Talk:Autobahn (album)

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Article requirements:
YesY All the start class criteria
YesY A completed infobox, including cover art and most technical details
NoN At least one section of prose (excluding the lead section)
YesY A track listing containing track lengths and authors for all songs
YesY A full list of personnel, including technical personnel and guest musicians
YesY Categorisation at least by artist and year
YesY A casual reader should learn something about the album. Andrzejbanas (talk) 23:33, 11 May 2008 (UTC)

Contents

[edit] Roeder

There appears to be some deletions from this article. Roeder is mentioned as having left the band without any introduction as to who he was. Can the author please restore his introduction, especially as official Kraftwerk information sources make no mention of him! --Andy-106 12:26, 4 October 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Line up

Andy has added "personnel info from AMG" - is this "All music guide"? why is this? the info as printed was that given on the original vinyl album release. Crediting Schneider with drums is revisionist and believing his story that he, not Flür, invented the drum pads (the subject of a court case in Germany) —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Feline1 (talk • contribs) .

I wasn't aware about the German court case, but AMG (yep, that's All Music Guide) does credit Scheider as playing the drums, and not actually inventing it. :) --Andylkl (talk) 10:56, 16 October 2005 (UTC)

I doubt very much Schneider played any "drums" on the Autobahn album. Nothing in the Barr book, the Bussy book, Flür's autobiography, any interview I've ever read, nor the sleeve of the 1974 album on Philips lend any evidence to this claim! The only drums one can hear on the record are the electronic ones on "Autobahn" and the two "Kometenmelodies". Flür says he recorded these at Klingklang on Plank's mobile equipment. I suggest you revert the line-up list to its prior state.--feline1 11:13, 16 October 2005 (UTC)

If there's a problem with Schneider and the "drums" we'll just remove that bit of info instead of reverting it. :) Nothing else wrong with the rest of the personnel list? --Andylkl (talk) 11:18, 16 October 2005 (UTC)

[edit] typography 101

Gah?! Why does the wikipedia style guide say to use en dashes like that?!? If you even look up on *wikipedia* what an en dash is for, it's used as a substitute for the word "to" when giving a numeric range. It ought to be an em dash! Mind you, there's plenty of other arbitrary, dubious or plain perverse style choices in that guide! --feline1 16:00, 16 October 2005 (UTC)

Calm down and relax, you wouldn't want to pop a blood vessel, do you? ;) The dash article you linked says "The en dash is used to indicate a closed range, or a connection between two things of almost any kind: numbers, people, places, etc." So, I guess it's acceptable as well. --Andylkl (talk) 16:17, 16 October 2005 (UTC)
Yeah but the latter usage is only in America, where they can't even spell "colour" /shudders/ --feline1 17:00, 16 October 2005 (UTC) :)
It's America, they spell everything differently! TM ;) --Andylkl (talk) 17:15, 16 October 2005 (UTC)
Tsk, but Kraftwerk are German! :)--feline1 17:19, 16 October 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Electro-violin

The article says that Roeder's electro-violin was "apparently" mixed out of the finished album. However, I hear an instrument during the first instrumental break in "Autobahn" with a violin-like sound, echoing the melody played on flute. Could this be the electro-violin? Unless someone knows better, that would be my bet. Jphillst 03:22, 26 April 2007 (UTC)

Yes, I kmow the sound you mean - it's definately violin - whether or not Roeder plays it is impossible to be sure without a proper cited source - since Florian Schneider plays violin himself on the previous 3 albums - however Roeder is both credited and pictured on the 1974 Philips LP sleeve, so the notion that he was "mixed out" of the audio would seem strange, given that he was prominently featured on the artwork.--feline1 10:01, 26 April 2007 (UTC)
Röder was apparently associated with the band for a year, according to the biography on his website – http://www.klaus-roeder.org/. Ralf Hütter (cited recently by Dirk Matten) stated that Röder only played on certain tracks on side 2 of the album – presumably Mitternacht (violin) and Morgenspaziergang (guitar) and that the guitar in that instrumental break of Autobahn was played by Hütter – also Matten says “both [Hütter and Schneider] played electronic percussion on the track Autobahn”. Ricadus 21:53, 2 May 2007 (UTC)
Yes, but this claim has been through the German courts already. We all know that Wolfgang Flür played electronic percussion on the album, as originally credited on the sleeve, and despite R&F's removal of this credit on subsequent pressings. I've been subject to emails from Matten myself about wikipedia articles, trying to browbeat me into making partisan edits. I suggested to him that if he wants to edit wikipedia on the same footing as everyone else (verifiable sources, neutral point of view, etc etc) then he should log in and get editing - he didn't appear to bother.--feline1 11:24, 3 May 2007 (UTC)
For what it's worth, I put on my record company hat there and logged into http://www.ppluk.com 's CatCo database. I inspected the entries for the Autobahn recordings. Currently, it lists Roeder as playing violin and Flur as playing electronic percussion on these tracks. Whether this is accurate or not, the current legal situation would be that if the recordings are broadcast in the UK, Roeder would receive performer royalties.--feline1 11:32, 3 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Label information

I have added some information to all of the record label entries in order to give a clearer picture of who released what, and when.

I took this from the entries on the Electric Cafe forum [1].

If there are any mistakes, or if it looks too cluttered, please let me know.Electrokinesis 08:16, 9 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Synth Pop

Really? Would you really think that this is a synth pop recording? Can you really call what Kraftwerk does pop by any extent? (even synthpop) Doc Strange 17:13, 3 August 2007 (UTC)

I agree. I would never classify any of their work as pop music. The only "exception" I can think of would be the single Popcorn, which is commonly (and erroneously) attributed to Kraftwerk. Therefore, I think the synthpop designation is inherently fallacious. EganioTalk 06:04, 23 November 2007 (UTC)
You could arguably say that the track (and particularly) the single of "Autobahn" was a prototype for the entire genre of synthpop... to call a track like "Mitternacht" synthpop though is just silly.--feline1 (talk) 10:26, 23 November 2007 (UTC)
Good point, although I think Kraftwerk's music to be far too complex and sophisticated to ever be considered a blueprint for popular music. Besides, the track Autobahn is much too involved, lengthy, and heady to hold the short attention spans of pop music fans (hence the 3-minute abridged radio edit). I would venture an opinion that they helped provide the prototype for electronica more than anything. EganioTalk 00:50, 24 November 2007 (UTC)
Well, I think that's it, it was the 3-minute edit of "Autobahn" that helped synthpop along because it was, by definition, synthesizer-based and popular (#11 in the UK - and I even have it on an old vinyl K-Tel style compilation of pop hits from 1975 in Australia)! So a prototype for synthpop, sure, but because it wasn't a recognized genre when they produced it, it doesn't fuss me either way whether it's in or out of the infobox here. Cheers, Ian Rose (talk) 04:38, 24 November 2007 (UTC)
My vote is to remove the synthpop tag. EganioTalk 03:08, 25 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] U.S. release date

The article shows a release date of 1975 in the United States. My copy of Autobahn (purchased in the U.S.) shows a copyright date of 1974. It was manufactured and distributed by Phonogram, Inc. of Chicago, but also shows Vertigo VEL-2003. Does anyone have any insight on the difference in dates? Thanks, Alanraywiki (talk) 02:47, 29 December 2007 (UTC)

The copyright date is related to the ownership of the recordings and would reflect the date of its initial release (in Germany). At this time their recordings tended to have delayed releases in countries outside Germany, due to the band's (then) obscurity. After the international success of Autobahn things became better coordinated until the CD reissues in the late 1980s. For further info on release dates of originals and reissues worldwide try http://www.Poecker.homepage.t-online.de/01/discog.htm —Preceding unsigned comment added by Ricadus (talk • contribs) 21:30, 29 December 2007 (UTC)