Gonna pivot to some Krautrock today, and a tune which has the distinction of having been released as a single for two different albums, in a sense. The German version “Das Model” was a single from the 1978 album Die Mensch-Maschine, but the English version, “The Model”, was used a b-side to “Computer Love” for the 1981 album Computer World. When it got radio traction, it was re-released as an a-side and hit number one on the UK singles charts. But let’s start with the German version:
And as befit a chart-topper, the English version has an official video:
And of course it was included on their 2005 live collection, Minimum-Maximum:
Some of the video footage is spliced into this live performance from 1982 on the German television show, “Na Sowas!”:
And here they are in 2013 performing the song at Latitude festival in England:
For covers, Ride recorded one to go on the Ruby Trax compilation in 1992, commemorating the 40th anniversary of NME. This is a fan-made video:
And I had no idea this existed until I put this together, but The Cardigans tackled the song in German in 2002 as a Long Gone Before Daylight b-side, appearing on some versions of “For What It’s Worth” and a “Communication” 7″:
And to round things out in abrasive style, Big Black included a version of it on their 1987 collection of slow jams, Songs About Fucking:
