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On This Day In History
1946: Ralf Hutter is born

Quote Of The Day
"For me, the music is spiritual and I think it comes to life when we perform it in concert."
(Ralf Hutter)

Everyone, I think, has at least one moment in their life when they hear a piece of music which leaves them profoundly changed. I have three. One of them is the time when I purchased Kraftwerk's Trans Europe Express album and then took it back to my grandma's house to listen to it for the first time on her ancient stereogram. Those first precise, crystal clear notes of Europe Endless, juxtaposed with the old-fashioned images on the cover and inner-sleeve, along with the machine that was playing it, combined to create a feeling of time crashing in on itself. I honestly knew nothing about Kraftwerk beyond the song The Model at that time, and I was perplexed by how these musicians who looked they were from the 1940's were able to make such futuristic sounds. I was dazzled.

I have since learned that the conceit of retro-aging their imagery is a common practice by Kraftwerk, a way of preventing their videos and album covers from ever looking dated. The suits and short hair is also mean they could have lived during practically any era of this or the previous century.

So, happy birthday to Ralf Hutter, the musical genius behind the band that, arguably, had an even more profound impact on popular music than The Beatles.

Europe Endless

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