Kraftwerk - Taschenrechner
The lads from Kraftwerk released four versions of this in four languages: English, German, Japanese, French. I strongly prefer the German. Nice to hear whoever it is adding impromptu filigrees to his theme circa 0:22 and ff.
Stay tuned for a couple more songs I found while trying to figure out what to play at last night's event.
3 comments:
Kraftwerk's English versions often feel a little sweeter than their German versions, and here I think it makes a real difference: the up-swinging pitch of the 'key/melody' rhyme in
By pressing down a special key
It plays a little melody
just works better, captures the silliness/tweeness of the toy sounds better than the 'druck/Musikstueck' rhyme in
Und wenn ich diese Taste druck
Spielt er ein kleines Musikstueck
Hey Plague, great to hear from you again and thanks for the insight. I think we have a case of De Gustibus Non Disputandum here. Prob. the reason I'm not as keen on the English version is that I'm just not keen on the lyrics. Ironically the bit you mentioned that's better in English was--Scout's honor--my favorite part in the German before you left this comment. (And I don't speak any German so had no idea what the words were saying.)
Thanks again for the comment and the translations.
Hi again Emmett. Kraftwerk are such a fascinating band! Their records are so fastidious and this extends to their different language versions being (at least for the most part) separately recorded, i.e., it's normally not just a case of a different vocal track over the same backing. And this means that there are lots of little discoveries when one listens closely to different versions. And, yes, the vocals vary quite a lot, e.g.,Das Modell has a second voice burst in during the second verse ('Korrekt!') that has no counterpart in The Model, e.g. 2, Computer Love's voice has a lot more echo on it compared to Computer Liebe. I definitely prefer the German version in the latter case whereas I find the additional sweetness of The Model has the edge for me. But, as you observe, these micro-differences are matters of micro-taste.
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