Falco - Emotional (N.Y. Mix) Special Limited Edition Double Pack - 1987 - WEA
Wednesday, February 25th, 2009
Click above for big pictures, click below to play me…
” Silence is golden, but you’re extra quiet…
Why don’t you shout or scream or… anything ?”
The Quiet Look - Thomas Wayne
The problem with total silence in love and relationships is that it doesn’t really say very much.
If you are the one instigating the silence then it is very easy to get all mixed up in the perceived profound enigmatic meaningfulness of it all, making you feel like you are starring in a black and white 50’s melodrama - forever staring into the middle distance through the steam of a nearby locomotive.
This perception however is a misperception – as if you ever got around to opening your big fat mouth and actually decided to ask the person on the receiving end of this nothingness precisely what they were getting out of the entire experience, then their answer would be ‘Pretty much fuck all to be honest’.
For silence, by its very nature, is impossible to interact with. Indeed, some would argue that by facing complete and utter silence it only makes for an increased likelihood that the person inflicted by it will go ahead and repeat the actions that possibly made you go all silent in the first place. This is however just a supposition of course, as the silence isn’t telling anybody anything, not even something remotely helpful such as ‘Will you please stop doing that, it’s really bloody annoying.’
The best way to deal with silence is to treat it as that most wonderful invention of popular music, the gap – after all we all love a good gap don’t we? And the reason we love them is that a gap isn’t silence per se, but merely a quiet bit that occurs between two other reasonably closely placed noisier bits, giving the pause context and thus turning it into a contemplative mouth watering moment to savour – but, importantly, only because you are safe in the knowledge that it isn’t going to go on forever.
If viewed in this way the silence can, like many mornings before it, finally be broken and in its place will stand the admittedly terrifying but ultimately wondrous joy of flawed human interaction. In short, in the same way that all the best musical gaps are bridged by our expectations of the music to come, we must bridge our own gaps with the hope of conversation to come - and we can only do this with an open heart of love, fear and trust so that our emotions can move on, be resolved or sadly ended.
With all of this in mind, Falco’s decision to start the very first line of his very first verse with the slightly defeatist words ‘What else is there to say? We’ve seen it all before…’ may seem initially foolhardy. It is however, a masterstroke – as this song is fucking superb.
Errr… Are You Sure ?
This fact may seem hard to grasp as the intro kicks in with Falco stutteringly informing you that he is indeed ’so emo mo mo mo mo mo mo mo motional’ in the manner of a man with Tourettes forever on the brink of screaming motherfucking into your ever shocked face, and then immediately following this with a backing singer overemoting a ‘yeah yeah yeah‘ to such a degree that you may fear for both
a) your sanity, and
b) the apparent imminent onslaught of a late career George Michael schmaltzfest.
However, if you can make it beyond this point you soon realise that with Emotional Falco has realised that just by writing this song the silence which he is experiencing will be broken, and the gap that is now his past be created. The verses then don’t really say very much at all in their strange broken English - after all, what else is there truly to say? We’ve seen it all before. It is a story, as Morrissey once said, that goes on - but in actuality they are cleverly created to replicate those moments when you too in similar circumstances mutter drunkenly to yourself during those long dark lonely nights. When you too say things all too disturbingly similar and equally nonsensical to yourself - if only you were ever stupid enough to record them and play them back in the cold light of day like Falco did.
At least I say that he is speaking in broken English, but this a hope more than anything from certain knowledge – as if his wording is 100% accurate then when he says ‘I know there isn’t a woman being born who can take me as I am…’ he is setting the age limit for any possible future lovers at a shockingly low level.
What Happens Next ?
After quietly talking to himself for a few moments, and still receiving no response from the cold empty house that surrounds him, Falco senses that if there really is nothing more to say… then all he can do is feel and thus flies into the alcoholic self obsessed rage of the chorus - before finally reaching his crescendo where, tired and emotional he breaks down and criiiiiiiiiiies. This is the relief, the plateau of both the song and his emotions… the moment where you cry so much you fear may vomit – but God do you need to express it.
‘ Been That ! Been That ! Done That! ‘
Haven’t we all - and interestingly, this incredibly accurate portrayal of the feelings of lost love all then happens again. And again. And again – so Emotional is thus in essence a musical expression of the cyclic nature of post relationship grief itself.
Indeed, if you have just coincidentally lost that incredibly beautiful and astounding person who you fell worryingly in love with recently, then your heart may well jump when you hear Falco announce that he had ‘my the woman right here, I had her in the palm of my hand’ with ever increasing shriekiness and increasingly poignant nonsensical words shoved after it, then it may be sadly broken when at four minutes he screams ‘HE’S GOT TEARS IN HIS EYES’ whilst worryingly referring to himself in the third person, and it may finally stop entirely when - noticing that this song is in fact only him breaking his own internal silence, and that he is still totally and utterly and profoundly alone – he does Thomas Wayne proud and shouts and screams and… everythings ‘CMON! CMON! CMON!’ relentlessly during the outro at his stupid stupid self in the mirror, surveying a man who has lost everything but is still confoundingly in love with a person who really couldn’t give a fuck about him either way.
Astoundingly brilliant.
Where Is Falco Now ?
He died young.
He died alone.
Killed. In a car accident.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falco_(musician)
Errr… That News Has Made Me Quite Emotional…
Quite right too, as if you forget about all that Rock Me Amadeus nonsense – a song which, if we’re being honest rather than ironic, frankly hasn’t aged well – you will very quickly note that Falco was, without a doubt, a bit of a pop genius.
Don’t believe me? Try this – it is one of the songs on the other record in this double pack, is called Ganz Wein and not only does it overuse one of those fantastic drums that goes Booo! to within an inch of it’s Booo!ey life, it also contains some Da Na Na Na’s even Sudden Sway would find hard to replicate so succinctly, and soon erupts into a collision of utter chaos and silly over the top shouting.
Fabulous or what?
If you enjoyed that then I would recommend you go away and track down The Final Curtain – his Best Of – like I just have, as incredibly that isn’t even the best song on there… but it’s not cheap, I warn you now:
http://www.cduniverse.com/search/xx/music/pid/1246924/a/Final+Curtain-Ultimate.htm
What’s That Quote From Thomas Wayne All About ?
It is from a song culled from a brilliant 3 CD set of 50’s Teen Angst Classics called Midnight Cryin’ Time - all of course precursors for Emotional itself - and it is definitely worth your money too:
http://www.amazon.com/Midnight-Cryin-Time/dp/B000089HCN
Want to hear the song ?
Tell Me About Thomas…
All I can say is that up until 5 minutes ago I knew absolutely nothing about him at all - but he has just very successfully spooked the living hell out of me. Why?
He also died young.
He also died alone.
Killed. In a car accident.
So… both Falco’s and Thomas’s stories of searching for a personal peace during the disturbingly brief spell we have on this planet are, it turns out, terrifically sadly interlinked and shockingly cut short - a Tragedy you could say :
Money Update
Cost : 8 pence
Current Value : 3 pounds and fifty pence. A nice price, but not enough to take my mind off that not particularly cheerful resolution. Why not go and listen to the best gap we have on here to make you smile again - the sensational Breakin’ Up Breakin’ Down.
Current Profit : 223 pounds and 24 pence. It’s been… emotional.
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