AMON DUUL II:Tanz Der Lemminge-Rare US Promo orig.LP NM

£ 30

$ 40

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Jun 1, 2010 Sold Date

May 25, 2010 Start Date

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AMON DUUL II:Dance Of The Lemmings/Tanz Der Lemminge

1971 Dance of the Lemmings [Gatefold] Vinyl LP

United Artists

UAS-9954 PROMO

Very Rare gatefold sleeve US Promo original 3rd double LP…

This US Promo original contains a 2 promo xerox sheets with line-up and b/w photos...

Amon Düül II were instigated in Autumn 1968 out of a loose collection of musicians who were involved with the Munich Amon Düül commune. As the story goes, Amon Düül (the original band/commune) were booked to play at the Essener Songtag Festival, but due to differences the commune split into two and both versions of the band played. The split was instigated by Chris Karrer, who was much more interested in making music than getting into politics. In their early days a number of other Amon Düül members migrated to Amon Düül II, as well as the likes of Christian Burchard and Edgar Hofmann (who both went on to form Embryo), Holger Trülzsch (of Popol Vuh), Dieter Serfas (who formed his own band, then later resurfaced in Embryo) and...

Their debut album PHALLUS DEI contained a charged and purely innovative music, with bizarre structures, almost operatic and crazed (male and female) vocals, with lots of distinctly Teutonic angst, tons of percussion, duelling violins, Eastern-scale guitars, and all really tripped-out to the point of excess. This was especially so on the side-long title track, which featured improvisation of such complexity that even the likes of Pink Floyd only hinted at. Like a hybrid of High Tide, Hawkwind and Third Ear Band, the connection may have been coincidental, yet bassist Dave Anderson did later return to England and join Hawkwind! The following two albums, both doubles, are regarded by many as the finest Amon Düül II music, extensively featuring lengthy tracks and side-long segued suites, full of musical invention, surprises throughout. Not least is the phenomenal 11/2 sides of "Yeti" and "Yeti Talks To Yogi", which are space rock of the utmost invention, and the curious cosmic space-out "The Chasmin Soundtrack" (on TANZ DER LEMMINGE) which pre-empted The Cosmic Jokers. There's lots of other classic material on these doubles (naturally!) and not least the second side of YETI which has some of the most mind-bending psychedelic music on record. And, let's not forget the weirdly twisted songs that were as surreal as the music they were contained in! As with any big band, personnel changes were a regular feature of Amon Düül II, amongst them: Shrat had gone to form the Hawkwind-like Sameti, Karl-Heinz Hausmann had joined from the "Berlin Commune 1", and a wealth of other top Munich jazz and rock musicians passed through the band. This variety of talent from the likes of Jimmy Jackson (and his amazing choir organ) or eccentric singer Rolf Zacher, and numerous others, makes the Amon Düül II canvas of sound even more diverse.

CARNIVAL IN BABYLON was a single LP with shorter song-based tracks. A disappointment to most at first, , it's still a fine and well-crafted album, though of the more subtle kind. But, hereon, with the onset of international recognition and tours abroad, Amon Düül II became an even much more unstable entity, with a steady flow of musicians passing through the band (amongst the more obscure were Reinhold Spiegelfeld and Reiner Schnelle of Weed). As evidence of this, on WOLF CITY (and its sister alter-ego album by Utopia which took the Amon Düül II sound to jazzier realms), no two tracks featured the same musicians, yet despite this WOLF CITY was a surprisingly varied, fresh and highly inventive album extensively featuring Daniel Fichelscher, the percussionist/multi-instrumentalist who was to become the main musician of Popol Vuh, and much more Renate Knaup. As a "thank you" to their British fans, the excellent LIVE IN LONDON (actually recorded in Croydon) was released here at budget price. It featured radically different versions of classic tracks, mostly from DANCE OF THE LEMMINGS, again with Renate more to the fore. The last true (and really creative) Amon Düül II album is often quoted as VIVE LA TRANCE, which continued this trend of musical simplification. Although being an album of songs VIVE LA TRANCE still had lots in the way of radical invention, not least some really witty songs and pacey complex instrumentals. After Amon Düül II left United Artists, the label issued the singles collection LEMMINGMANIA (United Artists UAG 29723).

When the acid-haze faded, further Amon Düül II albums moved to ever more accessible mainstream rock realms, becoming increasingly patchy. HIJACK lived up to its title, and "hijacked" from various different types of music, tango's and Bavarian folk music amongst them. It was a more trendy side-step from the songs on VIVE LA TRANCE. Then, even more wide ranging, was the double opus MADE IN GERMANY, lyrically Amon Düül II's ultimate stab at German society, attitudes, the media, the record industry, etc. The great shame was that musically much of it wasn't too inspired. Even before the departure of Renate Knaup (she moved on to Popol Vuh) there had been hoards of changes in personnel. And, now again, it was all-change time!

As Lothar Meid left, in came a number of new members: Jörg Evers, Keith Forsey and Klaus Ebert, all ex-members of an earlier Lothar Meid band Achtzehn Karat Gold. And then there was also pop singer Stefan Zauner! Not surprisingly, all of this tore the Amon Düül II sound apart, losing their identity entirely. Yet it must be said that all later 70's Amon Düül II albums contained at least something of excellence. Even after proverbially disappearing up their own arses on ONLY HUMAN, there's been constant attempts to resurrect Amon Düül II. VORTEX sounded like a MOR return to VIVE LA TRANCE, and more recent attempts have been even more embarrassing, a couple of almost disco-styled new numbers appeared on the compilation SURROUNDED BY THE BARS (Spalax 14810).

Note: John Weinzierl also established a British incarnation of Amon Düül in 1979 along with former Amon Düül II member (also of Hawkwind and Groundhogs) Dave Anderson and a collection of impromptu musicians. Their releases confused at first, being billed as "old recordings" when they were no such thing. Of their four releases, the largely improvised albums HAWK MEETS PENGUIN (Thunderbolt TB 102) and FOOL MOON (Magnum TL 011) are highly recommended to all fans of the early Amon Düül II. A compilation AIRS ON A SHOESTRING (Thunderbolt TB 043), also features an excellent unreleased work.

Dieter Serfas (drums, cymbals), Peter Leopold (drums, percussion, piano), Shrat (bongos, vocals, violin), Renate Knaup (vocals, tambourine), John Weinzierl (guitar, bass), Chris Karrer (violin, guitars, soprano sax, vocals), Falk Rogner (organ, synthesizer), Dave Anderson (bass), + Christian Burchard (vibes), Holger Trülzsch (Turkish drums)

RECORD M-

SLEEVE VG++

(rw,cw,prs)

GRADINGS:

Records are graded first,then covers
S/S = still sealed
M = mint , new or unplayed condition…cover is nice and new looking with no ring wear.
M- = near perfect copy, played only a few times.
EX = only slight signs of wear; very clean, only light surface marks which will not distract
        significantly from the sound…sleeve also has only slight wear, and is still in nice
        collectible.
VG++ = played often with moderate surface wear and some moderate noise, still plays well…
        sleeve may have medium overall wear or some ring wear.
VG+ = overall wear, but no skips of serious defects, more noisy sound during quiet passages…
        sleeve is well worn, usually with considerable ring wear.
VG = plays a lot, heavy wear on record and cover…guarantee does not apply to vg- or worse
        condition records.
A FEW ABBREVIATIONS: