Chords for DOKKEN - Don Dokken & The Lost Songs: 1978-1981 (Episode 5)

Hey everybody Don here
stories from Don
thinking about
How I felt like I was on Mars because I'd never been out of California
And everybody spoke German.
They spoke English, but you know we don't speak any German
so it was a [G] really
You know [Am] just trying to adjust [A] to the food and the language [Eb] and I remember I
_ [N] _ Remember you know my first thing I ever learned was how to order some breakfast
Because the lady that gave us breakfast every morning.
She didn't speak any English
So she taught me to say
Spiegel I'm a chink and bitter which [Bb] just means eggs and ham please [G] so I just that's all I have eggs and ham
That's all I knew how to say is [Ab] spiegel.
I'm a chink and
bitter petition
But it was funny, you know cuz trying to order [N] food and
And I think the second thing I learned how to eat was down the street which turned out to be one of my favorite foods
which was a bratwurst and
in Germany they put a
mustard on them has curry in it curry mustard and
That was really good, and I think we just would say but that was McCurry, but
I'm in pomfrets mit pomfrets which means with french fries
So slowly you know when you're there for months and months you learn.
I was speaking pretty good enough toward the end and
_ I
Remember the I guess it wasn't the first time we went over there.
It must have been the second time
I'm not sure it's all kind of fuzzy honestly
but I just remember how
Exciting it was me playing clubs the Beatles [F] played at and if you're a Beatle [Eb] fan like we all were Jeff
huge Beatle fan Mick
[G] You know we're
The Beatles kind of started out in [C] Germany and playing those clubs was great
You know it was just was a huge rush just down the [Ab] same stage as them
It's kind of like you know playing the whiskey where the doors played
So anyway, you know just thinking about making these demos and how late at night
It was and I think Michaels drink of the choice when we all still drank a lot
Michael would like to drink um
Southern comfort with the coke it's really sweet, and I drank rum and coke and
I don't think one was much of a drinker or great, but I just remember staying up all night
[N] Drinking and smoking cigarettes till the control room was like a haze couldn't see
it was the 70s you know and
Michael has super long hair, and we all had long hair and
We all smelled like cigarettes all the time and stay up till 6 in the morning
And go out and have breakfast and then fall asleep by 9
Sleep all day till 8 go get in the car bands and start driving
here and there and everywhere I
Remember we
When the wall was still up at Berlin in 79 so it was still half Russian
And we had to go and [Ab] take our band and go through the Russian part to get back into the west side
Which made no sense because the Russians?
made us take all our equipment out of our band and
Unloaded so I wanted to make sure there was nobody in the band
[Gb] And I said to the [G] guy you know you understand me.
I said dude
[Eb] Nobody's trying to sneak in to East Berlin.
They're trying to get out
[N] I didn't get it, and it was cold.
I mean we're talking as 20 degrees starting to snow and we had this van and
[Gb] We'd literally like crawl in the back when we had about 8 inches we could you know lay down and try to take and get some
Sleep except every time we hit a bump.
You know you'd hit the ceiling of the van
So we did that and the funniest thing about that that run was going to Berlin to do this show was on
the way back we need to get gas and
I grabbed the gas handle and I assumed it was said gas and I started putting into the van and fill up the tank
turned out [C] that the van was diesel and
Diesels don't run on gas
So we started up and got about I don't know [Am] three blocks
Smokes billowing out the back
[Ab] Sputter bang boom boom [C] here.
We are on the east side and the van breaks down [E] with all our equipment
[Gb] I'm like you've got to be kidding me
So we realized I put [E] the wrong fuel
in the van
It wasn't funny then at two o'clock in the morning, but it's funny now, so
I'll just never forget that putting diesel into a
Is either a diesel gas or gas into diesel one of those two?
so of course we had to like walk back a mile in the freezing cold and
luckily we had someone with us who spoke English Nico LaFrance and
You know got a tow truck and [G] came and got it and it turned into a big [Gb] debacle, but that's rock and roll man
[E] Every every every bands got stories like that so but I thought it was funny.
You know and
_ It was just interesting
And that's about it.
I just wanted to talk about the crazy things we did in Germany and
[N] You know staying up not much sleep of a man when you're 23 years old 24
You can do that you can stay up all night.
It's a piece of cake and
We did we actually did a top 10 club or the Beatles played at and
We got off at midnight, and there was a club three blocks away
That said they'd give us 250 bucks if we come over and play at their club the same night
I said sure so we literally did our show packed up our gear
Drug it down two blocks to the next club set it all up
And had to play another hour and a half, and we were just beat so we made a deal
I say [A] I tell you what one you do a bass [Ab] solo
and I'd literally would lean against the wall and take a quick power nap during the bass solo and then
Then he'd take a break and I do a guitar solo
He'd lead against the wall and take a power nap you know and then Greg had to do a drum solo
I'm like play as long as you can
[Bb] But that was bizarre you know [F] to play two clubs in [N] one night, and we didn't have any roadies
I mean it was [F] just us dragging those amps down the street and
[Ab]
That was looking back.
It was pretty wild
So that's about it.
I don't really [Fm] have that much to talk [Ab] about today
Except you know it's reminiscent of when we did these demos and this turned into this record now the lost songs
[G] but looking back
[E] You know it was an adventure, and it was [N] fun.
It was exciting and
we never got any sleep and
But it was it is
What it is and [Ab] it was what it was I don't think I could survive a tour like that now not at my age
So you know we all got [N] spoiled down the road, but I
Think it's called paying your dues.
I think every band has done it that I know everybody paid their dues I
Remember I mean I'll never forget seeing the police played the night after we played at the club called the sounds
I don't know if I told the story before but I'll tell you again and
We're like oh wow the police.
Let's go check them out
We weren't playing and I walked in and we were all excited
You know to meet the police and meet sting and the drummer were like hey, man.
We're from America
How you guys doing?
They just looked at us like who are you guys and how in the hell did you get back here in our dressing room?
So we got the hint right away and sting was [A] cool.
He was but the drummer wasn't very friendly
He was just kind of like get these [N] guys out of here, so
But the cool thing was that they played
For about the same amount of people we played maybe 150 people I think their single was just breaking in England
I think it was Roxanne, so they were just going to Germany and they they hadn't made it yet
You know there they were
So that was kind of cool to see them when they were nobody and then I literally a year later.
They were like huge
_ anyway, it's
Awesome up here the weather is perfect
It's gonna turn soon, and I'll be sitting out in this chair
Maybe in a bunch of snow, and that's just the way it is so take care stay out of trouble stay safe
It's about all I have to say for now
If you run to sting tell me I said hello _
[D] _ _ _ [C] _ _ [G] _ [N] _ _