Can Music

I’m currently ensconced in David Stubbs' 2014 book Future Days: Krautrock and the Building of Modern Germany, and last night, taking a break from the book I chanced upon news of a forthcoming Blu-Ray edition of Sam Fuller’s 1973 made-for-German-television film Dead Pigeon on Beethoven Street. This was a fortuitous discovery as I’m currently mid-way through Future Days’ chapter on Can who provided 10min worth of music for Fuller’s film (Dead Pigeon Suite which opens the film sounds like a rough draft of Vitamin C, and is available on the Lost Tapes compilation). I’ve never seen the Fuller film but it seems to be one that polarizes fans – from the clips I’ve seen of the film over at youtube (complete but lacking English subs), it looks very wacky. All this musing prompted me to check my copy of Fuller’s autobiography A Third Face for any mention of Can – admittedly a long shot, but considering actor David Niven attended Damo Suzuki’s debut concert with the band, stranger things have happened. But sadly no mention of Can in Fuller’s book so I must assume producer Joachim von Mengershausen was responsible for commissioning the score. Can’s soundtrack work is one of the more erratic sides of the band, a hodgepodge of titles that include major break out films like Alice In the Cities and Deep End (in which director Jerzy Skolimowski includes a generous helping of Mother Sky) to softcore sexploitation flick Cream - Schwabing-Report, and the strange and dreamlike thriller Deadlock, which I must get around to seeing at some point. By the way, I couldn’t resist posting this capture from Fuller’s film with the strategically placed poster for Zappa’s 200 Motels. Wacky indeed !