Cool Berlin Wall Story

David Bowie and Iggy Pop are two of my all time favorites. Recently I purchased the VH-1 Storytellers soundtrack online featuring David Bowie. VH-1 Storytellers was a short lived series in the 90′s that would feature an artist playing some of their favorite hits while also telling a story related to the song to the live audience. The story below came to mind because today is the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin wall. Bowie being the eloquent raconteur, brings this revealing story to life.. Enjoy…

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“Iggy Pop and I were a couple of very naughty boys, who went to Berlin to learn how to be good…I remember one morning, after a particularly mischievous night out, we both met up at a coffee bar we used to frequent and discussed the doings of the night before, and Iggy, or Jim, related most extraordinary events.

He said that he’d been to a punk club. It was the anniversary of the building of the Wall, that you must remember, and he went to a punk club that were holding an anniversary party and they built an entirely accurate replica of the Berlin Wall, and at the stroke of midnight, fifty savage, demented punks leapt on this wall and tore it to pieces with their mouths and teeth and fists – smashing it.

But he said that it was the aftermath that was the most affecting, because after all this had happened – they demolished the wall – there were small groups of them, standing around the corners, pitifully crying, tears streaming down their faces. And I thought that was an incredibly moving thing, and a real memory of Berlin – the Berlin that I knew at the time, anyway.  This is a song (China Girl) I wrote with Jim at around that time…And I guess this one is also sort of about invasion and exploitation.”

“David Bowie, VH-1 Storytellers, recorded August 13, 1999“

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Little did they know how close they were to the real wall being torn down.

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Category: Culture