He Lit More Than Just A Match

One Song + One Mic = Substack Sessions SS0007

Nov 14, 2024

Available for iOS and Android

What can happen when you light a match

This Thursday’s Substack Sessions song is one of best known tunes in Swiss music history. It’s about a guy who strikes a match to light his cigarette and while doing so, he drops the burning match on his carpet.

This sets off a chain of events starting with his burning house and then escalating to a burning city. The people afraid of losing all their belongings think someone deliberately set the city on fire and want to find the culprit and that’s why they take to the streets with their guns.

The turmoil starts a war in Switzerland and everybody sends tanks to save peace but it gets worse and soon the entire world is in another world war and the human race is wiped out.

But at the end of the song he picks up the match just before the carpet starts to burn and saves humanity.

The song is called - I Han Es Zündhölzli azündt (I lit a match) - Apple Music | YouTube Music written by Mani Matter. For me one of, if not THE most ingenious songwriter of Switzerland, who died just 36 years old in a car accident in 1972.

His songwriting was impeccable in which not a word or a line was wasted - zero fat!

His observations of the daily life in Switzerland were unmatched and his songs always contain a hefty dose of irony and sometimes the last line was also the punch line.

Substack Sessions SS0007 - I Han Es Zündhölzli Azündt

Again, before you listen to my Substack Session version, here’s the morning version of - I Han Es Zündhölzli Azündt - from my ‘Start Your Day With A Song’-series on my YouTube channel. In this version I changed it from a major to a minor key just as an experiment. And I must say it matches (no pun intended) the mood of the lyrics pretty good.

At gigs I mostly play this Substack Session version in a major key. Every time it’s fun to see that even after more than 50 years since Mani Matter’s death his songs get still a great response from an audience of all ages. They’re still being taught and sung in Swiss schools.

Short side note: I almost deleted this recording because towards the end of the song something got stuck in my throat and I barely made it to the end. But if you listen to the lyrics and if you understand the lyrics, you’ll notice it’s exactly the spot where the human race is wiped out. I say - perfect timing!

Again - #livemusic!

I Han Es Zündhölzli Azündt - will be released on Spotify | YouTube Music in February 2025.