The Malcolm Mooney Years: Can and the Monster Movie

Anyone familiar with CAN would be terribly upset to put on Monster Movie and not hear a nervous hi-hat and the rhythmic throbbing associated with the opening segment of “Father Cannot Yell”. Stereo 8 enthusiasts, however, have learned that CAN’s debut album is nothing but a collection of mind-blowing compositions and improvisations. The song sequence, in this specific case, perhaps does not matter all that much.

CAN formed in 1968 and it is somehow pertinent to mention that some of the band members spent time studying with Karlheinz Stockhausen before they discovered the potency of rock ‘n’ roll music. Holger Czukay and Irmin Schmidt joined Michael Karoli, David Johnson and free jazz drummer Jaki Liebezeit in the summer of 1968 with the hope of making music that would be both singular and forward-looking. They succeeded – but not before they lost Johnson and found vocalist Malcolm Mooney, an African-American visual-arts artist who helped CAN reach the apex of krautrock excellence.

“Unlike the Kosmische music of most of the other great German bands, Can had stylised themselves from the beginning as raw and expressionist, with clearly defined boundaries,” Julian Cope notes in Krautrocksampler.

Monster Movie is the band’s first full-length effort and the only legitimate album featuring Mooney on vocals (if we exclude compilations and the reunion album). CAN’s 1969 release is an exercise in control and restraint – four songs borne out of a desire to maintain simple, yet highly-dynamic, linear sound sculptures. Monster Movie is insistent rock ‘n’ roll music that would have been impossible without the combined efforts of the band’s four instrumentalists. Yet Cope and Eric Deshayes are both correct to insist that, in the late 1960s, CAN came together thanks to Mooney’s driving energy and personality.

The Stereo 8 version of Monster Movie begins with “Yoo Doo Right” instead of “Father Cannot Yell”. The decision to alter the song sequence makes some chronological sense since the twenty-minute “Yoo Doo Right”. was recorded before the band entered the studio to lay down tracks for the album. The song also positions Mooney at the very center of the band’s improvisation.

“Avec les vingt minutes de ‘Yoo Doo Right’ la synthèse est faite,” says Deshayes. The author of Au-Delà du Rock pertinently argues that the song represents a pivotal moment in the band’s early history. It allowed the band to gel together and provided clear indications that CAN were destined to pioneer new paths in the realms of what would later be called post-rock and post-jazz.

The 8 track cartridge is not the most adaptable format. Dividing an album in four equal programs is not always possible (“Yoo Doo Right” is split between programs 1 and 2). It is also not unusual to end up with more tape than necessary which means that a song needs to be repeated if a long silence is to be avoided.

In this specific case, Liberty Records had the great idea to add an extra song (“Soul Desert”) in order to use up the excess tape. Audiophiles who purchased Monster Movie on 8-track were, therefore, rewarded with bonus material.

“Soul Desert” was written by CAN for the film Mädchen… nur mit Gewalt. The song also appears on the 1970 Soundtracks album.

Listen to Program 4:

PROGRAM 4 – FATHER CANNOT YELL / SOUL DESERT

Stereo 8 (Liberty 8 9148) – Track Listing:
Program 1: You Doo Right (part 1)
Program 2: You Doo Right (part 2)
Program 3: Mary, Mary, So Contrary / Outside My Door
Program 4: Father Cannot Yell / Soul Desert

LP – Track Listing:
Side A: Father Cannot Yell / Mary, Mary, So Contrary / Outside My Door
Side B: You Doo Right