Super (Neu! song)

Last updated
"Super"
SuperNeuschnee1972cover.jpeg
Single by Neu!
from the album Neu! 2
B-side "Neuschnee"
Released1972 (GER)
19 January 1973 (UK) [1]
RecordedSummer 1972
Studio Conny Plank's studio, Cologne
Genre
Length3:07
Label
Songwriter(s)
Producer(s) Conny Plank
Klaus Dinger singles chronology
"Super"
(1972)
"'Isi'"
(1975)

"Super" is a single by German band Neu!, released in 1972. It failed to chart and has never been re-released, but has become a collector's item due to the rarity of the original vinyl 7".[ citation needed ] After the single's recording both the A and B side tracks were added to the album Neu! 2 , which was released the following year.

Contents

Recording, release and remixing

Both tracks were recorded quickly at Conny Plank's studio in Cologne during the summer of 1972, six months after the release of Neu!'s debut album. Brain were pessimistic about the single's chances, and had to be convinced to release it by Dinger and Rother. When it was released, it was backed by only minimal promotion, and predictably failed to make any impact on the German music charts (though some Krautrock acts – such as Can – did have successful singles in the early '70s).

When Dinger and Rother returned to the studio in early 1973 to record Neu! 2 , they decided to fill the second side of the new album with tape manipulated remixes of the "Super/Neuschnee" single. There have been several conflicting explanations as to why this was done, the most quoted being Dinger's assertion that:

When the money ran out, I got the idea of taking the single, play around with it and put the results on side 2 of the album. [2]

However, this has been refuted by Michael Rother, who claims that the second side was made to aggravate their record label, who they felt had insufficiently promoted the original release of the "Super/Neuschnee" single, and not as a result of financial problems. Either way, the second side of the album was ill-met by fans who thought, according to Rother, that "we were making fun of them." [3] This issue contributed to the widening gap between Dinger and Rother, both creatively and personally. Dinger later said of the issue:

[The second side of Neu! 2] was absolutely my idea. I came from that world, Pop Art thinking. Michael did not like the idea. These days he claims that everything in NEU! was 50/50. Financially: yes. Creatively: no. He was always very conventional. [2]

The single was also released in the UK on the United Artists label with a different cover.

Track listing

All tracks composed by Klaus Dinger and Michael Rother.

  1. "Super" – 3:07
  2. "Neuschnee" – 3:59

Personnel

Related Research Articles

<i>Kraftwerk</i> (album) 1970 studio album by Kraftwerk

Kraftwerk is the debut studio album by German electronic band Kraftwerk. It was released in Germany in 1970, and produced by Konrad "Conny" Plank.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Neu!</span> German band

Neu! were a West German krautrock band formed in Düsseldorf in 1971 by Klaus Dinger and Michael Rother following their departure from Kraftwerk. The group's albums were produced by Conny Plank, who has been regarded as the group's "hidden member". They released three albums in their initial incarnation—Neu! (1972), Neu! 2 (1973), and Neu! 75 (1975)—before disbanding in 1975. They briefly reunited in the mid-1980s.

<i>Neu!</i> (album) 1972 studio album by Neu!

Neu! is the debut album by German krautrock band Neu!. It was released in 1972 by Brain Records. It was the first album recorded by the duo of Michael Rother and Klaus Dinger after leaving Kraftwerk in 1971. They continued to work with producer Konrad "Conny" Plank, who had also worked on the Kraftwerk recording sessions.

<i>Neu! 2</i> 1973 studio album by Neu!

Neu! 2 is the second studio album by the krautrock band Neu!. It was recorded in January 1973 and mixed in February 1973, both at Windrose-Dumont-Time Studios in Hamburg, West Germany, and released in 1973 by Brain Records. It was officially reissued by Astralwerks in the US and by Grönland in the UK and Europe on 29 May 2001. Illegal bootleg CDs from the Germanofon label were widely available in the late 1990s.

<i>Neu! 75</i> 1975 studio album by Neu!

Neu! 75 is the third studio album by the krautrock band Neu!. It was recorded and mixed at Conny Plank's studio between December 1974 and January 1975. It was released in 1975 by Brain Records, and officially reissued on CD on 29 May 2001 by Astralwerks in the US and by Grönland Records in the UK.

<i>Neu! 4</i>

Neu! 4 is the fourth and final studio album by krautrock band Neu!, released in October 1995. It was revised and re-released as Neu '86 in 2010.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Harmonia (band)</span>

Harmonia was a West German musical "supergroup" formed in 1973 as a collaboration between members of two prominent krautrock bands: Cluster's Hans-Joachim Roedelius and Dieter Moebius joined by Neu! guitarist Michael Rother. Living and recording in the rural village of Forst, the trio released two albums—Musik von Harmonia (1974) and Deluxe (1975)—to limited sales before dissolving in 1976.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Rother</span> German experimental musician (born 1950)

Michael Rother is a German experimental musician, best known for being a founding member of the influential bands Neu! and Harmonia, and an early member of the band Kraftwerk.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Klaus Dinger</span> German musician

Klaus Dinger was a German musician and songwriter most famous for his contributions to the seminal krautrock band Neu!. He was also the guitarist and chief songwriter of new wave group La Düsseldorf and briefly the percussionist of Kraftwerk.

<i>Neu! 72 Live in Düsseldorf</i> 1996 studio album by Neu!

Neu! '72 Live! in Düsseldorf is the final entirely new album released to date by krautrock band Neu!.

<i>Avantgarde History</i>

Avantgarde History is a CD-R compilation album created by Eberhard Kranemann of his work with artists such as Neu! and Joseph Beuys in the late 1960s and early 1970s. It was released privately and is only available on request.

<i>Flammende Herzen</i> 1977 studio album by Michael Rother

Flammende Herzen is the debut studio album by the German solo artist Michael Rother. It was released in 1977 and includes the single "Flammende Herzen" b/w "Karussell". The music was used the following year to soundtrack Flaming Hearts. It was Rother's first solo venture after having recorded five albums prior as a member of Neu! with Klaus Dinger and Harmonia with Hans-Joachim Roedelius and Dieter Moebius.

<i>Süßherz und Tiefenschärfe</i> 1985 studio album by Michael Rother

Süßherz und Tiefenschärfe is the sixth studio album by the German solo artist Michael Rother. It was released in 1985 and includes the singles "Süssherz" b/w "Maus-Mann-Motiv Nr. 4" and "Glitzerglanz" b/w "Rapido".

<i>Traumreisen</i> 1987 studio album by Michael Rother

Traumreisen is the seventh studio album by the German solo artist Michael Rother. It was released in 1987 and includes the single "Lichtermeer" b/w "Happy-End".

<i>Die Engel des Herrn</i> (album) 1992 studio album by Die Engel des Herrn

Die Engel des Herrn is a 1992 studio album by the band Die Engel des Herrn. It was originally released in a limited edition of 1000 on the private label L.S.D., which Klaus Dinger created when he failed to find a record label willing to release the album. When Dinger signed to Captain Trip Records in 1995 all copies of the album not yet sold were bought up and sold by CTR, although no more copies of the album were ever pressed. Consequently only 1000 copies of the album exist, and it is one of the rarest Klaus Dinger albums.

<i>Düsseldorf</i> (album) 1996 studio album by La! Neu?

Düsseldorf is a 1996 album by the German band La! Neu?, recorded in the year following the band's formation in summer 1995. The album features several members of the Düsseldorf band Kreidler, and was recorded primarily in the city after which it is named. It was released during a period of intense musical activity for Klaus Dinger, who had just signed to the Japanese record label Captain Trip Records, which he used to market two previously unreleased Neu! albums. It is La! Neu?'s debut album, although of the musicians featured on it only Dinger and Victoria "Wicki" Wehrmeister would form a consistent part of the future La! Neu?

<i>Cha Cha 2000 - Live in Tokyo 1996 Vol. 1</i> 1998 live album by La! Neu?

Cha Cha 2000 - Live in Tokyo 1996 Vol. 1 is a 1998 live album by the German group La! Neu?, recorded at a 1996 concert in Tokyo during the band's Japanese tour. The album consists of the second half of the 3½ hour concert, during which time the band played an extended 1¾ hour version of La Düsseldorf's 1978 song Cha Cha 2000. The album is regarded as the pinnacle of La! Neu?'s and Dinger's artistic achievements by many, and continues to be the best selling album released by Captain Trip Records.

<i>Japandorf</i> 2013 studio album by Klaus Dinger Japandorf

Japandorf is a 2013 album by Klaus Dinger and several other musicians, released under the name "Klaus Dinger + Japandorf" by Grönland Records. It was recorded in the year before Dinger's death on Good Friday 2008 and is the only one of three albums made since 1998 to have been released. It was originally intended to be released as a La Düsseldorf album, but this was blocked at the last minute by Hans Lampe, the band's original drummer.

"Isi" was a 1975 single by the German band Neu!, released in the United Kingdom to promote their album Neu! '75. Like its predecessor "Super"/"Neuschnee", "Isi" failed to chart and is now a collectors' item due to its rarity. It was sold in an unmarked paper sleeve by United Artists, who marketed Neu! in the UK.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Crazy (Neu! song)</span> 2010 single by Neu!

Crazy is a 2010 12" vinyl single by German band Neu!. It was released shortly after the Neu! Vinyl Box on Grönland Records as a part of Record Store Day. It was the first Neu! single to be released since Isi in 1975 and the only single to be taken from Neu! '86. It was sold in a limited edition and was only available for a short time after 17 April 2010.

References

  1. "NEU! – Super / Neuschnee – United Artists – UK – UP 35485". 45cat . Retrieved 2016-10-11.
  2. 1 2 Interview with Klaus Dinger by Michael Dee for "POP"-magazine [ dead link ]
  3. The Wire – In Writing – Interviews, 2001.