How The Kinks shaped the world of Damo Suzuki
The countercultural ethos of the 1960s was the driving force behind many musicians breaking off from the past and the suffocating trappings of what an artist could be. Fuelled by it, many artists created a new sonic plane underpinned by immense experimentation and a desire to leave the old world behind. One band at the forefront of this was Can, led by the late Damo Suzuki.
A krautrock outfit, Can stand out from their German peers because their music was distinctive and pulled from a host of more cerebral areas outside the previous decade’s psychedelia. Blending elements of psych rock, funk and the innovative musique concrète, their work would be influential everywhere in the musical landscape, from electronic to post-punk.
Although the group had already set in motion their great artistic strides on their 1969 debut, Monster Movie, it was after their original frontman, Malcolm Mooney, left and their chance encounter with his successor, Suzuki, who was busking on the street in Munich, that would open them up to the glorious sonic worlds explored on the group’s LPs Tago Mago, Future Days and Ege Bamyası.
Remarkably, all three efforts were recorded between 1970 and 1973, the Japanese vocalist’s only tenure with the group. Furthermore, the Suzuki-fronted period of Can was undoubtedly their most culturally significant, and he even claimed, perhaps with a hint of bias, that Future Days was their best effort.
Yet, despite them picking from the niche corners of music to bring their sonics to life during this period, including the works of Karlheinz Stockhausen and Frank Zappa, when Suzuki spoke to Prog in 2016, he revealed that there were more mainstream acts that they also looked to for inspiration.
Famously, the band’s other influences included The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix and The Velvet Underground, but for Suzuki, it was another prominent group from the 1960s who stoked his artistic fire when still living in Japan, The Kinks. In true countercultural form, his decision to fall in love with the Davies brothers’ group emerged out of pure provocation and a desire not to fall in line like everyone else. He even started a Kinks fan club in Japan before they’d released a record there.
Asked what music he listened to while growing up in Japan, he said: “Lots of totally different things, but I began with mainstream classical music, people like Tchaikovsky. Then I started listening to soul and British music. I really liked The Kinks at that time. I even started a Kinks fan club in Japan, before they’d even released a record there.”
The late Suzuki explained: “I used to import their records when I was maybe 16 or 17. Other people would be listening to The Beatles or the Rolling Stones, who were both quite mainstream. I didn’t want to be in the middle of this mass media – it’s not my living standard. So that’s why I went for The Kinks. I could be quite provocative that way.”
This decision to push away from the norms and walk paths less travelled by the collective showed the kind of musician Suzuki was destined to be. Though drawing a straight line between Can and the London outfit may be hard, their musicianship and willingness to step out from the masses undoubtedly influenced Suzuki.
Listen to ‘Vitamin C’ by Cann below.
