DAS BESTE VON KUCKUCK SCHALLPLATTEN: THE SINGLES 1970-1974
Various Artists
Price: £24.98 inc. VAT (£21.26 ex. VAT)
Stock: 
Format: 
Number of CDs: 2
Release Date: 22-02-2008
Label: Celestial Harmonies
Catalog Number: 12107-2
Barcode: 13711210729
Musical Style: Rock / Pop
Track Listing:
| Disc 1 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Honey Honey; Johnny Tame [02:21] | 13 | Back Home to Canada; Jack Grunsky [04:33] |
| 2 | Walter, Walter (English Version of Honey Honey); Johnny Tame [02:19] | 14 | Spinne Im Netz; Ihre Kinder [04:19] |
| 3 | Barborella (German Version); Archaeopterix [02:57] | 15 | Hey, is it Worth All The Pain?; Jack Grunsky [04:47] |
| 4 | Barbarella (English Version); Archaeopterix [02:42] | 16 | Fiessbandlied; Ihre Kinder [03:05] |
| 5 | Wie em Blitz; Sam Spence [02:24] | 17 | Songwriter; Repairs [03:22] |
| 6 | Schachmatt; Johnny Tame [02:53] | 18 | Leaving; Sam Spence [02:03] |
| 7 | You've Guessed (English Version of Schachmatt); Johnny Tame [03:04] | 19 | O Lonesome Sorrow; Repairs [02:36] |
| 8 | Maanchlld Blues; Jack Grunsky [03:04] | 20 | Widow Woman; Cwt [03:00] |
| 9 | Mr. Monday (German Version); Bernadette [02:52] | 21 | Can't Help Thinking (About The Good times); Tony Kelly [04:00] |
| 10 | Mr. Monday (English Version); Bernadette [02:05] | 22 | Sylvia; Sam Spence [02:14] |
| 11 | DlegrauebStadt; Ihre Kinder [03:47] | 23 | Long Live The Queen; Bunter [02:53] |
| 12 | Buffalo Brian; Jack Grunsky [05:17] | 24 | The Power And The Glory; Keith West [03:35] |
| Disc 2 | |||
| 1 | Please Let Them Be; Johnny Tame [03:49] | 12 | The Blue in Me; Jack Grunsky [03:38] |
| 2 | No More Livin' Without Lovin'; Archaeopterix [03:03] | 13 | Ein Lied für Dich; Inre Kinder [04:04] |
| 3 | Samstag Abend, Sanntag Margen; Archaeopterix [03:03] | 14 | Nowhere; Repairs [03:00] |
| 4 | Rimsky Rock; Sam Spence [02:34] | 15 | Sunflower; Sam Spence [02:36] |
| 5 | Walking In My Sleep All Night; Johnny Tame [02:30] | 16 | Circle Won't Take Me Around; Repairs [04:11] |
| 6 | Jeanine; Jack Grunsky [04:31] | 17 | Signed D.C.; Cwt [04:10] |
| 7 | Ich bin nur ein Frau; Bernadette [02:44] | 18 | Changing Your Style; Tony Kelly [03:28] |
| 8 | Komm zu Dir; Ihre Kinder [02:39] | 19 | Ringo; Sam Spence [01:44] |
| 9 | Tobika County; Jack Grunsky [03:34] | 20 | Jumping Jesus; Bunter [03:00] |
| 10 | Campfire; Jack Grunsky [03:48] | 21 | Liet Motif; Keith West [02:46] |
| 11 | Stunden; Ihre Kinder [04:11] | 22 | I Only Want To Be With You; The Scratch Band [03:43] |
Description:
In the summer of 1969, in the midst of the upheaval of the '60s, a young man in Germany, then 25 years of age, started a record label in Munich - his only choice in the absence of suitable employment: Kuckuck Schallplatten (cuckoo records). That young man was founder Eckart Rahn; having had some initial success in the copyright administration business with hits by the Small Faces, Keith Emerson's The Nice, Italian Adriano Celentano and chansonier Gilbert Becaud among some German 'umpah' pop songs typical of the time, reflecting the vast cultural difference between then local pop and Anglo-Saxon rock, he thought of adding some expressions (or impressions) of the current state of music of his own.
The first releases appeared in January of 1970, the fledgling new operation partly funded by the market leader at the time, Deutsche Grammophon, whose A&R Director Oskar Drechsler said to Rahn “I don't know what it is that you know but you know something, and I want you to do it for us”. Originally, the label started up on two parallel tracks: German-style pop singles echoed by LP recordings of advanced German-language rock, later often referred to as 'krautrock', for better or worse. The label almost went out of business between 1974 when Deutsche Grammphon decided to terminate the distribution agreement and 1976 when ambient musician Deuter persuaded Rahn to release his seminal LP Celebration (11040-2) himself without 'professional' distribution.
During those early years, twenty 7-inch singles were issued through Deutsche Grammophon; they are now - for the first time in over 30 years - made available again on a double CD in a tin box, remastered and transferred to the digital medium using the original reel-to-reel master recordings by German engineer Gideon Boss at Sonopress. The release arrives in time for the 40th anniversary of Rahn's music company on March 31st, 2008, which presumably makes his the oldest surviving independent label that has continually been in operation for four decades. The Kuckuck label went on to launch the career of synthesist Kitaro outside of Japan and to restart the career of flutist Paul Horn in the '80s, continuing the journey from polka-pop to krautrock to ambient to world music to minimalism and further on into the present before activities concentrated on the Celestial Harmonies label which Rahn started in 1980 in Connecticut, USA.
In translation entitled The Sound of the Early Years, The Best of Kuckuck Schallplatten: The Singles 1970-1974, the release goes from deutschrock pionieers Ihre Kinder to Canadian folkie Jack Grunsky by way of the Connecticut-based band Repairs and a few truly authentic krautpop items, such as the tracks sung in German and English by Johnny Tame and his producer Mal Sondock, a Texas expatriate who understood German pop sometimes better than the Germans themselves did. Some 'covers' of Anglo hits, some TV tracks by Sam Spence (the first totally electronic recordings issued in Germany), a gem by Keith West of Excerpt From A Teenage Opera-fame, silly British pop by Bunter and a breath-taking bonus track by Connecticut's The Scratch Band with Dusty Springfield's I Only Want To Be With You in an unexpectedly introspective reading. A wild and completely incoherent mix, typical of the times and thus a mirror of what was going on in Germany and where it was headed.
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