"Walkampf" (''

Whale Whales are a widely distributed and diverse group of fully Aquatic animal, aquatic placental mammal, placental marine mammals. As an informal and Colloquialism, colloquial grouping, they correspond to large members of the infraorder Cetacea ...

struggle'') is a song by

Die Toten Hosen Die Toten Hosen are a German punk rock band from Düsseldorf. The name is taken from the German slang idiom ''tote Hose'' (literally "dead trousers"), which means "nothing happening"; "boring". The band has had an important success through th ...

. It's the second single and the thirteenth track from the album ''

Zurück zum Glück ''Zurück zum Glück'' (Pun: ''Back to happiness''/''Fortunately back'') is the tenth studio album by the German punk band Die Toten Hosen. The cover is designed by Dirk Rudolph. Track listing # "Kopf oder Zahl" (''Heads or tails''; lit. ''Head ...

''. The title is a pun on the word "Wahlkampf", which means "election campaign" in

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

. The song is about a dream by the narrator, where he finds a whale on a beach and struggles to push it back to the water, but doesn't have enough strength for that. All the time, he hears the waves, the sun shouting: "Push the whale back in the sea", which pressures him. He hopes to get help from a

Greenpeace Greenpeace is an independent global campaigning network, founded in Canada in 1971 by a group of Environmental movement, environmental activists. Greenpeace states its goal is to "ensure the ability of the Earth to nurture life in all its biod ...

ship he sees, but right before his eyes, it sinks. The next day he has sore muscles and gets under the shower but then his girlfriend urges him to "push the whale back in the sea" and on it goes. The song opens with a slow ukulele tune, progresses into a more aggressive punk style during the 2nd verse, with the bridge between the 2nd and third verse being overlaid with a background singer giving it a more

surf rock Surf music (also known as surf rock, surf pop, or surf guitar) is a genre of rock music associated with surf culture, particularly as found in Southern California. It was especially popular from 1958 to 1964 in two major forms. The first is inst ...

style similar to a song by the

Beach Boys The Beach Boys are an American rock band formed in Hawthorne, California, in 1961. The group's original lineup consisted of brothers Brian, Dennis, and Carl Wilson, their cousin Mike Love, and their friend Al Jardine. Distinguished by thei ...

, and the final verse and final chorus is accompanied by bagpipes, with the background singer returning at the very tail end of the song.

Music video

The music video was directed and drawn by

Andreas Hykade Andreas Hykade (born 1968 in Altötting, Bavaria) is a German animator, cartoonist, and voice actor. Before studying at the Academy of Fine Arts in Stuttgart from 1988 to 1990, he attended König-Karlmann-Gymnasium Altötting. He worked as an anim ...

. It entirely illustrates the lyrics.

Track listing

# "Walkampf" (Frege, van Dannen/van Dannen, Frege) − 3:34 # "Der letzte Sieg" (''The last victory'') (Meurer/Frege) - 1:35 # "Die No.1 von Flingern" (''The No.1 of

Flingern Flingern is a quarter of Düsseldorf, part of Borough 2 (Düsseldorf), Borough 2. Located northeast of Düsseldorf (proper), it is divided into two ''Stadtteile'' today: Flingern-Nord and Flingern-Süd. While Flingern-Nord has a younger populati ...

'') (Frege/Frege) - 3:27 (with Beate Frege)

Charts

{{Authority control 2004 singles Die Toten Hosen songs Songs written by Campino (singer) Songs written by Funny van Dannen 2004 songs