Can: New live series

[polmico]

Story in the NYT:
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/11/a...ZbZNfkX5tCk9dc

“But later this month, Mute Records will release ‘Live in Stuttgart 1975,’ the first in a series of restored and remastered live albums made possible by Andrew Hall, a British fan who beginning in 1973 followed the group around with a Sony cassette recorder hidden in his pants.”

[Steve F.]

^ ^ ^

IMO.

Can were a nearly spent force by 1975. That’s basically the end of the line timeline wise for me caring about them.

And a recorder hidden in pants?

Without actually hearing it, I think that they could have done better.

We’ll see.

[polmico]

I was thinking the same as far as a spent force goes.

The clip included in the article doesn’t completely dissuade me of that notion, but the audio sounds pretty good.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=da6bXpkbwzs

[Steve F.]

For a cassette recorder in 1975 ‘hidden in pants’, it sounds amazingly good, sonically.

[arturs]

IIRC Can's record label Spoon have been talking about something like this for 20 years. Glad that it seems to be finally happening!

Can toured through 1977 and from boots I've heard they were still a vital live act at that time, even if they were floundering a bit in terms of new studio material.

As for the recording quality I would guess that said cassette recorder had a mic plugged in that wasn't actually in the same location as the recorder itself!

EDIT: It's explained a little in the article. He wired mics up through his sleeves...

[GuitarGeek]

“But later this month, Mute Records will release ‘Live in Stuttgart 1975,’ the first in a series of restored and remastered live albums made possible by Andrew Hall, a British fan who beginning in 1973 followed the group around with a Sony cassette recorder hidden in his pants.”

Andrew Hall, aka Rerun.

[Dave (in MA)]

"Is that a Sony cassette recorder hidden in your pants, or are you just glad to see me?"

[GuitarGeek]

So I take this means there's not like any soundboard tapes or radio broadcasts in existence from before 75?

[Hobo Chang Ba]

Series is the most promising word there.

I'm probably in, although I too would prefer earlier in the decade live shows.

[lovecraft]

The sound quality on that yt clip is remarkable.

[Munster]

Story in the NYT

Thanks for the information. I will almost certainly get the new CD because I live in hope. It has always puzzled me why there has been so little top-quality music of Can in concert, and this article largely explains that. As others have said, it would be good to hear pre-1975 stuff, when Damo was singing, but the fact that the series launches with a 1975 concert suggests this will not be the case. As I say, though, I live in hope.

Can were a nearly spent force by 1975. That’s basically the end of the line timeline wise for me caring about them.

I agree. Their last great album (IMO) was Soon Over Babaluma (1974). Before 1975’s Landed, virtually every track on every album was sublime; from Landed onwards, while every album had at least one sublime track most tracks were pretty mediocre. I saw the band playing at Theatre Royal in London in November 1975 and they were less than overwhelming. In the NYT article it is interesting that Irmin Schmidt says: “There were of course also concerts which were horrible, really bad, because we played without any net.” The internet tells me that Can played Morning Glory / Dizzy Dizzy / Vitamin C / Vernal Equinox / Red Hot Indians / and The Man From Baltimore at Theatre Royal on November 23, 1975, but I can’t remember any distinct tracks. The theatre was almost empty, in my recollection, and the most memorable part of the evening was when Tim Hardin appeared as a singer (and don’t get me started on Can and post-Damo singing….)

Can played two tours in the UK in 1975, with the first tour lasting far longer than the second one, in November, which had only four UK dates. When Mute Records founder Daniel Miller, who saw the band in London in 1975, says in the NYT article: “I just wanted it to go on forever. I couldn’t believe how they worked together as a band, how they fed off each other in the improvisational sense. It was beyond anything I’d seen before,” I have to assume he heard the band play The Roundhouse in May, rather than the Theatre Royal six months later.

[pb2015]

I used to have a book about Can where the band said they thought their best concerts were in 1975. I haven't heard enough to know if I'd agree or not (from the albums the Damo era stuff is my favorite).

[smcfee]

There is good stuff (to my ears) recorded in 1975 on both the Peel Sessions and the Lost Tapes. I'm curious what they come up with.

[Dave (in MA)]

Not to sidetrack the thread, but I think this is great:


There's a Damo track on their 4th volume of their Lost In Transit series, but not this performance. A last-minute backing band for Suzuki with a hungover Goddard, Dinsdale and his confused brother country and western singer "Jonny Williams" sitting in for Houghton who had to work, and Archer, who they just met for the first time that day: Frickin' great.

[groon]

I was at the Sussex Uni gigs on 18 October 1974 and on 19 November 1975 (the night after they recorded their slot on OGWT) and to the best of my recollection the former was the stronger performance. There was still a lot of energy evident in 1975 but the spark that made the 1974 performance so memorable for me was missing.

It would be good to hear a recording from the 1974 UK tour, even one made from within the confines of Mr Hall's pants (for those of us in the UK for whom 'pants' has a different meaning from the one it has in the US, I'd like to assume that the device was secreted in his trousers and not in his undergarments -- purely from concerns about the recording quality, you understand).

[moecurlythanu]

^ Gives a whole different perspective to the word "package," doesn't it?

[NogbadTheBad]

I'll wait and see but might be of interest.

[Dave (in MA)]

There's a good audience boot from University of Essex from May 17, '75 that has circulated. I wonder if that's a pants recording?

[Munster]

Just been checking the recording dates for Can’s ‘Music (Live 1971-1977)’ CD and I saw this. “The material for this compilation was taken from cassettes and tapes of non-professional recordings made and/or collected by Andy Hall, friend of Can, without whose devotion this live CD would have been impossible.” So there has already been a double CD release of Andy’s recordings, and presumably these were the clearest recordings available at the time the CD was assembled. To be honest, the recording quality can be a bit iffy (but that is just my opinion!). And that is not to rule out further work being done on the new series of recordings about to be released and a resulting improvement in sound quality.

As the title says, the dates of the recordings cover a six-year period and include recordings with Damo. The tracks on the ‘Music’ CD are: Track 1-1 recorded at Giessen Universitat 14/10/75; Track 1-2 & 1-3 recorded at Brighton Sussex University 19/11/75; Track 1-4 recorded at University of Keele 02/03/77; Track 1-5 recorded at Croydon Greyhound 04/05/75; Track 1-6 recorded at London Sound Circus 23/03/77; Track 2-1 recorded at Colchester University of Essex 08/05/72; Track 2-2 recorded at Hatfield Polytechnic 21/11/75; and Track 2-3 recorded at Cologne Sporthalle 03/02/72.

[Dave (in MA)]

Track 2-1 recorded at Colchester University of Essex 08/05/72

How likely is it that they played 2 gigs in the same place 9 days apart? Setlist.fm lists the same May 17th date that I cited and not the 8th, but given that setlist.fm is a user-edited site, I'd tend to believe the Music (Live 1971-1977) info.

[chalkpie]

Can you belive this guy?

[arturs]

Can played two tours in the UK in 1975, with the first tour lasting far longer than the second one, in November, which had only four UK dates. When Mute Records founder Daniel Miller, who saw the band in London in 1975, says in the NYT article: “I just wanted it to go on forever. I couldn’t believe how they worked together as a band, how they fed off each other in the improvisational sense. It was beyond anything I’d seen before,” I have to assume he heard the band play The Roundhouse in May, rather than the Theatre Royal six months later.

Consider yourself fortunate you got to see Can! Here in the US I've seen a few people with T-shirts that say "I may be old but at least I got to see the good bands". I don't know if those have hit the UK but you definitely deserve one.

I've got about a dozen 1975 and 1976 boots and for the most part they are very good. Live performances and the studio albums for Can at this time were two totally different beasts. Even fun but cheesy disco tracks like "I Want More" were often turned into compelling 15-minute funky jams. Earlier material is often referenced very organically within these jams.

The Roundhouse gig you mention is a particularly good boot. Starts out a little slow with Chain reaction but after that there is an appealingly slippery and bouncy Bel Air and some angular distorted guitar that fits well into Dizzy Dizzy. Based on the applause volume it seems at least the venue was quite full for this show.

[DrGoon]

I'm looking forward to this - I've had it on order since it was announced. I have a fair number of tapes of CAN and they lost their edge in the studio well before they did live. Their early studio albums are primitive improvisational recordings, while the Virgin and subsequent albums are multi-track recordings pieced together from multiple takes and this never really suited their methods. While they did make some interesting music in the later and more traditional recordings, it's their almost psychic improvisation that remains the uncanny brilliance that most people accept as their best work.

[Steve F.]

I have a fair number of tapes of CAN and they lost their edge in the studio well before they did live.

Good and interesting to note! I only know the studio things and, as I expressed earlier, I think that by 1975 the studio things had lost a lot of the edge. Cool that they were still a force live.

[chalkpie]

One of my fav Can recordings is The Lost Tapes....really really excellent.