Yes we can can

If you were a pop fan in the UK, there's a good chance that at some point you were a regular viewer of BBC TV's "Top of the Pops".  

TOTP, as it's often referred to, was a regular run down of the pop charts and ran from 1964 to 2006, making it the world's longest-running weekly music TV show. Even today, repeats are shown on the BBC.

Here's the playlist for the 30th September 1976 broadcast...

(31) Randy Edelman – Uptown, Uptempo Woman 

(22) Sherbet – Howzat 

(16) The Ritchie Family – The Best Disco In Town

(6) Tina Charles – Dance Little Lady Dance 

(23) Jesse Green – Nice And Slow

(35) Demis Roussos – When Forever Has Gone 

(1) ABBA – Dancing Queen (video)

 

British punk had yet to make an impression, the UK glam rock scene was all but dead, and disco was king. I don't know about you, but I think that's a pretty piss-poor bunch of songs...

However, I've purposely missed out the first act in that list - it was CAN (capitals preferred) at #29 with "I Want More".

Yes, CAN - who included students of Stockhausen, were early champions of World music, and were steeped in free jazz, musique concrète and the avant-garde - actually scored a UK pop chart hit. 

 

This did not sit well with many of the band's fans, who saw this mutant disco hit as a sell-out, after a series of albums that often seemed to me at the time to be carried around as more of a badge of "hipness" for their owners, than something to listen to. "CAN" became a trendy name to drop in certain circles. I can't remember hearing the band until many years later, although I was very aware of their name.

 

But what of their hit? Well, here it is, with three of the core quartet, from the 1976 TOTP show mentioned above. Guitarist Michael Karoli was in Kenya on safari, apparently, so a stand-in was roped in for the broadcast...

 

 

"I Want More" was recorded during sessions for their seventh studio album' "Flow Motion". The band had upgraded their recording process and now had 16-track recording to play with, and this is exactly what they chose to do - they played. Not just played music, but played about, which shows in the upbeat nature of "I Want More"; reflecting this new found freedom. Their choice of a disco beat might not have been what fans were expecting, but neither were the reggae rhythms which featured far more prominently than disco on the forthcoming album.

 

"Flow Motion" was seen as an abandonment of innovation, but fans and critics should have looked a bit more closely at what was actually being played, because it's now clear that it was all about the rhythm, although few seemed to appreciate this at the time. 

 

As well as the hit, there's a strange hybrid reggae/waltz, complete with Hawaiian guitar, a Turkish take on reggae, tribal beats and the album title song - a long, almost dub, reggae work out with lots of guitar over a one chord vamp. Above all, it's an accessible and fun album and showed a lighter side of the band. It's also the last Can album to feature Holger Czukay's bass playing, until the later reunions.

Having ignored the band totally during their heyday, I've since grown to appreciate them and I really don't mind the respite offered by their brief disco/reggae phase. If you want the intensity for which CAN were renowned, then there's plenty to be found in the earlier albums.

As for the band today, only Irmin Schmidt remains from the original four core members - Holger Czukay, Michael Karoli and Jaki Liebezeit are all dead. 

 

Someone will be along shortly to take your drinks order - after you've settled your bar bill - and also ask a question which may be to your advantage...