A few months ago I learned that for the past 4 decades there’s been this club that’s been jamming to this astounding German band, grooving and dancing and enjoying just the right quantities of the best drugs and alcohol in a never ending party of cool and I was never invited. It’s as though this has all been going on behind some curtain that I’ve periocially been standing right next to but either never noticed or never bothered to push aside.

The curtain was pulled away one afternoon while looking through the stacks at my local record store. The scene reminds me of one from the movie High Fidelity in which the clerk (was this Jacke Black?) at a record store is playing The Beta Band (The Three EP’s from 1998) and customers keep coming up to the counter and asking “who is this band you’re playing.” “Oh it’s The Beta Band” he says, casually, like, “you know, everyone knows The Beta Band, right?”

So I’m in the record store and there’s this music playing and I know I’ve never heard it but all I can think is that it really seems like I should have. I also can’t place the music in time and I’m asking myself, “is this a current band?” Another customer who’s there and reminds me a heck of a lot of a this bearded and shlumpy but knowingly charismatic character in the recent HBO series “Big Little Lies” says to Larry, the store owner – “you’re finally playing some good music around in this place.” NICE!! Like, “you’re always playing shite in this store and somehow you’ve finally played decent record.”

Sorry to say it but I had to agree. Larry is always listening to one crap sounding Led Zeppelin bootleg or another. Anyway, a discussion ensued about the reative merits of Can’s Ege Bamyasi, their fourth studio album and the band’s third, Tago Mago, considered by many to be their finest. I had no opinion of course because nobody every invited me to the party, but Larry was making a case for Ege Bamyasi and now that I’ve finally joined the club and heard both albums I tend to agree with him. Until further notice I am declaring Ege Bamyasi is the best album from this terrific band with a string of great albums.

Ege Bamyasi includes Can’s one hit song, “Spoon,” orginially used for a german TV thriller mini-series called “Das Messer.” I especially like “Vitamin C,” also on this album and also used in a TV series, this time for the very recent American series “The Get Down”on Netflix  (cancelled but very entertaining by the way). Every track on this album is a winner and every track thrills with an alluring combination of sparkling creativity and edginess. And when the drums and percussion get their hooks into you they never let go and you’ve offcially joined the party that is Can.

Originally released in Europe and Japan in 1972 and then a year later in the US and elsewhere, early pressings of Ege Bamyasi can be pricey. Copies of the orignial German pressing in good condition can sell for over a grand. There are brand new copies of a 2014 remastered reissue available for about $20, but for reasons I’ll go into in a moment I decided to go for a 1981 German reissue on SPOON records that cost me about $65.

I haven’t heard the 2014 reissue of Ege or any other version for that matter, but I did receive a copy of the 2014 reissue of Tago Mago and if this copy is any indication of what the ’14 reissue of Ege is like then I would definitely recommend the 1981 Spoon reissue over the 2014 reissue. My copy of Ege sounds okay and a heck of a lot better than the 2014 Tago, but without another version of Ege to compare to it it’s really hard to assess whether its relative merits and flaws reflect the orignial recording, the remastering or the individual copy itself. I hope to acquire a first pressing of this album at some point to see for myself. I’ll keep you posted.

In the meantime I wanted to explain a slight change in approach here at the The Broken Record. There was a time not long ago when I had ambitions of buying more recent reissues and doing more shootouts with vintage copies of the same record. I enjoy doing it and I felt like it was a kind of public service that would allow me to steer other collectors toward better versions or, conversely, to recommend newer reissues if they were deserving. Unfortunately nearly all of the recent reissues I’ve bought over the past few years or have received as gifts have been total duds. I’ve have to sell most of them so I can stop looking at them and regretting I ever bought them in the first place, and usually for less than what I paid.

So while I hate to say it, if you’re looking for insights on recent reissues of lp’s you’re on your own as far as I’m concerned because it’s just not worth it anymore. I’m happy to say, however, that I’ve discovered there are A LOT of great sounding vintage reissues or later pressings out there if you’re willing to do a bit of research and take some chances. In many cases these earlier reissues sound better than the originals.

Just a couple of examples of some great vintage reissues or later pressings that I’ve already mentioned on this site are the Fame reissue of Pink Floyd’s Piper At The Gates of Dawn (a post I’m especially proud of by the way!) and my recent revisit of The Stooges first album.

If you’re looking for this type of information, feel free to leave a comment to that effect and if I can offer any guidance I’m happy to do it. In the meantime, if you don’t already own a copy of Can’s Ege Bamyasi I strongly encourage you to get one.