WEBVTT - Chapter Ten: 'Hero' in Berlin (1977) 0:00:00.200 --> 0:00:02.360 Off The Record is a production of I Heart Radio. 0:00:10.680 --> 0:00:13.320 It was crunch time for David Bowie as he sat 0:00:13.360 --> 0:00:16.640 in the control room of Berlin's Hansa Studios in August 0:00:16.680 --> 0:00:21.560 of He was due to record vocals for a new song. 0:00:22.200 --> 0:00:24.919 The only trouble was he hadn't finished the words yet. 0:00:26.640 --> 0:00:28.960 He stared at the unfinished lyrics on the pad of 0:00:29.000 --> 0:00:32.519 graph paper in front of him. Nothing was coming. He 0:00:32.680 --> 0:00:36.960 was stuck, specifically at verse five. The small audience that 0:00:37.000 --> 0:00:40.400 surrounded him wasn't helping. Among them was a good friend 0:00:40.479 --> 0:00:45.280 and co producer Tony Visconti. Tony was joined by Antonio mass, 0:00:45.320 --> 0:00:48.240 a German jazz singer and listed to provide backing vocals 0:00:48.240 --> 0:00:51.000 on the album. That was the official reason she was there, 0:00:51.040 --> 0:00:54.360 at least in truth. Visconti had taken a shine new 0:00:54.400 --> 0:00:56.240 where when they met at a Berlin club a few 0:00:56.320 --> 0:00:59.400 nights earlier. Though he was married, the two began an 0:00:59.400 --> 0:01:02.680 illicit of air their lovey dovey chit chat just a 0:01:02.720 --> 0:01:05.240 few feet away. It was a stressful distraction for David, 0:01:05.480 --> 0:01:09.680 whose own union to wife Angie had just recently disintegrated. Yes, 0:01:09.760 --> 0:01:12.680 he was glad for Tony and Antonia, but such gooiness 0:01:12.720 --> 0:01:15.039 was throwing him off, so he told them, in the 0:01:15.120 --> 0:01:19.000 nicest possible way, to go take a walk. Left with 0:01:19.080 --> 0:01:22.200 his thoughts, David's eyes wandered towards the window of the 0:01:22.240 --> 0:01:26.040 control room. If he wanted an inspiring vista, he wouldn't 0:01:26.080 --> 0:01:35.119 find it here. The scene outside was gloomy, an unsettling 0:01:35.200 --> 0:01:38.559 reminder of the deadly geopolitical divisions that ripped his newly 0:01:38.600 --> 0:01:43.119 adopted city in two. The imposing Berlin Wall dominated the view, 0:01:43.680 --> 0:01:46.480 so close that their music often attracted the attention of 0:01:46.520 --> 0:01:50.400 the gun toting Soviet officers and a nearby turret. David 0:01:50.400 --> 0:01:53.160 and Tony never shook the sense that one day these 0:01:53.160 --> 0:01:56.680 East German guards would simply open fire on them. Between 0:01:56.760 --> 0:01:59.680 that and the nearby rumble of tanks, it felt like 0:01:59.720 --> 0:02:09.960 making music and a war zone. Then David spotted some 0:02:10.080 --> 0:02:14.040 joy amid the grim tableau, a couple sharing a tender 0:02:14.120 --> 0:02:19.840 kiss beneath the wall. It was Tony and Antonia. The 0:02:19.919 --> 0:02:24.120 neglected neighborhood around Hansa wasn't especially romantic or safe for 0:02:24.160 --> 0:02:28.360 that matter, especially after nightfall, so they'd come to stand 0:02:28.440 --> 0:02:32.239 just a short distance from the studio. From David's point 0:02:32.240 --> 0:02:35.400 of view, it was quite an image, their loving embraced, 0:02:35.480 --> 0:02:38.280 dwarfed by the enormous symbol of fear and oppression that 0:02:38.360 --> 0:02:41.480 loomed just beyond. It gave one of the sense that 0:02:41.520 --> 0:02:45.160 their relationship was doomed from the start, thwarted by forces 0:02:45.240 --> 0:02:48.480 far more powerful than either one of them. But still 0:02:49.120 --> 0:02:57.120 there was beauty in the fragility. The senior minded David 0:02:57.160 --> 0:03:00.400 of Otto Mueller's Lovers between Garden Walls, one of his 0:03:00.440 --> 0:03:05.160 favorite paintings that hung in Berlin's Dibruca Museum, energized. He 0:03:05.240 --> 0:03:08.200 put pen to paper once more, and the words began 0:03:08.240 --> 0:03:12.200 to tumble out. I can remember standing by the wall, 0:03:12.840 --> 0:03:16.200 and the guns shot above our heads, and we kissed 0:03:16.639 --> 0:03:20.079 as though nothing could fall. He had a good feeling 0:03:20.120 --> 0:03:24.000 about this song. Early in the sessions, it had taken 0:03:24.000 --> 0:03:26.720 the form of a plotting rocker with echoes of his 0:03:26.760 --> 0:03:30.560 old Velvet Underground favorite I'm Waiting for the Man, But 0:03:30.639 --> 0:03:35.000 the addition of soaring guitar arcs and cascading synthwashes transformed 0:03:35.040 --> 0:03:38.720 it into something else entirely. For a time it remained 0:03:38.720 --> 0:03:42.040 an instrumental but ultimately David decided to develop it a 0:03:42.080 --> 0:03:45.840 little more. The music seemed to demand it. There was 0:03:45.880 --> 0:03:51.200 something grand and triumphant about it, even heroic. That's why 0:03:51.200 --> 0:03:56.480 he called the song Heroes. The title reflected his cautiously 0:03:56.520 --> 0:03:59.680 optimistic mood after walking himself back from the edge of 0:03:59.680 --> 0:04:03.800 person and all oblivion. The lyrics made references to his 0:04:03.840 --> 0:04:08.200 crumbling marriage and ongoing struggles with substance abuse, themes not 0:04:08.360 --> 0:04:12.040 usually associated with heroes, but that was sort of the point. 0:04:13.520 --> 0:04:17.000 After striking superhero poses with Ziggy Stardust and a host 0:04:17.040 --> 0:04:21.320 of other mythological sci fi archetypes, this hero was more human. 0:04:22.839 --> 0:04:25.880 David had written an anthem for the every day. He 0:04:25.880 --> 0:04:29.320 would say the song was about quote facing reality and 0:04:29.400 --> 0:04:33.080 standing up to it, achieving a sense of compassion, and 0:04:33.160 --> 0:04:36.479 deriving some joy from the very simple pleasure of being alive. 0:04:37.480 --> 0:04:42.240 The song Heroes reflected hope despite overwhelming odds. Nothing will 0:04:42.279 --> 0:04:45.560 keep us together, is the repeated refrain. Yet it doesn't 0:04:45.560 --> 0:04:49.159 have the ring of defeat. Instead, it's just a statement 0:04:49.160 --> 0:04:53.479 of fact. Time is short, but sometimes just one day 0:04:53.560 --> 0:04:58.840 is enough. When Tony and Antonia returned to the control room, 0:04:58.960 --> 0:05:03.120 David flashed them as lie grim Unknowingly they had helped 0:05:03.160 --> 0:05:06.599 him complete one of his most enduring songs. Now he 0:05:06.640 --> 0:05:17.440 had to go sing it time to get to work. Hello, 0:05:17.520 --> 0:05:20.120 and welcome to Off the Record, the show that goes 0:05:20.160 --> 0:05:22.479 beyond the songs and into the hearts and minds of 0:05:22.560 --> 0:05:26.960 rock's greatest legends. I'm your host, Jordan Runtug. This season 0:05:27.000 --> 0:05:31.960 explores the life, or rather lives of David Bowie. Today's 0:05:31.960 --> 0:05:35.120 episode looks at Bowie's years in Berlin. It was a 0:05:35.120 --> 0:05:38.480 time of tremendous personal and artistic growth as he escaped 0:05:38.520 --> 0:05:41.480 the trappings of his show business bubble and re entered reality. 0:05:41.880 --> 0:05:45.120 Pulled up in a nondescript department, he lived the generally 0:05:45.160 --> 0:05:48.960 anonymous life in the German metropolis. The experience forced him 0:05:48.960 --> 0:05:51.840 to grow up and become an adult, a scary proposition 0:05:51.880 --> 0:05:55.359 for anyone involved in rock and roll. But newfound maturity 0:05:55.360 --> 0:05:59.640 brought exciting new music, including the landmark album Heroes. At 0:05:59.640 --> 0:06:02.400 the end of the decade he dominated, David built on 0:06:02.440 --> 0:06:05.800 all he'd learned through the many characters he played. Now 0:06:05.839 --> 0:06:14.039 he was finally ready to move forward as himself. David 0:06:14.080 --> 0:06:19.160 Bowie turned thirty in January. Just a few weeks later, 0:06:19.680 --> 0:06:22.760 his new album Low was released to the public. It 0:06:22.839 --> 0:06:26.800 was a groundbreaking piece of work, fusing punkish guitar lashes 0:06:26.839 --> 0:06:30.000 and early techno with a funky R and B rhythm section, 0:06:30.440 --> 0:06:33.280 all forming a sonic blueprint for bands like You, Two 0:06:33.720 --> 0:06:37.520 Joy Division, and Human League. The record was far ahead 0:06:37.520 --> 0:06:40.280 of its time, and as with most art that's ahead 0:06:40.279 --> 0:06:43.240 of its time, it was met with some confusion among critics. 0:06:43.960 --> 0:06:49.520 Many were openly hostile. Words like difficult, inaccessible, and fragmented 0:06:49.560 --> 0:06:54.400 appear often in contemporary reviews. Trouser Press magazine voiced their 0:06:54.400 --> 0:06:57.560 disappointment with a two part feature titled The Man Who 0:06:57.560 --> 0:07:02.200 Fell from Grace. Some writers praised the more conventional pop 0:07:02.240 --> 0:07:05.080 tracks of the album's first side, before going on to 0:07:05.160 --> 0:07:10.320 dismiss the ambient explorations on the second. Journalist Robert Hilburn said, 0:07:10.360 --> 0:07:13.800 for twelve minutes, this is Bowie's most striking and satisfying 0:07:13.800 --> 0:07:17.840 albums since Ziggi, but the remaining twenty six minutes, including 0:07:17.840 --> 0:07:21.000 all of side to deal with a spacey art rock 0:07:21.120 --> 0:07:25.200 style that is simply beyond mass pop sensibilities. The New 0:07:25.280 --> 0:07:29.120 York Times described it as strange and spacey, with mindless 0:07:29.200 --> 0:07:33.880 doggrel for lyrics, before concluding, nevertheless, the whole thing strikes 0:07:33.920 --> 0:07:39.520 this listener is remarkably alluringly beautiful. The split opinion that 0:07:39.560 --> 0:07:42.520 greeted Low is perhaps best illustrated in the pages of 0:07:42.560 --> 0:07:46.360 The New Musical Express, which published two separate reviews side 0:07:46.360 --> 0:07:50.200 by side. One was more or less positive, the other 0:07:50.280 --> 0:07:54.200 nearly set the page on fire. Writer Charles Sharr Murray, 0:07:54.480 --> 0:07:58.640 normally one of Bowie's staunches supporters, called Low quote a 0:07:58.800 --> 0:08:03.760 totally passive icosis, a scenario and a soundtrack for total withdrawal, 0:08:04.280 --> 0:08:08.520 futility and death wish glorified an elaborate embalming job for 0:08:08.560 --> 0:08:12.920 a suicide's grave, an act of purest hatred and destructiveness. 0:08:13.400 --> 0:08:18.320 It stinks have artfully counterfeited spiritual defeat and emptiness. And 0:08:18.400 --> 0:08:21.440 there's more where that came from. He describes the music 0:08:21.480 --> 0:08:24.520 as quote, the sound of nothing, a bunch of intros 0:08:24.560 --> 0:08:26.720 that fade out while you're waiting for something to happen. 0:08:27.720 --> 0:08:31.280 As far as Murray was concerned, Low was quote so 0:08:31.440 --> 0:08:37.480 negative it doesn't even contain emptiness. David's label our Cia 0:08:37.920 --> 0:08:41.559 was inclined to agree. Still High from his recent gold 0:08:41.559 --> 0:08:44.760 sellers like Station to Station and Young Americans, which had 0:08:44.840 --> 0:08:48.720 yielded soulful, danceable chart toppers like Fame and Golden Years. 0:08:49.040 --> 0:08:51.120 The label Brass didn't know what to make of these 0:08:51.120 --> 0:08:54.840 wordless soundscapes. When David turned in the masters for Low 0:08:54.880 --> 0:08:58.360 in the fall of six, r c A immediately sent 0:08:58.400 --> 0:09:01.600 them back with a formal rejection letter, which David then 0:09:01.640 --> 0:09:04.600 framed and kept on his wall at home. The album 0:09:04.600 --> 0:09:07.800 was unmarketable, the label complained there was nothing that even 0:09:07.880 --> 0:09:11.320 slightly resembled the commercial single. Hell, half the songs didn't 0:09:11.320 --> 0:09:14.160 even have words. They demanded that he go back and 0:09:14.200 --> 0:09:18.440 fix it. David refused, reminding the executives that our ci 0:09:18.520 --> 0:09:22.240 A was contractually obligated to release whatever he gave them, 0:09:22.280 --> 0:09:24.680 So the label sat on it for a few extra weeks, 0:09:25.000 --> 0:09:28.800 forfeiting the lucrative Christmas market in the process. After all, 0:09:28.840 --> 0:09:31.360 their reasoned, it wasn't like anyone would be giving this 0:09:31.480 --> 0:09:35.880 bleak collection as a gift. One executive even resorted to bribery, 0:09:36.280 --> 0:09:39.319 declaring that he would buy Bowie a mansion in Philadelphia 0:09:39.480 --> 0:09:42.360 if he would only just make another Philly soul style 0:09:42.480 --> 0:09:46.720 hit like Young Americans. But David had other real estate 0:09:46.800 --> 0:09:51.280 opportunities in mind. But the fall of six he decided 0:09:51.320 --> 0:09:53.880 he wanted to stay in Berlin for the foreseeable future. 0:09:54.640 --> 0:09:57.480 In addition to the flourishing arts and music scenes, the 0:09:57.520 --> 0:09:59.560 city afforded him a life that was as close to 0:09:59.640 --> 0:10:02.200 normal is that have been in years. He could walk 0:10:02.240 --> 0:10:05.640 down the street, or take the Uban public transport, or 0:10:05.760 --> 0:10:09.839 visit art galleries and bars, all with minimal hassle. It's 0:10:09.880 --> 0:10:11.760 a very good place for someone like me to live, 0:10:11.920 --> 0:10:15.520 because that can be incredibly anonymous, he would explain. Locals 0:10:15.559 --> 0:10:19.920 don't seem particularly joyful about seeing a famous face. Given 0:10:19.960 --> 0:10:22.520 the constant cultural tensions that come with living on a 0:10:22.600 --> 0:10:26.679 socio ideological fault line, Berliners were not really impressed by 0:10:26.679 --> 0:10:30.360 the presence of a celebrity. The populace of struggling artists 0:10:30.400 --> 0:10:32.960 and social misfits were more concerned about how to stretch 0:10:33.040 --> 0:10:36.640 their meager salary through the week. David would later observe, 0:10:36.880 --> 0:10:39.360 the people in Berlin don't give a damn about your problems. 0:10:39.600 --> 0:10:42.280 They've got their own. I thought, if I could survive 0:10:42.320 --> 0:10:44.880 in Berlin without being molly coddled, then I had a 0:10:44.960 --> 0:10:50.680 chance of surviving. After weeks of staying at a hotel 0:10:51.080 --> 0:10:55.120 and briefly with Edgar Frosie of the German band Tangerine Dream, 0:10:55.160 --> 0:10:57.600 it was time for David and his travel buddy Iggy 0:10:57.679 --> 0:11:01.040 Pop to have their own pad, so David dispatched his 0:11:01.120 --> 0:11:05.320 trusty assistant, Coco Schwab to find him some suitable digs. However, 0:11:05.679 --> 0:11:10.120 there were some serious restrictions. David's efforts to entangle himself 0:11:10.120 --> 0:11:15.199 from unhappy managerial deals had rendered him almost bankrupt. Royalties 0:11:15.240 --> 0:11:17.800 from his earlier main Man era recordings had slowed to 0:11:17.880 --> 0:11:20.959 a trickle, and with the costly lawsuit with ex manager 0:11:21.000 --> 0:11:25.000 Michael Lippman looming, he was forced to penny pinch. David 0:11:25.000 --> 0:11:27.400 had paid for his recent studio time with a check 0:11:27.880 --> 0:11:31.480 which immediately bounced. Coco read him the Riot Act one 0:11:31.559 --> 0:11:33.920 day when he appeared wearing an expensive new jacket he 0:11:34.000 --> 0:11:37.400 just purchased for the first time since the sixties. The 0:11:37.440 --> 0:11:40.679 cost of rent was a factor, so David instructed Coco 0:11:40.800 --> 0:11:44.200 to lockdown the biggest, cheapest place she could find as 0:11:44.240 --> 0:11:49.400 fast as possible. By October of nine six, she'd found 0:11:49.440 --> 0:11:52.760 the one. It was one floor above an autoparts store 0:11:52.760 --> 0:11:56.800 in the unfashionable district of Schoonenberg, home to the many 0:11:56.840 --> 0:12:00.640 Turkish immigrants recruited to replace the cheap East German labor force. 0:12:00.720 --> 0:12:03.959 Following the construction of the Berlin Wall. The lower middle 0:12:03.960 --> 0:12:07.680 class residential neighborhood was worlds away from David's former homes 0:12:07.679 --> 0:12:11.760 and the opulent enclaves of Hollywood. In Switzerland, as it recalled, 0:12:11.760 --> 0:12:15.439 the nineteen seventy seven Schonenberg was somewhere to quote, force 0:12:15.520 --> 0:12:19.280 yourself to buy your own groceries. The building itself was 0:12:19.360 --> 0:12:23.040 downright dowdy, with its cream colored plaster facade beginning to 0:12:23.080 --> 0:12:26.960 crack and crumble. The aggressively ordinary, down at the heels 0:12:27.000 --> 0:12:30.680 locale suited both David's bank balance and his desire to 0:12:30.720 --> 0:12:34.920 live anonymously and simply. Even the address was nondescript to 0:12:34.920 --> 0:12:39.640 an almost comical degree. One hop Strassa or Main Street, 0:12:40.040 --> 0:12:44.319 with Jones his legal surname, on the doorbell, which almost 0:12:44.360 --> 0:12:49.319 never worked. Past the front door of this unassuming tenement block, 0:12:49.760 --> 0:12:53.359 one found a spacious seven room apartment with high ceilings 0:12:53.400 --> 0:12:57.199 and Art Deco framed windows. The dark wood panel the 0:12:57.280 --> 0:13:01.040 bode was relatively all stare, functioning as something midway between 0:13:01.040 --> 0:13:05.600 a dormitory and an oversized artist's garrett. Utilitarian to the extreme. 0:13:06.480 --> 0:13:09.079 It was damp, with water leaking through the bricks when 0:13:09.120 --> 0:13:12.480 it rained, which it often did. There were rooms for 0:13:12.559 --> 0:13:15.280 Iggy and Cocoa, and also one for David's five year 0:13:15.320 --> 0:13:18.160 old son Zoe when he came to stay. Filled with 0:13:18.240 --> 0:13:22.160 a chaotic jumble of toys, The most luxurious room was 0:13:22.360 --> 0:13:26.800 predictably David's own, done up with tiffany lamps, elegant drapery, 0:13:27.120 --> 0:13:31.240 traditional Teutonic oil portraits, richly woven rugs, and a wood 0:13:31.280 --> 0:13:35.600 burning fireplace, in addition to a functional home recording studio 0:13:36.000 --> 0:13:38.720 a must for any seventies rock are Worth his white Powder. 0:13:39.120 --> 0:13:41.440 An additional room had been set aside the function as 0:13:41.520 --> 0:13:46.200 Bowie's painting studio, crammed with easels, canvases, and brushes, as 0:13:46.240 --> 0:13:49.800 well as books about his favorite German expressionists. Soon the 0:13:49.840 --> 0:13:53.520 walls of one hop Strasso were adorned with Bowie's own work, 0:13:53.840 --> 0:13:58.559 competing for space alongside giant Neo Expressionist paintings and massive 0:13:58.600 --> 0:14:04.079 photo murals depicting pine scenes. David always considered himself a 0:14:04.160 --> 0:14:07.480 painter first and a musician second. Ever since his days 0:14:07.520 --> 0:14:10.240 as a student in Nolan Frampton's art class at Bromley 0:14:10.320 --> 0:14:14.439 Tech in Berlin. He continued his education with trips to 0:14:14.520 --> 0:14:17.640 the Brooker Museum, named for the die Bruca or bridge 0:14:17.679 --> 0:14:22.040 school of early twentieth century German expressionists. David had admired 0:14:22.120 --> 0:14:24.960 these painters in his youth. One of his favorite works 0:14:25.080 --> 0:14:28.640 was Eric Henkel's Rocke Roll, a stark depiction of insanity. 0:14:29.400 --> 0:14:31.920 It provided the inspiration for the cover art on his 0:14:32.000 --> 0:14:35.360 roommate Iggy Pop's long gest dating solo record, which was 0:14:35.440 --> 0:14:38.520 finally readied for release in the spring of ninety seven. 0:14:42.680 --> 0:14:46.320 The album will be called The Idiot. More literate fans 0:14:46.400 --> 0:14:48.520 assumed that the name was a reference to the classic 0:14:48.600 --> 0:14:52.920 Dostoyevsky novel, but Egg himself took a more literal interpretation 0:14:52.960 --> 0:14:56.280 of the title. David but always marvel what a dick 0:14:56.400 --> 0:14:59.600 I was, would recall or how awkward I was in 0:14:59.680 --> 0:15:01.760 social of situations and in all the things that you 0:15:01.800 --> 0:15:04.760 can do to make your career go better. So finally 0:15:04.760 --> 0:15:07.280 he said, look, we're gonna call this album the Idiot. 0:15:07.960 --> 0:15:11.600 David's basic thrust was an insult, as in you idiot. 0:15:13.000 --> 0:15:16.160 As the incident suggests, their relationship began to take on 0:15:16.320 --> 0:15:19.520 shades of a fraternal rivalry, though mostly a friendly one. 0:15:20.200 --> 0:15:22.600 At the time, David was reading a book of letters 0:15:22.680 --> 0:15:26.160 between the Van Gogh brothers, Vincent and Theo. This was 0:15:26.240 --> 0:15:30.040 basically how the paris all themselves, one genius artist and 0:15:30.120 --> 0:15:34.440 another slightly less than genius artist. At home, they bickered 0:15:34.480 --> 0:15:37.640 like siblings typical roommates, squabbles over who ate all the 0:15:37.680 --> 0:15:40.080 food in the fridge, or whose turn it was the vacuum, 0:15:40.440 --> 0:15:43.880 or who borrowed the other shirt without permission. The place 0:15:44.000 --> 0:15:47.640 was a classic bachelor pad. Other than making coffee, David 0:15:47.720 --> 0:15:50.200 was hopeless in the kitchen, and a tower of dirty 0:15:50.280 --> 0:15:53.360 dishes could often be found balancing precariously in the sink. 0:15:54.040 --> 0:15:56.800 The floor was littered with laundry and scraps of paper 0:15:56.920 --> 0:16:01.200 bearing semi complete sketches and songs. Despite the occasional mess, 0:16:01.440 --> 0:16:04.960 they fell into an easy domestic routine. The major weekly 0:16:05.040 --> 0:16:07.800 event was watching the TV show Scarsky and hutched together 0:16:07.880 --> 0:16:11.040 on Thursday nights. When Iggy later opted to find his 0:16:11.120 --> 0:16:13.440 own lodgings, it was just across the hall on the 0:16:13.560 --> 0:16:21.960 same building. After fueling up with their morning meal at 0:16:22.000 --> 0:16:25.480 a cafe next door, the friends would wander new neighborhoods 0:16:25.520 --> 0:16:29.240 by car or bike, or sometimes just on foot. David 0:16:29.280 --> 0:16:31.760 would recall, I'd like to go out and get lost 0:16:31.880 --> 0:16:34.360 and be in places made of wood, just to wash 0:16:34.480 --> 0:16:37.520 every shred of America off. Taking a walk was like 0:16:37.640 --> 0:16:42.200 taking a shower. Sometimes they'd go further afield, crossing the 0:16:42.280 --> 0:16:45.080 Iron Curtain and into East Berlin to see productions at 0:16:45.120 --> 0:16:48.720 the Berlin or Ensemble. Dramatist Bert told Breck's Home theater. 0:16:49.600 --> 0:16:52.680 Their passage through the infamous checkpoint Charlie was made easier 0:16:52.760 --> 0:16:55.080 by Iggy's girlfriend at the time, the daughter of a 0:16:55.160 --> 0:16:58.080 local diplomat, but that didn't make them exempt from the 0:16:58.160 --> 0:17:00.880 taunts by the local guards, who mocked the tooth of 0:17:00.920 --> 0:17:05.320 their outdated sixties passport photos David with the Space Oddity 0:17:05.400 --> 0:17:09.040 era perm and Iggy with a beadly mop top. In 0:17:09.160 --> 0:17:11.280 a way, it was fitting because their journey in the 0:17:11.359 --> 0:17:14.160 communist territory was like taking a trip back in time. 0:17:14.960 --> 0:17:17.479 Women still dressed in pencil skirts and wore their hair 0:17:17.600 --> 0:17:21.760 and fifty style beehive dues. The cars were mostly identical, 0:17:22.119 --> 0:17:26.000 the boxy State produced model known as Travis with free 0:17:26.119 --> 0:17:30.200 enterprise band. Consumer brands were practically non existent, and the 0:17:30.280 --> 0:17:33.600 streets were lined with billboards emblazoned with slogans like eat 0:17:33.720 --> 0:17:40.200 fish and drink milk. It was all very weird back 0:17:40.240 --> 0:17:43.159 in the West. David and Iggie would visit record shops 0:17:43.200 --> 0:17:46.520 and galleries, or brows markets, or just camp at coffee 0:17:46.520 --> 0:17:51.080 shops and discuss politics, art, literature, and music everyone's but 0:17:51.200 --> 0:17:54.560 their own. They went to the cinema regularly, taking in 0:17:54.680 --> 0:17:57.960 German art house movies and the latest from new Hollywood directors. 0:17:58.600 --> 0:18:01.680 A screening of Taxi Drive Or prompted Iggy to spontaneously 0:18:01.760 --> 0:18:04.359 shave his head into a mohawk, and the films of 0:18:04.440 --> 0:18:08.080 Fastbender inspired Bowie to grow a mustache for the first 0:18:08.119 --> 0:18:10.960 time in years. He stopped dyeing his hair and traded 0:18:11.000 --> 0:18:15.600 his designer clothes for jeans and nondescript plaid shirts. David 0:18:15.720 --> 0:18:20.480 was doing something he'd never done before, blend In. It 0:18:20.520 --> 0:18:22.600 would strike some as odd that, at a time when 0:18:22.720 --> 0:18:25.119 David was looking to wean himself off at drugs, he 0:18:25.240 --> 0:18:28.680 settled in Berlin, by his own admission, the smack capital 0:18:28.720 --> 0:18:31.240 of Europe. And who did I take with me? He'd 0:18:31.320 --> 0:18:34.119 later laugh, Iggy Pop was trying to get off a smack. 0:18:35.000 --> 0:18:37.200 The whole German venture had all the ingredients of a 0:18:37.280 --> 0:18:41.240 first class disaster, but overall they stayed clean, at least 0:18:41.280 --> 0:18:44.560 for the most part. Well, they didn't funnel illicit substances 0:18:44.600 --> 0:18:47.040 into their bodies with quite the same gusto they had 0:18:47.119 --> 0:18:49.920 back in Hollywood. They were not exactly living like monks 0:18:49.960 --> 0:18:53.639 in Berlin either. Iggy would later illustrate their rough weekly 0:18:53.720 --> 0:18:56.680 schedule as two days for binging, you know, for old 0:18:56.760 --> 0:19:00.200 time's sake, two days for recovery from said binge, and 0:19:00.280 --> 0:19:03.960 then three more for any other activity. This activity could 0:19:04.000 --> 0:19:06.520 include going to the library or taking Zoe to the 0:19:06.640 --> 0:19:09.640 zoo or the park, or it could involve hitting the town, 0:19:10.359 --> 0:19:14.520 and Berlin was certainly a good place for that. Allied 0:19:14.560 --> 0:19:18.280 occupation forces who oversaw West Berlin were notoriously lax when 0:19:18.320 --> 0:19:22.560 it came to enforcing prostitution regulations, closing hours, or really 0:19:22.600 --> 0:19:26.119 anything that inhibited a good time. Though David would frequently 0:19:26.160 --> 0:19:29.720 cite Berlin as his clinic, he wasn't above partying. On occasion, 0:19:30.640 --> 0:19:33.439 he'd replace his cocaine addiction with a pension for drinking, 0:19:33.960 --> 0:19:38.160 sometimes to excess. Friends would recall David binging several times 0:19:38.200 --> 0:19:40.680 a month, seeking a ball of whiskey and one night, 0:19:40.840 --> 0:19:44.080 and then muttering his regrets in the morning. David would 0:19:44.119 --> 0:19:46.320 later admit that he had fallen prey to the classic 0:19:46.400 --> 0:19:50.800 addicts mistake of merely exchanging one substance for another. According 0:19:50.880 --> 0:19:54.000 to him, Berlin was the perfect place for such debauchery. 0:19:54.640 --> 0:19:57.040 It was, in his words, a city made up of 0:19:57.119 --> 0:20:00.480 bars for sad people to get drunk in. He counted 0:20:00.560 --> 0:20:04.080 himself among them. His favorite watering hole was the old 0:20:04.080 --> 0:20:07.680 American sounding Joe's Beer House, where David was a regular. 0:20:08.359 --> 0:20:10.720 He'd seen himself at his usual corner table in the 0:20:10.800 --> 0:20:13.560 dark paneled bar and put away glass after glass of 0:20:13.640 --> 0:20:18.080 conic pilsner. Gradually, his aggressive introvert side would come out, 0:20:18.200 --> 0:20:20.920 and he get louder and louder, attracting more and more 0:20:21.040 --> 0:20:24.960 fans and fellow bar flies. David required more drinks to 0:20:25.000 --> 0:20:27.880 cope with this attention, and most evenings ended with him 0:20:27.920 --> 0:20:30.320 being held up by his belt loops by the bartender, 0:20:30.440 --> 0:20:34.160 only vomited in the alley outside. One night, he burst 0:20:34.200 --> 0:20:36.560 into tears, sobbing to all on the ear shot that 0:20:36.680 --> 0:20:40.879 leeches were bleeding him dry Financially, money problems were just 0:20:41.000 --> 0:20:45.040 one of the many reasons he drank Moreover. Alcohol helped 0:20:45.119 --> 0:20:47.920 all the psychic pain of the last few years, his 0:20:48.040 --> 0:20:52.720 failed marriage, spotty parenting, and disappointing business deals, to say 0:20:52.800 --> 0:20:57.280 nothing of the general stress of being David Bowie. In 0:20:57.400 --> 0:21:01.480 a sense, these excesses were understandable, if not totally excusable, 0:21:02.160 --> 0:21:04.160 but David did what he could to keep Iggy out 0:21:04.200 --> 0:21:07.720 of harm's way. Intercepting heroin dealers intent on paying his 0:21:07.840 --> 0:21:11.040 friend to visit, David would assure the pushers that they 0:21:11.040 --> 0:21:13.000 would not like the outcome if any of the junk 0:21:13.040 --> 0:21:17.120 found its way to Iggy. Usually it didn't, Booze would 0:21:17.119 --> 0:21:20.399 be their substance of choice. Iggy, in particular, had no 0:21:20.520 --> 0:21:24.879 off switch, stopping only for unconsciousness. Some of the clubs 0:21:24.920 --> 0:21:27.879 they frequented, like the formative punk venue s O thirty 0:21:27.960 --> 0:21:31.600 six and early electronic hub Metropol, were on the cutting 0:21:31.680 --> 0:21:35.200 edge of musical artistry, but mostly they preferred places that 0:21:35.280 --> 0:21:39.399 maintained their nineteen twenties Weimar Republic aesthetic. It was in 0:21:39.480 --> 0:21:42.320 one of these cabaret venues that Tony Wisconsin met jazz 0:21:42.359 --> 0:21:45.640 vocalist Antonio Mass. Though he was married at the time 0:21:45.720 --> 0:21:48.680 the pop singer Mary Hopkins, the two began seeing each 0:21:48.720 --> 0:21:56.359 other briefly. David, whose relationship with wife Angie was all 0:21:56.440 --> 0:21:59.920 but over, began a Berlin affair of his own. He'd 0:22:00.040 --> 0:22:03.840 started seeing a Dutch performer known as Romy Hog, six 0:22:03.920 --> 0:22:06.840 ft tall with a statuesque figure and an unerring eye 0:22:06.920 --> 0:22:10.239 for glamor in theatricality. She'd lived her early life as 0:22:10.280 --> 0:22:14.320 a man her theater Shay romy Hogg was like something 0:22:14.359 --> 0:22:17.840 out of the film Cabaret, Boasting the most dazzling drag 0:22:17.920 --> 0:22:21.480 show in town. The club had become a Berlin institution, 0:22:21.840 --> 0:22:25.280 attracting the likes of Mick Jagger, Freddie Mercury, Lou Reed, 0:22:25.359 --> 0:22:28.680 and Brian Ferry. David paid a visit when his Station 0:22:28.760 --> 0:22:31.240 the Station Tour first passed through Berlin in April of 0:22:31.359 --> 0:22:35.159 ninety six, and he was instantly entranced by Romy's beauty 0:22:35.200 --> 0:22:38.919 and gender fluid sensuality. She always ended her act by 0:22:39.040 --> 0:22:42.600 dramatically ripping off her wig and smearing her lipstick across 0:22:42.640 --> 0:22:45.920 her face until it resembled a brutal gash. It was 0:22:45.960 --> 0:22:48.000 a move that would have done David proud back in 0:22:48.080 --> 0:22:51.159 his mind days with Lindsay Kemp. He was hooked from 0:22:51.200 --> 0:22:54.440 the day they met, and so was Romi. We looked 0:22:54.440 --> 0:22:56.760 at each other and that was that, she would later say. 0:22:57.640 --> 0:23:00.200 David could hardly stand to leave her, and he early 0:23:00.280 --> 0:23:03.040 missed his station's Station show in Hamburg the next day. 0:23:03.080 --> 0:23:06.200 As a result, in romy he found a lover and 0:23:06.280 --> 0:23:09.320 a kindred artistic spirits, much as he had with Angie 0:23:09.359 --> 0:23:14.080 all those years ago. Some, including Romi herself, felt David 0:23:14.119 --> 0:23:18.520 borrowed a little too liberally from her stage act, copying gestures, images, 0:23:18.560 --> 0:23:22.080 and other elements in his own performances. They burned hot 0:23:22.160 --> 0:23:25.960 and cold for months, but ultimately their relationships self destructed. 0:23:29.920 --> 0:23:35.359 It went down on January David's thirtieth birthday. He was 0:23:35.400 --> 0:23:38.240 celebrating at a club in France when a photographer popped 0:23:38.240 --> 0:23:41.240 out of nowhere and snapped the picture of them. David 0:23:41.280 --> 0:23:44.320 didn't take kindly to the paparazzi intrusion and smashed the 0:23:44.359 --> 0:23:47.720 man's camera against the wall. Then he rounded on Romi, 0:23:47.960 --> 0:23:50.840 accusing her of setting up the press op exploiting his 0:23:50.920 --> 0:23:54.680 birthday at a further her own career. Their relationship fizzled 0:23:54.720 --> 0:23:58.560 out after that. Iggy Pop remained his best friend and 0:23:58.680 --> 0:24:02.680 constant companion in bur In. By the spring of ninety seven, 0:24:03.119 --> 0:24:06.320 they decided to head out on another adventure, a new tour. 0:24:07.240 --> 0:24:09.200 They had hit the road together a year earlier for 0:24:09.320 --> 0:24:12.160 David's station The Station Track, but now the roles would 0:24:12.160 --> 0:24:15.280 be reversed. Iggy would headline the dates and support of 0:24:15.359 --> 0:24:18.480 his first solo album, The Idiot, and David, the bona 0:24:18.520 --> 0:24:22.440 fide superstar, would perform as his humble backing musician. A 0:24:22.600 --> 0:24:25.320 decade ago, David was known to quit bands if he 0:24:25.359 --> 0:24:28.080 didn't get top billing, but now he was happy to 0:24:28.160 --> 0:24:30.640 see the spotlight and abdicate his role as the star, 0:24:31.359 --> 0:24:34.080 at least as much as he was able. He'd been there, 0:24:34.200 --> 0:24:37.520 done that. Now he just wanted to have some fun. 0:24:50.119 --> 0:24:53.520 The executives at David Bowie's label r c A all 0:24:53.600 --> 0:24:55.960 but begged him to promote his new album Low in 0:24:56.000 --> 0:24:59.359 the early months of ninety seven. As far as they 0:24:59.400 --> 0:25:02.520 were concerned, he turned in his least commercial work to date. 0:25:03.080 --> 0:25:04.560 The least he could do was get out there and 0:25:04.600 --> 0:25:09.000 try and sell it, but David steadfastly refused. He did 0:25:09.080 --> 0:25:11.760