Autobahn (album)

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Autobahn (/aʊ-təʊ-bɑːn/, German for "motorway") by Kraftwerk, released 1974, is often cited as one of the most pivotal albums in music history. The album is generally credited with bringing electronic music to the public for the first time, and the "Autobahn" single is a strong candidate for being the first ever electronic pop song. (The album's 22-minute title track was edited to about 3 minutes for single release, and reached #25 on the US Billboard charts, charting even higher around Europe, getting to #11 in the UK.)

However, Autobahn is not a completely electronic album, as violin, flute, and guitar are used along with synthesizers. The title track features untreated and vocoded vocals; the remaining tracks are purely instrumental. Kraftwerk used a Minimoog as one of their synthesizers, which were known to cost as much as a Volkswagen at that time. Other synths employed included the ARP Odyssey and EMS Synthi AKS.

The title track is intended to capture the feelings of driving on the Autobahn; from the high-speed concentration of the fast lane, to the tuning of the car radio, to the monotony of a long trip. Autobahn is also the first of Kraftwerk's concept albums of sorts, which they have done up to 2003.

The front cover was painted by Emil Schult, a long-time collaborator of Ralf and Florian, who also co-wrote the lyrics to the song Autobahn.

Roeder was not a member of the band for very long, and had left before the recording sessions were completed.

Wolfgang Flür's face was added to the photo on the back cover of the original LP (grafted onto Emil Schult's body) at the last minute when it was decided that he would stay as a permanent member of the group. For the 1985 re-release of the album all trace of the original recording line up were removed and instead a photo from the 1975 Autobahn tour was used, showing Hütter, Schneider & Flür with new member, percussionist Karl Bartos.

In a rather disingenuous move, producer Conny Plank's name was also removed from the re-issue of the album, only appearing very small on the side B label of the vinyl edition and nowhere on the CD version. Plank had reputedly played a large role in developing the Kraftwerk sound, and much of the recording and all of the mixing of the work took place at his studio in Cologne.

Flür had played with the band since late in 1973, first appearing with them on a Berlin TV performance to promote their Ralf und Florian album. On that show, he debuted the band's custom-built electronic percussion pads, and these feature heavily on the Autobahn album. When Flür published an autobiography in the late 1990s, legal wranglings ensued over his claim to have largely built and developed these pads himself (with electronics assistance from Schneider), cannibalising an organ beat-box for the sound generating circuits. Schneider had in fact filed a patent on the device under his own name in 1977. Again, Flür's name was removed from the artwork on later re-issues.

1 Track listing
2 Personnel
3 Album cover variations
4 Equipment

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Track listing

"Autobahn" (Motorway) SAMPLE (250KB) (Ralf Hütter, Florian Schneider, Emil Schult) – 22:36
"Kometenmelodie 1" (Comet Melody 1) (Hütter, Schneider) – 6:26 (inspired by Comet Kohoutek)
"Kometenmelodie 2" (Comet Melody 2) (Hütter, Schneider) – 5:48
"Mitternacht" (Midnight) (Hütter, Schneider) – 3:43
"Morgenspaziergang" (Morning Walk) (Hütter, Schneider) – 4:04