then, strumming under the plum tree."

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