David Bowie releases Berlin song on birthday
David Bowie celebrated his 66th birthday on Tuesday by releasing an anxiously awaited new song featuring the British music legend reminiscing about his time in Berlin in the 1970s.
Where are We Now? is the first single from Bowie's upcoming album The Next Day, which is expected to be released in March.
The song recalls his stay in West Berlin from 1976 to 1979, when he lived with Iggy Pop and Brian Eno in the city's Schöneberg district and recorded some of his most critically acclaimed work at Hansa Studios near the Berlin Wall.
Bowie, who fled to Germany to escape the copious amounts of cocaine he had been doing in Los Angeles, opens the slow number with lyrics describing his life in West Berlin nearly 40 years ago.
Had to get the train/From Potsdamer Platz
You never knew/That I could do that
Just walking the dead
He continues his trip down musical memory lane by namedropping the seminal West Berlin club Dschungel, which attracted the likes of Nick Cave, Romy Haag, Blixa Bargeld, and Martin Kippenberger, before mentioning the city's famous department store KaDeWe.
Sitting in the Dschungel/On Nürnberger Straße
A man lost in time/Near KaDeWe
Just walking the dead
The man once known as 'The Thin White Duke' ends the song by referencing the bridge where East Germans first breached the Iron Curtain in 1989, the Bösebrücke, also known as Bornholmer Brücke.
Twenty thousand people/Cross Bösebrücke
Fingers are crossed/Just in case
Walking the dead
"Where Are We Now" - David Bowie from Jason Drakeford on Vimeo.
The Local/mry
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Where are We Now? is the first single from Bowie's upcoming album The Next Day, which is expected to be released in March.
The song recalls his stay in West Berlin from 1976 to 1979, when he lived with Iggy Pop and Brian Eno in the city's Schöneberg district and recorded some of his most critically acclaimed work at Hansa Studios near the Berlin Wall.
Bowie, who fled to Germany to escape the copious amounts of cocaine he had been doing in Los Angeles, opens the slow number with lyrics describing his life in West Berlin nearly 40 years ago.
Had to get the train/From Potsdamer Platz
You never knew/That I could do that
Just walking the dead
He continues his trip down musical memory lane by namedropping the seminal West Berlin club Dschungel, which attracted the likes of Nick Cave, Romy Haag, Blixa Bargeld, and Martin Kippenberger, before mentioning the city's famous department store KaDeWe.
Sitting in the Dschungel/On Nürnberger Straße
A man lost in time/Near KaDeWe
Just walking the dead
The man once known as 'The Thin White Duke' ends the song by referencing the bridge where East Germans first breached the Iron Curtain in 1989, the Bösebrücke, also known as Bornholmer Brücke.
Twenty thousand people/Cross Bösebrücke
Fingers are crossed/Just in case
Walking the dead
"Where Are We Now" - David Bowie from Jason Drakeford on Vimeo.
The Local/mry
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