Sunday Music: Falco

It's been a rough couple of years for Austria. Once, it was the land of Mozart, psychoanalysis, strudel and Arnold,* and then it was like you couldn't swing a dead cat without hitting a sexual deviant who imprisons young girls in a basement dungeon. [I love that Wikipedia has a category called "Kidnapped Austrian children"]

With the intention of restoring the image of Austria, I bring you possibly the country's first foray into hip-hop,"Der Kommissar," released in 1981. A song about cocaine addicts in Vienna, it was the number one hit in seven countries. It actually made it to 72 on the U.S. charts, which is incredible, considering the fact that the average American has an aneurysm if forced to listen to a foreign language. I'll spare you the video, which is terrible, even by the standards of early MTV. And yeah, Falco is the guy who did "Rock Me, Amadeus." Forget that, too. "Der Kommissar" is an infectious fusion of 70's Euro-techno and old school rap, and you can dance to it--spastically of course, dressed in a lot of black leather.





*I didn't forget Hitler, but it's unfair to give Austria all the credit for the Fuhrer.