I'm currently reading Flur's autobiography about his time in Kraftwerk (and more besides, but it's the Kraftwerk stuff that's most interesting).
This book has been around for ages, but I'd been put off reading because I'd gleaned it had a 'tell-all' nature and was skewed towards Flur's boasts of fun times with numerous Kraftwerk groupies. And indeed, Flur's enthusiasm for this subject is truly obsessive.
However, beyond this the book is surprisingly funny and humane. Although Flur isn't a particularly gifted writer, nor was he even a major creative force in Kraftwerk, his recollections are informative in a way that Pascal Bussy's rather mechanical biography of Kraftwerk, Kraftwerk: Man, Machine, and Music, was not. Because Flur was actually a part of the whole millieu, his attitudes are interesting to learn.
One thing I gleaned was that Flur and the Kraftwerk boys all felt alienated from their parents, whom they felt were unsupportive and boring, and had let the second world war happen. I had thought that the whole 68 bizzo was about socialism and drugs, but now I see it was really more about this generational conflict.
This is perhaps a clue to the success of krautrock: these people were angry and wanted to create their own art free of the encumberance of what had gone before (admittedly Kraftwerk did feel nostalgia for things pre-war, but they did do it with synths). This explains to me why New Zealand can have a so-called renaissance in popular music without much in the way of artistic innovation. The laidback, complacent New Zealand character may be part of the problem, but I think the real issue is that the youth don't have any social or generational conflict to inspire them. The 80s flying nun stuff may have largely been amateurish nonsense, but you're in no doubt they meant it. What of note does Holly Smith try to convey with her 'art'?
So the Krautrock phenomenon was born out of generational conflict, and we just don't have that here. Indeed, Neil Finn's boy has grown up to make music pretty much like his dad. Who wants that?
Then again, I can talk. I get on with my parents, and all I want to do is make music like that of the 1970s. But on the other hand, if you want to achieve anything you need an audience, and if everyone is as backwards-looking as you, what difference would it make if you were otherwise?
Perhaps the most entertaining and saddening part of the book is the second edition update, chronicling Kraftwerk high-command's attempt to suppress the book in Germany. Their injunction forbade Flur from claiming that he had played drums on Autobahn, a fact that was never in any dispute.
A more charming recollection is that of Flur's meeting with George Clinton in the mid-90s, which means that Brian Eno's whimsical suggestion that Kraftwerk should get together with Parliament, did eventually happen... sort of.
Posted by stuart at November 25, 2007 3:32 PM