Kraftwerk's Sense of Humor & Place in the Mainstream

So what if they aren't known in the American pop mainstream? I'm pretty sure all the shows they played here in '98 sold out (at fairly large, but not stadium, venues).

i don't think what kraftwerk were doing was so much of a joke as it was an act. it was part of the show.

and very scary, i was in my friends car and she had Live 105 (an "alternative" radio station in San Francisco) on and the dj played "The Model". i was shocked that Kraftwerk made it to commercial radio. she told me that they've been playing it a lot lately, and she even couldn't stop humming the melody for hours. the dj claimed they were one of the most important bands of the 20th century, but then made light of the situation by playing some oom-paa music and said that this was the kinda stuff kraftwerk played before they got synthesizers. if he only knew about their first couple of albums....

I wouldn't say Hutter and Schneider were completely humorous people, but they did (and imagine still do) take the process of their art and the business side of it very seriously -- so much, that it could easily obfuscate whatever sense of humor they do have.

Don't know about Karl Bartos, but reading part of Wolfgang Flur's book, and seeing his interview segments in "Better Living Through Circuitry", I'm down with Wolfgang yo. The man just seems like an utter blast to talk to, and is very giddy and all around fun guy.

I'm still quite shocked about Hutter and Schneider's refusal to even acknowledge the existence of "Kraftwerk", "Kraftwerk 2", and "Ralf Und Florian". They're not stupid. They obviously know there are multitudes out there who know of these records, and want them reissued. It's this reason, mainly, that makes them look, IMHO, like the most humorless curmudgeony old fucks that they may be today.

Coincidentally enough, I got my copy from a friend who used to live in Lawrence, Kansas.

anyway, i can't really read it myself (never having seen them live or reading much about them)--but i can't believe you could make some of their songs (obviosuly pocket calculator), use the word "boing" a lot, or make their website (a lot of fun, you can also buy kraftwerk gear), if you didn't at least have some sense of humor. Even if you were German.

When I first heard The Model (I think it was around 1980-1; the early MTV years) I thought they were pretty funny, whether intended or not.

This is going to be much different impression than say, a 20-something heavily into Krautrock back in '72, or someone who discovered them for the first time reading The Wire (or whatever) in the 90s. Or maybe not. :)

Some of it kind of sounds like early industrial music (P-Orridge and company).

I'm trying to think when I first discovered them. I knew about three of their albums by the time I graduated from high school. They seemed to be an obscure band that was somehow better known than most obscure bands.

think about it.

Re: Florian during "Pocket Calculator" live: Yeah, when I saw them about '92 or something(?), that's where the robot-like act really cracked. First some almost unnoticable tapping of toes, then a wider and wider smile... at the end he was playing his calculator behind his back and under his thigh.

my girlfriend, who isn't all that into music, and expresses bemused contempt for music which trys to pass itself off as anythig other than a pleasant tune you can dance or sing along to, *loves' kraftwerk. if that's any help.

I was going to say 'naive', but you've put it better. By the way, can anyone tell me what Tonefloat sounds like?

having said that , "Trans Europa Express" and "Man-Machine" are sonically NOT THAT DIFFERENT from Throbbing Gristle's "20 Jazz Funk Greats". And I would never call TG disco or pop. So maybe, again, the context is everything.

Tone Float (this is the one album by Organisation, the band Ralf & Florian were in before Kraftwerk) is quite different even from early Kraftwerk -- less pretty, some congas and other hand drums, seems more like an instrumental hippy jam kind of thing, but not heavy like the early Amon Duul. I don't have many refererence points for it, I'm afraid, but I don't think it's particuarly good.

that, or it is a scary song -- depending on yer mood i suppose.

1. to have an "erotic relationship" with their instruments!!!!
2. that their alter-ego dummies once attended one of their concerts, and quite enjoyed it!!!!! (This was from a flipping Smash Hits! interview!!!!)
3. In one of their most recent ones, an interviewer asks Ralf Hutter about Wolfgang Flur's book, and Ralf says "Who is Flur?"!!!!!! And the interviewer actually tells him!!!!

Take a look at the comic book included with 'Ralf & Florian'. Is it humourous? Of course it is! Intentional humour at that, in case you need to be told that. What is wrong with you people?!

you know, for all of his renown as a noise-rock junkie Lester Bangs also had a real appreciation for electronic music. not just kraftwerk, but Bangs was also a big Brian Eno fan -- and if memory serves me right, he also had nice things to say about Pink Floyd (!). and one of his funnier pieces about "getting fucked up on cough syrup" and going to see Tangerine Dream at New York's Hayden Planetarium.

not to mention the apocryphal story, about finding Human League's Dare on Bang's turntable when they discovered him dead.

I'm astonished that anyone who has ever heard Kraftwerk could ask such a question - they are one of the wittiest bands in music history. From punning on "Fun Fun Fun" in "Autobahn" to writing a song called "It's More Fun to Compute" to "The Model" (you think the girl in the song is a model, not quite)