Campari Soda (song)

Campari Soda is a song of the Swiss band "Taxi" released in 1977. It was written by Dominique Grandjean who works as a psychiatrist today.

"Taxi" remained unsuccessful with the song. "Campari Soda" gained popularity only by the interpretations by numerous Swiss musicians, among others Stephan Eicher, "Span", "Doppelganger" and "Golden Boy". The freaky song was, however, well known to (and many copies spread among) the lovers of the oeuvres of borderline art ("Kleinkunst"), since its wording is kept in the very casual sound of the Zurich dialect. In the year 2006, the song experienced a revival, when it was used in an advertising spot of the Swiss International Air Lines and released as a single for the first time because of the remarkable success of the advertisement. With this relaunch, the song reached a placement in the Swiss Charts (highest placement: #3) and remained in the Top Ten during eight weeks.

The dreamy singing is underlied by unostentatious piano sounds. The song begins with a saxophone-solo.

The song is sung in the Swiss German dialect of Zurich and deals with the incomparable feeling of flying and the painful longing of the faraway. The first lines of the song read as follows:

:Ich nime no'n Campari soda:Wit under mir liit's Wolkemeer:De Ventilator summet liisli:Es isch as gäbs mich nüme mee

English translation:

:I take another Campari soda:The sea of clouds lies underneath me:The fan is humming quietly:It is as if I didn't exist any longer

Literature

*Daum, Matthias: "Vom Verschwinden. Zur Geschichte des besten Schweizer Popsongs – «Campari Soda»". In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 8.12.2006 ( [http://www.nzz.ch/2006/12/09/ku/articleEPV2C.html online] ).

Links

* [http://www.swisskulthits.ch/vol1/audio/taxi.mp3 Excerpt of "Campari Soda"] (CSR Records, MP3)
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cl9DJNdteGo "Campari Soda" video clip]
*The Swiss advertisement (Swiss German): [http://game.swiss.com/made/movie/de_swiss_spot.mpg MPG] (3.1 MB) and [http://game.swiss.com/made/movie/de_swiss_spot.mov MOV] (5.4 MB)