Ball Pompos

AMG Review of Ball Pompos

Frank Eisenhuth
All Music Guide

Ball Pompos was the follow-up to Udo Lindenberg's phenomenally successful Alles Klar Auf der Andrea Doria. On it, he proved that he had by no means exhausted his reservoir of innovative musical ideas and cheeky lyrics which made him the ock singer of an entire generation of German youngsters. Again making extensive use of the wind section of Peter Herbolzheimer's ig band, and thus adding a shrewd, jazzy touch to his otherwise very rocking songs, Udo Lindenberg recorded some of his timeless classics for this album. " Rudi Ratlos" is a clever ango-ock about an old violinist who used to play for Adolf Hitler -- this was intended to be a punch for those who rather wanted to forget about the Third Reich altogether. "Gerhard Gösebrecht" is an alien who wants Lindenberg to take charge of the music on his planet where there is no musical innovation anymore, which shows that Lindenberg was very aware of his crucial role in the ailing German ock scene of the '70s. Almost the entire music scene of his hometown, Hamburg, took part in the recording of the album, and especially noteworthy are guest appearances of ock singer Inga Rumpf and comedian Otto Waalkes in the mini-ock-opera "Cowboy-Rocker," which captured the zeitgeist and the wanderlust of the '70s younger generation so extraordinarily well. Together with most of the other records Lindenberg released in the '70s, this album is essential listening to get a grasp on German ock music.