A Spotify tour of Berlin
'DAS IST BERLIN', MARLENE DIETRICH
Marlene Dietrich , as a great German icon, sang over and over again to the capital. In 'Das ist Berlin', for example. The city returned the tribute dedicating a place to him, she half-hidden behind Potsdamer Platz. That's where the red carpet for movie stars visiting the city during the imminent Berlin Film Festival.
For the very mythomaniacs, in the 65 Leberstrasse is the building where the diva was born in 1901. Both the house and the street located in the Rote Insel neighborhood of the Schöneberg district they are bland, but the owners of the property remember the data every time they try to close the rental or sale price of one of the flats.
Marlene Dietrich Platz
'TIERGARTEN', RUFUS WAINWRIGHT
Who has never fallen in love in a park living in Berlin? Having a German husband has meant that Rufus Wainwright has spent much of his time in the city. His song 'Tiergarten', included in the magnificent release the stars of 2007, is dedicated to the most central and best-known park in the city. The Canadian singer-songwriter composed the theme just when his relationship with Jorn Weisbrodt was starting and it shows . The song is like a walk (on a cloud) around the place. Listening to her, you don't need to pay for a plane to feel like you're there.
Who has never fallen in love in a park living in Berlin?
'ÜBERLIN', R.E.M.
A few years ago, when R.E.M. I was recording Collapse into Now it was very common to find Michael Stipe out on a night out with Jake Shears, the leader of the Scissor Sisters who was also preparing a record in town. As a counterpoint to his long nights in one of the night clubs located in the Kulturbrauerei in Prenzlauer Berg, a brewery converted into a cultural center, the theme 'ÜBerlin' was born. Stipe still lives part of the year in the city.
'ZOO STATION', U2
In the early 90s, after the wall came down, U2 were just as intense as the otherwise great Coldplay are today. Bono and company went to Berlin to see if they were inspired. thus was born Achtung, Baby (1991), one of the record jewels of the irish band . The album opens with 'Zoo Station', referring to the famous station Zoologischer Garten where years before everything happened, as can be seen in the cult film Christiane F. (1981) . Now, the Helmut Newton museum and the new headquarters of the C/O Berlin photographic center show how healthy the area is, where there is also the zoo that gives its name to the song and the metro stop.
In the Zoologischer Garten everything happened in the 90'
'NEUKOLN', DAVID BOWIE
'Neukoln' (with a typographical error included) is one of the instrumental pieces that David Bowie recorded under the production of the legendary Brian Eno for the equally legendary 'Heroes' in the late '70s . In the city he was placed freely, in the absence of other substances –curiously, Bowie decided to detoxify in Berlin, where he did not know as many drug dealers as in Los Angeles-. He was inspired in the vibrant Turkish neighborhood of Neukölln to compose this melody.
'SAD SONG', LOU REED
rock opera _ Berlin _ that Lou Reed published in 1973 is officially “the most depressing album in history” cried the critics of the time. It is not for less and not only because of the commercial suicide that this work supposed after editing transformer . The songs on the album recount the problems of keeping the family together of a couple of heroin addicts. and the eloquent 'Sad Song' is responsible for closing the story. Quite a slump after the blow that 'Walk on the wild side' meant, but in the end it became one of the cult works of the New Yorker.
'STADTKIND', ELLEN ALLIEN
Female techno star Ellen Allien features her own tribute to the city with Stadtkind (2001), inspired by german reunification and that can be found on her debut album. She is still connected to Berlin. your seal BPitch Control selects the best of the capital's electronic scene and sessions behind the decks of the German are regular **at the always essential Berghain**.
The Bierhof Rudersdorf Bar, part of the Berghain complex
'PRENZLAUERBERG', BEIRUT
In addition to belatedly including the great Elephant Gun , Beirut's debut album, The Gulag Orchestra (2006) contains several references to the city. Prenzlauer-Berg is the neighborhood in East Berlin that was fastest swallowed up by capitalism , but in this recording he maintains the reminiscences of the communist era. Little of the sadness that this song emanates remains in this bourgeois temple full of chic foreigners (and the occasional German) who have made every corner of the neighborhood cute, why deny it...
'KREUZBERG', BLOCK PARTY
The British Bloc Party focused on a city neighborhood to write ** 'Kreuzberg' **, where by the way your target audience is concentrated : young, international and creative population who killed to be in the front row when the group acted as headliner in some music festival. The shops and bars in the area also target this same profile. The curious thing is that the mentions of the city in the letter **(the East Side Gallery and the Hauptbahnhof)** are both located in the neighboring neighborhood of Friedrichshain.
Oberbaumbrücke, between Kreuzberg and Friedrichshain
'BERLIN (IS DUFTE!) ', NINA HAGEN
The Karl-Marx Allee It is a living sample of East German architecture. Nina Hegen , a local musical and aesthetic idol, mentioned this interesting avenue near Alexanderplatz in 'Berlin (is Dufte!)'. In the song she sang to the excellences of what was still the capital of the DDR (German Democratic Republic). For the singer she was a great place and the best city in the entire universe. It was published in 1991, just when that DDR that she mentioned no longer existed.
*** You may also be interested in...**
- David Bowie's Berlin
- Destroy all your Berliners
- Eating well and in German in Berlin? Naturlich!
- Old Berlin
- Berlin Guide
Tiergarten, in front of the Victory Column