I Am Damo Suzuki

by Damo Suzuki, Paul Woods

When the anarchic vocalist of Can left the celebrated German band in late 1973, the ensuing decade-long absence was taken by many to be the end of his personal story. But it was just the beginning. In I Am Damo Suzuki, Kenji Damo Suzuki and co-author Paul Woods illuminate a life in music driven by the principle of randomness. The book spans the influence of western music on Suzuki growing up in post-WWII Japan, his rejection of national traditions, and a lifelong journey of exploration. After his hippie-influenced beginnings as a provocative street musician, Suzuki's story took an unlikely turn after a chance recruitment into Can, one of the most innovative bands of the 1970s. A stint of family life and the role of Japanese salaryman preceded his return to the music world with The Damo Suzuki Band and later with Damo Suzuki's Network, an international vehicle for musical communication using sound instead of words. With contributions from family members, lifelong friends, musical collaborators and Damo's long-term partner, I Am Damo Suzuki is an absorbing portrait of a musical catalyst and enigmatic icon.

Genres: Music, Biography

288 pages, Paperback

Published September 5, 2019

Reviews

[Maarten Wagemakers · Rating 3 out of 5]

At the time of writing this review, this biography of erstwhile Can vocalist Damo Suzuki was erroneously added to the Goodreads database as having only 288 pages instead of 388. I wish I could unread at least a part of those last 100 pages though. Up to that point the biography is successful in creating a wonderful image of the man as a friendly, sympathetic, warm, intelligent, slightly peculiar wandering spirit and creative genius, capable of channeling positive energies and inspiring others to reach unexpected creative heights. There are dozens of people chipping in as 'character witnesses', reinforcing our view of Damo as someone you'd love to be friends with, a "hardcore extrovert with an introverted style" (to paraphrase one of the contributors), a 'freethinker' who tries to insulate himself as much as possible from many strains of culture and politics to be as pure in his way of being as much as possible.
Sure, the guy is well documented as a former Jehovah’s witness and still a fundamentalist Christian by his own admission (albeit one extremely wary of any organized types of religion); but there's a certain pragmatic spirituality to the way Damo applies religion to his thinking. His adamant refusal to work with musicians from bands with 'demonic' names can still be brushed off as quirky, for example.

Unfortunately, in the span of only a few pages, this carefully constructed image of a 'freethinker' turns somewhat sour. For someone who tries to warn against the dangers of the Information War, it's painful to note that Damo apparently ended up in the nowadays quite familiar depths of YouTube algorithm radicalization hell. Quite disappointingly, Damo is convinced that 9/11 was a setup from the US government (which, coincidentally, is apparently run by a Freemason conspiracy, because of course it is) and that the moon landing has been faked. Welp. Oh, and it turns out the hardcore globetrotter and positive energy advocate is anti-immigration, anti-EU and pro-Brexit, something that truly comes out of left-field (right-field?) by that time in the biography; partially because these revelations are curiously positioned as an intermezzo in between chapters dealing with his heart-breaking struggles with colon cancer. Biography author Paul Woods also tries a bit too hard to rationalize these beliefs (with only a tiny bit of damage control in some of the footnotes), which doesn't really improve matters.

I am aware that this comes across as a very negative, slightly knee-jerk response to what's basically just a single chapter in a 400 page biography that's otherwise pretty decent, if slightly dry and repetitive at times. I could argue that I could have done without that particular glimpse into his thoughts, but it is what it is. I'll still cherish the memory of seeing Damo Suzuki's Network live in action a few years ago (which was absolutely as exhilirating and uplifting as described by numerous people in the book), I won’t love his iconic recorded output with Can any less for it. Wonky politics and conspiracies aside the overall view of Damo Suzuki left after reading this biography is still a positive one.

[Mike Roper · Rating 2 out of 5]

This felt like a missed opportunity; much of the writing was tediously over detailed, with unnecessarily lengthy side-notes, interjections and pointless extractions directly taken from the subject matters online blog. This book could have said just as much in half as many words, easily.

Conversely, the level of detail on Damo's time in can was rather scant, forming only a couple of chapters. While I accept his time with the band formed only a brief section of his life, it deserves more focus than the 3-4 chapters seemingly dedicated to his time as a career salesman.

Not without its moments, but could have been so much more.

[Kris Needs · Rating 5 out of 5]

At last some genuinely new diumensions to the Can story!

[MBL · Rating 2 out of 5]

Never got around to finishing this book. Lots of antiquated terms like “Dark Africa”, etc were a big turn off. Not much about Can, so if that’s what you’re looking for don’t bother.

[Russell · Rating 2 out of 5]

Was really disappointed with this, could have been written in about half the pages used. Wanted to hear about his life but not from every musician he has ever played with, several times... was a real grind to finish it ...