The English Germanism I am going to scrutinize today takes us into the musical era of the 1980s in Austria. Back then, the Neue Deutsche Welle (prounounce ‘noy-ah ‘doytsh-ah ‘vellah, meaning New German Wave) was celebrating one success after another – the sound was based of punk and rock elements, the language was German, and Austrian and German musicians called the shots at every radio station that wanted to be up to date. Some made it even internationally in Europe, few made it into the U.S. charts.
Falco climbed to the top U.S. hit charts in 1986 with “Rock me Amadeus”. But he was already legend in Europe with his song “Der Kommissar” (prounounce: dair commis-‘saar, meaning the police superintendent). Here is a video of the song:
But first, let me reiterate what was so special about the musician who was born as Johann Hölzel in Vienna in 1957. When a little child, he was found to have perfect pitch. At age 17 he founded his first band in which he played the electronic bass. He changed his name to Falco after he had watched GDR ski jumper Falko Weißpflog during the new year’s competition of 1978. In 1981, as he had already an Austrian hit with a band as their singing bassist, he was discovered as a soloist. That’s when Der Kommissar turned up on the A-side of one of his singles.
Originally, the song had been written for somebody else, and there hadn’t even been any lyrics. Falco wrote them. What even I as a newbie to the contemporary music of my peers recognized – I grew up to classical music, jazz, and German pop – was the unusual quality of language and rhythm. Falco used a mix of Austrian German and English, which might already have been a foreboding for international success. But he probably also was the forerunner of white rap music. The speed of his rhythmic talking and the catchy, melodious refrain were something totally new to anybody I knew. I’m NOT sure, though, whether everybody was aware that the song was about drug abuse, i.e. cocaine, and the warning about Der Kommissar making his rounds just a side-remark about the authorities. We were dancing to the song in discos and found it cool that the refrain was in the Viennese dialect.
Apparently, some other musicians hopped on the band wagon and, with permission from Falco, covered the song. I have heard the British rock band After the Fire’s version quite a few times on the radio, also over here, but never had a clue who the band was nor why they would cover a Falco song. And I only now learned from Wikipedia that U.S. singer Laura Brannigan had written a song based on Der Kommissar. When I listened to her “Deep in the Dark” earlier, I found that it was not so much a new song but rather new lyrics.
I haven’t heard Der Kommissar on the radio in a long time. Maybe because cocaine simply isn’t in the focus anymore, but other, deadlier drugs are. Back in the 1980s, cocaine was the drug of high society and anybody who considered themselves as “interesting”. There was that flair of the forbidden, the rebellious, the daring about it – which the song describes pretty much, down to recognizing a typical cocaine nose. What the song also makes clear is the self-destruction that goes along with drug abuse. It is not a celebration of cocaine.
Falco was killed in a DUI car accident in the Dominican Republic in 1998. Sadly and ironically, he was found to have taken “huge amounts of cocaine”. His own song Der Kommissar about street youths killing themselves by way of drugs, hadn’t hit home with him.
Susanne Bacon,
Your column is thought-provoking, having combined music with the topic of drugs.
I wish everyone were more like me. If they were, the world could avoid the unnecessary troubles and deaths caused by street drugs.
While I can swallow a steak in one bite, with no problem, I react differently when it comes to swallowing drugs.
It is highly comical to watch me trying to swallow even a tiny baby aspirin as I go through convulsions to force the itsy bitsy pill down my throat.
My difficulty in taking drugs recommended by my doctor may be a blessing in disguise. After all, why would I want to take any street drugs? No way.
Sadly, young die young because of street drugs.
I wish it would stop.
Joseph Boyle
Joseph,
I’m totally with you. It is sad how often peer pressure does it. Most probably first because of mere curiosity on one side and the need one the other to make money to “fix” one’s own addiction.
I try to take as few prescribed/over-the-counter drugs as possible; my vitamin/mineral supplements are such huge pills that I sometimes wonder why they don’t make them smaller and have you take two per diem.
Interestingly enough, as soon as I tried to repost this article on Facebook, they took it down immediately, allegedly because it was against community standards. I doubt it was because of the video link itself but because of some words that triggered the algorithms. So, even if one writes an article explaining a song as a warning against drugs and them so wrongly being celebrated in specific circles, some keywords do “the logic”.
So much for AI. But that is on another note. I so appreciate it that you keep reading (and encouraging) my writing. Funny enough, this was not even meant to be about drugs but on a Germanism. I guess, the title Der Kommissar ought to have been Drugs Drag Towards Death. But that sounds like so much less fun than “Don’t turn around – Der Kommissar is onto it”. And it would have made this article on a Germanism in the English language obsolete.