Kraftwerk: From Dusseldorf to the Future (With Love) [Import] [Paperback]

Tim Barr (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Ebury Press (1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0091864909
• ISBN-13: 978-0091864903
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,279,189 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Engaging biography of one of the greatest bands ever, August 23, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Kraftwerk: From Dusseldorf to the Future (With Love) (Paperback)

Tim Barr lays it all on the line in the first chapter. He boldly claims that Kraftwerk's influence on late 20th century music is matched only by the likes of the Beatles. He then goes about supporting his case over the remainder of the book. From the group's beginnings as Organisation to their triumphant set at Tribal Gathering, this book is thorough without lapsing into mundane trainspotting banter, as is the case with many so-called "definitive" biographies. This is in large part due to the many interview and journalistic excerpts that Mr. Barr has carefully compiled. These time pieces offer fascinating insights into this most reclusive of major pop groups. Many writers have sung the praises of groups such as the Beatles, analyzing their influence on music and popular culture in the process. Considering Kraftwerk's similarly expansive influence, a manifesto stating the case for Kraftwerk as one of the greatest bands ever is long overdue.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Cracking the shell of KlingKlang!, September 4, 1999

By 

Moviefan (NJ, United States) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Kraftwerk: From Dusseldorf to the Future (With Love) (Paperback)

Tim Barr has written the 2nd major book about Kraftwerk, and if there were 10 more books about this band, we still would not know everything about the men who invented modern music. Barr has done an amazing job when you remember that the members of Kraftwerk, and the people who are closest to them, rarely give straightforward answers. Where the first book about Kraftwerk focuses around quotes from Ralf and Karl, Barr's book has input from Wolfgang, right down to his own photo collection. Perhaps what is most amazing is that Barr has cracked the shell of KlingKlang and tells what little is known about the studio itself. This is the stuff I have always wanted to know, and Karl even gives a few sentences about the robo-voice. It seems that many of the quotes in this book have been credited to past magazine articles that I have memorized, so it is at least nice to have them all in one place. Maybe one day in my lifetime the KlingKlang studio will be on display somewhere, but until then, thank you Tim Barr for getting me closer.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars grumpy old fan, August 17, 2006

By 

N. Krynski - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Kraftwerk: From Dusseldorf to the Future (With Love) (Paperback)

I was looking forward to getting my hands on this book since it was first published, but only managed it eight years after the fact, which surely magnified my disappointment. I was never obsessed with Kraftwerk, even though I was mesmerized by "Musique Non Stop" since I first heard it as a teenager in the late 1980s, and listening to Kraftwerk albums was no less than a magical experience.

Besides the nice title, a handful of entertaining anecdotes and the official versions of some lesser known moments in Kraftwerk's history, Tim Barr's book is a boring, repetitive, sterile affair. Sure, he makes a big deal about Kraftwerk's musical innovations as well as the band's considerable influence on the various music genres of the 1980s and 1990s, but anyone with the slightest sense of recent music history and a pair of ears could've told us that. I'm very surprised Kraftwerk, an organization which demands the utmost control over all its operations, was satisfied with Tim Barr's elementary musings.