Can's Tago Mago

by Alan Warner

Overview

Finally, a brilliant exploration of the German rock band Can's 1971 album Tago Mago. This hugely unique and influential album deserves close analysis from a fan, rather than a musicologist. Novelist Alan Warner details the concrete music we hear on the album, how it was composed, executed and recorded—including the history of the album in terms of its release, promotion and art work. This tale of Tago Mago is also the tale of a young man obsessed with record collecting in the dark and mysterious period of pop music before Google. Warner includes a backtracking of the history of the band up to that point and also some description of Can's unique recording approach taking into account their home studio set up.

Interviews with the two surviving members: drummer Jaki Liebezeit, keyboardist Irmin Schmidt and bassist Holger Czukay make this a hilariously personal and illuminating picture of Can.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781628921083
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	11/20/2014
Series:	33 1/3 Series
Pages:	152
Sales rank:	1,154,836
Product dimensions:	4.70(w) x 6.40(h) x 0.40(d)

About the Author

Alan Warner is a Scottish novelist. His 1995 novel Morvern Callar won the Somerset Maugham Award and was made into a feature film directed by Lynne Ramsay. In 2013, he was awarded the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for his novel The Deadman's Pedal.

Table of Contents

PART ONE

HALLELUWAH
AN ANATOMY OF LISTENING
CAN WITHOUT THE MUSIC
'LIKE CAN'S DRUMMER...'
THE TERRIFYING SEX PISTOLS
MR IAN DURY & THE BLOCKHEADS
SWEARING
A 'RECORD COLLECTION'
VAN HALEN & BAGPIPES

PART TWO

A SPANNER IN THE SKY
MADE IN A CASTLE WITH BETTER EQUIPMENT
TAGO MAGO
CAN WORLD
NOT A DREAM
THE EDITS
A SINGLE SONG WHICH NEVER ENDS
NOSTALGIA DANGER
THE MYSTERY OF LA ISLA DE TAGOMAGO

Editorial Reviews

In high school, I came upon the book Twilight of the Gods by Wilfred Mellers, a 1973 study attempting to explain the importance of the Fab Four’s music through a musicological analysis of their works. This seemed extremely absurd. I recently realized, after reading several books in the 33 1/3 series, that it’s not really about the individual albums profiled—it’s about what it’s like to be a fan. It’s about what it’s like to view a particular work as the pinnacle of aesthetic accomplishment—to experience the unique sensation of “This speaks to me!” There is also a fetishization of the vinyl album as an art object. Each band and record in the series is mythologized as much as the authors’ experience of discovering them is; in the case of Can’s 1971 album Tago Mago, Warner describes their “stoner athleticism.” The Scottish novelist realizes the absurdity of this linguistic attempt to describe music, as much as Mellers, but Warner’s volume about the German psychedelic band is rich because he shows how “Tago Mago gave me permission to dream.” Tago Mago, along with a number of other Can masterpieces, will be reissued on vinyl alongside the release of the 33 1/3 book.” —SLUG Magazine

From the Publisher

In high school, I came upon the book Twilight of the Gods by Wilfred Mellers, a 1973 study attempting to explain the importance of the Fab Four's music through a musicological analysis of their works. This seemed extremely absurd. I recently realized, after reading several books in the 33 1/3 series, that it's not really about the individual albums profiled--it's about what it's like to be a fan. It's about what it's like to view a particular work as the pinnacle of aesthetic accomplishment--to experience the unique sensation of "This speaks to me!" There is also a fetishization of the vinyl album as an art object. Each band and record in the series is mythologized as much as the authors' experience of discovering them is; in the case of Can's 1971 album Tago Mago, Warner describes their "stoner athleticism." The Scottish novelist realizes the absurdity of this linguistic attempt to describe music, as much as Mellers, but Warner's volume about the German psychedelic band is rich because he shows how "Tago Mago gave me permission to dream." Tago Mago, along with a number of other Can masterpieces, will be reissued on vinyl alongside the release of the 33 1/3 book.

SLUG Magazine