Bob (you all know Bob, one half of Alpines, our in-house rock band) had a friend coming round who knows EVERYTHING about all things musical. So I challenged Bob to ask him - who was Renate Knaup-Krotenschwanz, and which band does she perform with?
Here's some clues. Before Kraftwerk (and perhaps Neu!) took it into all that electronica, there were German groups who knew how to rock, but weren't limited by blues-boogie or heavy metal.
People, we are talking Amon Duul. Amon Duul II, to be precise, although Amon Duul I didn't release much material. (Sorry, I can't figure out how to do the umlauts.) Basically, they were a hippy commune that spawned some music and split into two bands ..... probably their most famous piece being 'Jail House Frog', which if you stick with to the end includes one of the most massive saxophone solos prior to 'Baker Street'.
Ah, they had great titles, great artwork, and sometimes great tunes. 'Dance of the Lemmings' (double album - 'Race from here to your ears' has some great demented guitar solos) was what drew me to them. It took me months to get hold of a copy of 'Yeti' (another double). 'Phallus Dei' *sniggers*. Yep, there's a lot of self-indulgent noodling, but they could get it together. I saw them live at Imperial College in 1972, and I am one of the few people in the country with a copy of the live album that came from that tour. They had two drummers on stage, John Weinzerl was cranking out immense guitar, Renate was warbling like a good 'un ...... glad it was in that dawn to be alive, or sunnink. Their bassist went on to play with Lemmie. Rock nobility.
Look, it's Friday night, drink has been taken .... I was urging Bob to pursue his career by creating an Amon Duul tribute band, which we were going to call 'I can't believe it's not Amon Duul,' or 'Lemmingmania' .... alas, it is not to be.
And woooo ... the Duul are still living the hippy dream. If I can, I am going to post a link to their official website, which is sprawling and messy and slow and ..... hey man, this stuff is really primo, you know?
