In 1988, Doctors released their album That’s Not the Whole Truth…”. The seventh track on the record is called “Elke” – a song that the punk rock group around singer Farin Urlaub dedicated to a fan. For example, a stout follower would have reenacted the band and sent them pictures of herself. An anecdote that became a hit and was in the German charts for three weeks.
But although “Elke” is one of the doctors’ most successful songs, the band is now distancing themselves from it. That became clear during a performance in the capital. “No, people. ‘Elke’ is fatshaming and misogynous. We don’t play anything like that anymore, that’s in the last millennium,” explained Farin Urlaub at a concert in Berlin. Fans had previously clamored for the song.
In fact, in “Elke” the body of the song’s protagonist is ridiculed. Among other things, it says: “We met, alone at her house’, she looked much, much fatter than in the photo.” And elsewhere: “I hugged her, that is, I I tried it, I fell into her fatty tissue like a ravine.” According to Farin Urlaub – bourgeois: Jan Vetter – a clear case of misogyny and so-called fat shaming, i.e. discrimination against people who suffer from obesity.
“Elke” is not the only song by the doctors that has caused controversy in the past. In “Claudia” they sing about the love affair between a woman and her shepherd dog. “Sibling love” is sexual intercourse between brother and sister.
The original of this post “Die Ärzte no longer want to play the cult hit “Elke”” comes from the Teleschau.
