Both Banks of the Aurach

Lyrics

[Intro]
(a small river running, a factory whistle, then two)
Herzogenaurach. One town. One river. Two brothers.

[Verse 1]
They started in the laundry room of their mother's little house,
Adi made the shoes and Rudolf went and sold them out,
and it worked — God, it worked — they put Jesse Owens in a pair
in Berlin in 'thirty-six, with the whole world standing there.
Two brothers and a workshop and the best idea in sport.
And then something happened. And nobody knows quite what.

[Chorus]
Both banks of the Aurach! One on either side!
Adidas on the left of it and Puma on the right!
Same town, same river, same mother, same trade —
and they never spoke again for the rest of their days.
Both banks of the Aurach. Forty years of that.
And the river isn't wide. That's the thing. It isn't wide.

[Verse 2]
There's a story about an air raid and a sentence said too fast,
Adi and his wife came down into the shelter where Rudolf sat,
and Adi said "here come the dirty bastards back again" —
he meant the bombers overhead. Rudolf thought he meant them.
Maybe that's it. Maybe that's a story people tell
because a reason that small is the only reason that fits.

[Chorus]

[Bridge]
They split the workers. Split the town. Split the suppliers and the bars.
Two football clubs. Two bakeries. Two of everything there was.
And they both got very rich, and they both got very old,
and neither of them ever crossed the twenty feet of cold
water running through the middle of the place they both called home.
They're buried in one cemetery — opposite ends. Alone.

[Chorus]

[Outro]
(the river, still running)
It isn't a wide river.
You could throw a stone across it.
Neither of them did.