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Horror! My journey from frightened child to hardened gorehound
by Patrick Vogt
My life in ten songs
24.4.2026
Translation: machine translated
Some songs run once - and stay forever. These ten have burnt themselves into the grooves of my life. Be ready to turn it up loud.
«Without music, life would be a mistake», I agree with this bon mot from the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. Nevertheless - music or no music - life can sometimes take on erratic traits. What does that have to do with me? Nothing, of course! In any case, I also have a soundtrack to my life. Music that has shaped me. Songs that have moved me for decades. Songs that remain linked to events in my memory. I'm sharing ten of them with you:
Vulture Nosedive - «Gross National Product» (1982)
We are in the middle of the 1980s, little Patrick is in first or second grade and has no clue about music and no connection to it. That changes when I'm visiting my schoolmate Martin and a song is playing in the background. They spit into their hands for all they're worth, something is being cranked up and it's about the «work-beat-beat-beat-beat-beat-beat» or something, I don't know.
I don't understand the content at first, but I'm immediately fascinated and enthusiastic. I am allowed to borrow the cassette and listen to «Gross National Product» in a continuous loop, which at the time means: listen, rewind, listen, rewind, listen ...
«... The nurse gets a huge frightYet another sick person is goneThey amputated his last legAnd now he's getting down on his knees again...»
I soon realise that the text is funny. I only realise much later that it is also meant to be satirical, political and socially critical and that «Bruttosozialprodukt» by Geier Sturzflug is surfing the New German Wave. No matter - it sparked my interest in music. That's all I need to know as a seven or eight-year-old.
Sandra - «(I'll Never Be) Maria Magdalena» (1985)
Without going into detail now, I may have been a late bloomer in some respects. Love, on the other hand, caught me very early on. Because at the age of ten, I fell madly in love - not with a peer, but with an adult woman. I saw Sandra for the first time in the video for «(I'll Never Be) Maria Magdalena» and was immediately smitten - by the music too.
Love is not as everlasting as Sandra herself once sang about. Instead of me, she opts for producer and composer Michael Cretu, whom she even marries. I am devastated. She could have had everything from me: my «Masters of the Universe» figures, my «Matchbox» cars - she could even have slept upstairs in my bunk bed. But no.
The fact that the marriage broke up in 2008 is no satisfaction for me. I'd long since moved on from Sandra by then. What remains are the memories of my first amorous feelings - and her music, which I still like today.
Matchbox Twenty - «Push» (1997)
I also fell madly in love shortly before the turn of the millennium. As was customary at the time, we put together mixtapes for each other with songs and bands that we liked. That's when I hear a man's voice for the first time and I'm immediately mesmerised. It's Rob Thomas, the frontman of Matchbox Twenty.
I don't realise at the time that «Push» is not a romantic love song, but describes a toxic relationship. After all, I love my girlfriend more than anything. Unfortunately, after she spent several months abroad, it became a one-way street. It's thanks to Matchbox Twenty, of all things, that I don't drown in heartbreak. The music that my ex turned me on to.
Love leaves, Rob Thomas stays. From then on, I had to share him with a lot of people, because he became world-famous in the same year we broke up. With «Smooth», which he wrote for Santana and also sings himself, he burns everything away and wins Grammys.
Nirvana - «Territorial Pissings» (1991)
In the early 1990s, the grunge wave swept across Europe and the whole world. I'm 14 and all in favour. After all, it's no coincidence that music journalists refer to grunge as the soundtrack of Generation X. But it's much more than music, it's an attitude. I'm angry at everything and yet I don't really know what or who. Although I don't give a shit about anything, nothing leaves me cold.
No one conveys this jumble of contradictory feelings better than Kurt Cobain from Nirvana. I feel understood by him in my despair and insecurity, as do millions of other young people. We have a voice. When that voice fell silent in 1994, it hit me as if I had lost a good friend or dear relative.
Nirvana's «Nevermind» is one of the world's best-selling albums with over 30 million copies. I have listened to every single song on it so often that it has become part of my DNA. I am particularly fond of «Territorial Pissings». This short, angry and energetic number sums up the feeling of grunge for me. Even more so than the obvious representatives «Smells Like Teen Spirit» or «Come as You Are». They are still played on the radio today. Is that still grunge?
Nine Inch Nails - «Closer» (1994)
About Kurt Cobain: I can only imagine what a dark place he was in during his final hours. Looking back, I know that I was well on my way there in the 2000s. I let myself think bad thoughts, even wallow in them. In this phase of my life, I was self-destructive and also hurt other people in the process without caring.
I find the soundtrack to this in «The Downward Spiral», the magnum opus by Trent Reznor, the man behind Nine Inch Nails. For me, this cynical, misanthropic and destructive downward spiral in album form is epitomised by «Closer».
Thanks to professional help, I never reached the bottom. Neither did Trent Reznor, apparently; he's still making music, I was at the Nine Inch Nails concert in Zurich in 2025. Even though he seems to have reconciled with the world, he's still angry - at least a little bit. I like his music, it's part of me. At the same time, it burns like a fire that warns me never to return to that dark place I was once in.
Johnny Cash - «Hurt» (2002)
The transition from Nine Inch Nails to Johnny Cash is very easy: the latter covered «Hurt», the last song from «The Downward Spiral». And how he did it! His deeply sad version gets under my skin. Always. For me, it's nothing less than the best cover ever. Full stop.
«Hurt» is Trent Reznor's most personal song, as he himself has always said. The fact that Johnny Cash covered it sounded strange at first:
«Hearing it was like someone kissing your girlfriend. It felt invasive.»
His attitude only changed when he saw the video of Cash's version:
«It really, really made sense and I thought what a powerful piece of art.»
In fact, Johnny Cash's «Hurt» in combination with the video has an effect that I can hardly resist. Even less so if you know the background to the «saddest video of all time». The 71-year-old's health was in decline, with years of drug abuse and diabetes taking their toll. This is exactly what the video shows us: A man at the end of his days, looking back and wondering if and what he will leave the world other than a «empire of dirt». Cash's wife June died three months after filming, he himself only four months after the love of his life.
For years I had the fixed idea that Johnny Cash's «Hurt» would one day have to be played at my funeral. Now I'm not so sure anymore. I don't want to be remembered that sad after all.
Ben Howard - «Keep Your Head Up» (2011)
Enough of all this gloom and sadness? I feel the same way! Ben Howard has been helping me keep my head up for a few years now. Or to get it up again.
«Keep Your Head Up» exudes optimism without coming across in the musical guise of a shallow diddle-dum song à la Jack Johnson - no offence, Jack. It motivates me not to lose faith in myself, even if it's difficult at times. As corny as that may sound.
Ben Howard has earned his place on my life playlist. Perhaps his «Keep Your Head Up» is also better suited as funeral music. Together with «Lucky Man» by Emerson, Lake & Palmer ... Sounds like a plan, doesn't it?
Kate Bush - «The Man with the Child in His Eyes» (1978)
Decades before «Running Up That Hill» by Kate Bush was made into the Netflix series «Stranger Things» experienced a second spring.hling, a child listens through his stepfather's record collection and gets stuck on exactly this song and this artist.
What can I say: it doesn't stop with this one song. Over the years, I've absorbed Kate Bush's musical oeuvre full of versatility and experimentation. In the process, I come across «The Man with the Child in His Eyes», which she wrote when she was just 13 years old. And because it is now one of my favourite songs, it can stand here for her entire oeuvre, which I adore.
There is no question in my mind that Kate Bush is one of the most important and influential artists in music history. For doubters, I recommend watching one of the many documentaries about her, for example «Kate Bush: Intense and Different» by Arte.
I will be watching her live.
I will probably never get to see her live again, as she turned her back on concerts and tours early on in the 1980s. In 2014, Kate Bush once again announced dates for a series of concerts at London's Hammersmith Apollo. However, they were sold out so quickly that, despite all efforts, neither my colleague Simon nor I had a chance. What a shame.
Züri West - «7:7» (1987)
When it comes to Swiss music, for many there is no way around Polo Hofer. He was undoubtedly one of the dialect pioneers who made the success of subsequent bands such as Patent Ochsner and Züri West possible in the first place. The fact that I still regard the latter as the epitome of Swiss dialect pop or rock is perhaps also due to generational factors.
Züri West and Patent Ochsner have written two of the greatest dialect songs to my ears: «Scharlachrot» and «7:7».
Why is Züri West allowed on your list and Patent Ochsner not? A good question, which I also asked myself. Perhaps out of spite, because «Scharlachrot» would be the more obvious choice. Maybe because Kuno Lauener's lyrics have always touched me a touch more. Perhaps because I recognise myself so well in the story that «7:7» tells. Only my heart knows the answer, and it has spoken.
«7:7, there is no difference ...It's 7:7 for me»
Lunik - «Through Your Eyes» (2003)
There were several contenders for the last place on my list - which is not a ranking, by the way. The decision was not easy for me. I racked my brains over it until my heart spoke. And that came to me recently on Lunik's reunion tour. When the band played «Through Your Eyes» in the encores, I shed tears of joy - the case was clear.
I've been listening to Lunik since their debut in 1999, and I like their trip-hop-heavy pieces at the beginning just as much as the more poppy ones that came later. Singer Jaël, with her elfish appearance and voice, was always the centre of attention anyway. She could sing the phone book to me and I would be blown away. I therefore also followed her solo career after Lunik disbanded in 2013. And «Sensibeli», Jaël's foray into dialect children's music, ended up on one of our daughter's Tonies. It's called early musical education.
In 2020, Lunik announced that they had reunited and wanted to tour together again. I now know how much I missed them since I saw them live again. They have more than earned their place in the soundtrack of my life. And I've already got the tickets for the next concert. I'm looking forward to it.
I'm a full-blooded dad and husband, part-time nerd and chicken farmer, cat tamer and animal lover. I would like to know everything and yet I know nothing. I know even less, but I learn something new every day. What I am good at is dealing with words, spoken and written. And I get to prove that here.
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