Bowie at his most progressive? The Zeit! box set.

[Valen]

I hadn't heard any of the so-called Berlin trilogy before, so I decided to jump in with both feet, and bought the Zeit! box set, which includes the three studio albums plus Stage.

It was certainly like nothing I'd heard before, and I could hear the influences that rubbed off on prog-related musicians whose albums followed in the wake of the trilogy, so I thought I'd write up a few blog notes.

If like me, you're just starting to explore Bowie's legacy, then perhaps my blog review will offer some insight:

https://momentstransition.wordpress....ilogy-1977-79/

[GuitarGeek]

Yeah, those albums are fantastic. If you like those records, you should get the next album, Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps) which is also very good. Fripp plays on several songs.

And I don't think it was just "prog related" musicians who were influenced by the Berlin albums, I think it was influential on rock music in general.

[mogrooves]

I haven't heard Lodger, but side two of Low is the shit. Heroes is worthy as well.

[IncogNeato]

My first exposure to anything from 'Lodger' was when, during the 'Eartling' era, I saw his band perform the song "Look Back In Anger" on MTV. It impressed the hell out of me.

[jlneudorf]

His entire run of '70s albums is near perfect in my estimation.

Jon

[GuitarGeek]

My first exposure to anything from 'Lodger' was when, during the 'Eartling' era, I saw his band perform the song "Look Back In Anger" on MTV. It impressed the hell out of me.

MTV showed the very strange videos for Look Back In Anger and DJ in the early years. I don't think I ever saw the video for Boys Keep Swinging, at least, not until much later. I think maybe in the early days, MTV decided the drag routine was more than America could take. Toward the end of the 80's, they had a show called MTV Classic or something like that, hosted by Martha Quinn (ya know, she still looks like that, mostly), and that's where I finally got to see Boys Keep Swinging. I guess after 8 years and I Want To Break Free, they finally decided it was ok to show drag on MTV.

Anyway, yeah, now that I think about it, I remmeber MTV also showing the Heroes video, and also the videos for Fashion and Ashes To Ashes, so a big part of my early exposure to Bowie (other than my oldest brother's copy of Diamond Dogs, which I didn't really remember much of, apart from Future Legend) was hearing some of his more avant garde songs.

His entire run of '70s albums is near perfect in my estimation.

I haven't heard the early 70's albums (that'll be changing in a couple weeks, I hope), but I can certainly say that from Diamond Dogs through to Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps), I think you're talking about nothing less than great records. Even Young Americans, which I wasn't expecting to like much, really is aces, so far as "plastic soul" goes (that's Bowie, presumably being facetious, called Young Americans, "the last word in plastic soul" or some such).

[Grumpyprogfan]

His most progressive release is Station to Station.