Krautrock: The Rebirth of Germany Page #4

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HE SINGS INTO THE MIXER

In the village, funny enough, after they had known us,

they realised we were quite OK.

We had visit from the local... What you call it?

Somebody who is simple in the mind? The village idiot.

When we would play our music, it would soothe his mind.

While Faust's unusual sounds weren't quite what German Polydor had in mind...

..they and the other German bands were coming to the attention of foreign ears.

# Who do you think you are kidding, Mr Hitler

# If you think we're on the run... #

Britain in the '70s was still obsessed by the war.

We won, they were still the enemy, and German jokes were part of our everyday culture.

And the British music press were not immune.

They grouped all the experimental German groups going under the label, "Krautrock."

It was good to be called Krautrock. We even made a song like this.

I remember that, from my father,

that the Krauts are coming. That was the word they said, cos of Sauerkraut.

# Deutschland, Deutschland uber... #

LAUGHTER:

Krautrock, actually... I don't like it so much

because it's a kind of insult.

Here, watch. Who's this, then?

HE IMITATES HITLER

I'll do the funny walk!

But, really, it makes me laugh because I don't feel like making Krautrock

but, of course, it could also say it's a terrible name.

It's like if the French would say "Boschrock," something like that.

Damn it! I'm trying to cheer her up, you stupid Kraut!

And, furthermore, there was no real Krautrock scene.

The bands came from all over Germany, and were not even aware of each other.

Perhaps the only personal link between them was Conny Plank,

a visionary producer who worked with Cluster, Can, Kraftwerk and Neu!

It wasn't ALL bad, though. The interest in Britain translated into foreign record sales.

The early-to-mid '70s was the height of prog rock in the UK,

and the Krautrock bands fit in nicely.

The UK's number one prog label, Virgin, signed nearly all the Krautrockers.

And, in one case, bit off more than they could chew.

Richard Branson was...gambling.

So he gambled, he say, "Let's go to Germany, I gamble on those."

It didn't work with Faust, because we still had the same attitude -

no compromise.

And then he lost interest in us.

Or I think we made trouble, but I can't remember. We smoked too much.

HE SPEAKS GERMAN:

Yes. Yes.

- THEY LAUGH

- Ja.

Yes.

- What was the problem?

- The food.

HE SPEAKS GERMAN:

Other Virgin bands were more successful.

Tangerine Dream became hugely popular in the UK in 1974,

after they were invited to play at Reims Cathedral in France.

The beginning of a concert, 6,000 people were in this cathedral,

where just 2,000 had a chance, even to stand -

not to sit, to stand. You can imagine how the church looked

when all the crowd went out.

So, that was a...such as disaster

and then, I got a letter from the Vatican,

saying, because of this, we are not allowed to play in a Catholic church again.

Then, about three weeks later, I got a letter from the Dean of the Liverpool Cathedral in England.

He heard about it and said, "OK. If they don't allow you to play in any of their cathedrals,

"we invite you to all of our cathedrals, worldwide." So...

The country was great. You know, we...

We stood in our hotel in Coventry.

I went out in the morning of the concert.

At the lobby, there was a news stand and I saw a picture of myself.

So I read the line.

"40 Years back, they came to bomb the place, today they come on synthesisers."

Eins, zwei, drei, vier...

SYNTHESISER PLAYS

But the band who would truly break through were Kraftwerk.

By 1974, Ralf and Florian had gone totally electronic,

ditching the guitar and drums and hiring other Musikarbeiter, to work in their famous Kling Klang Studio.

This is famous Mintropstrasse here, where we are right now.

At the moment, this is not so interesting for normal people,

but for electronic music people, they know what Mintropstrasse is because the Kling Klang Studio was there.

You can't see much here.

It's just some steps. That was the way up to that door.

And then to the left was the main entrance to the Kling Klang Studio

which is only these two windows.

HE SPEAKS GERMAN:

Germany developed more and more after the war.

Everything had to be rebuilt, neu Autobahn.

As they build more Autobahns and more Autobahns,

and we could drive longer Autobahns and longer and faster and faster.

And the engines became stronger and the cars more and more beautiful.

Young men, which we were, could afford to buy such cars

and we took a car and went, just for fun, on the Autobahn.

We opened the window and we heard, "pft, pft, pft, nyaaaaaoooow-ow-ow!"

Or we had the wind, "pf-pf-pf."

And we made all of these things...music.

In combining a progressive technological vision of Germany,

with electronic music, humour and romanticism, Kraftwerk had transcended Krautrock.

They didn't even look like scruffy Krautrockers anymore.

Ralph and Florian came from very elegant and rich houses.

They could afford to have handmade shoes.

And Ralph and Florian rubbed their noses on the windows of shoe shops

where they made, for 1,000 Deutsche Marks, handmade shoes.

We wanted to be so different from England, from America,

this was why we had our hair short, we wore elegant suits,

which were made for us, you know.

The big one for me was Radio-Activity.

I would go to sleep at night listening to a Geiger counter.

All it is, is...

HE MAKES AN IRREGULAR PULSING NOISE

..as they manipulate the wand closer and father from a piece of radioactive material.

# Radio-activity

# Is in the air for you and me... #

I went shopping once for asparagus with Florian Schneider.

I met the two of them and he suggested...

- IN DEEP GERMAN VOICE:

- "Well, if you like, it is the asparagus season,

"I am going to the market to select some asparagus.

"Would you like to come along?" I said, "Yes, I would."

And we had a very nice time doing that!

# Tune into the melody... #

TRANSLATION:

TRANSLATION:

I never felt like a Mensch Maschine, you know, I was not a music worker

as Ralph always liked and used to explain.

I always corrected him afterwards.

"I'm not, Ralph! I don't feel..." "Don't tell that anymore!", you know.

"I'm not a music worker."

# Radio-activity... #

It was always fun, until the end, you know.

But the end is always not so fun.

Cos it's the end, you know? It stops.

Kraftwerk's complete artistic vision transformed them

into the one truly global German band.

The same could not be said of their electronic peers

such as the equally pioneering Cluster who by the early '70s

decided it was time to leave Berlin and get back to the country.

Roedelius and Moebius took up residence in a 16th-century hamlet in Forst in Lower Saxony

where they were joined by Neu! guitarist Michael Rother

to form Harmonia.

The first Harmonia album was recorded right here.

You see the room on that...

On that photo, hanging on the wall, it's the inside of the first Harmonia album.

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