Quite simply if you've ever read anything about the unfortunately-named and disparate 'Krautrock' movement of German experimental music, you will know how important this tome is. In fact, there's no way I'd be typing this if Julian Cope hadn't written his book, and
you probably wouldn't be all-too aware of Can, Faust, Guru Guru, or the rest either... Who can say?
But one thing's for certain - Cope's comprehensive guide to this late 60's/70's 'genre', first published in 1995 and
still out-of-print (why, why, WHY?), revived interest in many of the pivotal groups to such an extent that sales were boosted and remasters issued - see the excellent Can albums on SACD (I don't know what they're for either, but they'z
gold ).
As you probably know, despite mostly underwhelming sales, various Krautrock bands had an incalculable influence on young musicians the world over, on punk and beyond (Johnny Rotten insisted Tommy Vance play all 20-odd minutes of Can's
Halleluwah when
guesting on the fucking awful Capital FM), and nobody did more to bring this to the attention of a pre-Wikipedia public than Julian Cope. I didn't have my own computer until 2007, but it was constant mention of this book in music rag reviews and articles on the subject that kept my mouth watering at the prospect of ever actually
reading the damned thing, laying eyes on the legendary 'Krautrocksampler Top 50'...
Essentially, it lives up to all the hype.
You are getting here, from the (sort of) printed word, what you can't get in bite-sized chunks from online encyclopedias: reams of detail in the accounts, the Druid's passion for the subject and what must have been many years worth of painstaking research. Not only that, but Julian Cope is beyond fantastic as a writer, and his enthusiasm comes across so fluently in his verbose rants and masterful anecdotes you will finish up convinced he is a genius.
Check out the sublime
Head Heritage site to see of what I speak.
One glance at the listening figures on Last.fm will show you that Krautrock is not only common property in the 21st century - it's actually
popular ! And how could that possibly be a bad thing?
Here in two parts in
.pdf form (you'll need
this to read it), it's a bit harsh on the eyes trying to read a book from the monitor so be kind to them; unfortunately it's the best you'll get without forking out or learning German:
***Get sauer***The credit for this is obviously not mine, I came across it many moons ago in a thread on the best general music forum there is,
musicbanter.com. It seems to have been floating around on torrents for a while.
It's just as well Jules' solo career since the Teardrops has been extremely patchy, because he's excelled in all non-musical endeavours. Here's a fascinating, and periodically chuckle-worthy, televised version of his other highly-acclaimed scholarly work, 'the Modern Antiquarian':
