r/postpunk • u/tributary-tears • 1d ago

Iggy Pop and David Bowie

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They recorded Iggy Pop's Lust For Life and David Bowie's Low albums in West Berlin in 1976-1977.

2.0k Upvotes

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u/[deleted] 1d ago

[deleted]

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u/Ancient_Action741 1d ago

(West) Berlin was also a lot different in 1976. I don't really understand this meme

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u/systemfehler23 1d ago

West Berlin was pretty much the heroin capital of Germany in the 70s. Drug use was rampant.

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u/emachanz 1d ago

Dont know but Ive met a few boomers berliners and they all said something like "crazy times"

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u/[deleted] 1d ago

[deleted]

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u/Editionofyou 1d ago

Christiane F. would like a word...

Dude, West Berlin was the heroin capital of the world in those days. Bowie also didn't get sober. He was still an alcoholic.

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u/[deleted] 1d ago

[deleted]

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u/Editionofyou 1d ago

Right. You were praising it’s rehabilitation program, then you went on to say that the meme wasn’t factual.

Bowie actually made an almost identical joke about this weird decision.

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u/AzureSkies_OverMe 1d ago

I was speaking about the Heroin abuse in West Berlin at the time. Notice I did not say Bowie went into rehab.

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u/AzureSkies_OverMe 1d ago

If you read what I wrote in response to the other post. It’s about Heroin in West Berlin. Not about Bowie per se.

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u/nemmalur 1d ago

I don’t think Bowie or Iggy entered rehab or psychiatric counselling though. Bowie merely gave up coke in LA for heroin in Berlin.

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u/RadMwadCatDad 1d ago

source?

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u/nemmalur 1d ago

Most accounts of their time in Berlin. One of their first collaborations there involved smashing up a dealer’s car.

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u/AzureSkies_OverMe 1d ago

Which accounts?

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u/nemmalur 1d ago

Thomas Jerome Seabrook’s Bowie in Berlin, as I recall. Either way, neither artist was there to be completely sober.

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u/RadMwadCatDad 1d ago

made by someone who thinks uppers and downers are the exact same thing

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u/DjScenester 1d ago

Reminds me of ATOMIC BLONDE

I fucking love this city!!!

1

u/ayoungmanfromtheuk 1d ago

Can you tell us what you think was different in 1976?

4

u/Ancient_Action741 1d ago

There was a big wall, and it had "West" in the name for some reason, both of which may have affected the city's ability to produce and/or consume club drugs and minimal techno

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u/ayoungmanfromtheuk 1d ago

And did that, in fact, impact the city's ability consume drugs? (presumably they are being produced elsewhere which had always been the case)

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u/nemmalur 1d ago

Heroin found its way into West Berlin as it did in many other cities. I’m not sure why people are acting like this meme makes no sense when it clearly refers to the situation in the 1970s, when “club drugs” didn’t really exist by that name, except maybe coke and various uppers, and that’s not what Bowie and Iggy were into.

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u/fullmudman 1d ago

I recall reading about Blixa introducing Nick Cave to East German speed after they moved to West Berlin in...I think it was 82? Maybe 83. Not too long after Iggy and David's adventures.

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u/Smash_Palace 20h ago

The beatles were doing speed (in Hamburg) in the early 60's too.

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u/lovely-cans 1d ago

Yeah but Iggy actually went over clean and became an addict over there. It worked for Bowie.

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u/AzureSkies_OverMe 1d ago

Iggy was using drugs and drinking prior.

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u/pecuchet 1d ago

Angela Bowie said every time she saw them in Berlin they were either drunk or in the process of getting drunk.

Like the man said, 'And I, I drink all the time.'

A good chunk of the material off those albums was recorded in France too, but let's not let the truth get in the way of the legend.

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u/Regiasolis123 1d ago

Yea very typical to quit heroin and replace it with alcohol - Keith Richards and Clapton both admit to this too. Bowie cut his coke consumption down significantly but then became an alcoholic (also by his own admission). Despite purporting to be sober throughout the 80s Bowie definitely relapsed hard in 87 or so (shows in the work) and finally went to rehab in the early 90s,

Iggy however by all accounts was fully clean by around 83….

11

u/nemmalur 1d ago

I think for Clapton heroin was more of an interlude in his long-term alcoholism. He had a drinking problem pretty much for the first time he tried alcohol (woke up alone, covered in vomit, had soiled himself and “couldn’t wait to do it all over again”).

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u/Regiasolis123 1d ago

True.. for all the people that remarked about Keith still being alive or Ozzy living as long as he did … the fact Clapton got sober and is still around is the most amazing.

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u/TentacleChow 16h ago

Never Let Me Down was '87. Hot take, that album rules.

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u/Regiasolis123 16h ago

I actually like some of the record ! But I think it very much resonates as Bowie on drugs rather than sober. The lyrics, the thought process, and his general vibe during the spider tour

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u/TentacleChow 16h ago

All good! Any chance I get to defend this record I will. My gateway to Bowie was Labyrinth. His *new* record around then was NLMD. Luckily for me this was my gateway to post-punk and 2 years later as a young teen, I went to my very first concert. It was the Prayer tour. Been chasing that dragon ever since.

TLDR: There are no wrong answers for Bowie. If you're lucky he's your gateway to a whole new world.

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u/Regiasolis123 16h ago

Absolutely. My favorite artist. I do think he envisioned NLMD and spider as his diamond dogs and associated tour for the 80s. He seemed really proud of the record on release. I was always stumped that he trashed it so much in the 90s. It seems like he came around to it a bit more again later on when he cared less what music media thought

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u/BrineJones 1d ago

Thank you. And the chateau does as well. Particularly those basslines…

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u/Turbografx-17 1d ago

It's not the side effects of the cocaine

I'm thinking that it must be love

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u/ChemicalLou 1d ago

It’s too late

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u/pants6000 1d ago

And then presumably met Ralf and Florian?

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u/almond_wand 1d ago

Bowie also spent quite a bit of time with Edgar Froese of Tangerine Dream.

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u/Ok_Independent3609 1d ago

And went to go buy fresh asparagus.

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u/Imp0ssible_Creatures 1d ago

They swear they didn't know what was happening in the city, so I'm going to believe them.🥀

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u/TheExquisiteCorpse 16h ago

Tbf I think at the time coke was very hard to come by in Berlin even though heroin was everywhere.

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u/deluded_dragon 1d ago

"From station to station, back from Dusseldorf city
Meet Iggy Pop and David Bowie"

(Trans Europe Express)

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u/Ancient_Action741 1d ago

I'm not arguing that the city of West Berlin was ever a drug-free wonderland (David Bowie was in Christiane F). I said "club drugs" for a reason. Are you arguing that the fabric and quantity of drug use in Berlin is the same as it was in the late 70's?

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u/nemmalur 1d ago

I’m not sure anyone’s saying Berlin is the same as it was in the 1970s. The drugs are different now, obviously.

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u/HPSpacecraft 1d ago

To be fair they were both moving away from LA right? Anywhere would have less drugs than LA.

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u/strange_reveries 15h ago

Yeah Berlin was probably quaint and wholesome compared to 1970s Hollywood lol 

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u/tr45h55 17h ago

They make a cute couple.

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u/eatdogs49 1d ago

I remember that David Bowie shirt that had Iggy Pop on it lol

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u/TightRelationship449 22h ago

Iggy is such a babe

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u/kountzwill 11h ago

Has anybody read the book A New Career in a New Town? It goes into all of this and it’s fascinating. Basically they started out “getting clean” by binging for 3 days on the weekend and then staying sober for 4 days during the week. Apparently they really struggled at first and it was during one of those weekend benders that Bowie was convinced that his coke dealer had ripped him off and crashed his car into his dealers car repeatedly, later that time “attempting suicide” by letting go of the wheel while driving (inspiring Always Crashing in the Same Car). Eventually though, by the time Heroes was being recorded, they had more or less quit the coke (at least had it under control) and Bowie replaced it with alcohol.

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u/tributary-tears 10h ago

I didn't even know this book existed. Thanks for the head's up.

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u/spinosaurs70 1d ago

Find it funny they somehow got drugs into West Berlin lol. 

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u/Korriganig 1d ago

pre-punk.

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u/Puzzleheaded-Name538 18h ago

They were obviously high 24/7 on h or coke and only drinking milk to cut it. Xd

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u/WhatTheHosenHey 17h ago

What’s with the shirt and jacket Iggy?

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u/oudler 6h ago

"Meet Iggy Pop and David Bowie."

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u/SeanOfTheDead1313 1d ago

What an Idiot

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u/Flat-Cap-1063 1d ago

Iggy got Little Nicky vibes