It was the period which produced David Bowie’s most revered track “Heroes”, yet Bowie’s late ‘70s era is arguably his most misrepresented. With the lavish new A New Career In A New Town box set beautifully collecting together the music of the era, we take a look at the truth behind some of Bowie’s 1977-1979 output.
1. THE BERLIN TRILOGY WASN’T ACTUALLY RECORDED IN BERLIN
Despite being known as the Berlin Trilogy for almost 40 years, David Bowie’s triptych of Low (1977), “Heroes” (1977) and Lodger (1979) weren’t just the product of a prolific Germany interlude. In fact, “Heroes” is the only album exclusively created in Berlin – it was recorded at the famous Hansa studios in West Berlin where Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, Pixies, U2 and Depeche Mode later worked. Low was recorded at Hansa and Chateau d’herouville, France (also used by Elton John, Pink Floyd and Muse), while Lodger was recorded in Switzerland and Record Plant, New York – some 6000 kilometres from Berlin!
2. BRIAN ENO DIDN’T PRODUCE ALL THREE ALBUMS
While artists such as Talking Heads and U2 later pursued Brian Eno as a producer after being won over by his work on Bowie’s Berlin Trilogy, the former Roxy Music member didn’t actually produce Low, “Heroes” or Lodger. Eno provided synthesisers, keyboards and effects (including “cricket menace” and “horse trumpet”) on Low, “Heroes” and Lodger, but the albums were actually produced by David Bowie and Tony Visconti. In fact, Eno didn’t co-produce a Bowie album until almost 20 years later: 1995’s unfairly maligned 1. Outside. That’s not to diminish Eno’s roll on the Berlin Trilogy at all – his infamous Oblique Strategies helped the sessions move in unexpected directions on songs such as Lodger’s Boys Keep Swinging, where the musicians swapped their instruments.
3. IN THE WAKE OF ZIGGY STARDUST’S PROFITABLE SUCCESS, BOWIE COULD AFFORD TO DO WHAT HE DAMN WELL LIKED
It is easy to assume that Bowie was able to take the Berlin Trilogy’s eclectic path thanks to the comfort level his global hits in the early ‘70s had afforded him, however it was far from the truth. Despite the success of his albums Hunky Dory, Ziggy Stardust & The Spiders From Mars, Aladdin Sane, Diamond Dogs and Young Americans, which had take Bowie around the world and seen him take his sound from acoustic Donovan tripper to snappily dressed plastic soul purveyor in the space of only five years, the musician had seen very little in the way of profits. A bad management deal saw Bowie in legal tussles with former manager Tony Defries during the mid ‘70s, with the singer exhaustedly admitting in 1975, "I slaved and made nothing." Performing live shows in 1976 ahead of recording Low, Bowie matter-of-factly told Melody Maker “I’m just doing this tour for the money. I never earned any money before, but this time I’m going to make some. I think I deserve it, don’t you?” Far from being a financially secure member of the musical elite, Forbes suggested after Bowie’s death in 2016 the star teetered on the edge of bankruptcy through to the ‘80s. Given he was living a pauper’s existence in Berlin on the bones of his arse (“I was going broke; it was cheap to live,” Bowie noted), the creatively headstrong Berlin Trilogy seems even more artistically profound.
4. THE BERLIN TRILOGY HAS ALWAYS BEEN ONE OF BOWIE’S MOST CELEBRATED CHAPTERS
While Low, “Heroes” and Lodger kick-started half a dozen musical genres and spawned hundreds of musical imitators, critical and commercial acclaim wasn’t so universal. In the official Bowie Is collection, it is noted “Low did not set the musical world on fire at the time of its release”, with Bowie’s then-label RCA unhappy with the album. “The one comment I received from them [after recording Low] was ‘Can we get you another pad in Philadelphia?’ so that I could do another Young Americans-type album”. Bowie was furious his label didn’t even want to release it “I remember getting angry about RCA’s reaction. I went into incredible anger first and then depression for months… It was hideous, because I knew how wrong they were about it.” It wasn’t just Low which was met with stunned silence in some quarters, with “Heroes” also receiving a number of poor reviews upon release. Bowie laughed when recalling his own favourite critical assessment of the album to Melody Maker in 1978: “he’s driven the last nail into his coffin!”. In the NME, Lodger was met with the confused critical assessment “a distracted, rather depressing, rather diffused jumble of hit-or-miss-and-run songs”.
5. THE ALBUM “HEROES” WAS A CAREFULLY CONCEIVED OPUS INTRICATELY CRAFTED DURING LONG STUDIO SESSIONS
Not quite, apparently. “Everything on the album is a first take!” Brian Eno told NME in 1977. Alright, alright, you genius smart-arses. Heroes indeed.
You can buy A New Career In A New Town here now.
