DAMO SUZUKI
Can frontman and free spirit (1950–2024)
SITTING outside a Munich café in May 1970, Holger Czukay was immediately taken by the sight of Damo Suzuki, wandering along the street while chanting. Czukay turned to drummer Jaki Liebezeit, his Can bandmate, convinced they’d found their new singer. Suzuki accepted the duo’s invitation to join them onstage that night at the Blow Up club, where the itinerant Japanese busker duly improvised his vocals on the spot. This approach would come to define Suzuki’s time with Can, a period that spanned their most celebrated works: Tago Mago (1971), Ege Bamyasi (1972) and Future Days (1973). These albums were marked by his abstract, freeform lyrics that were often impenetrable. He called it “the language of the Stone Age”.
Suzuki made his studio debut with Can on “Don’t Turn The Light On, Leave Me Alone”, from 1970’s Soundtracks, replacing outgoing frontman Malcolm Mooney. But his presence was more keenly felt on Tago Mago, particularly on avant-funk epic “Halleluwah”, and “Mushroom”, where Suzuki’s repeated phrases mirror the song’s circular groove.
Nothing was ever planned. As Suzuki told in 2019: “Things that happen by accident can be a very special moment… Ilike if somebody is forcing me to do something. It destroys my curiosity.”
