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PaperclipPerfector  1d ago (text post)   1331 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for March 27, 2026

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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Kraftwerk performing "Autobahn" live on The Midnight Special in July 1975

I knew all kinds of groups had performed on the show, but had no idea that Kraftwerk was one of them. Hardly the most exciting live performers, but plenty of shots of their analog synths if you enjoy such things.

plenty of shots of their analog synths if you enjoy such things.

I spot at least two Minimoogs (the main one and another under it), an Arp Odyssey and of course two of their custom made electronic drumsets. It's wild that they managed to get all those different sound fx live from just a couple of synths with absolutely no patch memory. Also there doesn't seem to be any sequencing which would have formed the backbone of any more modern performance. And the Odyssey of course goes out of tune around 6:55 (synths from that era weren't exactly known for their tuning stability particularly under hot stage lights).

It's been over 50 years...man.

Crazy, isn't it? We've been living in Kraftwerk's musical world for a half century.

And I still regularly drive on the autobahn, and it's still boring and repetitive! Some things never change.

My biggest regret when working for a couple of months in Germany some 20 years ago was that I never had the opportunity to listen to Autobahn while driving on the autobahn because my coworker's car stereo was broken. Particularly as I was working on directly synthesizer related tech.

I can't believe there's no fähn on the autobahn.

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