CAN....S and D?

Oh right, never seen that

Recently I was sitting at my desk at work grooving to the live version of Spoon and the dean saw me and asked what I was listening to. Logically I was thrilled anyone cared, so I told him and he was like "Cats?" and I said, "No, CAN." He asked me to email him a youtube, so I did.

A week later, he responded, "Interesting… not for casual listening, at least for me. Thanks, [name redacted]"

haha!!
It's totally for casual listening!!

This has been my krautrock year of discovery, and I'm excited that Can has clicked for me in a big way. Not everything, mind you - I really don't ever need to hear "Aumgn" again. I made my own compilation as I find the longer versions utterly thrilling. I tried to mix it up but found that chronological order worked best:

1. Father Cannot Yell (Monster Movie)
2. Yoo Doo Right (Monster Movie)
3. Thief (Delay 1968)
4. The Empress And The Ukraine Kind (Unlimited Edition) <--- the template for all early Fall songs!
5. Mother Sky (Soundtracks)
6. Paperhouse (Tago Mago)
7. Mushroom (Tago Mago)
8. Oh Yeah (Tago Mago)
9. Halleluwah (Tago Mago)
10. Pinch (Ege Bamyasi)
11. Vitamin C (Ege Bamyasi)
12. I'm So Green (Ege Bamyasi)
13. Spoon (Ege Bamyasi)
14. Turtles Have Short Legs (Radio Waves)
15. Future Days (Future Days)
16. Moonshake (Future Days)
17. Bel Air (Future Days)
18. Chain Reaction (Soon Over Babaluma)
19. I Want More (Flow Motion)

That fills 2 CDs, which is how my primitive thinking works. There's a handful of songs that just missed the cut: A Spectacle, Bring Me Coffee Or Tea, Dizzy Dizzy, Little Star Of Bethleham, Mother Upduff and Tango Whiskeyman. Anything I should consider adding?

have you heard the lost tapes? i think dead pigeon suite is essential, deadly doris is fun, and messer, scissors, fork and light is enough to raise anyone's heartbeat slightly. love all those songs and consider them essential can!

Mary Mary..

Uphill is my jam from Delay 1968

Waiting For The Streetcar (Lost Tapes again) is great in the same way, Mooney repeating himself until you lose track of everything while the band is locked in like a fine engine

I wish this was the year that I knew about Can just so I could experience listening to them for the first time again. That's a really good list you have in there Gerald, although you're ignoring too much off soundtracks (mother sky is the clear highlight but the rest is great too) I don't know what I'd remove from there but I would add the following songs:

Fall of Another Year (from Unlimited edition. it's mostly a hit or miss comp but it's Can so I recommend listening to the whole thing either way)
Little Star of Bethlehem
Don't Say No (Yeah, it's basically moonshake pt. 2 but I love that groove)
Quantum Physics
Dizzy Dizzy
Tango Whiskeyman
She Brings the Rain

Oh hey... there's a few more that I forgot. This is Can going disco-balearic so if you like Future Days you might appreciate these:

Sunday Jam
Geheim (Half Past One)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpABb18YNqs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GmmL2fPJSQ

Aspectacle from that self titled Can is really good too. I love hearing Jaki holding a disco beat.

Sorry for the multiple posts... I'm listening to it right now and 'All Gates are Open' also sounds amazing. I don't know if it's because I'm using my 'expensive' headphones but I hadn't noticed how good this whole album sounds until right now. So yeah, give it a listen... those three songs I mentioned are great. I see you have 'I want more' in your list so they might be right up your alley.

the post-babaluma albums are seriously under-rated. not as great as tago etc but plenty of good music on them.

from Unlimited edition. it's mostly a hit or miss comp

and weird in that half the tracks don't even sound much like can (the e.f.s. stuff) yet they had the lost tapes tracks in the vault.

Uphill is my jam from Delay 1968

HELL yes. One of my favorite Can jams, and sort kinda motorik sounding but so busy and punky and propulsive.

Mooney-era Can was so great

Did you ever hear his "Rip van Winkle" with Dave Tyack?

i went can crazy earlier this year, then took a little break, then went back when this thread was bumped and was reminded that yes, can is the best. the development of the drumbeat in messer, scissors, forks and light is something i could listen to over and over and always find new things to hear and enjoy. even when i'm sick of paying attention, it's a great dance song. plus, medley!

I really love all of the Mooney tracks on Unlimited Edition.

^ this, esp love Connection which never seems to get mentioned

Mooney Can is so velvets it hurts, I fucking love it but I'm also glad they veered in other directions soon.

"Butterfly" is my jam off Delay.

Mooney is fine but he's fine as a rock vocalist from the 70's. I love Damo because he sounds very unique, it's a timeless voice in alternative music. When I first heard Can I thought they were a modern band, it was the synths that revealed the album's real age away.

Who else sounds like Malcolm Mooney?

Biography by Rob Young on the way!

http://www.factmag.com/2014/03/30/can-to-get-two-volume-biography-featuring-contributions-from-geoff-barrow-james-murphy-and-more/

(not til 2016 though)

Wait...has this full video existed before? I know I've seen clips, but not sure that the full set has been available...looks/sounds great.

http://youtu.be/vy5q-61HSsM?t=5m

yeah, i think the full thing is newly emerged. looks better than the clips i've seen in the past! CAN!

and that is great news that Rob Young is doing the bio -- his Electric Eden is seriously one of the best books about music I've ever read.

Awesome! Thanks for that.

Some incredible dancing in this video. Shame "Mother Sky" sounds so terrible.

goddamn, liebezeit is definitely the best drummer ever.

he really is

love the moment around 34:20 where they cut to a girl rocking out ... while reading a book.
i think i need an oral history of this concert.

Oh my god, this is an amazing video. Live Oh Yeah!

love the moment around 34:20 where they cut to a girl rocking out ... while reading a book.

She was the same one blowing bubbles earlier, wasn't she? I love pretty much everyone in this crowd.

Looks like the guy who put this up is putting up a longer version here (video is currently "processing" according to a message at the link):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3aJnsV8F2oY

goddamn, liebezeit is definitely the best drummer ever.

― tylerw, Tuesday, April 1, 2014 11:49 AM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

he really is

― sleeve, Tuesday, April 1, 2014 11:50 AM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

thirded.

FOURTHED

dancing to can is also the funnest thing in the universe

great stuff indeed. absolutely cantastic. this is what i call a groove. all those people in the audience will now be between 60 and 70. weird, somehow. it says the clip is from the rockpalast. as far as i know the rockpalast, a live music show on german tv, started around 1974, so that can't really be. soest is about the most provincial backwater imaginable, in 1970 innovative music was happening in these kind of places in germany, funny. the same was true for faust and wümme and cluster and forst.

crowd is all retirement age now

What is Jaki doing these days?

x-p apparently the show is from the wdr archives, so actually it has nothing to do with the live rockpalast except that it was "presented" by the rockplast programme later on: http://www.wdr.de/tv/rockpalast/sendungsbeitraege/2014/0331/index.jsp

what are the precursors of Jaki's drumming style? I feel like the crowd should be totally losing their shit over it more but maybe it's not as revolutionary as I think it was?

here's something kinda recent from jaki
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHEcPX9VNNw

I've always connected Jaki with Tony Allen, feel like there's a drum groove kinship there.

I've only seen one interview with him and he claims to be 100% self-taught -- I have no idea how he developed his style though. He didn't say much in the Can DVD either because Irmin Schmidt never stops talking. I would probably faint if I saw him play irl.

yeah, tony williams is a good comparison. liebezeit came out of a free jazz scene didn't he?
i think it was michael rother who said jaki was the one genius of the krautrock scene.

I feel like the crowd should be totally losing their shit over it more

watching this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZh4EmBbwd8
seems the full recording

what are the precursors of Jaki's drumming style? I feel like the crowd should be totally losing their shit over it more but maybe it's not as revolutionary as I think it was?

jaki's one of my favorite drummers as well. jaki was huge into jazz, so a contemporary of sorts might be jack dejohnette (listen to live miles from 1969/70 and you'll hear dejohnette busting out some similar moves). of course, jaki was doing his shit on delay 1968 so maybe he hadn't even heard dejohnette yet? james browns' drummers seems like a touchstone too.

If the question about the full Rockpalast Archives show being circulated before hasn't been answered before it looks like there is a series of old Rockpalast related shows being broadcast on German tv. THat's where the Kraftwerk set that recently appeared came from and from the same original series.
Not sure if this relates to the popularity of the Beat Club related material which has been appearing over the last few years as the Lost Broadcasts or not. & I'm assuming they're shows from rival tv stations.
But so great to see things appearing from then taht have lain dormant and unknown for 40+ years. THey are also broadcasting some US band stuff recorded for the same show. I've seen a Santana set mentioned. There's more on that at this link, http://www.wdr.de/tv/rockpalast/sendungsbeitraege/2013/from_the_archives/index.jsp

Liebezeit has done quite a few albums with Burnt Friedman (Secret Rhythms). And just two weeks ago this was released on which he plays on two tracks.