Kraftwerk “Autobahn” 1974. Today, April 7th, would have been Kraftwerk co-founder Florian Schneider’s 75th birthday (b. 1947, d. 2020). While generally panned or ignored by critics at the time of its release in ’74, the US release of Autobahn in ’75 and its success (it went to #5 on the US charts and to #4 in the UK) eventually made the pioneering electronic record a pivotal point in the evolution of synth-pop. David Bowie has cited it as an influence and pretty much the whole synth-pop/new wave sound of the late 70’s and early 80’s would not have existed without it.

The title track “Autobahn,” which takes up the entirety of Side 1, went to #25 in the US and #11 in the UK, though in its highly edited 3-1/2 minute format vs. the 22-plus minute version that appears on the LP. Sung in German (of course), the lyrics translate as “We drive drive drive on the Autobahn” but the word for “drive” in German, “fahren,” sounds like “fun” in English. Kraftwerk’s Wolfgang Flür said, “That is wrong. But it works. Driving is fun. We had no speed limit on the autobahn, we could race through the highways, through the Alps, so yes, fahren fahren fahren, fun fun fun. We used to drive a lot, we used to listen to the sound of driving, the wind, passing cars and lorries, the rain, every moment the sounds around you are changing, and the idea was to rebuild those sounds on the synth.”

Kraftwerk released one other track as a single from Autobahn, “Komentenmelodie 2,” I think only in Germany and I do not believe it charted. It translates to “Comet Melody 2” and its name refers to Comet Kohoutek, a comet discovered by Lubos Kohoutek that was supposed to be the “comet of the century” in 1973 (it turned out to not be that spectacular) and one that Children of God cult founder David Berg thought was the doomsday event (it turned out not to be).