Rio Reiser - Rio I.

Rio Reiser was a German rock musician and singer of the famous rock group Ton Steine Scherben. He was born Ralph Christian Möbius in Berlin and died at the age of 46 in the little German town of Fresenhagen. In the early 1970's he participated in the squatter scene, for which he wrote the famous Rauchhaussong. The band's original name can be translated as Clay Stones Shards, making both, a reference to Reiser's favorites The Rolling Stones and a political view. The band soon became very popular with the squatter scene, left-wing students and workers' movement and was invited to numerous political events to provide the soundtrack to demonstrations, parties and rallies across Germany which often inspired the audience to translate the message into action afterwards. In 1985 Reiser and the band finally split, partly due to a feeling that is was time to move on, but to a large extent because of a desastrous financial situation. Reiser had a large debt with the group, but his early solo career went so well that he was free from debt in a short time.


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His first solo record-album was called Rio I. and included the popular song König von Deutschland (King of Germany). The album was produced by Anette Humpe (ex-Ideal), a renowned German music producer who had already produced Reiser's very first solo single, Dr. Sommer, some time ago when he was in need of cash and had asked her for support. The song König von Deutschland became one of the real hits of Reiser, has been covered and cited by many artists ever since and is still known among most people in Germany. Other hit singles of the first album included the love song Für immer und dich and the melancholic Junimond. Reiser could not repeat the commercial success of the first album, nevertheless he released five further studio albums until his death, most of them highly appraised by the critics.