Amon Duul II: Phallus Dei

In fact have taken this one into work a few times and especially one day last week when I knew we had a b*****d of a day ahead of us.. and boy oh boy did we..  14 hours later we were having a cigarette in the darkness and I popped the album on and under the light of the stars when this gem came on and we all sort of looked at each other and smiled and gave us the final energy boost to get through the next 3 hours... 

I like the Mickbarometer Steve.. and it rarely fails me... if it ain't English and limp dicked sissy sounding sh*t... it probably ain't hot.

At the time, German critics called this "a good half hour of musical nothing" and "absolute point zero for German music, from this point only improvement is possible". Seems that they hadn't got in the mood for it yet... and hadn't realised or didn't bother about how many influences are brought together in short time in some songs, Arabian/eastern, Gregorian chanting, folk, hard rock, marching music, experimental space/avantgarde... the vocals may annoy some but nothing like this had ever been heard before (and I don't only mean Renate, also Chris Karrer in Kanaan and Luzifer's Ghilom). Even the parts where drums, percussion and the rest have difficulties to agree on a  tempo add to the fun, this is so nicely uncivilised, even by standards of psychedelic music.

I differ somewhat. I can still listen to all these and not be surprised or have negative connotations to the music at all.

When taken in the context of the time and place, their work makes a lot of sense, and the ideas that caused it to come alive, and process, was inspirational and interesting, and it helped create a music scene that is unlike any other.

PHALLUS DEI makes much more sense within the context of where the band came from ... and the long piece is really a comment about the commune and its process ... it was all about sex and a party and nothing else ... you begin by getting stoned, getting into it, and then the party starts full blast, and it ends up in an orgy, which is what the title really suggests. I'm not sure that the band would say anything about this, not sure that any of them would want to be associated with that kind of freedom and feelings, but at that place and time, most communes were about sex, and in the case of Germany a couple of them about politics, which Renate has spoken about that not only scared her, but implicated their band in things that they were not interested in ... specially violence.

CAN, is not any easier to explain, and there is enough about it, but there was a feeling of trying different things and the album is not a real album of music but a lot of bits and pieces from various times and places. That album lacks the cohesion of the others, for example, which suggests they had a lot of experimental material but were not sure how to use it or deliver it.

ASH RA TEMPEL and THE COSMIC COURIERS, is another story. Manuel G has specified that he is not quite a composer, but much more of a live performer. You can hear him discuss it on the net. And the setup and organization of those "performances" in the studio, gave us a lot of really neat and special music that we still enjoy almost 50 years later ... it tells you, that something was right about all that, and how it was done. AND, even though there are stories that there were a lot of drugs, in the end, it is also a credit to the musicians that they were strong enough to listen to each other and play together and come up with something neat and enjoyable, although for today's tastes too many folks think it's just meandering, which is not the case ... it has an emotional and inspirational continuity that is rarely found in music, and it defies the definition that "music" has to be done within a song context.

IF, you and anyone else, look at these things as some sort of song, I believe that the majority of the enjoyment will be left behind ... and for me it is always a wonder ... what makes someone do something like this? It's not a song ... it's a moment in time and an extended experience, and that is very valuable in one's lifetime.

For me, there is no "mood" required, since the history of the music is all there, and it is a matter of appreciating yesterday with its own beauty, and today for its own beauty ... but when it is related to a "song", specially compared to something you like, I'm not sure that most can appreciate it at all.  It feels like ... I like Stravinsky, but hate Bartok and Berg and find them boring. Again, the context of how and when they did their work, is what defines it all ... and I like to use the image that Picasso painted Guernica, because of what he saw outside his window and door ... carnage of the worst kind!

Art imitates life, is how I look at it ... or at least tries to show you and I something, that otherwise we might not understand. It's not like the Renaissance artists did not do the same thing, and later Delacroix and others did the same for the Romantic era and so forth ... and in some cases, one has to understand/accept that folks are also trying to figure out what/how they want to express themselves, without being political, as is the case with Picasso, or he would have also suffered the consequences that befell so many Spanish artists at the time! It becomes "personal", but that personal has a universal context that is relate-able to our experiences, if we only allow it to happen, and understand them ... this is what history is all about, that we often forget!