I Want More: Can

[Move2This]

I've just been listening to this 1976 track by Can and am wondering if it was popular in discos. Does anyone remember?



Apparently Can were known as a progressive rock band who had few hits but lots of "credibility". Then they suddenly hit the charts with "I Want More" - with a definite disco beat, and some nice electronic sounds. Not dissimilar to an early Giorgio Moroder track really.

[Paulo]

Hello Move2this.

Yes, Can was a german progressive rock band. Maybe the term progressive isn't exact for them, because their music was bigger than that... experimental or avant-garde would fit better.



As you said, Can was a band with a lot of credibility, but only of cult status. It was a good surprise that they broke this rule and recorded a disco track (70's progressive and hard rock bands were very much against it, as we know). I've had heard very recently 2 albums by Can but they were no disco at all.



In fact, I don't have patience to listen to that kind of boring experimental electro-acustic noises which they say to be avant-garde, while slashing normal pop music.



I don't believe in that mentality of the 70's: if it is complex is good, if it is simple is commonplace. I've heard of simple music which gives me much more listening pleasure than the complex which I found boring.



I don't think there are more Can Disco tracks.

[Move2This]

Yes, I have to say I always found progressive rock generally pretty boring, but evidently Can transcended the limitations of the genre by doing this track. I urge anyone who's not familiar with it to have a listen.



What initially sparked my curiosity was a clip of the band performing I Want More taken from an old pop music TV show in the UK. The cameraman had obviously decided to get pretty experimental too with some interesting psychedlic filming effects!



I didn't know Can were German, but it fits in with the sound on I Want More which has that very precise, synthesised sound that characterised some early Germany disco music.

[Paulo]

Hello:



In that very similar vein, there is also a progressive avant-garde 70's italian band called GOBLIN who use to write long pieces of music. They were used to score horror italian movies. I've never listened to their music but a friend who is a progressive rock lover and collector says they are excelent. Their music was experimental full of unusual time signatures, dificult solos and chord changes... until 1977 when they simply decided to record a DISCO album, from the first to the last track. I was overwhelmed by their courage to do it, because that attitude was next to HERESY.



I didn't listen to that album too, but looking at the credits, I was astonished to see that the keyboardist and leader of GOBLIN was a BRAZILIAN guy, born in SÃO PAULO (our 1st major city / RIO is the 2nd) and raised in Italy, who respond by the name of CLAUDIO SIMONETTI, who is also the producer and keybord man behind EASY GOING.



See, how the ends meet?? Two sides of the same coin. The rock press was extremely agressive to disco in the 70's, but the real musicians had no kind of prejudice against disco.



Another example is Rinder And Lewis who were rockers before being involved with disco. They played in many psychedelic acid-rock groups of the US West Cost. Even when disco died, William Michael Lewis got back to the reformed QUICKSILVER MESSENGER SERVICE (an acid-rock outfit from the late psychedelic 60's). He remains there to this day, besides having his own blues band.

[SandraDee]

Yes,Move 2 This, I saw this clip of Can on TOTP2 this week and I was also struck by how 'disco' it was and reminded me so much of another track that I can't quite place. Isn't it irritating when that happens.