Line #50 Music/Can


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/can.jpg]][[caption-width-right:350:''Carrying my own in the afternoon / Hiding a spoon, she will be soon''[[note]]The classic lineup of Can in the early '70s. From left to right: Holger Czukay, Damo Suzuki, Michael Karoli, Irmin Schmidt, Jaki Liebezeit[[/note]]]]
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3	Can was a famous experimental rock band from UsefulNotes/WestGermany active in TheSixties and TheSeventies, known for its eclectic sound and considerable influence on avant-garde, experimental, ambient, PunkRock, [[NewWaveMusic New Wave]] and electronic music. UK music critics named Can and other German bands' music (such as [[Music/{{Neu}} Neu!]], Music/{{Kraftwerk}}, and Music/{{Faust}}) as {{Krautrock}}.
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5	Notably, none of the bandmembers had much experience with rock music when Can was formed in 1968. Bassist Holger Czukay was a classical music teacher (and former student of avant-garde composer Karlheinz Stockhausen) who only became interested in rock after hearing "I Am the Walrus" by Music/TheBeatles, guitarist Michael Karoli and drummer Jaki Liebezeit had played in jazz bands, whilst keyboardist Irmin Schmidt (also a pupil of Stockhausen) was an avant-garde classical musician. Similarly, Karoli, born in 1948, was the youngest core member at the time, with Czukay, Liebezeit and Schmidt being all born in 1938, 1939 and 1937, respectively.
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7	Recruiting African-American vocalist Malcolm Mooney, Can recorded their debut album, ''Monster Movie'' in 1969. ''Movie'' showcased Can's SignatureStyle, a deeply experimental fusion of Krautrock, {{Funk}} and PsychedelicRock based largely around [[{{Improv}} improvisation]] (their 20-minute "Yoo Doo Right" was originally a 6-hour improvisation), repetition and Mooney's unhinged stream-of-consciousness ranting. Liebezeit's tribal, funky drumming served as the framework for extended solos by Schmidt, Karoli and Czukay, which would then be edited and spliced together in the studio to form actual songs.
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9	Mooney quit Can soon after ''Movie'', suffering from mental health problems. He was replaced by Damo Suzuki, a Japanese drifter the band found busking in Munich. His wildly varied vocal style (easily switching between cryptic mumbling and outright screaming) and WordSaladLyrics sung in a variety of languages meshed well with the band's already existent sound. The resulting string of critically acclaimed albums, ''Tago Mago'', ''Ege Bamyasi'' and ''Future Days'' saw the band abandon any semblance of traditional song structures in favour of free improvisation, embracing constructing songs from tape editing, electronics and worldbeat influences even further. ''Days'' is even regarded as an early example of ambient music.
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11	Suzuki left after ''Days'', with vocal duties taken over by Karoli and Schmidt. While their first post-Suzuki album, the ambient ''Soon Over Babaluma'', was well received, the band's critical fortunes decreased as they evolved into an even more conventional style with later albums, even if they managed to obtain a hit single in the UK with 1976's "I Want More". Czukay left in 1977 after being slowly pushed out of the band, replaced by Music/{{Traffic\|Band}} bassist Rosko Gee and with additional percussionist Rebop Kwaku Baah recruited from the same band. After two more poorly performing albums, Can disbanded in 1979, with a temporary reunion featuring Mooney taking place between 1986-1991. This resulted in a new album, ''Rite Time'', and a contribution to ''Film/UntilTheEndOfTheWorld'''s soundtrack.
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13	Michael Karoli died in 2001, and Jaki Liebezeit and Holger Czukay died in 2017. Damo Suzuki died in 2024.
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15	Can's members frequently cited bands such as Music/TheBeatles, The Music/VelvetUnderground, Music/JimiHendrix, Music/FrankZappa, Music/JamesBrown, Music/MilesDavis, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Michael von Biel, Music/PinkFloyd and their interest in world music as significant influences on their psychedelic-progressive-funk-rock sound. In turn, they have been cited as an influence by numerous AlternativeRock, PostRock, and PostPunk bands and artists like Music/{{the Fall\|Band}}, Music/JoyDivision, Music/SiouxsieAndTheBanshees, Music/PublicImageLtd, Music/ThisHeat, Music/TalkingHeads, Music/TheStoneRoses, Music/TalkTalk, Music/PrimalScream, Music/BrianEno, Music/{{Radiohead}}, Music/SonicYouth, Music/TheJesusAndMaryChain, Music/{{Pavement}}, Music/TheMarsVolta and Music/BlackMidi. Both Talking Heads and Talk Talk used their method of piecing songs together from jams extensively on several albums.
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17	Also, Music/KanyeWest sampled their song "Sing Swan Song" for his "Drunk and Hot Girls", so you may have heard them from there.
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19	----
20	!!Discography:
21	* ''Monster Movie'' (1969)
22	* ''Soundtracks'' (1970)
23	* ''Tago Mago'' (1971)
24	* ''Ege Bamyasi'' (1972)
25	* ''Future Days'' (1973)
26	* ''Soon Over Babaluma'' (1974)
27	* ''Landed'' (1975)
28	* ''Unlimited Edition'' (1976) - compilation of unreleased material
29	* ''Flow Motion'' (1976)
30	* ''Saw Delight'' (1977)
31	* ''Out of Reach'' (1978)
32	* ''Can'' (1979)
33	* ''Delay 1968'' (recorded 1968-1969, released 1981)
34	* ''Rite Time'' (1989)
35	* ''The Lost Tapes'' (2012)
36	----
37
38	!!Members:
39	* Holger Czukay - bass guitar, sound engineer, electronics, tape manipulation (1968–77, 1986, 1999, died 2017)
40	* Michael Karoli - guitar, vocals, violin (1968–79, 1986, 1991, 1999, died 2001)
41	* Jaki Liebezeit - drums, percussion (1968–79, 1986, 1991, 1999, died 2017)
42	* Irmin Schmidt - keyboards, vocals (1968–79, 1986, 1991, 1999)
43	* David C. Johnson - reeds, winds, electronics, tape manipulation (1968; died 2021)
44	* Malcolm Mooney - vocals (1968–70, 1986, 1991)
45	* Damo Suzuki - vocals (1970–73, died 2024)
46	* [[Music/{{Traffic\|Band}} Rosko Gee]] - bass (1976–79)
47	* [[Music/{{Traffic\|Band}} Rebop Kwaku Baah]] - percussion, vocals (1977–79, died 1983)
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50	!!Can provides examples of the following tropes:
51	* BookEnds: ''Monster Movie'' and ''Rite Time'', the first and last official records by the band, were the only ones which Malcolm Mooney sang on every vocal track.
52	* CarefulWithThatAxe: Suzuki slipped into this territory sometimes, particularly on "Peking O."
53	* CloudCuckooLander: Damo Suzuki. ''And'' Mooney, who suffered a nervous breakdown and left the band at his psychiatrist's request lest he lose more of his marbles.
54	* CreepyJazzMusic: Part of their GenreBusting reputation came from Jaki Liebezeit, who prior to Can, used to play in a fore-running European free jazz band. He brought his influence to the band, and provided a frenetic, primal sound for the rest of the band to improvise (and, by extension, [[NightmareFuel/{{Can}} create nightmares]]) on top of.
55	* CultSoundtrack: Several songs they wrote for films have been compiled on the album "Soundtracks" (1970). Among these ''Film/DeepEnd'' is probably the best known cult film.
56	* DemotedToExtra: Holger Czukay after Rosko Gee joined the band. He was reduced to doing various audio effects before finally leaving the band.
57	* DistinctDoubleAlbum: ''Tago Mago'' has what are by Can's standards relatively conventional songs on the first disc and more avant-grade tracks on the second. The band originally intended to just release the first disc as a regular single album but Hildegard Schmidt convinced them (and their record label) to go with the double LP.
58	* EpicRocking:
59	** The band's trademark. Examples include: "Father Cannot Yell", "Mary, Mary So Contrary", "Yoo Doo Right", "Cutaway", "Mother Sky", "Paperhouse", "Oh Yeah", "Halleluhwah", "Aumgn", "Peking O", "Bring Me Coffee or Tea", "Pinch", "Soup", "Future Days", "Spray", "Bel Air", "Cutaway", "Ibis", "Splash", "Chain Reaction", "Quantum Physics", "Vernal Equinox", "Unfinished", "Flow Motion", "Animal Waves", "November", "All Gates Open", "Safe", "Butterfly", "Little Star of Bethlehem", "On the Beautiful Side of a Romance" and "Like a New Child".
60	** "Yoo Doo Right" is definitely this, as is attested to above. Also, their live improvisations as a rule were absurdly epic.
61	* GenreMashup: The band's sound blended rock, jazz, avant-garde classical and world music.
62	* {{Improv}}:
63	** When interviewed on the release of the 2012 compilation ''The Lost Tapes'', Holger Czukay made the distinction that Can's jamming wasn't the usual method of having them dick around on their instruments until they landed on an idea, but starting with a specific idea in mind and focusing on isolating its key elements and seeing where it could be taken. This resulted in the songs working both in ''and'' out of the scene's context.
64	** "Yoo Doo Right" is a twenty-minute song taken from a six-hour-long improvisation.
65	* InTheStyleOf:
66	** The "Ethnological Forgery Series" (abbreviated "E.F.S."), where the band attempts (successfully) to imitate various forms of ethnic music.
67	** "Turtles Have Short Legs" is essentially "Can plays [[TheSixties goofy '60s piano pop]]."
68	** "Mother Upduff" is their own version of "The Gift" by Music/VelvetUnderground, but based around an old UrbanLegend and not including anybody trying to mail themselves with fatally disastrous results.
69	** Their cover of Offenbach's "Infernal Galop" from ORPHEUS IN THE UNDERWORLD -- a/k/a "Music/TheCancanSong." A [[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment "Can Can Can"]] -- proves that some Germans do indeed have a sense of humor.
70	** The bassline of "Mother Sky" is based on Music/PinkFloyd's "See Emily Play".
71	* JapaneseRanguage: Can may have been founded in Germany, but because Damo Suzuki hails from Japan, a lot of their songs end up having this.
72	* LeaveTheCameraRunning: "Cutaway" has a long bit in the middle with StudioChatter with somebody asking Holger to use his frequency modulator in tune with Michael's guitar.
73	* LongestSongGoesFirst: ''Delay 1968'' kicks off with the 8:20 "Butterfly", which runs for over a minute longer than the next-longest track, "Little Star of Bethlehem" (which, incidentally, is the closer).
74	* LongestSongGoesLast:
75	** ''Monster Movie'' closes with "Yoo Doo Right", which takes up the entirety of side two.
76	** ''Future Days'' ends with the side-length piece "Bel Air".
77	** ''Landed'' closes off with the 13-and-a-half-minute "Unfinished", the only song on the album to surpass nine minutes.
78	** ''Flow Motion'' ends with the 10:23 TitleTrack. The next-longest track on the album, "Laugh Till You Cry, Live Till You Die", just barely falls under seven minutes.
79	* LoopedLyrics: Of the MadnessMantra ("Yoo Doo Right", "Mushroom") and the just-plain BrokenRecord type ("Halleluhwah").
80	* MadnessMantra:
81	** Everything they ever made with Mooney, ''especially'' "Yoo Doo Right".
82	** About half of their Suzuki-era output, too. Just listen to "Paperhouse" and tell me that the "you just can't get that no more" bit ''isn't'' the very sound of someone losing their marbles. Even more so "Mushroom". Especially "Mushroom".
83	* MeaningfulName: "Liebezeit" means "love time" in German.
84	* NonAppearingTitle: So many. "Peking O," "Paperhouse," "Deadlock," "Soup," the list goes on...
85	* RearrangeTheSong: The band reworked its songs dramatically on stage, as live recordings attest.
86	** Even the studio songs count as this, as Czukay would splice tape fragments together to create the finished song - or put another way, by re-arranging what music the band had recorded.
87	* {{Sampling}}:
88	** They were one of the pioneers, way back before samplers were invented - Czukay would painstakingly splice together tapes culled from various sources.
89	** And then Music/KanyeWest sampled ''them'' for his song "Drunk and Hot Girls".
90	* ScaryMusicianHarmlessMusic: Zig-zagged. Their music has a reputation for being creepy, trippy, and confusing, but the chief members were all academics, well versed in jazz and classical music. Both of their frontmen, however, had enough {{Cloudcuckoolander}} tendencies that they could qualify as scary musicians.
91	* {{Scatting}}: Made frequent use of by Suzuki, most notably on the tracks "Peking O" and "Soup".
92	* ShoutOut: The two-note bassline of "Mother Sky" is similar to that of Music/PinkFloyd's "See Emily Play".
93	* SingleIssueWonk: In the same interview mentioned above, Czukay described Liebezeit as having pestered him constantly to not lose "the groove" while he was editing their jams into songs, to the point that Liebezeit also became quite adept at knowing when to cut a reel of tape without affecting the rhythm.
94	* StepUpToTheMicrophone: "Aumgn" makes use of Schmit chanting to provide the vocal track. Later, when Suzuki left the band, he and Karoli would both take over vocal duties.
95	* TitledAfterTheSong: The bands Music/{{Spoon}}, Moonshake, and Hunters and Collectors all took their names from Can songs.
96	* UnreplacedDeparted: After Suzuki's departure, they never replaced him, with Karoli and Schmidt taking on vocal duties instead. Folk singer Tim Hardin was the lead singer for one-off gig, but he never joined the band.
97	* VisualPun: The cover of ''Ege Bamyasi'' which featured a can.
98	* WordSaladLyrics: Once Damo joined it became outright Word Puree Lyrics, frequently bordering on IndecipherableLyrics.
99	* WritingAroundTrademarks: The cover of ''Monster Movie'' shows a faceless [[ComicBook/FantasticFour Galactus]].

Context Music / Can