One of my latest music obsessions is a band called Sunterra, which does a cover of Falco's "Out of the Dark." It's always interesting, if not always pleasant, to compare covers to the originals, especially when the cover's done by a band that you would never in a billion trillion years suspect of liking a particular type of music well enough to even imagine covering it. For instance, Sunterra is one of those symphonic heavy metal bands with death grunts. Falco is, well, not. Really not. 80s electronica, actually.
So, upon discovering what kind of music Falco actually did (and no, I'd never heard of him before now), I decided that, in the interest of S&G, I'd give a listen to the original. It's an interesting juxtaposition, and I shall now allow you to share my experience. I'll understand if you run away screaming.
I think you can all guess which one's my favorite.
For those of you who don't speak German, translated lyrics are below the fold for them as wants 'em. Thanks be to Aspidites87.
Out of the Dark
I can never get enough of you
You are in each breath
Everything revolves around you
Why me of all people?
Count the hours, the seconds
But time seems to stand still
I've slaved away, tried to find my way out
Leave me be!
What else do you want, you want my days numbered
Why must you torment me with my longing,
Your hell burns in me
You are my life-elixir
I am torn
When will you come to kiss my wounds.
Out of the dark... do you hear the voice that says to you
Into the light... I give up and close my eyes
Out of the dark... do you hear the voice that says to you
I give up and you waste your tears to the night
I am ready, because it is time
For our bond over eternity
You are already there, quite near, I can feel you
I'll let you entice me, abduct me
In your power tonight for the last time
Give me your hand, my life, name your price
I give you yesterday, today and tomorrow
Then the set closes
No way back, the white light approaches
Piece for piece, I want to give in,
Must I die, In order to live?
Out of the dark...
Based on a statistical universe of 2 data points, I am going to draw the sweeping conclusion that Falco tunes tend to be better as covers than in their original form. (I'm thinking here of "Der Kommissar" for the other data point, of course.)
ReplyDeleteHope the lead vocalist gets over that nasty cold soon.
Oh, and you might like this (from circa 1993). I played the keyboards.