Few artists personify the spirit of demoralized post-‘60s Europe like Blixa Bargeld, the frontman for legendary German post-industrial music outfit Einstürzende Neubauten. Born in Berlin two years before the Wall went up, Bargeld leveraged his destroyed looks and singular voice—which Nick Cave likened to the sound of strangled cats or dying children—to make Neubauten the key progenitors of Western machine-age art.

As brought to our attention by TwentyFourBit‘s esteemed Peter Henry Reed (and fortunately for us English-speaking-only dopes), YouTuber Nevaree has seen fit to add English subtitles to Birgit Herdlitschke’s fascinating 2008 Blixa doc, Mein Leben. It traces Bargeld’s journey from young, torn-up Berlin musician to cosmopolitan middle-aged avant-garde artiste, actor, and gourmet, and features both answers to the heroin question and a visit with his charming mutti.
 

 
Mein Leben part 2 | Mein Leben part 3 | Mein Leben part 4
 
After the jump: Blixa grimaces at Neubauten live mistakes…

 
Wow, Einstürzende Neubauten frontman Blixa Bargeld singing Tomorrow Belongs To Me from Cabaret!  Back in the answering machine era of my youth (and much to the dismay of my Jewish friends and parents), I had this sweet, Nietzschean pastoral set for a time as my away message.  The song was used to great—and chilling—effect in the Bob Fosse film (you can compare Blixa to the original here).

The clip below is from the documentary Berlin Now.  And here’s Stormfront’s white-pride take on the song.  Is it at all perplexing that some of them find the song, written by the Jewish Kander and Ebb, “moving?”

 
Nick Cave once said that Blixa Bargeld’s voice could mimic the sound of cats being strangled or children dying. So who better than the front man of Einst?ɬ