Editing David Bowie (section)

===1976–1979: Berlin era===
{{main|Berlin Trilogy}}
[[File:Hauptstraße 155 Berlin-Schöneberg.jpg|thumb|left|alt=An apartment building|Apartment building at Hauptstraße 155, [[Schöneberg]], Berlin, where Bowie lived from 1976 to 1978]]
In August 1976, Bowie moved to [[West Berlin]] with his old friend Iggy Pop to rid themselves of their drug addictions and escape the spotlight.{{sfn|Pegg|2016|pp=384–389}}{{sfn|Seabrook|2008|pp=82–88}}{{sfn|Buckley|2005|p=257}} Bowie's interest in German [[krautrock]] and the [[Ambient music|ambient]] works of multi-instrumentalist [[Brian Eno]] culminated in the first of three albums, co-produced with Visconti, that became known as the [[Berlin Trilogy]].{{sfn|Pegg|2016|pp=266–267, 384}}{{sfn|Sandford|1997|p=149}} The album, ''[[Low (David Bowie album)|Low]]'' (1977), was recorded in France and took influence from krautrock and [[experimental music]] and featured both short song-fragments and ambient instrumentals.<ref>{{cite web|last=Gallucci|first=Michael|url=https://ultimateclassicrock.com/david-bowie-low/|title=40 Years Ago: David Bowie Cleans Up and Branches Out on 'Low'|website=[[Ultimate Classic Rock]]|date=14 January 2017|access-date=29 December 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190629043034/https://ultimateclassicrock.com/david-bowie-low/|archive-date=29 June 2019|url-status=live}}</ref> Before its recording, Bowie produced Iggy Pop's debut solo album ''[[The Idiot (album)|The Idiot]]'', described by Pegg as "a stepping stone between ''Station to Station'' and ''Low''".{{sfn|Pegg|2016|pp=487–488}} ''Low'' was completed in November, but left unreleased for three months. RCA did not see the album as commercially viable and was expecting another success following ''Young Americans'' and ''Station to Station''.{{sfn|Spitz|2009|pp=279–282}}{{sfn|Seabrook|2008|p=116}} Bowie's former manager Tony Defries, who maintained a significant financial interest in Bowie's affairs, had tried to prevent the album from being released.{{sfn|Pegg|2016|pp=384–389}} Upon its release in January 1977, ''Low'' yielded the UK number three single "[[Sound and Vision]]", and its own performance surpassed that of ''Station to Station'' in the UK chart, where it reached number two.{{sfn|Buckley|2005|p=272}} Bowie himself did not promote it,{{sfn|Pegg|2016|pp=384–389}} instead touring with Pop as his keyboardist throughout March and April before recording Pop's follow-up, ''[[Lust for Life (Iggy Pop album)|Lust for Life]]''.{{sfn|O'Leary|2019|loc=chap. 2}}

{{Listen|type=music|filename=David Bowie - Heroes.ogg|title="{{-'}}Heroes{{'-}}"|description=Sample of "[["Heroes" (David Bowie song)|{{-'}}Heroes{{'-}}]]" (1977). One of the ambient rock songs to emerge from Bowie's [[Berlin Trilogy]] era, "{{-'}}Heroes{{'-}}" gained lasting popularity.}}
Echoing ''Low''{{'}}s minimalist, instrumental approach, the second of the trilogy, ''[["Heroes" (David Bowie album)|"Heroes"]]'' (1977), incorporated pop and rock to a greater extent, seeing Bowie joined by guitarist [[Robert Fripp]].{{sfn|Carr|Murray|1981|pp=91–92}} It was the only album recorded entirely in Berlin.<ref>{{cite web|last=Dombal|first=Ryan|url=https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/21487-heroes/|title=David Bowie: ''"Heroes"'' Album Review|website=[[Pitchfork (website)|Pitchfork]]|date=22 January 2015|access-date=22 January 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160124031118/https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/21487-heroes/|archive-date=24 January 2016|url-status=live}}</ref> Incorporating ambient sounds from a variety of sources including white noise generators, synthesisers and [[Koto (instrument)|koto]], the album was another hit, reaching number three in the UK. Its [["Heroes" (David Bowie song)|title track]] was released in both German and French and, though only reaching number 24 in the UK singles chart, later became one of his best-known tracks.{{sfn|Pegg|2016|pp=111–112}} In contrast to ''Low'',{{sfn|Buckley|2005|p=282}} Bowie promoted ''"Heroes"'' extensively, performing the title track on Marc Bolan's television show ''[[Marc (TV series)|Marc]]'', and again two days later for [[Bing Crosby]]'s final [[CBS]] television Christmas special, when he joined Crosby in "[[Peace on Earth/Little Drummer Boy]]", a version of "[[The Little Drummer Boy]]" with a new, [[contrapuntal]] verse.{{sfn|Pegg|2016|p=391}} RCA belatedly released the recording as a single five years later in 1982, charting in the UK at number three.{{sfn|O'Leary|2019|loc=chap. 2}}{{sfn|Pegg|2016|pp=208–209}}

[[File:David bowie 05061978 01 150.jpg|thumb|left|upright=0.7|alt=A man on stage singing into a microphone|Bowie performing in Oslo, Norway, 1978]]
After completing ''Low'' and ''"Heroes"'', Bowie spent much of 1978 on the [[Isolar II – The 1978 World Tour|Isolar II world tour]], bringing the music of the first two Berlin Trilogy albums to almost a million people during 70 concerts in 12 countries. By now he had broken his drug addiction; Buckley writes that Isolar II was "Bowie's first tour for five years in which he had probably not anaesthetised himself with copious quantities of cocaine before taking the stage.&nbsp;... Without the oblivion that drugs had brought, he was now in a healthy enough mental condition to want to make friends."{{sfn|Buckley|2005|p=293}} Recordings from the tour made up the live album ''[[Stage (David Bowie album)|Stage]]'', released the same year.{{sfn|Sandford|1997|p=189}} Bowie also recorded narration for an adaptation of [[Sergei Prokofiev]]'s classical composition ''[[Peter and the Wolf]]'', which was released as an [[David Bowie Narrates Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf|album]] in May 1978.{{sfn|Pegg|2016|p=489}}{{sfn|Seabrook|2008|pp=191–192}}

The final piece in what Bowie called his "[[triptych]]", ''[[Lodger (album)|Lodger]]'' (1979), eschewed the minimalist, ambient nature of its two predecessors, making a partial return to the drum- and guitar-based rock and pop of his pre-Berlin era. The result was a complex mixture of [[New wave music|new wave]] and [[world music]], in places incorporating [[Phrygian dominant scale|Hijaz]] [[Musical scale#Non-Western scales|non-Western scales]]. Some tracks were composed using Eno's [[Oblique Strategies]] cards: "Boys Keep Swinging" entailed band members swapping instruments, "Move On" used the chords from Bowie's early composition "All the Young Dudes" played backwards, and "Red Money" took backing tracks from ''The Idiot''{{'s}} "Sister Midnight".{{sfn|Carr|Murray|1981|pp=102–107}}{{sfn|O'Leary|2019|loc=chap. 3}} The album was recorded in Switzerland and New York City.{{sfn|Pegg|2016|pp=394–396}} Ahead of its release, RCA's Mel Ilberman described it as "a concept album that portrays the Lodger as a homeless wanderer, shunned and victimized by life's pressures and technology." ''Lodger'' reached number four in the UK and number 20 in the US, and yielded the UK hit singles "[[Boys Keep Swinging]]" and "[[DJ (David Bowie song)|DJ]]".{{sfn|Buckley|2005|p=281}}{{sfn|Sandford|1997|pp=191–192}} Towards the end of the year, Bowie and Angie initiated divorce proceedings, and after months of court battles the marriage was ended in early 1980.{{sfn|Sandford|1997|p=197}} The three albums were later adapted into classical music symphonies by American composer [[Philip Glass]] for his [[Symphony No. 1 (Glass)|first]], [[Symphony No. 4 (Glass)|fourth]] and [[Symphony No. 12 (Glass)|twelfth]] symphonies in 1992, 1997 and 2019, respectively.{{sfn|Pegg|2016|pp=490–493}} Glass praised Bowie's gift for creating "fairly complex pieces of music, masquerading as simple pieces".{{sfn|Thomson|1993|p=xiii}}