kind. indulgent. the host with the most, and he made a really good dinner. an incredible soup, a mind-boggling array of side dishes. serious cooking chops. you ve been adored. you ve been the hot band that everybody wanted. you ve had all the things that a lot of people coming up, you know, yearned for. i wonder what thrills you? anton: i like music is a puzzle to me, because i m self- taught. so, i basically have to teach myself every idea that s going through my mind, and they re going really quick. so, it s like a race to accomplish it. anthony: what s your turn around time? because it s legendary. like, between recording, you re smiling, and releasing? anton: well we had been
david bowie stepping off the train in west berlin a city he would live and work in for the next three years. bowie was exhausted and burned out and looking for a new way to live and to work. and the music he created during that time was something truly groundbreaking and new. the result was both a professional and personal rebirth, and some of the most powerful and influential recordings of all time. classics which i d love to play here, but cannot afford. jim: he wasn t a big name at the time, but it was a historical point, because he came to berlin the week after he split with his band. and from l.a. he went to berlin,
else: it s not germany, it s berlin. anthony: it s berlin. else: and in berlin, we say, berlin is not germany, you know? i remember the first time i was in berlin when i was 14 years old, and i remember exactly coming here and having this almost physical feeling of freedom. like, i was a goth girl at that time, like i started to only wear black and listened to dark music. and when i came to berlin, i was like, yes, here i can be who i want to be. and it almost felt a little bit magical. anthony: do you think that people who came here from other countries, back in weimar era and now, people are looking for a dark side, do you think? brendan: certainly, the people are looking for things that they couldn t do at home. le pustra: exactly. brendan: they re looking for le pustra: they still come here for the forbidden. brendan: things that, you know and you can tell the people who ve come and gone crazy. le pustra: it s captured people s imaginations, so people co
undertones. we meet at grosz in west berlin. though promised 1920s-style classic fare, i was, in this regard, disappointed. the food was excellent, though. germany s cool with, you know, come to our country, get high and party. else: it s not germany, it s berlin. anthony: it s berlin. else: and in berlin, we say, berlin is not germany, you know? i remember the first time i was in berlin when i was 14 years old, and i remember exactly coming here and having this almost physical feeling of freedom. like, i was a goth girl at that time, like i started to only wear black and listened to dark music. and when i came to berlin, i was like, yes, here i can be who i want to be. and it almost felt a little bit magical. anthony: do you think that people who came here from other countries, back in weimar era
you know, it was like pressure cooking. west berlin was surrounded by the wall, and there were just three roads leading to west berlin and they were controlled by the russians, basically. anthony: so, why would a walled city, surrounded by hostile forces, be such a hot house for art, music and free expression? jim: west berlin was always very international. we had people that were flying in from all walks of life. artists from all genres were here, and we were surrounded by east. the wall was a solid resistance, and you need a strong enemy to build a strong muscle. and people who were living here had to improvise a lot. anthony: i mean, what is seen by many as a golden period, the weimar era, was in fact a hotbed