I AM DAMO SUZUKI BY DAMO SUZUKI & PAUL WOODS
SKU: BK-256 BOOK I AM DAMO SUZUKI OS£16.99
I Am Damo Suzuki
“I Am Damo Suzuki is an absorbing portrait of a musical catalyst and enigmatic icon.”
When the anarchic vocalist of Can left the celebrated German band in late 1973, the ensuing decade-long absence was taken by many to be the end of his personal story. But it was just the beginning…
In I Am Damo Suzuki, Kenji Damo Suzuki and co-author Paul Woods illuminate a life in music driven by the principle of randomness. The book spans the influence of western music on Suzuki growing up in post-WWII Japan, his rejection of national traditions and a lifelong journey of exploration. After his hippie-influenced beginnings as a provocative street musician, Suzuki s story took an unlikely turn after a chance recruitment into Can, one of the most innovative bands of the seventies. A stint of family life and the role of Japanese salaryman preceded his return to the music world with The Damo Suzuki Band and later with Damo Suzuki s Network, an international vehicle for musical communication using sound instead of words.
If you’re interested in the post punk music scene, we also recommend: Patti Smith: A Biography by Nick Johnstone and Punks by Karen Knorr and Olivier Richon
Punk had burst onto the scene with its aggressive raw energy, confrontational lyrics and rhythm guitars spewing out arrangements that were just unorthodox. It was that moment of revolutionary art, overturning what had gone before. Punk has not run its course. It continued, and continues, to this day with its music, spirit and attitude. But it fell on the next wave of bands to exploit the change that had been bought about. So here comes Post Punk – the refining of the raw art form of punk. Lyrics don’t shout protest but more like explain, discuss and contextualise political and social issues. Overwhelmingly independent, usually experimental, often Avant Garde, mostly monochrome, artistically diverse, continually moving forward and always Post.
Pere Ubu had been turning out a post punk sound even before punk had turned up and Bowie and Iggy Pop had been playing in that world too. We can probably point to Public Image as being the first true Post Punk outfit. Following on from PIL came a wave, or more like a tide of bands that were Post Punk. Joy Division and XTC, the Cure, the Slits, the Psychedelic Furs, Adam and the Ants, Durutti Column, Killing Joke, the Membranes, Visage and the fall. Fast forward to now, Interpol, The Killers, The Horrors – all with a lineage that can be traced back to Post Punk.
Our Post Punk Book collection includes Torn Apart the biography of Joy Division vocalist Ian Curtis by Mick Middles and Lindsay Reade, A fantastic photo account of New Order by Kevin Cummins, the story of Joy Division by Peter Hook and the acclaimed Rip it Up and Start Again by Simon Reynolds.
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