Well the good news is that I've done so much overtime in the last month that I now have a week owing to me in lieu; that rules. Now *rubs hands together* how to spend it......
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This week's Friday Farce is less of a farce and more of an interesting aside.
In 1981 Kraftwerk released Computer World, the fifth in their incredible series of brilliant and accessible early-electro albums which began with Autobahn and included Radioactivity, Trans Europe Express, and The Man Machine. The album included the song Computer Love, featuring what must surely be one of their most accessible melodies:Kraftwerk - Computer Love (6.65 MB mp3: right-click and Save As to download)
Almost twenty-five years later, English rock band Coldplay recorded a song called Talk and included it on their album X & Y.
Coldplay - Talk (4.76 MB mp3: right-click and Save As to download)
You notice almost immediately that the intro guitar line in Talk is the same as the Kraftwerk melody; the Wikipedia article (and, indeed, any number of other web-resources) claim that Coldplay received permission from Kraftwerk to re-use the melody from Computer Love in their song. Which is all very nice and decent and frankly, I wouldn't expect any less of those fine young upstanding gents in Coldplay.
Predictably, and as Wikipedia also notes, there was also at least one mashup made from the two songs. I don't have the RIAA one, but I'm sure the one I do have is much of a muchness:
Coldplay vs. Kraftwerk - Computertalk (3.33 MB mp3: right-click and Save As to download)
Now -- as discussed a couple of weeks ago -- in 1992 The Balanescu Quartet recorded their own version of Computer Love on their album of Kraftwerk covers, which is called Possessed . It's pretty good:
Balanescu Quartet - Computer Love (8.71 MB mp3: right-click and Save As to download)
Finally, I would be utterly remiss not to credit Tom Beard for the intellectual genesis of this entire post. Thanks, Tom.
1 comment:
Thanks for the nod, Stephen.
One of the things I really like about the Balanescu Quartet version is the contrasts in textures between lush and brittle, warm and spiky. It could be seen as part of the early-90s mini-craze for string quartets doing quirky covers of non-classical works (Kronos doing Hendrix etc), but there's something about the way that BQ's versions bring out the rhythmic energy and counterpoint in Kraftwerk. It also shows up the connections that had always existed between early electronica (for want of a better word) and minimalism: I guess Balanescu's work with Michael Nyman helps with that too.
I'm not exactly a Coldplay fan (in fact, I love the T-shirt that says "Make Coldplay History"), but I think they've done something interesting with "Talk". It's not a cover, but a wholesale reworking of a melody into a completely different song, which is something much rarer. And I think they credit Kraftwerk quite explicitly in the liner notes, so I'd never accuse them of ripping it off.
The mashup is a bit too easy, really: maybe if they threw in a bit of Balanescu and even Señor Coconut, I'd be more impressed!
When it comes to cover versions, have you ventured anywhere near the "Nouvelle Vague" albums? And Richard Cheese is always good for a laugh.
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