The title track of Kraftwerk's 1977 album of the same name, "Trans-Europe Express" contributed to the ongoing mutual appreciation society formed by David Bowie and the German electronic band in the late 1970s. The bond started when Bowie borrowed some of Kraftwerk's ideas on their 22-minute epic "Autobahn" for his Station to Station album. They included the title track beginning with an electronically generated impression of a chugging train. After Bowie decamped to Berlin with his pal Iggy Pop and started hanging out with Kraftwerk, the German band paid tribute to the pair in this song's lyric, "From station to station and to Dusseldorf city. Meet Iggy Pop and David Bowie."
The song was an underground favorite in New York's more adventurous dance clubs and was an influence on the beat-box electro scene, Detroit house music, techno and trance. It was also a minor pop hit peaking at #67 on the Hot 100.
The song's popularity in New York's underground scene inspired rapper Afrika Bambaataa and producer Arthur Baker to use a sample as the basis for their seminal hip-hop single "Planet Rock."
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