Clay & Ink: The 70s – Beginnings, Pub Art & the Way Up

21 October 2025

Where sound meets color palette and art meets music – that's Ton & Tusche! In her current social media series, Joelle Czampiel traces Udo's musical and artistic career, always drawing a connection between an album and a work of art. So it's time to open the book of Udo's discography to the very beginning and take a little trip down memory lane – the comet is hurtling back to the 70s!

 

 A black and white drawing of a man's face merging with a mountain, with a single leafless tree growing from the mountains peak. The word LINDENBERG is written at the bottom.  Three hand-drawn cartoon panels on a Jever Pilsener coaster show two people talking; one raises a finger, the other holds a glass and says “Cheers!” Both have exaggerated facial features and long hair.  Three simple, abstract line drawings: the top shows two figures with exaggerated features and the words maise in the desk; the bottom left shows a dancing figure with a large hat; the bottom right shows a running figure with a pointed head.

Lindenberg, 1971 x Bar drawings, 1970s © Udo Lindenberg Archive

Everything at the beginning

Smoky Hamburg dives and a simple waiter’s block of the brand Jacobs Coffee or Jever: This is where Udo's story begins. In 1971, the album LindenbergEdit. Initially, great success eluded him – Udo hadn't yet found his musical style. Even the lines on his notebook were still uncertain; the unmistakable signature that would later characterize his art was still in its infancy.
Bulbous noses à la Loriot show the early Pub drawings and portraits of his painting companion Meise. Over time, they will transform into elongated forms.
But even then, the humor is entirely Udo: straight-talking, unashamed, sometimes explicit – especially when Meise is depicted in explicit situations. Amidst all this, a subtle melancholy flashes through, written all over the face of the drawn protagonist – without his hat and sunglasses, not yet clearly recognizable as Udo. A motif that will remain with him already appears here: the raised index finger, reinforcing both the visual message and the text.

 

 A young man with long brown hair and a serious expression looks at the camera. He is wearing a suit and tie. In the top right corner, text reads, UDO LINDENBERG thumbs in the wind. The background is softly blurred.   A sketch in red ink shows nine abstract profiles and faces with varied hairstyles and glasses, arranged in two clusters. The word “Studien” and the signature “Maier” are written above and below the drawings.

Thumb in the Wind, 1972 x Study Sheet, 1979 © Udo Lindenberg Archive

Study & Try

With the second album Thumb in the wind (1972) the tone becomes more confident – “The moment Udo Lindenberg finds his voice”, writes curator Frank Bartsch in the exhibition catalogue.
Udo also tries out new artistic approaches: On a Study sheet From 1979, heads in a variety of shapes and forms abound. This artist is also beginning to make a name for himself in drawing and painting.

 

A group of people inside an airplane cockpit, some holding drinks, with one man reading a newspaper. The album cover reads: Udo Lindenberg & The Panik Orchestra - Alles Klar auf der Andrea Doria.  Loose, abstract sketch of an underwater figure with a fishing pole, a yellow fish on the line, and a pink boat on the surface; painted with green and turquoise watercolor washes.  A whimsical cartoon of people and mermaids raising drinks in the ocean near the sinking ship Andrea Doria, with sea creatures like a shark and fish swimming around. The scene is lively and colorful.

All clear on the Andrea Doria, 1973 x Andrea Doria, 1997 and Andrea Doria I, 2002 © Udo Lindenberg Archive

1973: Finally the musical breakthrough. All clear on the Andrea Doria – the moment in which the German rock star is born and German-language pop music is finally freed from the kitschy Schlager corner.
The Andrea Doria accompanies Udo on paper as well: In 1997, the ship still appears small at the edge of the picture, while the focus is on a mysterious creature in the water. In the 2000s, Udo sits confidently as the figurehead on the Andrea Doria, surrounded by bare-breasted mermaids, long since embracing the musical Olympus.

 

Album cover for Ball Pompös by Udo Lindenberg & Das Panik-Orchester. A man in a white suit stands with a woman in a black dress whose bare back is shown, both posing against a neutral background.  A whimsical drawing of two people dancing together, one in a pink jacket and striped pants, the other in a yellow top and white skirt with red heels, both smiling and holding hands.  A whimsical illustration of two people dancing closely together, one wearing a green dress and the other in a burgundy jacket and striped pants. Their arms and legs intertwine as they move, creating a playful, lively scene.

Ball Pompös, 1974 x Carl Brutal I and II, 1995 © Udo Lindenberg Archive

Far, further, Udo

Ball Pompous (1974) – the title says it all. Udo doesn't do things by halves, he goes big. The album shows him both musically and visually as a rock star, poet, bohemian, social critic – in short: as Total artwork.
The bourgeois figure of Carl Brutal from the song Rudi at a loss Udo processed this in two works on paper in 1995. Carl awkwardly pushes his partner, who towers over him, across the dance floor. Small variations in facial expression and posture fundamentally change the expression: in one version, Carl smiles blissfully, in the other, he seems overwhelmed. The dancers merge into one unit – it remains unclear who is actually leading whom. An apt metaphor for Udo's view of social role models.

 

An illustrated album cover shows a vampire in a top hat attacking a frightened man. Bats fly around a dark, gothic city in the background. Text reads Udo Lindenberg & Das Panik Orchestra and Geen Paniek in bold red letters.   Album cover featuring a man with shoulder-length hair wearing a white shirt and dark blazer on a black background. Text reads “Udo Lindenberg & the Panik-Orchester Votan Wahnwitz.”.  

Geen Paniek, 1978 and Votan Wahnwitz, 1975 x Vampir Pink, 1995 © Udo Lindenberg Archive

A leap across borders & into dark worlds

In 1978, Udo dared to try an unusual experiment with No panic, an album that literally crosses boundaries, as it is entirely on Dutch sung. The proximity to his hometown of Gronau, not far from the Dutch border, is audible.
The cover is also an eye-catcher: like a gothic novel, with a vampire, hat, bats, and a dark castle. The song 0-Rhesus-Negative, already from Voting madness (1975), returns here in a new language.
Udo's fascination with bloodsuckers found its artistic expression in 1995 in the collage Vampire PinkBut instead of threatening, the vampire here appears shrill, comical, and enormous. “Pretty in Pink” instead Finstermann – proof of Udo’s joy in ironically breaking with his own themes.

 

So much for our little excursion through Udo's musical beginnings in the 70s. The comet strikes Oberhausen again – and, of course, in the exhibition Udo Lindenberg. Comet-like panic – liqueurs, udograms, nudes & much more. The entire udoversum is coming to the Ruhr area!
Go on your own search for clues and try Clay & Ink to bring together: Which lines, characters or themes from Udo's songs do you find in his pictures?

Lena Elster

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