Any good books about Krautrock or Kosmische Musik?

 

I just did a look for these and ... it is reaaly sad thing ... amazon.co.uk will not mail out from England/Europe and the American amazon does not list the same thing ... so much for a global economy and the desire to get these things around for others to read.

 

I'm so bummmmmmmmed.

 

In general, and this is just an old man speaking that spent a lot of time listening to these things, I am of the opinion that the music itself says a lot more than anything else ... and sometimes I find that what is written is more advertising, a lot more than it is reality.

 

The worst part? ... I can't even get material on Amon Duul 2 in English and it sux! But in many ways, my own translations, while sometimes way out in left field, sometimes seem to make a lot more sense than anything else ... like "sky bikes" ... makes sense for the Star Wars generation, but "sky bites" is a much more valid and expressionist term about this bands work, even with or without the drugs, or a complete change of lifestyle. People were leaving, and it didn't matter to where they went or why, and the Big Bear is as good as New York, or Tokyo. The literacy and imagery that AD2 always used is much more akin and closer to that "literary" license and view, than it is by so many "literal" explanations.

 

So far, the video on Krautrock on the net by the BBC is actually the best thing ever written about it all and the time and place and what "made the music" and Edgar Froese's words are magical and the single greatest and most sensitive comment about it all ... the rest just seems so petty and ... sometimes childish ... although some took that to another degree as is the case with Guru Guru and Faust.

 

But all of these books and articles, do not mention or discuss the sister arts that so many of these people were next to, and that is the part that makes the study of so much of this stuff partially empty and devoid of its 3rd and 4th dimention that would help explain it all a lot more. Like Werner Herzog creating a whole film simply around a piece of music or two from Popol Vuh ... and these books were never good enough to even go talk to Werner himself, who undoubtedly would have nice things to say about many of these ... they were the stuff that MADE HIM what he became! And in a way Klaus Kinski is to acting and film, what AD2 was to rock music ... off the wall, and out there, and no one knew what they were doing! But we all sat there and said ... wow ...

 

Need a better example?

 

The only other part that is sad, is that Klaus Schulze and his friend and webmaster Mueller, trash this early stuff silly and don't think that the Couriers, or the early formative days were valuable or important. And to me, that's like saying you and I were a bunch of idiots when we were kids and could not even appreciate good music, and you know that is plain screwed up and wrong ... I listened to this stuff then and now ... and appreciated music like most never will ... just read the variety of my posts in this board ... but considering one's past history and musical education a wasteland is bizarre, and abusive ... it's what brings you to who you are. And seeing Klaus talk like that about his younger days, is really sad ... and it is all because he could not get more money from it? ... in the end, that alterior motive is what hurt krautrock and killed the arts ... some became famous and the rest idiots?

 

Still no one to help get these things off the stupid London Amazon! ... might as well tell the global economy to get screwed and folks like Amazon lead the way!

Peter Michael Hamel's book "From the Music to the Self" is also right down abusive about most popular music and trashes the whole thing senseless ... so it's really hard for me to sit here and listen to a lot of his material and see another professor simply get free money for creating his own experiments that make him look better and no one else as good. It can get down right annoying and boring! If I remember correctly he does not even give any of the Germans some credit for the work they did, or for what it became.

 

So I'm not surprised. But then, even Dean does not think that the music is anything more than just pop music, so, I suppose that it could be said that it's meaningless and all it was, was simply just a little sex, drugs, rock'n'roll for most of us and nothing else.

 

I keep dreaming that there is more to it all than just ... passing time and escaping boredom in one's life! And I believe that there are many folks my age that are no worse than anyone that we think are the masters in all arts in the 20th century, because rock music and jazz were the two most important arts in the 20th century that still are not getting the credit they deserve.

 

I guess I have to write my own book! No one in this board will read it ... and they were the greatest inspiration that helped formulate one of the most loving looks at the arts you will probably ever find!

 

Correcting myself publicly ... because what I wrote appears to suggest that Dean said something that he said, which is not quite right.

 

 

Black Dog Publishing's 2009 book Krautrock: Cosmic Rock and its Legacy is one of the better resources out there at the moment. It's more of a coffee table book, a little shy on actual analysis or citicism, but it still covers a lot of ground...and the pictures are great.