Computer World (USA, Club Edition, 1981)
Warner Bros. W5 3549/ RCA Music Service C 124643


Part of the fun of collecting Kraftwerk cassettes is that things tend to get complicated. In many countries, there were a lot of slight variations issued for each release; I've seen Spanish editions where the only difference is the quality of the card stock of the J-card, or Italian editions that came with 2-panel J-cards or 1-panel J-cards, featuring exactly the same print. Paper labels or on-body print is another example, and I've featured three Portuguese editions of The Man-Machine before. 

Recently, I discovered that there were two completely different US "Club" editions for Computer World!

As mentioned in a previous post, US Club editions were sold in "record clubs", a sort of mail-order catalogue that was popular from the 70s to the 80s. The Columbia House cassette editon of Computer World is fairly well known, coming in a simple J-card with the album art against white on the front, as opposed to the standard edition (the one you could get in shops) which has the front against black background. 

The RCA Music Service one goes a completely different direction, with a 2-panel J-card all in yellow (on the "outside", the inside of it is white), again with the famous Hazeltine 1500 terminal from the LP cover, but this time, the front features more information beneath the image. (The screen does not show the band name or album title as per other editions.) On the next panel, the track list is presented in small print with some space around it, looking rather pretty, and underneath this, some more credits, which are somewhat surprisingly repeated on the backflap.

So, if you want a full hand of US Computer World releases, you'll need the following: The first edition, in two different variants (with different print on the spine and a choice of white or clear cassettes), then the 1988 reissue (which does not have the Dolby logo on the front), again with two different cassette shells; and finally the two different club editions. -Of course, if any other hitherto unknown editions should turn up, I'll have to update this list accordingly.







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