You Are Cologne

“I’m not an angel, that’s just my name.” (Tommy Engel): An original self-portrait by a one-of-a-kind artist

For the Fööss, everything started in 1970, when the band’s second single dropped like a bomb: “Drink doch eene met” (“C’mon, have a drink with me”), a song about a lonely old man and his invitation to join him at the bar. Tommy Engel and his comrades-in-arms benefitted from their roots in the Beat Generation, and the Fööss brought rhythms previously only heard on the Anglo-American charts to music featuring lyrics in the Cologne dialect.

Tommy Engel was with the Bläck Fööss for almost a quarter of a century. Many of their songs – from “En unserm Veedel” (“In our hood”) to “Mer losse d’r Dom en Kölle” (“We’re leaving the dome in Cologne”) became veritable anthems, making it all the more shocking to fans when Engels left the band in 1994. Even before quitting the Fööss, Engel launched the L.S.E. project with his friends Arno Steffen and Rolf Lammers, which became a big success. When his musical path finally lead to a solo career, Tommy Engel wrote the classic from which this book takes its title: “Du bes Kölle,” – “You Are Cologne.”

Tommy Engel looks back at his rich life as a musician, Cologne native, husband and father. Last but not least, Engel also gives voice to his political side. During his time with the Fööss, he was already writing numerous songs that took issue with prevailing conditions. As a natural extension of this commitment, Tommy Engels dedicated himself to the “Arsch huh” campaign against xenophobia and to helping victims of the collapse of Cologne’s historical archives.