Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 2012: Who Would Get Your Vote?

The list is light on guitar bands, are we not cool anymore?   08-Oct-12

Kraftwerk

Guitarists aren't supposed to love Kraftwerk, but they were so so good, and so incredibly important. They had a few daft moments, but most bands do. I can tell when I'm writing this that most people who are reading it are probably thinking 'arguing the case for Kraftwerk on a guitar website... is he mental?', no I'm not. Honest.

A lot of young guys I talk to now wrongly believe that Kraftwerk were an 80s band, but they were releasing popular songs created purely with synthesis in 1974. To put this into context, this is the same year that Queen released their second album, and long before Queen even considered the use of any synthesis on their records.

Just listen to 'Trans-Europe Express', a six-minute-long emotional epic, it really is enough to bring a grown man to tears, if he's had enough to drink, it's moving, it goes to wonderful places musically, and it does all this while essentially being a song in which a German bloke just says 'Trans-Europe Express' for quite a long time.

It was threatening to rock and rollers at the time, they were the hipsters of their time, and they didn't have to make love to a guitar on stage to get an incredible reaction from an audience.

It would feel a little odd to have Kraftwerk in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, they are about as far away from being rock stars as you can imagine, but they deserve a place regardless.