Yellow Sunshine Explosion - Elefantenhochzeit ["Jumbo Merger"]

I was nominated by @katharsisdrill to participate in this challenge, where you have to write seven consecutively posts about songs from your high-school/college years, that somehow were important for you.

When I moved out of my parent's house to study computer sciences in Dortmund, I didn't have huge expectations about meeting any cool people there, but I luckily was completely wrong. Here is today's song:

Yellow Sunshine Explosion - Elefantenhochzeit (Previously Unpublished)

First track of five, on the "Legendary Tape" (1989)

Bert Schlexer - Lead Vocal, Bass
Thomas Hopf - Drums, Percussion, Tabla, Organ
Georg Schulte - electric and acoustic Guitars, Vocals

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From art to science

I initially wanted to become an art student, but on one hand my father was strongly against that idea while on the other hand, I failed to pass the qualifying examination at the Arts Academy of Düsseldorf anyway. Maybe following the footsteps of Joseph Beuys, Gerhard Richter, Sigmar Polke and Anselm Kiefer was out of my league.

At least I manged to enroll for a computer sciences study, which was my second passion and opened up the possibility to start a new life away from home. Regardless my expectations, I instantly met some guys at the faculty, who were into anarchism, expansion of consciousness and psychedelic music.

Coincidences?

While I left my parent's home in a hurry, a fellow student offered me a small chamber in his flat deep in Dortmund's northern district. Coincidentally I suddenly realized, that my new home was right above a living community of some members of a psychedelic rock band called "Yellow Sunshine¹ Explosion".

After I moved in, I thought it would be a good idea to buy a crate of beer and share it with these guys. I remember, that we watched some stupid "Wetten, dass..?" in the telly, had some beer and maybe a smoke.

When we started to talk about music, they mentioned the German Krautrock legend Can, but I was too shy to tell them, that I had some connection with the band through the sons of their lead singer Damo Suzuki².

Five

Coincidentally I had joined a small circle of fellow computer students, which was initated by an advanced student, who was known as "Five". (I later learned, that his nick was derived from The Illuminatus! Trilogy by Wilson and Shea, but he was also a buddy of Yellow Sunshine Explosion and maybe their greatest fan.

That's how I happen to visit a lot of legendary concerts (and parties) of that trippy Krautrock band and although I probably was too young and innocent to be able to really get to know these guys personally, they always played a role in my student years in Dortmund.

I was so happy, that I discovered some of their music at youtube in research for this post, that I made a youtube playlist. Feel free to dig deeper into their music!

Although I'm not a fan of nominations, I hereby nominate @sature to participate in the challenge, particularly because I think, he might enjoy listening to this music. At least it might be a great addition for his Unknown Psychedelic Rock series.

Thanks for reading!

@shortcut

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[1] "Yellow Sunshine" is a small cube like paper dipped in LSD.
[2] You can still support the crowdfunding campaign about Damo Suzuki here

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The #musicwaybackchallenge rules:

• Choose one song from your high-school/college years.
• Write a few words about who made you listen to this song for the first time, what this song means to you (was it a breakup song? you blasted it at 100% on your audio system when you were partying with your friends?) whatever you want.
• Write your text while listening to the song. As soon as the song ends, wrap up what you where writing and submit it.
• Do this for 7 days in a row if you get nominated
• Mention one person who should do this on each day.
• Tag it with #musicwaybackchallenge and include these rules at the bottom of your post