When Kraftwerk ‘talked’ with Coldplay
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(Photo by Florencia Viadana on Unsplash ) Here’s a story of something many people are unaware of. When Coldplay released “Talk” (taken from the band’s third album “X&Y”), it was quite clear it was built around a motif from the Kraftwerk 1981 song “Computer Love”.
The birth of the song wasn’t exactly an easy one. A reason to include it and rework it so many times can of course be found in the fact that the band received permission from the electronic music German band Kraftwerk to use the main riff from its song “Computer Love”, from its 1981 studio album Computer World, for “Talk”, replacing Kraftwerk’s synthesizers with guitars. This ‘ok’ added an extra pressure to keep the song.
Coldplay had difficulties with the recording sessions for months, as to the sound of the track. During the recording sessions, which had seen the band scrap huge amounts of material, the song was even left out when they sent early versions of the album to its record label, Parlophone. The song, however, made it to the track list, after it was properly mixed.
Ralf Hütter (Kraftwerk) said ‘YES’ to Coldplay
But what many still don’t know is how the band got the ‘ok’ from Kraftwerk’s founding member Ralf Hütter to use the sample. Chris Martin had sent a letter through the lawyers of the respective parties and several weeks later they received an envelope containing a handwritten reply that simply said ″yes″. Over time the story changed several times, was it handwritten, was it a fax, was it really just a yes or a complete phrase like bassist Guy Berryman once claimed? We’ll never know.
Ralf Hütter said ‘NO’ to hiphoppers
But it’s well known that Kraftwerk is not really ok with unsolicited use of their material. Kraftwerk for instance have won a long-running copyright battle over a two-second clip of their 1977 track “Metal On Metal”. The European Court of Justice ruled that musicians cannot “sample” other artists’ records without permission. Kraftwerk brought the action against hip-hop producers Moses Pelham and Martin Haas in 1999 over the Sabrina Setlur song “Nur Mir”.
About Kraftwerk
Kraftwerk formed in Düsseldorf, West Germany, in 1970, founded by Ralf Hütter (organ, synthesizers, vocals) and Florian Schneider (flute, synthesizers, vocoder, vocals), who had previously played together in the group Organisation. Wolfgang Flür (electronic percussion) joined in 1973 and Karl Bartos (electronic percussion, vocoder) in 1975, forming what is regarded as the band’s classic lineup. “Autobahn” (Philips/Vertigo, 1974) was the group’s international breakthrough, followed by “Radio-Activity” (1975), “Trans-Europe Express” (1977), “The Man-Machine” (1978) and “Computer World” (EMI, 1981).
Flür left the band in 1987 and Bartos in 1990; longtime engineers Henning Schmitz and Fritz Hilpert became the touring and recording unit through the 2000s. Schneider left in 2008 to pursue solo work and died on 21 April 2020. Kraftwerk’s most recent studio album, “Tour de France Soundtracks,” was released on EMI in 2003. The live album “3-D The Catalogue” (2017) won a Grammy Award for Best Dance/Electronic Album in 2018, and the band received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2014 and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2021.
Ralf Hütter has periodically referenced new material in interviews without confirming a release date. In 1981, Chris Martin wrote to Kraftwerk requesting permission to build the Coldplay song “Talk” (from “X&Y,” 2005) around the synthesizer riff from “Computer Love” (“Computer World,” 1981); Hütter granted the request. Coldplay’s “Talk” (2005) was built around the synthesizer riff from Kraftwerk’s “Computer Love” (1981), with Ralf Hütter’s direct permission.
Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!
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