David Bowie's Berlin Trilogy (1977-1979) - A Track-By-Track Summary 

LOW is my favourite album from David. The mix of vocal tracks and instrumentals are so stunning. The B-Side of LOW is my most LOVED Bowie material EVER.

'The Lodger' has more in common with 'Scary Monsters' than either 'Low' or 'Heroes'. It's definitely a shift away from the first two Berlin trilogy albums and is a hint of what was to come in 1980. While it doesn't really have any new romantic vibes, it lays the path towards Scary Monsters.

I was a child in the 1970's and to me the B-Side of Low and Heroes always sounded like what the 70' felt like back then. It's the soundtrack for that decade. That's why it fitted the movie 'Christian F. wir kinder von bahnhof zoo' so well in which a lot of it was used as film music.

'I am a dj', 'look back in anger' and 'Boys keep swinging' definately underated classics IMHO.

I'm glad a lot of people like the video, and obviously we all came here for the music. But it cannot be ignored how well-made this video is. The editing is very impressive and it's got that logical flow a lot of smaller video essays lack. Great video, mate, I hope you keep making them.

The Berlin Trilogy is probably one of my favorite three album runs ever, but I tend to include Station to Station instead of Lodger because that's one of my personal favorites as well.

Brian Eno says the Berlin Trilogy are these three albums: THE IDIOT (Iggy Pop), LOW (Bowie), HEROES (Bowie). The first was produced by Bowie (all songs co-written by Bowie). The others produced by Tony Visconti. Lodger is often mistakenly considered part of the trilogy, but no, it was conceived between NY and Switzerland.

Visconti’s 2017 remix of Lodger is a revelation that puts it on a sonic equal footing with Low and “Heroes”. Unfortunately, 40yrs too late.

Very nicely put together - A Side of Low still feels fresh and cutting edge nearly half a century on imo

The Secret Life of Arabia a favorite to sing along with!

They all are great albums, all away Ziggy untill Black star

David's 1977 to 1979 period ois my total favourite. Nothing before or after topps it for me with Bowie.

The Secret Life Of Arabia is my favourite ever Bowie track ever though Low is my Number 1. Heroes is an incredible album.

Like you, I never took an interest in Bowie until the Pandemic, actually, when a friend bought me a computer and I started listening to video rock music. I started plowing thru his music and interviews which were really funny, and read a few books written by reliable sources. The more I learned about him, the more I wanted to know. And now after he's been gone for 5 yr I feel so sad I didn't pay the man any mind when he was alive. So full of mystery and fun and it was fun watching the videos because I could see him grow up and mature into the man he became. I don't think I'll ever tire of watching his performances, and of course the docus, and interviews on t.v., esp on Conan. He seemed to have been loved by all. This was a terrific video. You can probably tell I enjoyed it!!!

A video on Station To Station would be great

Berlin Trilogy. Remarkable period in Bowie's life. Incredible!

The Man Who Fell TO Earth (1976) ⚡

Low and Heroes are tied with Station to Station as my favorite Bowie albums... all three are masterpieces in my eyes

There is rock & roll and then there is the other genre in all of its own form, David Bowie. The most versatile musical artist of all-time. Possibly in all of art.

This is a very good introduction to David Bowie for me, apart from what albums my mom has told me she liked. Thanks!

I find it personally interesting that my three favorite Bowie albums were made while we were both living in West Berlin. Him, in his thirties I believe and me, born and up until five years old.

Thx, well-done! Appreciate your hi-fi rambling too❤

"I am a D.J.... I got believers" is actually his most autobiographical song, in a mocking sort of way. (D.J. = David Jones).

Awesome video and equally awesome narration

I believe the lyrics in Breaking Glass are a reference to the fact that during his LA years he regularly drew giant pentagrams on the floor, which is probably one of the tamer things he did there in all honesty

Anyone thinking of these as a trilogy needs to add Iggy Pop's The Idiot. Knowing the whole story between Bowie and Iggy is touching and friendship. They fed off each other, and they used their madness to go inward and to get sober. You can feel it in the music.

Amazing analysis

I fucking love the B-Side of Low ❤😭 It was also my first Bowie album but by accident i was googling something else and stumbled upon ''speed of light'' and i was hooked

Well I haven’t watched this yet but this just seems like it will be one of my favourite RU-vid videos.

god I love this video.......

As far as Lodger ... Boys Keep Swinging and the ULTIMATE track DJ are complete late 70s gems that really kicked off the New Romantic era

I live for such talks about great records! Berlin sandwich (STS + trilogy + SMSC) is my current obsession and sth that properly got me on Bowie Train. Low is also my favourite record with Warszawa having a special place in my heart, for that’s the city in which I have been living for all 20 years of my life. Heroes was a tough one for me. I listened to the record for the first time like 3 years ago and not until today had I truly enjoyed it. When it comes to Lodger I gotta admit I love it as well (without Repetition and Red Money - they just don’t do the trick for me). Can’t wait for more videos like that!

Hi, I'm surprised you didn't mention the story behind "Joe the Lion", with Chris Burden who "crucified" himself on a VW Beetle in 1974, and that "Sons of the Silent Age" contain translated lyrics of a Jacques Brel song ("Les Vieux": "they never die, they just go to sleep one day"). Also that the song "Move On" IS "All the Young Dudes" played backwards... I'm not sure yassassin means long life" in Turkish (it probably means the same than in most languages, based on the Nizari Order of Assassins). While Bowie lived in Berlin, he lived in a part of the town called Neukölln where many Turkish immigrants live. "The Idiot" is, of course, also the title of a famous novel by Dostoevsky. :)

Nice one, I enjoyed that

You are expessing everything I felt about Bowie. Thank you

This was a fantastic video, it’s a shame it’s the only one you’ve posted and 3 years ago now, would love to see some more Bowie deep dives if you ever come back

What got me to a point where i could not get Low out of my head was Dennis Davis' drumming. So elemental, with a "pathological" quality. The unforgettable snare drum banging. That's what underpins the concept of the album. I also have a dream. Wouldn't it be magical to have had Frippertonics on the B-side?

What a coincidence. That period was also my introduction to Bowie’s work but back in the 1970s and it’s still my favorite one.

This is awesome I'd love to hear your thoughts on the music before and after the trilogy

Had to watch it again buddy that's great

The Man Who Fell TO Earth, darling.

Great video! The Berlin period has always been my favorite Bowie work, quite easily over even the Ziggy era if I’m being honest.

Great video, man! 🍻🍻Lodger all the way

i feel that people call them a trilogy because it was produced with Eno, but o believe that it is more apropiated to have the "Low"-"Heroes" experimental duology and have "Lodger" paired with the following "Scary Monsters and Super Creeps", both really more in the New Waver genre, more similar to Talking Heads, Blondie, Etc

Sound and Vision 👌🏼❤️🕊🎶🌹🌹🌹

Your docs are so new and really Great!🌞 I may be the only one who just favors his music Before Ziggy. ..back to "when I live my dream" and all the acoustic stuff, then up to hunky dory, etc.. I was in 13 in '70, a full fan all along, but no matter how great he always was, I liked his beginning albums the best🚥🚥🔥🚥🚥

Absolute gold

3:26 Breaking Glass is a nod to the movies of Nicolas Roeg, in a few of his movies when you see or hear the sound of breaking glass (then) something bad was about to happen. Good video thank you

I absolutely love Sons of the silent age on the heroes album.

Great video. Bowie was incredible during this period. I absolutely love all three albums. A great book to read is: David Bowie In Berlin:a new career in town.....by TJ Seabrook This book is incredible. You’ll read it in two days. Cheers ✌️🇨🇦🎸

Man I loved it! It’s so complete and you cleared a lot of information about lodger for me so lemme give you some as well The album cover of Lodger (sorry I don’t remember where I read it but certainly you can find on google) is not about an accident, in a way. The picture is supposed to be seen as Bowie falling from the sky (put the sink on the right position) vereeery fast, like 2G, making his nose deformed by the atmosphere pression :)

I never got how LODGER was connected to LOW and HEROES so I never considered the "trilogy" a trilogy. With that said, LOW, HEROES, and LODGER are my personal favs. 🙂

The world lost something very important the day he died.

Bowie did a live TV version of the "Boys" song on Saturday Night Live when this album came out. It was very weird stuff for the period...

He was living in Edgar Froese's Home first when he came to Berlin. Did a cold turkey there. He called Froeses Album "Epsilon in Malaysian Pale" the soundtrack of his Life in Berlin. I think thats someting to mention cause we talk about 2 Music Legends here.

"I never listened to this guys stuff before, but..." Why should I keep watching?

Sense of doubt - the way of Christiane F

good work. spot on analysis

Great video, how do you only have 7 subs?

If the implied affair taints your enjoyment of Heroes, just imagine the debauchery, which has inspired and runs through countless other rock and pop songs. I would argue that a lodger is not an outcast, but someone who has been welcomed in and accepted.

I love your every single video. Instant subscribe.

I love this content of your man!

Actually you're right since there is a Red money-Sister midnight mashup here on YT (it's pretty good at least to my untrained ear),🤷‍♂️👩🏼‍🎤 and I would put Low 1st but Heroes and lodger on tie for 2nd, but on covers lodger definitively takes the 1st (just love how bizarre it is) Heroes 2nd and low 3rd

As a long-time, hardcore Bowie fan, I'd like to point out a few things that were presented here that I wanted to flag. Not trying to be a jerk here, but just things I feel should be addressed. At the 1:43 point of the video you give the impression that Bowie transitioned from Ziggy Stardust to Young Americans. You glossed over two of his most substantial albums: Aladdin Sane (1973) and Diamond Dogs (1974). His all-cover album Pinups (1973) was also released prior to YA. At 2:07 you have a spelling error of "Station to Staion" onscreen. At the 5:36 mark you state that "A New Career In A New Town" (off Low) is an "upbeat instrumental". You have the music very low in the mix so people can't really hear it. I have loved that song for over 40 years. I would never think to describe it as "upbeat". It's actually a very melancholy piece and provides the perfect segue to the B side. It might be "upbeat" in the sense of tempo, but not in terms of mood. At the 9:21 point you state that Eno contributed to Heroes more than the one song he did on Low. This is absolutely misleading. Brian Eno may only have one songwriting co-credit on Low but, trust me, his influence is EVERYWHERE on that album. David Bowie would be the first to acknowledge how critical Eno was to Low. Finally, at the 18:31 mark you make recommendations for post-Trilogy Bowie albums that include Scary Monsters and Let's Dance. Of course I agree with you on Scary Monsters, but Let's Dance shouldn't be mentioned in the same sentence as the Berlin Trilogy or Scary Monsters. Outside would be the best "next" album for newbies to skip to after Scary Monsters. Okay, now that I'm done griping, I also want to take the time to applaud you for doing this video. You offered wonderful insight for someone who indicated that he hadn't listened to much Bowie prior to his passing. I like how you presented ALL the songs on these albums and you did a nice job presenting your thesis. I hope you have continued to dive into Bowie's catalog! It's so funny how time has treated these albums. For the longest time, "Low" was the domain of the hardcore Bowie fan. It was almost like some kind of secret handshake. If you met another Bowie fan who didn't know much about Low ... or didn't like it if they had ... then you kind of knew that this was not a "legitimate" fan. As time passed, Low became much more trendy and, in a way, it's lost it's efficacy as a litmus test. I think Lodger is now the "secret handshake" Bowie album. It is insane to me that it has been so undervalued all these years. You are absolutely correct in your assertion that it suffers by its association with Low and Heroes because it is so different stylistically. Station to Station, to me, has the soul of a Berlin Trilogy album. Too bad it wasn't Station, Low and Heroes all along. My personal recommendations for new Bowie fans would be to dive headlong into his studio catalog from the 1967 "David Bowie" album through 1980's "Scary Monsters". While there is no denying that Bowie put out meaningful music in the 80s, 90s and 2000s ... nothing will ever eclipse his insane run in the 1970s. But check out Aladdin Sane. That is a tour de force!

Great overview among many others. I heard Bowie first time really with Lodger album as 15 year old and got caught by Look Back in Anger and thought whoah

I love Lodger it's just brilliant.

strangely, the music of those years reminds me of the talking heads

Fantastic work here sir! You can tell you put a lot of work and research into this. I do take slight issue with your hypothesis of Lodger being “all pop” though. Of course everything comes down to personal preference, but I was wondering if I could pick your brain about it. Whilst I agree it is indeed the black sheep of the Berlin Trilogy, and in my opinion is more akin to its successor Scary Monsters sonically and thematically, I personally believe Low and Heroes had much more majorly accessible “pop” songs on their A Sides. The songs on Lodger specifically “African Night Flight”, “Yassassin” and “Red Sails” are definitely weirder at least to me than anything on the other two records. Even “Repetition” and “Red Money” in their delivery and composition I would think would not be easy listens for some, at least on the first go. I’m curious, Do you think of it as a pop record because it doesn’t have an instrumental B Side? Also, I have often wondered if the Track List for Lodger were ordered like Low and Heroes with the more radio friendly accessible tracks coming first then the weirder ones I mentioned coming after, would it make for a more cohesive listen tying it more into the trilogy it’s supposed to be a part of? Really loved the video though, You’ve got a new sub :).

Breaking glass, Always crashing in the same car, and Subterraneans are my favourite tracks from the Low album! Blackout and Heroes are those of the Heroes album. Haven't listened enough to Lodger though.

Low's setting begins in Paris. It moves to Poland. Heroes finds our character in Berlin. In Lodger, our character begins in Berlin, before moving to North Africa. We were so overwhelmed by the new style of music, we missed the dramatic story being told. Bowie is literally beyond our ability to understand in the moment. We need time. Anyone know what I am talking about?

I heard alot of Heroes on the movie Christiane F

You're amazing

1. Low 2. Lodger 3. Heroes P.S. I don’t have favorite tracks

warszawa is based on a hungarian folk tune he heard while wandering through the streets of warsaw

I agree with how you ranked the 3 works of TBT, essentially in the order of how they were released. They were purchased in order in the 70s. And I agree with "Breaking Glass" as my fav track on "Low," tho truthfully, they are all good. I esp. like the 8-5-1 figure done in ring modulation, def. Eno influenced. My final favs are the pleading "Be My Wife" and "Look Back In Anger," whose Carlos Alomar's chord solo is one of the coolest things to hear, and I must confess, to play on guitar. Thx for an interesting video. 👍'd If you are so inclined, you can find Eno's 4 early pop albums on YT. "Backwater" should have been a No. 1 hit, perfect pop song, synthpop way before it's time. Chuck

The songs of Low were recorded at the château d'Hérouville, France, and were mixed and produced in Berlin.

I just noticed in the Venture Brothers segment that David Bowie's Entourage consists of Iggy Pop and Klaus Nomi lol

15:08 I'd argue that D.J. is a bit of a "serious satire" (think Capitalism - Oingo Boingo), in which yes he's making fun if DJs, but I also feel like the lyrics "I am what I play, can't turn around... I've got believers believing in me" is genuine, and it bleeds into Look Back in Anger's music video, where the painter slowly becomes his art.

Heroes is simply brilliant

"Heroes" is such a great album, half amazing art rock songs and half incredible ambient music

You really should have mentioned the D.A.M. trio who play on each album as well as Station to Station and Scary Monsters. They were Bowie's secret weapon imo.

"now for the big boy of the album" blackouts not that soon ""Heroes"" Oh yeah

the carpet line has to do with the occult. I believe it's something to do with Kaballa.

There are many songs from other albums that I prefer, but Low is far and away my favorite single album

If anyone out there wants my "anti-hipster" recommendation from a long time fan, my personal favorite Bowie album is Hunky Dory (1971)

I'd say the use of the Heroes Cover in Next Day is the definition of irony actually.

In my opinion Lodger is second behind Low especially on themes, longevity and the tracks are more in sync together. The remastered version sounds a lot better

Lovely thumbnail 😚

Lol. . I forgot his personage was present for Zoolander... I think 'Idiot' was the most "Berlinest" of anything... his work with Iggy was better than Low if you ask me... and Low is my favorite Bowie record.

Lodger a return to the style Bowie was known for? Are you serious? He was never known for a single style, and Lodger is probably his most eclectic and varied album ever. I have never been a huge fan of Lodger, but I think it is mainly because of its mediocre mix. Visconti made an improved mix in 2017, and I think I would have been a much bigger fan of that album had that been the original mix.

Low, Heroes and Lodgers are the albums!!! Then his hit up with Scary Monsters

My crowd did not care for the second side of either LOW or Heroes

Can you do more?

Awesome thanks

nice one. bowie and prince. gotta get them back through voo-doo or something 💛

Pity he ditched Ronno so early. Would love to have seen how that would have panned out later. But LOW best out of these three. Thanks for this, nice history sesh for my kids!...” Bowie?...never heard of him! “

Wonderfully Fantastic .... Happy Christmas .... I think my youtube Bowie Interpretations might be improving .... less fruit last night and someone clapped ... very slowly, but I'll take it.

You should have pointed out that the super-riff on "Heroes" is by Robert Fripp of King Crimson. Eno brought him in. All you did was drop his name.

actually a fun fact if you listen closely "African night flight" and "running gun blues" from the man who sold the world 1970 have the same sample! or at least something very similar they were inspired by, I'm not really sure

Heroes didn’t even chart when it was released