ILM Artist Poll No. 77 · CAN · Results Thread

This was probably the most enjoyable ILM poll I've taken part in and read. Splendid stuff!

I just dug out my copy of the 2cd "Anthology" as I do like the 'edited, but still long' versions of 'Halleluwah' and 'Morning Sky'. This CD set was my first proper into (I did buy 'I want more' back in the day)

Anyway, it still has the HMV price tag of £19.25 on it! I mean, what was I, made of money in those days?

Thanks again Moka, splendid poll!

My ballot:

Albums

1. Soon Over Babaluma
2. Monster Movie
3. Ege Bamyasi
4. Tago Mago
5. Future Days

Songs

1. Future Days
2. Yoo Doo Right
3. Mushroom
4. Quantum Physics
5. Private Nocturnal
6. Pinch
7. Oh Yeah
8. Sing Swan Song
9. Father Cannot Yell
10. All Gates Open
11. Dizzy Dizzy
12. Mary So Contrary
13. Come Sta, La Luna
14. Dead Pigeon Suite
15. Vernal Equinox
16. Halleluhwah
17. Animal Waves
18. Waiting For The Streetcar
19. Chain Reaction
20. Turtles Have Short Legs

hard to complain about anything in the top 10 but I am a bit sad that "One More Night" didn't make it, that has got to be the most quietly funky tune I've ever heard

One More Night was #13!

Or, wait: are you saying you were sad it didn't make the top ten?

hard to complain about anything in the top 10

Well, I could, but I'm not going to.

great poll!! thank you for doing it, moka.

didn't vote albums, here are my songs

Mother Sky
Halleluwah
Yoo Doo Right (Live 1971-1977)
I Want More
Messer, Scissors, Fork, and Light
Dead Pigeon Suite
Moonshake
Deadly Doris
Spoon (live from Lost Tapes)
Graublau
Vernal Equinox
Mushroom
Flow Motion
Soul Desert
Come sta La Luna
Millionspiel
Shikaku Maru Ten
Sing Swan Song
Tango Whiskyman
Paperhouse

Honorable mentions:
And More
Can Can (for being so vexing to google)

I frigging love "I Want More." Even if it's the only real toe they ever dipped into disco, it somehow manages to lose none of what makes Can great -- the weirdly half whispered treated lead vocal, the hilarious toy keyboard counter-melody, the Rother-esque melody in the guitar and keys refrain. The remaster (on Spotify) sounds great, too. The fact that "...And More" exists, too, which sounds like some lost KC and the Sunshine Band 12", makes it even better. Wow.

Then there's this, which I said I'd vote for but then didn't :(

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iInAuoio-pQ

Really enjoyed the rollout, especially the images. I was starting to imagine them in packs of Can trading cards, with all the different gum flavors that could be included. Collect them all!

Future Days
Tago Mago
Landed
Ege Bamyasi
Flow Motion

Future Days
Moonshake
Red Hot Indians
Spoon
Halleluwah
I Want More
Full Moon on the Highway
Vitamin C
Oh Yeah
I’m So Green
Mushroom
Paperhouse
Vernal Equinox
Bel Air
Tango Whiskyman
Babylonian Pearl
Hunters and Collectors
Unfinished
Sing Swan Song
One More Night

this was my ballot! this was so fun and i listened to so much incredible music bc of it

songs:
1. Splash
2. Spray
3. Bel Air
4. Tape Kebab
5. All Gates Open
6. Vernal Equinox
7. November
8. Animal Waves
9. Thief
10. Unfinished
11. Father Cannot Yell
12. Deadlock
13. Gomorrha
14. Chain Reaction
15. Ibis
16. Mother Sky
17. Future Days
18. Sodom
19. Smoke (E.F.S. No. 59)
20. Graublau

albums:
1. Soon Over Babaluma
2. Future Days
3. Ege Bamyasi
4. Tago Mago
5. Can

Or, wait: are you saying you were sad it didn't make the top ten?

yeah kinda a petty complaint given it placed #13 but still, relistening to this stuff I'm amazed at how stupidly great that track is

Feeling like I want to meet the only other person to vote for "Butterfly" to shake them warmly by the hand.

Is Mother Sky the first motorik beat?

― jmm

Some attribute it to Velvet Underground I think... but yeah I think you're on to something.

― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Wednesday, August 3, 2016 4:14 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

was thinking about this last night and remembered a part of the documentary where irmin schmidt is talking about his time in NYC and the people he met there, which surely would explain the VU influence because schmidt was the person who formed CAN, right? he goes to new york, has his mind blown by weirdos, forms CAN

VU was also famously another band whose album versions were tame compared to loose and far-out live versions
If you add that Jaki was originally a jazz drummer (iirc?) it would totally make sense that the CAN sound developed as it did
idk about first anything, but the evolution of a repetitive drum pattern with far-out elements laid on top of it is historically sound afaict
i have not fact-checked this progression -- going on memory, forgive my errors

I cannot believe I'm the only person that voted for Private Nocturnal! Of the songs that only got one vote mine was highest on the ballot, number five.

Do people just not like it a lot, or is it being slept on? (No pun intended) Check it out ppl!

Tracks -

1. Future Days
2. Mother Sky
3. Halleluwah
4. Yoo Doo Right
5. Pinch
6. Vitamin C
7. Spray
8. Oh Yeah
9. Chain Reaction
10. Spoon
11. Paperhouse
12. Quantum Physics
13. Father Cannot Yell
14. Sing Swan Song
15. Butterfly
16. Mushroom
17. Moonshake
18. Come Sta, La Luna
19. Half Past One
20. Peking O

Albums -

1. Tago Mago
2. Monster Movie
3. Soon Over Babluma
4. Ege Bamyasi
5. Future Days

Big thanks to Moka for running the poll. Those graphics really do seem to fit the Can vibe perfectly.

Pleased that Oh Yeah ended up in the top 10. I always had the feeling that it was one of the more overlooked tracks on Tago Mago - but clearly not!

I cannot believe I'm the only person that voted for Private Nocturnal! Of the songs that only got one vote mine was highest on the ballot, number five.

It's one of my favourite tracks on The Lost Tapes, the bass playing in the first three minutes or so is utterly sublime.

OK I need to re-listen to that, thanks

It is so slow, smooth and haunting. Really takes me to another world.

"You must play *monotonous*!"

http://youtu.be/A93XtkMLXME

I'm So Green is the track I was impressed not making it into the top 20. It's one their simpler, pop songs (at least going thru the youtubes it seems to be the most popular Can song to cover) it's like sunshine krautrock and for once Jaki isn't the highlight of the track but the guitars are.

thanks again moka, amazing pics and a brilliant results rollout

Is there one track missing from the Spotify playlist?

Great poll, thanks a lot! Wish I could've joined in this thread but I've been busy.

My ballot:

TRACKS
1.One More Night
2.Future Days
3.Vitamin C
4.Paperhouse
5.Moonshake
6.Spoon
7.Sing Swan Song
8.Mushroom
9.Bel Air
10.Oh Yeah
11.Dizzy Dizzy
12.Thief
13.Quantum Physics
14.Bring Me Coffee or Tea
15.Spray
16.Outside My Door
17.Fly by Night
18.Millionenspiel
19.Tango Whiskeyman
20.Turtles Have Short Legs

ALBUMS
1.Future Days
2.Ege Bamyasi
3.Tago Mago
4.Soon Over Babaluma
5.Soundtracks

xpost oh right, Tape Kebab. Cheers..

xpost oh right, Tape Kebab. Cheers..

I can do that, Moka, if you make the playlist collaborative.

I have a lot of disagreements with ILX about Can but I would like to say that Brad's love of the 1979 album is totally on point. Thats a really cool album

I like to add those from my library even if I only have it myself as it leaves a placeholder. I'm a nerd like that.
I can do that, Moka, if you make the playlist collaborative.

― Naive Teen Idol

I have it too but I think if I add it from my local library and its not on spotify it only appears for me in the playlist and noone else sees it?

I remember someone else doing that unwittingly adding his own. We could see the entries but not play them.

So... you want me to add it for completion purposes even tho you wont hear it?

That was the idea. I feel like sometimes when the song becomes available on Spotify it will sync up and play appropriately. .

Plus, if you have if locally I think it also plays from your laptop.

Awww yes.
http://i.imgur.com/R1AmhS1.jpg

That is a really cool shirt! Only can shirt I like, the other official ones I've seen are just the other album covers which don't really adapt to a t-shirt that well.

http://www.spoonrecords.com/shop/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=75&zenid=6bb5c79853a0b2e36f92890f0137fb39

iirc that's the shirt don anderson was wearing the first time i saw agalloch
everyone loves CAN!!

Note, being Australian I couldn't buy it from Spoon - "PLEASE NOTE: We are only taking orders from the US, CA and Europe at the moment. You will be able to order from other countries soon."

Black? That's not right. They had those Ts BITD, Holger is wearing one in some pics.

Just spend a blissful Sunday afternoon with “Don’t Turn the Light On, Leave Me Alone” cranked. Why oh why does it fade out?

also would have voted "Shikaku Maru Ten" in my top 20 if I'd known it.

So for the longest time 'I'm So Green' was my favorite CAN song and easily of the 70's. Every now and then I reevaluate my opinion and it lands on "Vitamin C". Today is "Moonshake"... that would be probably my first pick to get outsiders into CAN, the whole Future Days album is amazing, but that's the sampler choice for me. A morsel of the genius behind this band.

"Future Days", "Hallelluwah", "Mother Sky" are of course massive and as shown in this poll the consensus picks for what the band has to offer, but I think of them more as album highlights. For me, when isolating songs for a "best of the decade" I tend to favor those that in my mind work in a pop format. I might entertain the idea that CAN is not really that kind of band but it totally is: "turtles have short legs", "moonshake", "vitamin c", "i'm so green", "i want more", "spoon"... there's plenty of material that is top 10 chart material somewhere in heaven.

oh and I was the #1 for Moonshake, I can't count the times I have felt a bit low or washed out, put that song on, and felt restored and recharged. It has ... voodoo qualities.

― MatthewK

I'm a bit sleep deprived at the moment and 100% agree. I was feeling drowsy, driving to do some chores and played this one and immediately started feeling refreshed.

I often think "One More Night" is my favourite Can track - it's the most low-key on Ege Bamyasi but feels like it could go forever.

"One More Night" is a great example of the surprising emotional depth of much of Can's work. It's basically a one chord vamp in 7/4 time, the only hooks are a muttered chant and an oblique keyboard phrase - but it conveys a strange introspection and even sense of loss mostly through texture and rhythmic patterns.

Glad to see it get some love, I mean obviously it’s such a stacked album but man that tune in particular just really hits me. Correct me if I’m wrong but isn’t there some really great track on Lost Tapes which is like an extended jam off of it?

There's a live version where Holger Czukay spontaneously comes up with five or six killer basslines .