Bowie In Berlin: A new career in a new town

by Thomas Jerome Seabrook

Driven to the brink of madness by cocaine, overwork, marital strife, and a paranoid obsession with the occult, David Bowie fled Los Angeles in 1975 and ended up in Berlin, the divided city on the frontline between communist East and capitalist West. There he sought anonymity, taking an apartment in a run-down district with his sometime collaborator Iggy Pop, another refugee from drugs and debauchery, while they explored the city and its notorious nightlife.

In this intensely creative period, Bowie put together three classic albums—Low, “Heroes”, and Lodger—with collaborators who included Brian Eno, Robert Fripp, and Tony Visconti. He also found time to produce two albums for Iggy Pop—The Idiot and Lust For Life—and to take a leading role in a movie, the ill-starred Just A Gigolo.


Bowie In Berlin examines that period and those records, exploring Bowie’s fascination with the city, unearthing his sources of inspiration, detailing his working methods, and teasing out the elusive meanings of the songs. Painstakingly researched and vividly written, the book casts new light on the most creative and influential era in Bowie’s career.

314 pages, Kindle Edition

Published February 1, 2008

About the author

Thomas Jerome Seabrook is a writer and editor, based in Leigh-on-Sea, England. His first book was Bowie in Berlin. He has previously contributed to the Faber Companion To 20th Century Popular Music (Faber & Faber).

Reviews

[Jeff Carpenter · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had followed the flap copy in, figuring on spending time with Bowie and Iggy and Brian Eno in the sublime underground of Berlin under siege, but there's very little of that, I'm afraid. It's mostly about the making of Bowie's three albums and the two he did for (with) Iggy, none of which really interest me, not nearly as much as Bowie's earlier music. The author is enamored of Bowie's "Berlin" albums, and spends a lot of his time evaluating them which I found tedious, and ended up skimming through.

There's a fantastic scene in the first page of the book with Bowie driving Iggy around Berlin in a rage and nearly getting killed, twice! But it never comes back to them in the scene, in any way other than perfunctory details revolving around their recording and touring together. What a shame.