It's the mattresses that strike you first. There must be scores of them, fixed to these walls, floor to ceiling. And the ceiling is a good eight meters above our heads."
This is probably the best musical bio I've ever read. Young combines the history of the band and interweaves it with the contextual story of the post-war German musical scene and cultural happenings. His insightful and poetic deep listens of album tracks help those of us who may not know what it is that we're listening to (even if we like it). Like all musical bios, it runs out of steam at the end as the musicians do, but Young combats this with a nice summation of the band's influence. The second part of the book is a series of interviews and journals from Irmin Schmidt, the last surviving member of the band, and is interesting but not essential reading. My only quibble with the book is that Young obviously relied a lot of Young - I didn't get a sense of who some of the other band members were as people. I would have loved to learn more about the upbringing and history of Jaki Liebzeit, Can's drummer and the engine behind their propulsive music. Regardless, I learned a ton about a band I admire and came away with an even greater appreciation for their work.
Here's a good overview of the Can story to wet your appetite.
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