Krautrock Pioneer Holger Czukay Dead at 79
- Paul Mauceri
- Sep 10, 2017
- 2 min read
We’re at the point now where important and, more or less, famous musicians are dying on a weekly basis. Bummer for sure but it’s life, (or death). Last week it was Walter Becker of Steely Dan followed shortly thereafter by Holger Czukay, bass player and co-founder of the highly influential experimental krautrock band Can.
I first heard about Can in the locker room of the Metropolitan Museum of Art one morning while changing into my security guard uniform. One of my fellow guards was the quintessential music geek. His name was Jeff. He was one of “those guys” with an encyclopedic knowledge of music, which could occasionally come off as pedantic but, when I look back, I appreciate running into these kinds of folks every now and again on the highway of life. He turned me on to Todd Rundgren and made me a dubbed cassette tape of A Wizard, A True Star, which has since become one of my favorite albums. So, thanks for that, Jeff.
As someone whose tastes tend to gravitate toward pop and classic song structures, I have found Can a little challenging. I definitely admire their approach and respect their place in the krautrock/rock canon. As an experimental subgenre that developed in the late 1960’s, it eschewed any hints of traditional American blues and rock and roll and drew inspiration from jazz, electronic, avant-garde, funk, progressive rock, and world music.
As a drummer, I could tell right from the opening seconds of the lead off track “Pinch” from their 1972 release Ege Bamyasi that Can drummer Jaki Liebezeit, who also died this year, had a unique voice.
There is a whole lot more of Can and krautrock with which I need to become better familiar. One of the many books on my list is Future Days: Krautrock and the Birth of a Revolutionary New Music, buy David Stubbs, named after the album and title track of the Can album that followed Ege Bamyasi. Here is a recent article about said album.
RIP Holger Czukay.
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