Song
A Ha Ho
Running time
3:20 Minutes
Time of origin and release
1989 (production, first publication in 2000)
Music, lyrics and production
Music: Ide Hintze
Lyrics: Falco, Ide Hintze
Producer: Ide Hintze
About the song
In 1989, Falco arranged a meeting with Christian Ide Hintze, a Viennese poet, action artist, performance and multimedia poet.
As part of this acquaintance, Hintze produced some sampling songs in the same year. The recordings of Falco’s voice come from Hintze’s telephone answering machine; the lyricist wrote the music alone.
The track begins with a metallic-sounding loop, over which a guitar plays and an eerily consumed male voice can also be heard. The drum computer is not used throughout, a fact that gives this song the character of a musical experiment. A consistent song structure is not recognizable.
Lyrically, it’s just as reduced: Falco’s voice („The man who wrote that message“) is repeated countless times in its entirety or in excerpts, additionally there is Hintze’s contribution („Das ist der Mann, der mir diese Nachricht schrieb“. Well, there’s nothing more.
The song, which was written in 1996, was released on Christian Ide Hintze’s album “Ampf” in 2000. In the booklet, Hintze describes the recording as a “birthday present for H.C. Artman.”
Unexciting both musically and lyrically, this sampling song will probably only interest die hard Falco fans.
Lyrics
The man who… ah
The man who… ah
The man who… ah
The man who… ah… that message
The man who… ah… that message
Das ist der Mann, der mir
Das ist der Mann, der mir
The man who… ah
The man who… ah
The man
The man
Das ist der Mann, der mir
Das ist der Mann, der mir
Das ist der Mann, der mir
Das ist der Mann, der mir
Oh, ah
Oh, ah
That message
That message
That message
That message
The man
The man
The man
Diese Nachricht
The man
Diese Nachricht
The man
Das ist der Mann, der mir
The man
Das ist der Mann, der mir
The man
Diese Nachricht schreibt
The man
Diese Nachricht schreibt
The man who… ah… wrote me
The man who… ah… wrote me
The man
That message
The man
That message
The man
Diese Nachricht schreibt
The man
Diese Nachricht schreibt
The man
That message
The man
That message
That message
That message
Right!
Who… ah… wrote me that message
Right!
Who… ah… wrote me that message
Right!
Diese Nachricht
That message
Right!
Diese Nachricht
That message
Right!
That message
That message
Note: Falco sings in the text blocks shown normally, Ide Hintze sings in the text blocks shown in italics.
The samples with Falco’s voice come from mini-cassette recordings that Ide Hintze’s answering machine made of Falco’s telephone messages in 1989.
My text version is based on the text supplements of the official releases (booklet, inlay, cover etc.), if available. However, all lyrics were tapped and corrected according to the sung word. For songs where no lyric supplements are available, my version is based solely on the sung word or also on lyrics circulating on the Internet. Text passages sung in dialect are in moderate transliteration. Spelling errors, both German and English, were corrected in glaring cases. The spelling is based partly on the spelling valid at the time (text supplements), partly on the new spelling (own interceptions). Punctuation marks have generally been omitted. I am grateful for any suggestions for improvement.