Blue Note Records is probably the coolest jazz label in the music industry since their establishment in 1939. There are three names that should be mentioned in the record companies’ success . Label’s house photographer Francis Wolff (1908 - 1971) , Reid Miles and the record engineer Rudy Van Gelder. Reid Miles did those classic covers and Blue Notes becomes an icon in the jazz world. I think Factory Records reached the same success in rock music with its own style&sounds...
I choose my 10 favorite Blue Note records...
1 - Lee Morgan - Sidewinder
2 - Sonny Clark - Cool Struttin’
3- Hank Mobley - Workout
4- Dexter Gordon - Go!
5- Mccoy Tyner-The Real Mccoy
6- Joe Henderson- Mode For Joe
7 -Thelonious Monk -Genius of Modern Music: Volume 1
A story should have a beginning, middle, and an end... but not necessarily in that order.Jean-Luc Goddard
There are some artists that we feel that we are obligated to thank. I do it very often even they are not aware of that. They make our crazy old cruel planet a nicer place. It doesn’t mean we all cry for days about the ugliness of our old world. But these people are maybe one big reason that we think&smile. Imagine a world without Dali, Tolstoy, Proust, Rembrandt, Miles Davis, and Rimbaud….. This list can start very easily and fortunately does not end so easy.
I know it’s kind of late to write something about it but when I heard Klaus Dinger’s death. I felt really funny. It feels like losing a friend. A friend you didn’t see for years but you always liked. I though right the away about my favorite Neu! Albums: 1972(white) and 1975(black).
Brian Eno said once: “There were three great beats in the 70s. Fela Kuti's Afrobeat, James Brown's funk, and Klaus Dinger's Neu! Beat.” It was obvious that Klaus Dinger was the main man of Neu! , he designed even those very arty, simple album covers.
Any Neu! Fan knows the big conflict between Klaus Dinger(March 24, 1946 – March 21, 2008) and Michael Rother. To me they look like to enemies who like each others style. You can easily tell when you read their interviews that Klaus Dinger wasn’t the most easygoing guy on the earth, but luckily Michael Rother was! And I certainly believe that this tension creates this cosmic and magic energy to do these 2 albums (‘72 and ’75). The album Neu! 2 -which they recorded between these 2 albums- was made in a hurry (that’s what Klaus Dinger said!).But it’s still an interesting album with the “overdubs”. Klaus also played with the speed of the same songs and put them on the b-side as they were diffirent.That’s is a very smart “Klausich” solution for a though problem.
Michael Rother & Klaus Dinger
First Neu! Album is a very revolutionary music with very avant-garde ideas. You can’t compare this album with the other Krautrock albums. The opening song Hallogallo is over 9 minutes. It is a perfect example of the Neu! sound, they also call it Motorik but I read that Klaus Dinger uses “Lange Gerade” or “Endlose Gerade” which means “long line” or “endless line”. It’s simple but hypnotic. The second and third song Sonderangebot (bargain or sale) and Weissensee are similar and difficult pieces. Very minimalist and experimental. Then comes Im Gluck In the beginning you can hear a rowing boat. Klaus Dinger said that he recorded it when he was traveling with his girlfriend on the boat to Sweden. It’s like the second part of the Weissensee but a little more peaceful. If you are still on this album, you reached one of the most important song in the pop music history. Negativland is a cult song. Again very simple riff and a very simple primitive apache beat. Michael Rother plays bass on this song, Klaus adds a highly distortioned Japanese banjo on that. The funny thing about Negativland and Hallogallo-they are probably most known Neu! songs- are their length. They are both 9 minutes 47 seconds! These 2 songs also show us the direction of the Neu! sound which we will hear more on the Neu! ‘75(black) album. The last song Lieber Honig (Dear Honey) is about Klaus Dinger’s girlfriend Anita*. This is probably the creepiest love song in the music history among with Cheree of Suicide and Rote Lippen of DAF. Well, the album is over. Even though I listened hundreds of time I have the same reaction after each listening. Just staring to the walls…Lieber Honig is a really good final song for such a weird, unique album. When I heard that Klaus Dinger died I had the same funny feeling. What do you feel? Rest in Peace Herr Dinger.
*Klaus Dinger made another song about Anita(his swedish girlfriend) in 1983 called “Ich liebe dich (Jag älskar dig-swedish!!!)” even though they had to break up before 1975.
Ps: I can think about one album very close to Neu! 72, but without stealing the ideas just with the same feeling. If you trust me dear reader, go and buy Boredoms’ Super Are (1998).
