Christiane F.

So, yeah, the semester has started and I haven't had time to post anything. But I've been reading one of the two books on Bowie and Berlin -- still waiting on the German one -- and I've been considering investigating the connections between Krautrock, David Bowie, Brian Eno, and Iggy Pop. With Bowie, I wasn't aware that his fascination with fascism began not too long before he moved to Berlin and that he became a bit more careful about the topic after actually moving to Germany and meeting German people... well, cutting down on the cocaine might have helped too. In any case, it is interesting that Bowie lived in Berlin for three years but never really collaborated with any of the German musicians. He didn't seem interested in Krautrock musicians who actually were from Berlin (like Tangerine Dream, for instance), and why it never came to a collaboration between Bowie and the musicians from Cluster, Harmonia and Kraftwerk is up for debate. Apparently, his record company wanted him to make albums that sold better, and working with German musicians seemed less commercially promising. Bowie and Kraftwerk name-checked each other in their songs "Trans Europe Express" and "V2-Schneider," and there are clearly musical influences of Krautrock on Bowie (interestingly, less influences of Bowie on the German scene). One example would be the German lyrics of "Heroes" in the excellent German movie Christiane F -- Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo about a 13-year-old heroin addict in Berlin -- the movie also features Bowie in a small role as -- David Bowie. In the movie, Christiane is obsessed with Bowie, and having to sell his records is shown as the low point in the teenager's addiction. But let's check the facts -- was Bowie maybe more obsessed with his own construction of "Germany" than vice versa...?

Bowie & Berlin

Although I've been researching Krautrock for about two years now, there are still many loose ends and much music to explore -- quite amazing, for instance, the underwater music of Jürgen Müller that has just very recently come to the surface (pun intended): http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/15696-science-of-the-sea/  -- and in the last few weeks I have been listening to a lot of Ton Steine Scherben, a group from the squatter movement I disliked when I was younger but that I have become very fond of, especially their less agitative but nonetheless deeply political album Wenn die Nacht am tiefsten ist.
I have so much more to say about the Scherben but I also wanted to mention that I've been listening to a lot of David Bowie. Strong connections exist between Bowie and Krautrock groups Kraftwerk, Neu! and Cluster. Some of Bowie's best music was heavily influenced by Krautrock as was the music of Iggy Pop and Brian Eno -- there are collaborations between Eno and Cluster (and Eno and Harmonia). Bowie recorded two albums in Berlin and one other that also, at least in spirit, belongs to the Berlin Trilogy. Heroes was named after the Neu! song "Hero" and name-checks Kraftwerk's Florian Schneider on "V2 Schneider." Low has instrumentals that would have made Klaus Dinger and Michael Rother proud. And Lodger, while not recorded in Berlin, owes much to Krautrock as well. Just one example: "Red Sails," which completely rips off Klaus Dinger's Neu! beat. See examples below.

Of course Bowie is fantastic but Neu! deserves some credit as well. I've been spending an entire month with them and I will get back to the details later...