It's time to lay the Karel Gott story to rest now with a few final reflections.
Why did 49,000 people (see gallery) line up to pass by the late singer's coffin?
Was it that they simply loved his music? His mere artistic output brought joy to their hearts?
Perhaps. But why was this musician given a funeral with near state honours? What did he achieve for the Czech state?
An alternative view is that this was an outpouring of nostalgia for the past. Looking back with rose-tinted spectacles at those cheery days in Communist Czechoslovakia. The songs on the state-sponsored radio and TV. Who is this blogger to say? Readers comments welcome below.
One last macabre snippet: the Transport Minister was in such a rush that he skipped the queue to say goodbye to the dead singer. Scandalous and inexplicable in equal measure. Skipping a queue for lunch, if you can get away with it ok. But skipping the queue to see a stone cold dead guy? What's the point?
A video mix of Gott's hits from the 60s including a Beatles cover.
Czechs are currently mourning one of their greatest and most beloved popstars: Karel Gott.
His big voice and big smile made him a hit sensation from the 1960s onwards and he sold millions of records throughout his long career.
His biggest markets were Czechoslovakia, Germany and Russia. His folk-style Schlager went down well in those parts.
I first became acquainted with him whilst watching the film Kdyby tisíc klarinetu (1965). He plays himself - already a pop star back then. The film is full of music. With a little help from a statue of Bach, all the weapons on a military camp turn into musical instruments to the delight of one pacifist soldier. Well worth watching.
Back to Gott (which is German for God, if you weren't so sure). He had four daughters with three different women and now he will have a semi-state funeral with a service by the archbishop of Prague.
Some Czechs (not many), are not only questioning his Catholic credentials, but also whether such an honour should be bestowed upon someone who was simply a popular singer. He largely rode above political issues during his long career and remained content with communism as long as he could cut his records and continue to travel (something most of his countrymen were unable to do).
Give him his service, I say. He was a happy-go-lucky guy who enjoyed singing and entertaining. To reach 80 in the music industry is quite an achievement. After all, drugs and alcohol don't seem to have been big issues for him and with a name like his who could deny him a holy send off?
A clip of Karel Gott singing in the film Kdyby tisíc klarinetu - If a Thousand Clarinets (1965).
There was much more to the man in black than his stage persona revealed. This well-written and thoroughly-researched biography by LA Times journalist Robert Hilburn traces Cash's development from youth to old age and ill health with remarkable sensitivity and warmth.
The central focus is the evolution of Cash as a musician. From a boy who loved to sing gospel songs with his mum - to a man strumming his guitar with air force pals - on to starting a garage band and eventually after thousands of miles touring across America, a spell of super-stardom before the inevitable fall.
Hilburn goes into detail about most of the songs ever written by Cash and quotes many of the lyrics at length. This really brings his subject to life and it's a joy to read song texts penned by Cash. If you know the songs you will certainly hear his voice and music in your head as you read. Seeing the lyrics on paper it's clear that Cash is a storyteller and poet of great style and wit.
Here are the top 5 new things I learnt about Cash reading this book:
1. His Christian faith played a huge part in his life. He regularly read the Bible and even wrote a book about St John. Despite this he almost never went to church.
2. He wrote Walk the Line for his first wife Vivian. He tried to remain faithful to her and was terrified of separating from her. In the end, it was she who filed for divorce.
3. His return to the music charts with the album American Recordings in 1994 owed a great deal to the inspirational work of music producer Rick Rubin who reinvented Cash at the height of the grunge movement.
4. He was in an incredible amount of pain and on a cocktail of about 40 pills a day as he recorded his last albums with Rubin. Sometimes he was so out of breath that his voice was reduced to a whisper. Engineers had to piece his last songs together from hundreds of takes.
5. Cash was a terrible driver and was in many car accidents. Once he crashed a camper van in the middle of a national park. He ended up by causing a wildfire in which scores of endangered eagles were killed. He got off with a hefty fine.
Of course the book also covers the drug addiction and the famous prison concerts with panache, but there is so much more to Cash and therefore the book than that. An added richness is the cultural context which Hilburn lucidly paints from the 1950s to the beginning of the 21st century. This book sits not only within biography but within the historiography of 20th century music - doing Cash justice as one of America's biggest musical icons of the last century.
Drive On from the album 'American Recordings' (1994) is one of the lesser known songs by Cash that I discovered whilst reading the book. He was a prolific artist.
Saturday night, i found myself glued to the TV for a good four hours. It was the final of Deutschlandsucht den Superstar on RTL.
FadyMaalouf competed with Thomas Godoj for the viewers hearts and a record deal.
It was clear for me who should win. Bohlen again hit the nail on the head when he said that Fady's singing reminded him of the warm feeling he got as a little boy when he had peed himself!
Thomas has a great voice for the rock side of pop. His first two songs of the evening: 'Fairy tale gone bad' by Sunrise Avenue and 'Chasing Cars' by Snow Patrol ranked with his best performances on the show.
To me, Fady's crooning voice was all-over the place again on non-discript pop songs.
I was happy when Thomas won (I even sent in an sms) and also very relieved.
The amount of advertisement breaks they slotted in with increasing frequency before the winner was announced was terrible. RTL had a captive audience of perhaps a couple of million and they unashamedly battered us senseless with dozens of commercials on a loop.
Tom's final song which will be released as a single this week could have been better. Firstly, the lyrics of 'Love is You' are pretty banal. Secondly, the song itself is way too poppy for his so-called rock image. And thirdly, this is not a song to launch a super star career. But hopefully, others will come soon that are.
So Tom was number 1 from 30,000 original entrants. Maybe his victory was most pleasing due to his underdog status. In terms of his singing ability he was no mere beginner. But what about his image? At his audition Bohlen brutally told him that it looked like a coffin lid had hit him three times in the face! The English expression, 'third time lucky' springs to mind.
In the end, it is reassuring to see that an 'outsider' with true talent can still beat all the pretty vacant wannabes out there.
Germany's X-Factor is called 'Deutschlandsucht den Superstar' or DSDS for short.
I've been hooked on it for some time now. It's much more entertaining than the UK equivalent.
For a start, the regional selection round found every madman/woman and his/her dog wailing in their bid for super pop stardom. The characters were so outlandish it was hilarious. My favourite, was the guy who looked like a cross between Captain Spock and a bosseyed Yoda. He wore his best shirt for the audition, a bright orange Hawaiian beauty, and murmured the most ridiculous ditty.
Whereas Simon Cowell would have stomped off in a rage, Dieter Bohlen (pronounced 'Bullen'), the German equivalent, chuckled along with the million-plus viewers.
Sure, Bohlen also looks like a sour grape, but he is infinitely more likeable than the arseyCowell. His comments are succinct and he is often very funny with it too.
Now into the finals, Bohlen is really giving the final 8 or so competitors what for. Last week he lifted another humdinger of a critique out of the can. One which had my English mates tickled once I'd translated. One of the girls sang a bland rendition of some pop song - the details are irrelevant and Bohlen said: 'Your performance was... dildoesque.' He went on to explain: 'Yes, technically perfect, but lacking all emotion.'
The entertainment value of this show is clear, my Enlgish mates hardly understand a word of German, but they lapped it all up with as much relish as the Bier.
Picture: Mario Teusch - hopeful from the first Casting Show
