Judging from the insert and jacket, Rockvogel appear to have hailed from the Mainz-Wiesbaden-Frankfurt area of the former West Germany. Living up to their name, the band had a fantastic bird-of-prey logo. The six-piece lineup including Elisabeth Serr on vocals, Fritz Stock & Holger Keim on guitars, Rainer Wadewitz on bass, Bernd Kuhnt on drums, and Andrea Schick on the mixing deck. The band's motto, "Ihr seid die Musik, wir nur die Band," (You are the music, we are only the band) expressed the then-prevalent countercultural ethos of breaking down the fourth wall between community and artists.
Song topics reflect similar concerns, with tracks about squatting, the ravages of capitalism, and the waste byproducts of nuclear fission, particularly the notorious "bone seeker" Strontium-90 which accumulates in the bones of living beings where it can damage surrounding tissue irreparably. Although Strontium-90 was flying around the atmosphere during the peak years of above ground nuclear testing, the focus of the band's lyrics was the Biblis Nuclear Power Plant (now closed) a few kilometers to the south of their stomping grounds.
Lyrics:
"Ich stehe am Rhein
und hab Strontium im Haar
Mein Haupt das leuchtet
So hell und wunderbar
Die Haut ist bleich
So bleich wie noch nie
Ja, das ist die Leukämie
Die Knochen schimmern
in grünlich hellem Glanz
Das Strontium strahlt
Sogar bin in den Schwanz
Die Beine krumm,
der Schädel eingedellt,
Der Knochenkrebs der hat mich
so entstellt.
Ich blick mich um
und schau umher
Vor lauter Kühldampf
sieht man nichts mehr
Die Vegetation
die ist zerstört
Der Bauer bankrott
und mit Recht empört
Ich bin ein Opfer
des AKW
und trau keinem Chef
vom RWE
Ich sieche so langsam
vor mich hin
Und das nur weil ich aus
Biblis bin"
And roughly translated to English [But if any fluent German speakers want to chime in on the last stanza, think I'm missing a turn of phrase!]
"I'm standing on the Rhine
and have Strontium in my hair
My head shines
So bright and wonderful
My skin is pale
Paler than ever
Yes, that's leukemia
The bones shimmer
Shine in a greenish light
The strontium radiates
Even in the penis
Legs crooked,
the skull dented,
The bone cancer has me
quite disfigured.
I look around
and around
Because of all the cooling steam
you can't see anything anymore
The vegetation
is destroyed
The farmer goes bankrupt
and is rightly outraged
I am a victim
of the nuclear power plant
and don't trust any boss
from the RWE [note: RWE Power AG, a German multinational]
I'm slowly dying
in front of myself
And that's just because of Biblis [nuke plant operated by RWE]