Rammstein

Seemann (English: "Seaman") is the fifth track of the album Herzeleid, and was its third single release. A mostly romantic song, it is one of the softest Rammstein songs up to now, maybe because it was written during a period when all members but one were experiencing relationship problems. Story The music video features Richard, Ollie, Doom and Paul pushing a boat in the sand. In the boat stand a masked Flake and Till singing. At one point they keelhaul Till, and the boat bursts in flames. At moments, the video cuts and shows a woman dressed as a prostitute, and then it returns to the boat. According to the "Making of Seemann" video, the band was to be "tugging away love", and that, no matter how hard they tried to move, they wouldn't. Till described it as a song about despair. According to Laszlo Kadar, the ship itself was to represent a life "all washed up". Development Till thought of the song as the only "worthwhile" aspect of their first album - that is, it was the song most likely to be broadcast on the radio or TV. The rest, he considered to be "one big mess from start to finish". The song was made as a ballad to limit its commercial aspect. At the time, the band had little to no idea what they wanted to do in videos, and relied on the record company to come up with one. Laszlo Kadar was provided for the role as director for the video; he had previously been the director in a number of Jever beer commercials. Much of the actions in the video, like Till laying in the sand during the middle verse, were Laszlo's own ideas; he did not know whether or not the band liked any of them, however. According to Richard and Till, Laszlo Kadar was chosen as the video's director by the record company for his work in . The idea for Till to be laying in the sand during the middle verse was Laszlo's idea. Schneider was critical of the hairstyle clothing choices, not finding leather and loincloths to go well with a video, though accepted them in the end; Till considered them "cool". Paul also found the video development to be unusual. Although going along with their English stylist, he couldn't help but feel that it wasn't how the band wanted to look. Paul, he thought, was made to look Russian, while much of the band was made almost bald. Flake was cast as "the monster", the role that, as became a habit, none of the other bandmembers wanted. Till felt that Flake did so because there was nothing else to do in the video other than pull the ship. Flake chose the plague mask, much to the annoyance of others - this was such a case that discussions were held as to whether or not he should wear it for the video. In the end, he obviously won the case.