POP LIONS/ AUTOBAHN (1980? Germany) 

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In the wake of the international success with Autobahn, Kraftwerk's early record labels would issue compilations of early material to cash in on every album throughout the latter half of the 1970s. Kraftwerk appear to have had no say in the selection of tracks, and indeed they would later buy the rights to their early works back, and put a stop to the practice - but not before a surprising amount of different compilations came out in many different territories, some with the tracks edited down to fit the format. For us collectors, of course this is a welcome addition to their standard albums!

I was sure this cassette was released in 1979, but checking now, the international Kraftwerk discography states 1976 as the release date, while Discogs places it in 1980, so who knows... It is a German compilation though, and was released both on LP and MC. "Pop Lions" was a series of compilation albums, so I suppose technically the title of this is "Autobahn", but it's commonly referred to as Pop Lions.

The front cover, in addition to the rather gruesome "Pop Lion" logo, has the picture from the German front cover to "Ralf & Florian", but re-touched and tinted blue, and also the traffic cone from the debut album. The music is culled from the "Ralf & Florian" and "Autobahn" albums, with Autobahn being edited after six and a half minutes. The design is fairly cramped overall, the LP edition has a bit more space, and the J-card is the simplest 1-panel, with print on both sides.

The LP version is fairly easy to get hold of, but the cassette is not quite that easy to get. Not sure of its value, but Popsike has seen one sold for €36 in 2018. 





 

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