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April 23, 2008
Retrohump: Hey You! You're Losing...You're Losing...
This is one of the very first songs I sought out once it became clear just how great a clearinghouse for classic footage YouTube would soon become, though I'd forgotten to keep checking until a whim delivered this to me yesterday. I remember first hearing this song in my college days and being knocked out by the modernity of it. Those drums sounded like they could have come from a Bjork record, and this was from 1972! I still can't quite fathom Can sitting around their practice space, listening to White Light/White Heat and Stockhausen, somehow winding up here. For all their alien appeal and undeniable rhythmic prowess though, there are very few moments when the band really connects with me on more than a head-nodding, intellectually appreciative level. This is, of course, first among them...
Can - "Vitamin C"
(live 1972)
While the clip makes clear what sort of a frantic and inspired drummer Jaki Leibezeit could be when his inner jazz man didn't take over, most of its transfixing power comes from Damo Suzuki. The urban legend paints Damo as a crazed nomad, discovered by the German members of the band literally singing on a street corner. The clips I'd previously seen supported the myth of the long-haired, frequently shirtless feral child. Here though, Damo is a well-kempt and striking figure (wispy mustache aside). The song as performed in this live snippet has its edges rounded by a groove that's more organic than the dystopian album version. But Suzuki keeps it uncomfortable, by giving his nonsensical warnings a convicted sense of dire consequence. While later videos I investigated seem to degrade into free-from wonkery, whatever peculiar magic Damo possessed had not been dulled by by the scourge of fleeing vitamins as of 1972.
Posted by Jeff Klingman at April 23, 2008 11:00 AM
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