It’s Halloween now, and I’m sitting at work eating all the candy that people keep refusing. The clientele here is what we young, hip cats like to refer to as, “old farts.” Z had the brilliant idea last night that I should come to work wearing black clothing and covered in postage stamps, or “blackmail.” After first thinking the idea to be brilliant, I realized that having to explain to people what I was would be a chore. Oh, and also, I work in the ghetto. I don’t want anyone to overhear me saying “I’m blackmail!” and take it the wrong way. I’m not racist.
I’ve spent my entire shift dicking around on my iPod trying to conserve some space, and reading a new book. What book, you ask? Well…
Back in the great, distant era of erm…the mid-’90s, there was a chap by the name of Julian Cope (ex-Teardrop Explodes/music-writer geek), who decided he wanted to chronicle the history of the Krautorck genre. So, he wrote an excellent book, called Krautrocksampler, in which he not only tells readers exactly when and wear he bought all these much-sought-after-now-sadly out-of-print LPs, but paints a great picture of West Germany in the ’60s and ’70s. When he’s not waxing (his bikini) poetic, he recounts crazy stories, and draws very cool connections between projects and personalities. Cope even proclaims that Klaus Dinger “directly influenced David Bowie to take his Low direction” and “had a direct effect on the Sex Pistols, via Johnny Rotten”. Thassalotta influence!
Unfortunately, the book–much like oft-drooled-over records of the era–is out of print. But the version Ian sent me to read today has survived and been passed-down between generations (okay, not passed-down between generations, but e-mailed between friends) in a sort-of post-Soviet technological samizdat! And, since I clearly have no idea what a copyright is, I’m going to allow you all to download the PDF files of the book directly from me. If that doesn’t leave me wide-open for a lawsuit, I don’t know what does! But hey, if you want to spend $174.95 for a copy of this book, be my guest! NOTE: IF YOU ARE JULIAN COPE (OR REPRESENT JULIAN COPE, OR PUBLISHED THIS BOOK) AND YOU WOULD LIKE THIS INFORMATION REMOVED, PLEASE CONTACT ME DIRECTLY, AND I WILL SWIFTLY AND GLADLY COMPLY (and, consequently, deprive literally TENS of fanboys from learning more about the bands they love).
Krautrocksampler Part 1
Krautrocksampler Part 2
