Coldplay "sampling" Kraftwerk.

Woebot

Well-known member
Recently I've been nursing a bit of a Kraftwerk thing. I'm even reading Pascal Bussy's really dreadful book about them. And actually a month or so ago I'd think this was beneath discussing....

Then it came to my attention that they let Coldplay "adorn" one of their rubbish LP filler tracks with the chords from "Computer Love."

Why on earth did they let this happen? apparently they usually never approve this sort of thing.

On one level it's a tritely clever gesture of Coldplays. "Classic rock riff", rendered as classic rock riff. A likke Radiohead-ification, in character with a band that seem to flirt with all the post-rave paraphanalia but never get-it-the-fuck-on which Thom Yorke and crew (to their credit) did on Kid A.

Surely Kraftwerk must have seen this strictly as a kind of astute demographic advertisment. With Techno and Rave seeming like they never happened, they feel they need to latch safely and squarely onto the new generation of guitar music.

But what a wretched track to let happen. The way the original works those chords are the hook, but on the geetar version its like the sounds are in the wrong place in the track. At the wrong time.
 

LRJP!

(Between Blank & Boring)
WOEBOT said:
Surely Kraftwerk must have seen this strictly as a kind of astute demographic advertisment. With Techno and Rave seeming like they never happened, they feel they need to latch safely and squarely onto the new generation of guitar music.

Fits with the look and feel of the whole enterprise i suppose... Kraftwerk should really get around to selling franchises...

I managed to read about this 'adorning' someplace else too.

I almost want to hear it, just because i've been having trouble trying to imagine how it goes; is it the main riff of the track or like a quotation in the middle eight? Is it credited in the publishing? I'd like to think the 'werk were above that sort of thing. Planet Rock (and so on) was unofficial/uncredited, wasn't it?
 
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Blackdown

nexKeysound
surely it's not a sample, it's two re-recorded riffs with a song built around it...? so legally there's no issue of Kraftwerk having sold anything.
 
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I heard it on the radio a couple of times. I agree the arrangements don't really work. Not sure what the legal sitaution is here. As it is not a sample, there's no need for clearence as such. Surely automatic publishin rights will kick-in. But whether or not K'werk would have to approve the use of their tune when appropriated in another song is a matter of debate.

Fave Kraftwerk covers, anyone? I still dig Big Blacks' 'The Model'.

btw, I posted this at Loki's blog months ago, but it's still lying around on my server so might as well re-link it here..

Top Of The Pops - Autobahn

I know it's sort of...rubbish, but everyone missed the point: it's still too good, considering it was bashed-off by a bunch of session musicians on an ARP 2600 during a single recording session. The 'whooosh' effects in particular are remarkably similar.

Sorry to hijack the thread, btw
 
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3underscore

Well-known member
Blackdown said:
surely it's not a sample, it's two re-recorded riffs with a song built around it...? so legally there's no issue of Kraftwerk having sold anything.

Yes. The impression I got was that Coldplay listened to Kraftwerk, then "inadvertently" ended up ripping off the riff on one of their tunes. Kraftwerk would never have known anything about it to stop it.

The people at the label had probably never heard Kraftwerk and thought it was some Coldplay genius, and then it gets spotted by reviewers and listeners when released. Probably not as unlikely as it might sound.
 

sufi

lala
Clodpla

Coldplay did a cover of Kylie's 'Can't get you outa me head' at Glastonbury....

I kinda blanked the whole incident so i can't tell you whether it was worthwhile, i was searching for the track to see if i could re-kindle those lost memories, but couldnt find it on the beeb website where they did promise to post it up... i'll check slsk & share it wit you lucky people?

a bit of postmodern lowest common denominator...
 

dHarry

Well-known member
http://www.contactmusic.com/new/xmlfeed.nsf/mndwebpages/martin sent kraftwerk begging letter

quote:

COLDPLAY frontman CHRIS MARTIN was so desperate to use a riff by German rockers KRAFTWERK - he wrote them a pleading letter in childish German.

The YELLOW singer recently admitted he was hooked on the electronic band's melodies, and that his new single TALK includes a Kraftwerk sample.

But he was only able to obtain the riff by writing to frontman RALF HUTTER and begging him to let Coldplay use it.

He admits, "The only thing I could think of was the pen pal letters I learnt in German lessons at school. I had no idea if they knew who Coldplay were so had to explain myself like a 15 year-old school-boy.

"Dear Ralf, I sing in a band called Coldplay, blah, blah. I drew a little picture. Everyone says it's extraordinary that they said yes.'
 

afrobongo

Third Worldist
Well then it's not the first time.


"God Put A Smile Upon Your Face"

has a few weird similarities with one of the songs of Badden Powell's "Os Afro Samba"

I don't remember wich one though
 

Ness Rowlah

Norwegian Wood
good call Woe. I was thinking about blogging about this a while ago - but let it skip.
The surprising thing is that Kraftwerk allowed this to happen.
Then again - maybe it's a "do not try to pidgeonhole us" sort of thing
(ehh - it's hard not to with Kraftwerk); just like Dylan's Starbucks agreement.
 

notoriousJ.I.M

Well-known member
Nick Gutterbreakz said:
Anyone read Wolfgang Flur's book? I thought it was really funny. So was his album...

It's called I Was A Robot, I've been meaning to pick it up since Ralf and Florian launched legal procedings. He must have hit a nerve. I'm not sure about the Yamo stuff though, did anyone pick up Karl Bartos's solo stuff? Much better imo...
 

xero

was minusone
what about lcd soundsystem's shameless rip of a riff from 'home computer' on 'disco infiltrator' - is that acceptable? authorised? credited?
 

rewch

Well-known member
not relevant... or even particularly interesting but at work we can only get radio 1 (oh dear, oh dear, oh dear) & one particularly noxious offering from coldplay (think it's coldplay but could be one of at least a dozen similarly mawkish groups) begins with a heavy weight drum beat which fools me each time i hear it into thinking that radio 1 are about to play when the levee breaks... this is, as you would expect, never the case & i wonder whether in light of the above discussion coldplay have made a habit of this type of 'quotation' and indeed whether their success might be built on others' work
 

henrymiller

Well-known member
whenever public enemy get played, i always think it's going to be james brown. does anyone else think they have built their success out of OTHER PEOPLE'S MUSIC OMG.
 
minusone said:
what about lcd soundsystem's shameless rip of a riff from 'home computer' on 'disco infiltrator' - is that acceptable? authorised? credited?

a very good point. it's an outrageously obvious lift. i'd check the sleeve for credits, but i've leant it to a mate of mine.
 
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