He is the only artist to score a #1 Hit in the U.S. with a German language song, and his albums and singles have sold about 60 million copies worldwide.
Early Years
Born in Vienna, studying at the Vienna Music Conservatory in 1977 which he left after one semester to pursue a career in music, he lived for a short time in West Berlin while singing in a jazz-rock band. When he returned to Vienna he was calling himself "Falco," reportedly in tribute to the East German ski jumper Falko Weißpflog, and playing in the Austrian bands Spinning Wheel and Hallucination Company. En route to becoming an international rock star in his own right, he was bass player in the Austrian hard rock-punk rock band Drahdiwaberl (from 1978 until 1983). With Drahdiwaberl he wrote and performed the song "Ganz Wien" which he would also include on his debut solo album Einzelhaft.
Individual success
Falco's first hit was "Der Kommissar" from the 1982 album Einzelhaft. A German language song about drug consumption that combines rap verses with a sung chorus, Falco's record was a number-one success in many countries but failed to break big in the U.S. The song, however, would prove to have a life of its own in two English-language versions. British Rock band After the Fire recorded an English cover version, loosely based on Falco's lyrics and also called "Der Kommissar" (with "uh-oh" and "alles klar Herr Kommissar" the only other lyrics held over from the original). This time, the song shot to number three in the United States (their only major hit there) in 1983, though it failed to crack the UK Top 40. The band - who had been together more than a decade - broke up almost immediately thereafter. That same year, American singer Laura Branigan recorded a version of the song with new English lyrics, under the title "Deep in the Dark" on her album Branigan 2.
After a second album, Junge Roemer, failed to provide a repeat to his debut single's success (outside of Austria and Germany, where the album topped the charts), Falco began to experiment with English lyrics in an effort to broaden his appeal, and chose a new production team. The result would be the most popular album and single of his career.
Falco recorded "Rock Me Amadeus" inspired in part by the Oscar-winning film Amadeus, and the song became a worldwide hit in 1986. This time, his record reached #1 in the U.S. and UK, bringing him the success that had eluded him in that major market a few years earlier. The song remained in the top spot of the Billboard Hot 100 for three weeks and his album, Falco 3, fittingly peaked at the number three position on the Billboard album charts. Unheard of at the time for a white performer, much less a European one, the Austrian rapper's single climbed to the upper reaches of the Billboard Top R&B Singles Chart (only a few years earlier called the "Black Singles" chart), peaking at number 6. Falco 3 peaked at number 18 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums charts. Ultimately, "Rock Me Amadeus" went to the #1 spot in over a dozen countries including the Soviet Union and Japan. Follow-up single "Vienna Calling" was another international pop hit, peaking at #18 of the Billboard Charts and #17 on the U.S. Cash Box Charts in 1986. A double A-side 12" single featuring remixes of those two hits peaked at #4 on the U.S. Dance/Disco charts.
"Jeanny" the third release from the album Falco 3, brought the performer back to the top of the charts across Europe. Highly controversial when it was released in Germany and the Netherlands, the story of "Jeanny" was told from the point of view of a rapist and possible murderer. Several DJs and radio stations refused to play the ballad, which was ignored in the U.S., although it became a huge hit in many European countries, and inspired two sequels on later albums.
In 1986, the album Emotional was released, produced by Rob and Ferdi Bolland (Bolland & Bolland). On the Album were "Coming Home (Jeanny Part 2, Ein Jahr danach)" and the song "Kamikaze Cappa" which was written as a tribute to the late photojournalist Robert Capa. "The Sound of Musik" was another international success, and a Top 20 U.S. Dance hit, though he failed to make the U.S. pop charts. He also went on "Emotional-Tour" which was a world tour where he ended up in Japan at 1987. In 1987, he sang a duet with Brigitte Nielsen "Body Next to Body" and the single was a Top 10 hit in the Germanic countries. The Album Wiener Blut was released in 1988 but it did not get much publicity outside Germany and Austria.
After "Jeanny," there were a number of European hits, but Falco was rarely heard in the U.S. and the UK. His 1992 U.S. comeback attempt, the album Nachtflug with the song "Titanic" won a number of awards, but failed to chart in America.
Death
Falco died of severe injuries received from a collision with a bus in his Mitsubishi Pajero near the city of Puerto Plata, in the Dominican Republic on 6 February 1998, just two weeks before his 41st birthday. While it was initially reported that the autopsy showed high blood levels of alcohol and cocaine, this was disputed. At the time of his death, he was working on a comeback into the music world.
He was buried in the Zentralfriedhof (Central Cemetery) in Vienna, Austria.
Years active: 1974 -1998
Ecce Machina
Falco Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
And I can smell a new dawn coming.
The elders of the solid state
It would be easy, could be fate.
You! With your empty arrogance,
You're something I must break
Your history's will to serve,
Your the one to take.
I've gathered the ash from last night's cigarettes,
I washed it down with stale champagne.
(I washed it down with stale champagne).
I've gathered the ash from last night's cigarettes,
And washed them down with stale champagne.
That's what I did -
I washed it down with stale champagne.
You you...
Ecce Machina
I bet you didn't think I had it in me.
I bet you thought you had me
All figured out, just because you made me!
I know what it means to be a machine
I know what it means to be a machine,
On my knees in the temple of code
On my knees in the temple of code.
I know what it means to be a machine,
On my knees in the temple of code
[rep lots]
Oh yeah, hit it Tom!
The lyrics of Falco's song "Ecce Machina" speak of a technological revolution that is about to take place, personified through the concept of a machine gaining consciousness and challenging its creators. The singer, a human who understands what it means to be a machine, expresses their confidence in the face of this change, claiming that they have been awake and actively preparing for this moment while others remained ignorant. The first stanza harshly criticizes those who oppose or underestimate the machine, promising to break their arrogance and become the one to take over their history's will to serve. The chorus, "ecce machina," which means "behold the machine" in Latin, reinforces the idea that the machine is the singer of the song, and its arrival is inevitable.
Line by Line Meaning
I've been here through the night
I've been here all night, working hard on something.
And I can smell a new dawn coming.
I sense that something new and exciting is about to happen.
The elders of the solid state
The experienced leaders of technology.
It would be easy, could be fate.
This might happen naturally or without much effort.
You! With your empty arrogance,
You, who are full of confidence but have nothing to back it up.
You're something I must break
I need to bring you down or defeat you in some way.
Your history's will to serve,
You have a tendency to follow tradition without questioning it.
Your the one to take.
You are the one I need to beat or overcome.
I've gathered the ash from last night's cigarettes,
I've collected the leftover remains of my work from last night.
I washed it down with stale champagne. (I washed it down with stale champagne).
I celebrated my work with something that's not ideal or fresh, but it still works.
That's what I did - I washed it down with stale champagne.
This is how I chose to reward myself for my hard work.
You you...Ecce Machina
Hey, you! Look at this machine I created!
I bet you didn't think I had it in me.
You probably didn't expect me to be capable of creating something like this.
I bet you thought you had me All figured out, just because you made me!
You assumed that you knew everything about me because you were involved in my creation.
I know what it means to be a machine
I understand what it's like to be controlled or influenced by technology.
On my knees in the temple of code
I am completely immersed in the world of programming or software creation.
[rep lots]
This line is repeated multiple times, emphasizing the idea of being a machine.
Oh yeah, hit it Tom!
This is an expression of excitement or enthusiasm. It's unclear who Tom is or what he's doing.
Lyrics © O/B/O APRA/AMCOS
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Libor Synthesizer
on Out of the Dark
super muzika ,nádhera