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Tiki Central / General Tiki / Why I had to leave Germany:

Post #357232 by bigbrotiki on Fri, Jan 25, 2008 10:29 PM

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On 2008-01-24 13:58, virani wrote:
I understand the guy, between the strange blue cocktail or the beer, I'll take the beer...

Absolutely, those look yucky. Again, just proof what the Polynesian cocktail had become by the mid-80s (approximate date of the clip) in the public's image: Candy colored sugar water with umbrellas.

But there are some good beers in Hawai'i !!

Now, yes, for sure. But perhaps not in the early 1960s. If you listen to the earlier version of the song in this clip (which is only a slide show for the band):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-f0_JUSeuH8&feature=related

...with Paul rockin' on the piano, it sounds much better. I don't think that PRIMO beer existed in 1963 yet, and it was probably difficult to get import beers in the islands. Anyway, not to be taken literally, the title must have come as a German counter-reaction to the Hawaii wave that also hit European shores by that time.

On 2008-01-24 12:28, Quiet Village Idiot wrote:
If only Germany hadn't lost its South Pacific colonies along with the First World War, maybe there would be better beer there!

You might be right. What is the best Chinese import beer to get nowadays? In my opinion it's Tsingtao. And here is why: Tsing Tau was usurped as a German colony at the turn of the century. The Germans razed the Chinese huts and shacks and built a model town with water works, canalization, a hospital, a Chinese/German University, and....a brewery!

It is still the only Chinese city with European style architecture today.

You can see Tsing Tau in a little extra section on the upper left of this map, which shows the German "Protectorates" in the South Seas from 1885-1919:

During this period Germany "owned" a considerable chunk of New Guinea, plus the Admiralty Islands, the Carolines with Palau, the Marshall Islands, and part of Samoa. This is how many early museums in Germany filled their coffers with South Sea art, which then in turn inspired the artistic avantgarde in Germany (see TIKI MODERN).