"Looking for Freedom" is a song by German music producer Jack White originally released in 1978 with German singer Marc Seaberg. When performed later that year in German under the name 'Auf der Straße nach Süden' by Tony Marshall, it became a hit in Germany. Ten years later, White re-released the song with American actor and singer David Hasselhoff. In spring of 1989, the song held the No. 1 positions in West Germany for 8 weeks and in Switzerland for 4 weeks.
Lyrics
The song is about a rich man's son who wants to make his own way in the world, rather than to have everything given to him. The composer is Jack White, and "Looking for Freedom" is the original title, with lyrics written by Gary Cowtan. It was already finished before Jon Athan began writing the German lyrics. The German version sung by Tony Marshall was released some weeks after the original version sung by Marc Seaberg, who was a new artist in 1978, whereas Tony Marshall was already an established star. Both of these versions, recorded at Hansa Studio 2 in Berlin, used the same instrumental tracks and some of these were again used on David Hasselhoff's 1989 version, which was completed in Los Angeles. All three versions were produced by Jack White.
Hasselhoff performed this song before throngs of pro-German reunification activists at the Berlin Wall on New Year's Eve 1989, mere weeks after the wall had begun to be taken down. Wearing a piano-keyboard scarf and a leather jacketcovered in motion lights, Hasselhoff stood in a bucket crane and performed the song along with the crowd. Recordings of the ZDF TV broadcast resurfaced in the late 1990s and nowadays can be found on YouTube. On a later tour of Germany in 2004, Hasselhoff would lament that a photo of him was lacking from the Checkpoint Charlie Museum in Berlin.
Cover versions and uses in the media
, pop and country singer Kikki Danielsson covered the song on her 2006 album I dag & i morgon. In 2006, German basketball playerDirk Nowitzki joked that he sings the song before free throws. In a commercial for Norwegiantelephone company Telenor's "Djuice Freedom" subscription plan, David Hasselhoff is shown singing the song, with a voiceover that says, "David Hasselhoff is looking for freedom, Are you?" The song plays on the car stereo in 2012's Cloud Atlas as Jim Broadbent's Timothy Cavendish flees a tyrannical nursing home in one of the segments directed by German Tom Tykwer. Moone Boy's Martin Moone and his imaginary friend dance to it on their own wall as the live transmission of the fall of the Berlin Wall plays on television, ending the episode "Another Prick In The Wall" also from 2012. ESPN used this song in an ad advertising a Knicks vs Mavericks Wednesday night game, using Dirk Nowitzki as backdrop. In Season 24, Episode 1 of the British television seriesTop Gear, co-host Matt LeBlanc buys an old Mercedes and finds a cassette tape of "Looking for Freedom" in the tape deck. American professional wrestlerTimothy Thatcher occasionally uses the song as his entrance music at events in Germany. The song has inspired on the theory of freedom, particularly the question as to what makes for a free life.
