Kraftwerk Live In 1973

Here’s a rare look at Kraftwerk in their early days, 50 years ago.

The performance – from 1973 – starts about 1 minute in. It showcases a mellower sound than the later work that they’re best known for, but you can already hear hints of Autobahn.

If any readers know more about the performance, please leave a comment!

16 thoughts on “Kraftwerk Live In 1973”

  1. Now this stuff’s amazin’ kid’s¡! ,did these cats know what they were spawning at the time this was done & how many genre’s that it would effectively create simply fantastic folks¡!

    1. They were just as much influenced by the music of their era and the past as they influenced following generations. Kraftwerk did not magically spawn out of thin air, but built their sound on the shoulders of generations of musicians and composers that had been working on electronic music for decades before they started, and then combined it with popular (black) music of their time. Kraftwerk were incredibly talented musicians, but the narrative of them single-handedly inventing or spawning electronic music, techno or even hip hop is a gross oversimplification – which makes for a great story and is therefore regularly cooked up by pop authors – but it does little justice to the historical facts.

      1. Its 1978 and „The Man Machine” comes out. Name any other single album released that year, or even the following years, that sounded anything like this. Its basically a blueprint for electro/techno/synthpop. I don’t understand why do you even want to question their influence in music and pop culture. There’s no other band where the (overused) phrase “and the rest is history” applies 100% like in case of Kraftwerk. Yes, as any other artist they did not create in a vacuum, they’ve been influenced by many things. Just try to imagine you hear this music in 1978 when it came out, not today. There was nothing like this at the time, end of story.

        1. Man Machine was released one year after Donna Summers „I Feel Love“, with Giorgio Moroder and disco in general being a major influence on Kraftwerks sound of the time. Isao Tomita, Jean-Michelle Jarre, Tangerine Dream, David Bowie, even Cat Stevens: Everyone was incorporating electronic instruments in their music in those days. It was the Zeitgeist.

          Admittedly, Kraftwerk did it most elegantly and released the first album of what would later be called synth pop (and what many journalists of the time still perceived as rock music). But that’s not enough to spawn a genre. It took Yellow Magic Orchestra, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, Duran Duran, The Human League, Depeche Mode and many others to follow up and release their take on synthesizer pop in the years following Man Machine.

          Art, music, and culture in general are highly collaborative, transformative, and complex processes. The spawning of genres is not a disruptive event initiated by a single person or band, but a collective achievement that forms gradually. But that does not always make a good story, so music journalists tend to simplify things in hindsight and fabricate mythical tales of heroes and villains. That’s why Elvis was the King of Rock’n’Roll, The Beatles were bigger than Jesus, the Sex Pistols invented Punk, and Kraftwerk spawned techno.

          1. Again – “The Man Machine” was not a disco record. And no “Oxygene” for that matter. The atmosphere of this album was absolutely unique, again – context of 1978. And what do you expect from entertainment journalism? To meet your reporting “standards” every article would have to be a 30-page essay illustrated with complex infographic of a musical family tree! You are finding problems where there are none, man. Just enjoy the music and do not overthink it 🙂

            1. My point exactly – Enjoy the music instead of putting artists on a pedestal by concocting myths that do not correspond to historical facts. As for the uniqueness, take a listen to YMO’s “Solid State Survivor” from 1979. Kraftwerk were obviously not the only people working on electronic pop music at the time.

              1. I know this record and it is unbearably cheesy! Too „kawaii” for my taste, but that is not the point. The point is that techno music is associated with a certain degree of darkness and seriousness. And that is exactly the vibe that is all over “Man Machine”, which was absolutely UNIQUE at that time. And the fact that Kraftwerk did not consider themselves as regular pop and rock band, more than a multimedia art group. No one said they were the only electronic act at the time, ever! But the most influential of them – yes, and it is undeniable. You talk so much about facts, but you seem to be quite reluctant to them 🙂

        2. Hi @The Dude, first let me say I adore Kraftwerk and I believe they were a highly influential force back when they recorded music. However, The Man-Machine definitely was the Düsseldorf boys seeking more dance floor appeal. Clearly they got some electro-disco inspiration from the likes of Giorgio Moroder. Also listen to 1977’s “Magic Fly” by Space.

          The Man-Machine is my favourite Kraftwerk record regardless, with Computer World a close second. No single artist has influenced the music I make as much as Kraftwerk.

  2. That piece is basically featured on their excellent early album “Ralf & Florian.” I wish they’d included more of that in their later style, but it never disappeared entirely. Definitely a must-have for serious fans.

  5. did see them in 1972 in a small venue in my area in southgermany,they had a guitarplaye rwho also did some electronics,ralf hütter on flute and electronics and a real drummer who did make alot groove and drive to the very uncommon music at that time.for me that was the best era of kraftwerk,very innovative but also very rough and somehow even rocky.that was from 1970 to 1973 before they changed into something like musicmaking robots in their liveshows.

  7. You very clearly hear how this is a predecessor to Autobahn. So I would not call this a different sound, but a logical evolution at that time.

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