Bowie's Best Berlin Offering

[Taverner]

Low





Heroes





Lodger

[Fire Walk With Me]

1. We haveta choose?

:(

[Taverner]

2. Yes you do. Or I will force you to perform in drag to "Boys Keep Swinging"

[Fire Walk With Me]

3. But that's just another choice!

[datasuspect]

4. what about "The Idiot" or "Lust for Life" with Iggy Pop?

or did you just mean his collaborations with Eno in Berlin?

[Taverner]

6. The Idiot, maybe, since that was in essence a Bowie album starring Iggy

But LFL is definitely Iggy Pop, even if it was recorded in Berlin along the same time, sharing some of the same musicians.

[Felix Mala]

5. Gotta go with Heroes...

The recording of his German version of the title cut is still one of my favorite tunes. And what a great "love-on-the-run" song. It's up there with Born to Run.

[mitchum]

7. "The Idiot" is just as much a Bowie record as an Iggy record...

and it is brilliant.
Low, Heroes, and Lodger aren't too shabby, though

[Taverner]

8. Yes, and it was a product of the Berlin Era

Recorded in Berlin, Brian Eno is all over it, and it takes a distinct postpunk direction.

But its still not part of the "Berlin Trilogy" just how Strawberry Fields Forever and Penny Lane were not Sgt. Pepper songs.

[mitchum]

9. Actually, a lot of it was also recorded in France...

along with Munich and Berlin.

The making of that masterpiece has long been shrouded in mystery, but thankfully this guy has been researching the record for awhile now:

www.idiotlust.blogspot.com

I am a longtime fan of both of the artists, but I honestly believe that it is the best work from either of them.
Iggy and Bowie have both made several great rock records, but there are actually quite a number of great rock records; there is only one "The Idiot"

I certainly agree with you that it takes a distinct postpunk direction; in fact, it defined postpunk.
And became the benchmark against which to measure everything else. Maybe that's "not fair" to other artists, but that's just the way it is :)

[Taverner]

10. The real star of all of those albums is Eno

Both Bowie and Iggy give their collaborators wide reign, and because of that ALL of those albums do present a kind of patchwork masterpiece that defines postpunk.

Thing is, you follow postpunk and it moves towards King Crimson and Talking Heads, both bands that used Eno, Fripp and the gang all over again.

Eno is a genius.

[mitchum]

11. Iggy ALWAYS needs a collaborator...

whether it's
The Asheton brothers
James Williamson
David Bowie
The Sales Brothers...

Left to his own devices, and calling all the shots, Iggy is (much) less than great (the proof is in the records)
"Never underestimate the stupidity of Iggy Pop" - Lou Reed in 1974
And time has proved this to be true

Yes, Eno is a genius

[Amerigo Vespucci]

12. Have you ever seen "The Concert for New York City?"

http://www.amazon.com/Concert-New-York-City/dp/B00005V1WV/

If not, I highly recommend the DVD (if only to hear a New York Firefighter invite bin Laden to come to his neighborhood and "kiss his royal Irish ass")...I watched it the night it was originally broadcast.

As a Who fan, their performance that night was 100% "shot out of a cannon" stuff. Townshend was like the Townshend of "The Who Sell Out"...just burning.

But the star of the show was Bowie, and the song that caused the audience to let go of everything they'd been holding in since 9/11 was "Heroes." I've heard Bowie talk about living in close proximity to Ground Zero and what 9/11 meant to him.

9/11 aside, I'm a big fan of Robert Fripp, whether it's inside of King Crimson or on the sidelines. I saw him perform at Winterland on Peter Gabriel's first tour after leaving Genesis.

"Heroes" has something that "Lodger" and "Low" do not...Robert Fripp on lead guitar on the title track.

:toast: