- CLASSIC ALBUM OF THE WEEK
- Amon Düül II "Made In Germany" 1975 (Germany)
- Amon Düül II is a well known "krautrock" band, and were in fact one of the most globally popular West German groups of the 1970's. But this double album from late in their career is often overlooked in favor of their early freaky records like Phallus Dei (1969) and Yeti (1970) or trance-y prog-y records like Wolf City (1972). Perhaps this is partly due to the "controversial" nature of this album, which caused the record to be trimmed down to a single LP for some markets (the Hitler jokes are probably what did it.) For this album is nothing less than a psychedelic pop meditation on the history of "Germany" -- tales of Kaisers and mad kings, emigration to America, Weimar era decadence, and LSD-drenched hippie communes bump up against references to culture heroes from Strauss and Wagner to Fritz Lang and Stockhausen. The group's two quirky lead vocalists Renate Knaup (the sword-wielding Valkyrie on the LP cover) and Chris Karrer never sounded better, and the band never cooked up a catchier batch of tunes.
- Here's a live clip from around the time of this album featuring Renate: "Surrounded By The Stars". And here's the band back in 1971 performing their classic "Soap Shop Rock". Legendary animator Ralph Bakshi used the AD2 song "Deutsch Nepal" in his 1977 movie Wizards (though the German lyrics are actually much more ironic and humorous than Bakshi's grim visualization.) The group still play gigs occasionally, here's the psychedelic classic "Green Bubble Raincoated Man" live in 2004!