Merkel's Call Befuddles a Punk Rocker BERLIN - After Chancellor Angela Merkel's party emerged with a resounding 41.5 percent of the vote in last year's election, she made an important phone call, not to the leader of a possible coalition partner, but to the lead singer of one of Germany's top punk bands. In an excerpt from a book published in the Sunday edition of Der Spiegel magazine, Andreas Frege of Die Toten Hosen, or The Dead Pants, recounted how he thought it was a joke when he heard that the conservative chancellor wanted to speak with him. It turned out she wanted to apologize after the band's fans voiced their disgust and anger when a leading member of her Christian Democratic Union party belted out a bad rendition of their most popular song, "Tage wie diese," or Days Like This, at the party's election night celebration. "Dear Mr. Campino, I'm calling because we trampled all over your song on election night," Mr. Frege, who goes by the stage name Campino, was quoted as remembering Ms. Merkel saying. Don't worry: It's not going to be the next C.D.U. anthem. But it's a beautiful song that you've written. The band had publicly protested having their song played at rallies leading up to the September 2013 election. The chancellor acknowledged her party had upheld that ban, Mr. Frege said. "But you said that generally, you had nothing against its use at victory celebrations," he recalled her saying. Mr. Frege said he felt "a mixture of shock and horror" about the call. "Horror that she had nothing better to do than call me," he said, "but moved that she explained it in such an easygoing, humorous way."