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willow-asin-winnie · 9 hours

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The German Dick Grayson Playlist

You guys missed me and my yapping yet? Well, good and bad news, one: I have enough stuff to procrastinate on to work on this again and two: I have so much stuff to do??? It's horrible. But! The yap-train is choo choo-ing again. Enjoy!

You can find the playlist here. If you wish to read it somewhere else, check it out on ao3!

The masterlist <3

Major Tom (…völlig losgelöst) (“Major Tom” (Coming Home)) by Peter Schilling

Some of you might actually know this song! Originally published in German and later translated into English to reach a wider audience, the lyrics have seen some slight changes to fit better into the song. I highly recommend listening to the German version and you’ll get my commentary of course :D

I think this song nicely reflects his evolution from Robin into Nightwing over the years. Batman is relying on him, but over time he recognizes flaws in Batman’s actions, choosing to separate himself from him, choosing to travel and familiarize himself with the people he wanted to save and protect. He develops his own views on his works, his own priorities – he let’s go of his earth’s orbit: Completely detached, regardless of his work as Robin. Also, drifting through space is a nice metaphor for him floating through the night skies, through the circus tent, no?

Notable lyrics (please notice I took the liberty to literally translate some of the original German lyrics, as they illustrate my point much better than the lyrics of the English version): “But what is it all for?’ Thinks Major Tom”: “Back at control, panic breaks out / The course of the space capsule is all wrong / Hello, Major Tom, can you hear me? / Do you really want to destroy the project like that? / But he can’t hear”; “Completely detached from earth/ the spaceship floats / weightless”

Egoist (“Egoist”) by JEREMIAS

Staying on the topic of him doing his own thing, I want to bring this song into the conversation. Now, I am aware not all of this fits 100%, but there’s some lines I think fit on Dick really well.

I’ve always thought of him as a freedom loving person, someone that wants to stick to what he thinks is right. And sometimes, you have to be a bit of an egoist to be that. Is that bad? Maybe, maybe not. But it is the way it is.

Notable lyrics: “It hurts to go now / but it’d be worse / to stay”; “I like the new streets and the smell / the stranger voices and the stranger air”; “One half ghost / one half child / I think my role model / has always been the wind”; “If it’s about freedom, I’m an egoist”

Echt (“Real”) by Glasperlenspiel

Nightwing’s relationships have been… rocky, to say the least. From breakups to situations with dubious consent, I can’t help but get the feeling he finally craves something perfect – something real.

Notable lyrics: “I can’t quite believe it yet / but you’re standing right here in front of my eyes / I want that everything between us isn’t just the heat of the moment / I want that everything here is real(ly) / perfect”; “And I believe that it’s better / if I can feel it / for just this moment / all my doubts are gone / because it’s real”

Lasse redn (“Let them talk”) by Die Ärzte

A song perfectly capturing not only how much people will gossip about Dick Grayson and Nightwing, but also actually reflecting how rumours spread and that it’s sometimes better to just ignore it.

I can’t imagine that being adopted by Bruce Wayne has gone down without a bit of gossip. Dealing with it is something that you have to learn and that also applies to him. Thinking back once again to his rather eventful and very imperfect relationship and sex life… The lyrics hit closer than you might think at first.

Notable lyrics: “You don’t even really know their names / while they run their mouths about you”; “Let the people talk / Most people have nothing better to do / Let the people talk, day and night / Let the people talk, that’s what they have always been doing”; “Did you hear and say, did you know? / Hear: You make your money via prostitution / You apparently stand in front of the bus station / the colleague of a brother-in-law saw you there”; “As long as people talk, they do nothing worse / you can afford a bit of pretense / stay friendly and say nothing / that’s going to piss them off most”

Ich warte auf dich (“I wait for you“) by Bosse

Dick Grayson is many things: Trapeze artist, hero, friend. But most of all, he is a (imperfect) brother. Far from perfect, but throughout the comics we see him trying, we see him giving his best. He will wait for all of them, keep a light on for them, no matter how chaotic their previous experiences with each other were.

He wishes so much for his siblings to accept that, doesn’t he?

Notable lyrics: “We loved, we hated, we made up / … / like pitch misses sulfur”; “I wait for you / I wait for you / For you the light will always burn in my hallway”; “Sometimes I hope so much, that the doorbell rings / That you stand there with your suitcases / As if you only went on vacation”; “Please come back and make peace with me / ey, come back and live with me / let’s go back to sharing everything”

Nur noch kurz die Welt retten (“Just need to quickly save the world”) by Tim Bendzko

Dick is stubborn, hard working to the point of overworking himself, he’s responsible. There is so much he wants to do, should still to. His standards for himself are high and while this song might fit on Batman too, I think it fits him better. Just see for yourself.

Notable lyrics: “I just need to quickly save the world / After I’ll fly to you / Just need to check 148 mails / who knows what’ll happen after, so much happens”; “Out there, they need me / They underestimate the situation / Maybe our life depends on it”

Luftbahn (“Air Train”) by Deichkind

Originally a song about death/suicide, I think you can also interpret this song as an appreaciation of the feeling of weightlessness. I can imagine Nightwing swinging through the nights, feeling like this song.

Notable lyrics: “We ride by air train through the night / The moon only shines for us / Shortly, we'll have made it / And all the problems / On earth / Lie in great distance to us”

Allein in Amsterdam (“Alone in Amsterdam“) by Blackmonk

Full of fresh hope, Nightwing takes off to Blüdhaven. But is it everything he ever wished for, alone in the new city?

Notable lyrics: “Never stopping is draining one quickly / And I know you see how I leave / I drift away from time, stop walking / Look around and I realise what’s missing / But I go / And now I’m alone in Amsterdam”

Fern (“Far away”) by Streichelt

Notable lyrics: “ Maybe one day we’ll look at each other / Only to notice we are missing memories / of what was, of what pushed us”, “You’re always here / but never there / Yeah, you’re so far away, so far away, so far away, so far away”, “No talk of peace / War is everywhere”, “Do you still hold me dear?”

Bitch (do I really need to translate this?) by Von Wegen Lisbeth

Will I ever not have more songs about Richard’s fights with Bruce? Probably not. Because this is yet another one of them.

A lot of stuff happens all the time and you can always try to distract yourself with them. But in the end, you sometimes happen to think of *them* again. That’s the song, bitch. (There is actually much more subtlety to the song, but you know. The essence.)

Notable lyrics: “And what else happened? / When I went into the kitchen / Three minutes before half past seven / I didn’t think of you”, “Bitch, for you / I ran the whole way / the whole way alone”

Bruttosozialprodukt (“Gross National Income“) by Geier Sturzflug

Nightwing is a work human. He works a lot, he works well, he works. And although his nightwork might not be directly contribute to the GNI, it definitely does indirectly.

Notable lyrics: “The nurse gets a real fright / Another sick person is gone / She amputated his last leg / And now he's kneeling in again”, “Yes, then spit on your hands again / We increase the gross national product / Yes, yes, yes, now it's time to spit on your hands again” (Note: to spit in ones hand is an idiom to symbolize going to work without hesitation and with some sort of enthusiasm. Possibly translatable with “to knuckle down” or “roll up ones sleeves”.)

Du bist schön (“You are beautiful”) by Alligatoah

Here I am, once again, removing a song from it’s actual context. Oh well.

Nightwing is ruthless, let’s be real. Especially as Robin. Let’s not kid ourselves. And the cheerful tone while insulting someone as dumb? Screams Dick Grayson.

If you are interested, the song’s pretty genius and is about the clothing industry! It’s making it hard to translate too. “Dafür kannst du nichts” can mean both “You can do nothing” or “It’s not your fault”. Alligatoah does a lot of stuff like that, his songs are pretty interesting, even though he recently started pursuing a bit of a new direction with his music.

Notable lyrics: “You are beautiful / but in return know nothing / Not reading or writing or anything else / You are beautiful / but in return know nothing / and it’s not even your fault”

Honorable Mention: Atemlos durch die Nacht (“Breathless through the night”) by Helene Fischer

Now. Schlager is the German country. You either like it or you don’t or you’re a normal person and recognize there’s gems in every genre even if you don’t like it. Anyway, someone commented this on the last playlist and honestly? They’re right. Thanks @levysaurier for the suggestion haha.

Wild nights, baby.

Notable lyrics: “Breathless through the night / Feel what love does to us / Breathless, free of lies / Great show for us two / Today we're everlasting, thousands of feelings of happiness”, “We are inseparable, in some way immortal / Come take my hand and go with me / Come on, we climb the highest roof in this world / Just hold what sticks us together, oho oho”

(Have I ever mentioned my grandfather is a die hard Helene Fischer fan? He exclusively listens to SWR4 (Schlager radio station) as well.)

Conclusion

I hope you enjoyed the playlist :D

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