Can's Tago Mago (33 1/3)

Unfortunately, another 33 1/3 book about a great band making a great record, that is more about the author than the subject. I dont know why 33 1/3 does this. Do they give the author carte blanche in the nature of these books? Dont they realize that people who grew up loving these classic bands and albums are more interested in all the tiny details of the band during this period and how this masterpiece was created, than 1 persons musings about their own personal life experiences? There is so much about CAN & Tago Mago that just gets glossed over. In this book, there is really only one chapter that goes into detail about the songs and recording. So much groundbreaking experimentation & approach by CAN, all the interesting things that made this album such a classic, left untouched. But details of the author's teenage love of Public Image, and his growing up in Scotland, well that really needs exploration. CAN and Tago Mago deserved better. 33 1/3 has a great concept for these books, they should just stick to it.

This is a wonderful book and it's my favorite so far in the 33 1/3 series. A fair amount of the book focuses on Warner's personal history of record collecting and the context of the times. While these sections are not directly related to Can or the Tago Mago record, they're very interesting and entertaining. Even though I grew up in very different surroundings, I could easily relate to Warner's path of musical discovery. Highly recommended for any Can fan.

Got this as a gift for a friend and was tempted to keep it for myself!

one of the more enjoyable entries in the series....alan warner is a fantastic writer and i adore the detailed trip through his memories.

The quote is from John Lydon of the Sex Pistols, a group that gets almost as much ink as Can in this immensely frustrating 33 & 1/3 book about one of the great progressive rock albums of the early 1970s - because Lydon mentioned Can in an interview. The author is the Scottish novelist responsible for the award-winning novel Morvern Callar, which became a well-received film that featured Can music. Despite this enticing paternity, it's another rambling, autobiographical 33 & 1/3 book - this time written by someone a generation younger than the album itself, who wasn't around when it really hit - in which the discussion of the album's actual content begins on page 108. Discounting an appendix or two, there are only 134 pages in all. The 33 & 1/3 series is a great concept that repeatedly fails in its mission to describe the relationship between listeners and their music. I say this as someone who has bought and read 82 of the buggers. By page 47 of Tago Mago, I was angry. Because I love the album. It deserved so much better from its moment in the spotlight. This is the last time I'm going to buy one of these books blindly, led by the album subject alone. Want a better place to spend your money? Go for their Serge Gainsbourg book. Now that's a book.

I felt I should add a few lines about this as I am recently obsessed with Tago Mago. I certainly enjoyed this book and share the author's enthusiasm for this band; however it might be important to note that it is a very personal story of how Warner relates to Can's music. This might not appeal to fans who only want a straight-on account of the sessions and/or back story of the band. There are definitely details of these here, but for the better part of the book Warner gives us his own tale of what it was like to encounter unfamiliar music such as this as a teenager. Since I am roughly the same age as him, it is amusing and touching to hear him describe his youthful confusion and mistaken impressions of such bands as the Can (and many others that he outlines here). I would recommend this title to anyone merely interested in the process of discovery and especially the effort required by fans before internet to understand who they were listening to. It makes a nice starting point for this kind of inquiry, but otherwise Can's Tago Mago is a sublime recording that is best enjoyed without a text anyway.A fun read but not quite as impressive as the titles I've read on Van Dyke Parks or the The Kinks... something to keep in mind.

**Review originally posted at https://midnighttosix.wordpress.comAlan Warner’s book provides some information about Can and the circumstances around the recording of their brilliantly experimental 1971 double-LP Tago Mago, but mostly it’s about a teenaged Alan Warner and his path to acquiring and understanding the album. Growing up in rural Scotland in the late-1970s, his exposure to new music was limited to whatever was available at the local record store or the record collections of friends and family. There weren’t many ways to find anything outside the mainstream, but after discovering punk Warner stumbled on an NME interview with Johnny Rotten where Can was mentioned as an influence. This sparked something in him and he set off on a quest to acquire their music, without any prior knowledge of what they sounded like or which albums were the “ones to get”. While this innocent small-scale exploration hardly puts him in league with Vasco de Gama, it and the rest of the book serves as an important reminder of what it was like to be a young person with a curiosity for music before the internet allowed unlimited access to just about everything. I’m just old enough to remember what that was like and found myself relating closely to the story, even smiling at the book’s notion that, if your local record store didn’t carry a certain record, you might not even know it existed. Good stuff.

Page 12:"So this is a little book not just about - or dare I say not actually about - the 1971 double album Tago Mago by the 'German' rock group Can. This is a personal reminiscence about owning vinyl copies of recorde music [...]"...which is no bad thing, were the book entitled "Alan Warner - an Autobiography in Music".Pity that the title of the book is Tago Mago, and I bought it expecting a discussion on "the 'German' rock group Can", and not a description of teenage life in rural Scotland in the late Seventies.But yet again, it might just be me...

Wie alle Bücher der Serie ist dies in Englisch verfasst und versuchtsich in einem Spagat zwischen persönliche Infos und sachlichen Infos zum Album an sich. Aus meiner Sicht ist dem Autor "Alan Warner" dieser Spagat weitgehend gelungen und das Buch ist informativ und unterhaltsam. Zur Musik gibt es natürlich immer wieder persönliche Aussagen und Beschreibungen oder Anekdoten aus dem persönlichen Leben. Mir haben die Beschreibungen zu den Songs wieder Lust darauf gemacht das Album anzuhören und das ist doch der Hauptzweck eines solchen kleinen Buches. Dies ist kein Fachbuch über CAN, daher kann ich die Kritken einiger Rezensenten unterhalb in english nicht so ganz nachvollziehen.Ich habe einige Bücher aus der Serie in meiner Sammlung und aus meiner Sicht gibt es da andere Ausgaben die eine geringere Qualität haben als dieses Büchlein hier. Das Buch ist in 2 Teile aufgeteilt und zusätzlich noch in teilweise recht kurze Sinnabschnitte oder Kapitel. PART ONE- Halleluwah- An Anatomy of ListeninngCAN Without the Music- Like CAN's Drummer- The Terrifying "Sex Pistols"- Mr. "Ian Dury&the Blockheads"- Swearing- A Record Collection- "Van Halen" and BagpipesPART TWO - A spanner in the Sky - Made in a Castle With better Equipment -"Tago Mago" CAN World-Not a Dream- The Edits- A single Song which never ends- Nostaligia Danger- The Mystery of La Isla de TagomageAnhand der Titel läßt sich erkennen das der Autor aus Schottland seine persönliche musikalische Geschichte und seine Assoziationen zu den "Sex Pistols","Ian Dury" und "Van Halen" mit einfließen läuft. Dies kennt ja auch jeder Musik Fan das man über Coverversionen oder Empfehlungen seiner musikalischen Helden zu neuen Bands oder Alben kommt. Ich konnte das Buch sehr günstig und Neu erwerben daher für mich eine runde Sache.

Hugely entertaining and informative book that made me laugh out loud several times. It is not only about Tago mago and Can but also about the writer's way to discover the band through John Lydon (Sex Pistols/ PIL) . He got one thing wrong, though. It wasn't Can who called John L. to be their singer but the other way round. He -as a fan- wanted to be their new singer. Alan warner's memories reminded me a lot about my own past as a young teenager discovering rock music, even though I did not grow up in Scotland and am a little bit younger. Great book, not only for Can fanatics. Warner also writes about the Sex Pistols, Miles Davis and many others. Includes many suggestions for further listening.

Warning! This is not your usual 33 1/3 album book. Rather it is mainly composed of somewhat tedious detail about how the author (eventually!) discovered Tago Mago. Might suit those who enjoy reading autobiographies of relatively unknown people. I think the publishers need to commission another book on this fine album. The author is clearly a fan of the band but he should have focussed more on the subject matter at hand.

Yet another interesting addition to the excellent 33 1/3 series. Placing the album in Warners personal world but still offering insights into a great album.