It’s not often a pop song makes me think of Plato. Being cool, falling in love, getting a thrill: that’s the usual stuff of pop. The transcendent relationship between love and art? Michael Jackson was a genius, but even he left that one to the philosophers and poets. Then came Dagobert. He’ll probably never be as famous as MJ, but it won’t be for lack of brilliance. This song, Raumpilot (Astronaut), demonstrates all Dagobert’s talents as a musician, poet and, dare I say, philosopher. I’m sure he’d reject the label. He prefers to pass as a simple singer of love songs. But with lyrics like these, he unmasks himself. Behind the humble, self-deprecating irony of his persona and the simple façade of his love songs, there is real depth and artistry that links him to some pretty great poets and philosophers.
In Raumpilot, Dagobert hits on one of the great themes in philosophy of art – sublimation (think: “make art, not love”) – by riffing off a basic pop trope. “I want to give you all my love” is buried in the chorus, but it’s the key to all the astronaut talk. It’s clear by the time you get to this line that there’s no girl. The “you” could be alternately: the song, the singer’s musical art, or art in general. And the love is obviously not physical. It’s mental or spiritual, and it seeks immortality in a beautiful song that will be remembered (hopefully). Hence, the talk of “all being is behind me” and the stars the singer aspires to be, which can still be seen even though they died long ago. Love expressed spiritually in this way as art (or song) is more lasting than physical love. That’s Plato’s theory of the relationship between love and art in a nutshell. Great art is physical love that’s been sublimated. We usually shorthand this as Platonic love (if you sometimes pass up sex and have “beautiful” conversations with your lover or “soul mate,” count those as Platonic love, too). I would be surprised if Dagobert isn’t giving a conscious nod to Plato in this song. And if that’s his only living will, I’d say he’s doing pretty well so far.
But if you think he’s overreaching with all this, you’ll appreciate the self-irony of the video. He’s having trouble just getting an autograph.
Astronaut
Today I am an astronaut
Through the sunset I’m flying off
Into a more spiritual world
A thousand tiny lights in front of me
All being is behind me
It’s almost just like they say
From far away they stared at me
Already they are dead and gone
But I can see them still in front of me
All the thousand tiny lights
Each one all to itself
Stays crazed as time in the dark sky
Oh, there are so many new worlds, everywhere we are not
Everywhere we don’t think about
Oh, my living will says just one thing:
I want to give you all, all, all, all…all my love
I want to give you all my love
Today I am an astronaut
I die here, and then I’m not
Tomorrow I’ll be just this song
And perhaps you’ll see me sometimes
When at night the wind blows
Ringing out this song that I am now
Now I am and want to be
One among the thousand tiny lights
I’ll burn on a little longer
And perhaps you’ll see me sometimes
When at night the wind blows
Ringing out this song that I am now
Oh, there are so many new worlds, everywhere we are not
Everywhere we don’t think about
Oh, my living will says just one thing:
I want to give you all, all, all, all…all my love
I want to give you all my love
(trans. a. f. erwin)
The Flow 