Taiwan:
2-CD set:
Released: June 1992
Tracks:
Notes:
Alphaville's official greatest-hits collection. The inlay quite prominently
features Frank Mertens, who had long since left the band, alongside Ricky,
Bernhard and Marian.
The cassette version omits "Sensations", "Red Rose" and "Big in Japan
(culture mix)" (this last was released as a single to coincide with the
release of the album).
The cover reproduces the covers of The Breathtaking
Blue, Forever Young (the stone face cover, rather
than the group photo), "Romeos" (for some reason titled
Songlines) and Afternoons in
Utopia (the WEA release with the album title on the right). The Taiwanese
release of the album features a slightly different cover.
Also released as part of a 2-CD box set with Forever Young.
See also: An article from the First Harvest press pack.
The CD inlay includes the lyrics for the album, with a comment from Alphaville following many of the songs:
Big in Japan:
"Making music is one thing... But the other things around it, they are
really, really strange. Absolutely the opposite of real life."
Bernhard
Sounds Like a Melody
"I think we're more film-makers - and Alphaville is the shooting location
for our music."
Echolette
Sensations
"Sometimes people used to say, 'Have they all gone crazy now? Talking with
dolphins and all that!!' But I think that once we've learned the language
of the dolphins - this mutual approach - that could be the moment of
significant change in our messed up civilization."
Marian
The Mysteries of Love
"Mysteries deals with one of these impossible dreams, the end of the Iron
Curtain. Originally we planned to release the single with a photo of a piece
of wall graffiti, but when the wall really came down and the dust settled,
the piece of wall had vanished from our single cover, too. Only a man was
there, smoking his pipe in an aquarium. Strange, isn't it?"
Bernhard
Lassie Come Home
"Lassie is something like an archetype of the lost. Her symbolic power always
had some kind of comfort for me in this lost world."
Marian
Jerusalem
"One day we were given the sketch for a theatre play, for which we were
supposed to write the soundtrack. It's the story of a man, who at night
convinces lonely passers-by on the Brooklyn Bridge to commit suicide. He offers
them as human sacrifices for his lover, who, years ago - because of him -
committed suicide at the same location. In his frenzy he turns her into Eris,
the Goddess of Revenge.
Due to time problems we were unable to pursue this project, but it was in that
time that 'Jerusalem' came to life. Any questions...?"
Echolette
Dance With Me
"The museum of natural history at Central Park plays home to a huge, ancient
asteroid. Actually a splendid setting to meet with your lover, I would
think."
Marian
For a Million
"Every time I hear the instrumental part at the end, two specific pictures
come to my mind which I once found in an old photo-album: a blond nazi-boy and
two galloping giraffes."
Marian
A Victory of Love
"Perhaps all our songs are windows in an ivory tower that is surrounded by
a changing world. Everywhere you turn there is another view but always
from the same building."
Bernhard
The Jet Set
"We didn't intend to write a proper song: it was supposed to be some kind of
jingle that advertises things money can't buy: anarchy, freedom, love, fun
and a piece of the end of the world."
Marian
Red Rose
"This one is for John Lilly, Aleister Crowley and the fallen angels."
Echolette
Summer Rain
"You should let yourself be guided by what the song has to tell you."
Bernhard
Forever Young
"Probably you've only really grown up when you can bear not being
understood."
Marian
Credits:
Produced by:
1) Colin Pearson, Wolfgang Loos & Andreas Budde
2) Klaus Schulze & Alphaville
3) Colin Pearson & Wolfgang Loos
4) Peter Walsh
5) Steve Thompson & Michael Barbiero
6) Wolfgang Loos
•
Remixed by:
7) Bernhard lloyd
9) Morales / Munzibai
10) Steve Thompson & Michael Barbiero
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Mixed by:
8) Jimbo Barton
•
Remix & Add. Production:
11) The Kid & Jon for Chromium Management
*) Music: Gold, Lloyd, Mertens - Lyrics: Gold.
**) Music & Lyrics: Gold, Lloyd, Echolette.
***) Music as **), Lyrics as **) and Janey Diamond.
All titles published by Budde.
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Management: K.P. for U.S.E