Achim Reichel has been in the music business for six decades. In his autobiography "Ich hab das Paradies gesehen" the unrecognized superstar now tells of his eventful life between beat, psychedelic dream journeys and poetry set to music.
If Achim Reichel had had a comparable career in Great Britain, the press would have described him with metaphors, honorary titles and superlatives such as "musical chameleon", "revolutionary" or "impulse generator for generations". In Germany, on the other hand, one usually only knows certain phases of his creative work. And perhaps the native of Hamburg is simply too nice and "volxnah" to demand the recognition he deserves. But perhaps this may now be made up for by his highly exciting life story, which has been published by Rowohlt.
eclipsed: You've broken new ground in writing your autobiography...
He calls himself an old bag. Achim Reichel, 73, looks back to the seventies, not without pride, but with the awareness of having been lucky too. Growing up in St. Pauli, a stone's throw from the neighbourhood, the hamburger talks like his beak has grown. That is amusing and makes him sympathetic, this guy without airs and graces, but with a lot of charisma. In his answers he sometimes digresses, but that doesn't matter, because the man has something to tell. Anything but a sailor's yarn.
eclipsed: In your musical life you didn't necessarily take a straight path stylistically. You've always done what you just made sense of. You don't compromise?
JOHN LENNON
Kill your idols!
John Lennon would have been seventy years old on October 9, and his thirtieth anniversary would have been on December 8. The ideal time to review the short life of the Beatle in highlights. A look behind the myth.
PHIL COLLINS
"No pity please!"
