V/A - Suck It And See (UK, 1973)
Vertigo 7432 027

And now, a Various artists compilation, haven't had any of those in an age, and this one is interesting, not least in a chronological sense!


As mentioned before, Kraftwerk were very tight with their output, and never contributed exclusive non-album tracks to film soundtracks, compilation albums or even their own singles. On this 1973 compilation, which came out on both vinyl and cassette (a double LP on single cassette, quite a good deal I expect!), listeners get the 1970 recording "Ruckzuck", one of the highlights of their debut LP - which came out in the UK in 1972 as a double LP with their sophomore effort. "Ruckzuck" is presented here in its full, near 8-minute glory, among prog rock, hard rock, some psych and folk - track list is in the last picture. 


I believe this is the first various artists compilation cassette that Kraftwerk feature on, so it's kind of fitting that they use the opener track of the debut LP, even if this was released around the time of their third album!


One interesting feature here is that the songwriting credits mention Conny Plank - he was not credited elsewhere for writing any material with Kraftwerk, and indeed some Deutschrock specialists have criticised Kraftwerk for not crediting Plank correctly; their breakthrough album, it is argued, has Plank's sound all over it, yet he was listed as a mere enigineer for that album. Bearing this in mind, it's an interesting error, looking a little like an admission. More likely however, someone misread the credits on the LP and confused the writer and producer credit.


Cassettes are grey with dark green labels - more typical of Philips' early '70s efforts. J-cards are as small as they come, print on both sides. 






 

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