was HW: Live 79, now Cosmic Jokers

[Doug Pearson]

On Tue, 23 Mar 1999 11:34:52 -0800, Marshall Wood <mwood at MY-DEJANEWS.COM>
wrote:

>On Tue, 23 Mar 1999 12:37:37   Keith Henderson wrote:
>>Larry asked...
>>><< Cosmic Jokers>>
>>>vas is dem, den?
>
>>The 'supergroup' of Ash Ra Tempel & Wallenstein members (and vocalist Gilles
>>Lettmann aka the 'Sternenmddchen' or Starmaiden)

Gilles wasn't a "real" member; her vocals were oberdubbed later (see
below...).  However, Klaus Schultze WAS a member, and the Cosmic Jokers
albums feature some of his best synth work ever done in a band (as opposed
to solo) context.

>>put together by Rolf-Ulrich
>>Kaiser (Kaiser of Ohr) in his acid-induced vision (they hung out with Leary
>>after all) of creating 'the Cosmic Couriers.'

Right ... the Cosmic Jokers albums were "constructed" (again, see below...)
out of sessions from the Leary/Ash Ra Tempel album 'Seven Up' and the
Walter Wegmüller 'Tarot' double-LP.  I believe that Tim appears on one or
both of the Cosmic Jokers "compilations".

>>Apparently, the releases were
>>made unbeknownst to Manuel Gvttsching (guitarist of AshRa) and pissed him
>>off to no end.

Basically, Rolf-Ulrich handed over a bunch of tapes of the band jamming to
engineer Dieter Dierks, who edited / compiled / constructed several albums
out of them.  They were NOT recorded with the intention of being released.
Apparently the band members were ALL pissed off!

>>This was also about the time when AshRa's bassist Hartmut
>>Enke quit playing in the middle of a performance, and stood and watched the
>>others finish the set. I guess he came to the conclusion that they had
>>reached some sort of perfect moment, and from that point on lost the desire
>>to perform again.  Needless to say, he ceased to be an AshRa member quite
>>abruptly.
>
>That's a great story - where did you hear that one, Keith?

It's pretty well-documented ... check out Julian Cope's 'Krautrock' book
which is a great starting reference (although it does contain a few
inaccuracies and some very opinionated statements of the YMMV variety).  A
lot of the info I'm posting here was gleaned from that book.

>Got a recommendation for a first Cosmic
>Jokers CD?  There are several.

There are five "official" Cosmic Jokers albums, but two of them are
"compilations" of material from the first three and some of the Cosmic
Jokers-related albums (such as the aforementioned 'Seven Up'), with
additional vocal overdubs from Gille.  I would recommend starting with the
first two "real" ones, 'Cosmic Jokers' and 'Galactic Supermarket' (and
'Planeten Sit-in' is, I believe, the third "real" one; not sure if this one
is on CD yet).  However, the "best" Cosmic Jokers album (IMO) is the Walter
Wegmüller 'Tarot' double album, which features an extended Cosmic Jokers
lineup (with Harmut Enke playing funky wah-wah rhythm guitar instead of
bass, for instance) playing real songs (that sound like everything from the
Stooges to the Moody Blues to Funkadelic); it is one of the OUTSTANDING
Krautrock albums (up there with 'Yeti', 'Tago Mago', 'The Faust Tapes' and
'Neu! 75').  Unfortunately, it's only available as a deluxe box set with a
pack of tarot cards (imagine that!) that will set you back about US$80
(ouch!).  I was lucky enough to get a copy from a friend who was about to
sell off the promo he was sent.

Interestingly enough, I was once in a Krautrock-inspired "band" (that
existed for one night only) who recorded a couple hours of material not
intended for release, that wound up spawning an LP under the name
'Sternklang'.  Sort of a Cosmic Jokers meets 'TAB'-era Monster Magnet sound
...

        -Doug
         ceres at sirius.com