PETER BAUMANN: No Stranger in the Night [1984]

Text by Julia Masi / FFanzeen, 1984

Introduction by Robert Barry Francos / FFanzeen, 2018

Images from the Internet

Looking back, I’m not sure why I published this article, to be honest. I certainly wasn’t a fan of synthesizer music, and Peter Baumann’s original band, Tangerine Dream meant nothing to me (and still doesn’t). However, that being said, he was a leader in the original of the synth sound, so there is a historical importance, I suppose.  – Robert Barry Francos, 2018

Those who believe in the myths and miracles of music marketing think that doing a cover of an old Top-40 hit song is a guaranteed formula for creating a hit single. Citing a track record that includes bands like Soft Cell, who resurrected “Tainted Love,” or David Johansen, who flowed into the mainstream with “We Gotta Get Out of this Place,” appears to make this theory sound foolproof; it isn’t.  When it works, it’s a magic charm, but when it fails, it’s like a neutron bomb. The list of casualties is too numerous and often too obscure to mention.

Nevertheless, artists still gamble in the cover song crapshoot with whole albums, and sometimes entire careers, at stake. One of the more unusual variations on a theme is Peter Baumann’s version of the old Frank Sinatra cocktail lounge classic, “Strangers in the Night.” By adding a dance beat, Baumann has turned the sensual yarn into a surrealistic allegory that works best when paired with his video [see below – RBF, 2018]. The audio alone is pleasant, but easily forgotten. Luckily, the video is able to hold its own and would be equally impressive with a soundtrack of white noise.

It’s unfortunate that Baumann feels he must re-hash someone else’s hit. Since the early ‘70s, his original material had already shoved him into the spotlight when he debuted with the improvisational synthesizer band, Tangerine Dream. Since then, his music has gone through a metamorphosis evolving into a few sparse electronic solo albums and emerging, in collaboration with Eli Holland, with a sophisticated, viable style that is exhibited on the Strangers in the Night album on Portrait/CBS Records.

Lately, he’s been billing himself simply as Baumann. He is no longer a solo artist, since Baumann’s sound relies on Eli Holland’s vocals and musical contributions. Holland co-writes most of their material. And although they work with a drummer, Rich Teeter [who would also play with Twisted Sister and the Dictators, including touring and recording their Manifest Destiny album; d. 2012 – RBF, 2018] exclusively, they are not a stereotypical band. As so much of the music is created by a cumbersome synthesizer that was specially designed for Peter, the idea of touring, or even playing clubs, is almost out of the question. Therefore, whether Baumann’s career soars or sinks without a ripple, all depends on how well that small sliver of vinyl sells and how many times an audience can sit through this video. With so much riding on a single song, it’s odd that he was inspired by the Middle-Of-the-Road melody.

“I was in a bar and I heard the song frequently, and I just fell in love with the song. By the way, it’s written by a German,” explains Peter, who is a native of Germany. Eli was also seduced by the song. “I was always a fan of Frank Sinatra,” he admits. “While we were doing the song, it took a long time to re-arrange properly; to give it the right treatment so it wouldn’t sound ridiculous.

Clip from "Strangers...." video

“If you took out the vocals, you’d never know it was ‘Strangers in the Night,’ continues Holland. “The basic synthesizer lines throw everything off. The chorus, which flows in the original… we broke it up with an extra bar of six beats and a synthesizer line, and it had the effect of stretching out the chorus. That’s what we wanted. That’s why we took so long to get it right. When I met Peter, he was working on the song for about a year. It took several months. It was a song we’d always go back to. There is that risk, but I feel it’s a good risk.”

Besides re-arranging the tune, Bauman also offers an altered interpretation of the lyrics. Ol’ Blue Eyes’ crooning never brought to mind the science fiction images in Peter’s video. “The obvious thing is the trench coat and the lady underneath the lantern [meaning streetlamp – RBF, 2018],” Peter speculates. “But that’s pretty boring. So we decided to bring it down to the essence of strangers meeting.”

The strangers in this film are very strange. Their heroine is a bag lady who turns into an obnoxiously gorgeous blonde. And sprinkled throughout the video are super-imposures of animated cubes, spheres and triangles that hurl through the sky like flying saucers competing in a Grand Prix race. “The underlying story is contact,” comments Peter, “when, for instance, the bag lady changes into the beautiful woman, just because of the contact; the touch they have. And then it goes into a dream stage. These objects (the geometric figures), they are all catalysts that happen whenever people meet. Like the little girl and boy (who eventually grow up to be the protagonists).”

Peter Baumann more recently

Change and contact are important to Peter, and are reflected in his career and the growth of his music. “It’s a pretty long way from one end to the other. I’ve had some problems because I used to be known for Tangerine Dream. It’s unfortunate that people put me in a certain category , and whenever I release a record, they wait for me to do the same stuff I did 10 years ago.” Maybe that is because what he did 10 years ago was only starting to come into vogue. He’s long been revered as a pioneer of European synthesizer music.

“I feel that the worst thing that can happen to you is that you stagnate; that you get into a rut. And I feel that as soon as I do something different, that gives me the opportunity to become aware of what I do. When you do the same thing over and over you fall asleep.” With a philosophy like that, it wouldn’t’ be surprising if Peter were an insomniac.

There will soon be another single and, of course, another video released from his current album. He prefers to keep his future plans a secret, admitting that the song will be “a surprise. I like surprises.”