Neuköln

"Neuköln"
Song by David Bowie from the album "Heroes"
Released	October 14, 1977
Recorded	Hansa Studio by the Wall, West Berlin July–August 1977
Genre	Electronic, Ambient
Length	4:34
Label	RCA Records
Writer	David Bowie, Brian Eno
Producer	David Bowie, Tony Visconti
"Heroes" track listing
"Moss Garden" (8) "Neuköln" (9) "The Secret Life of Arabia" (10)

"Neuköln" is an instrumental piece written by David Bowie and Brian Eno in 1977 for the album "Heroes." It was the last of three consecutive instrumentals on side two of the original vinyl album, following "Sense of Doubt" and "Moss Garden."

Neukölln (correctly spelled with a double "L") is a district of Berlin. Bowie lived in Berlin for a time in 1977, although not in Neukölln but in Schöneberg.^[1] The music has been interpreted as reflecting in part the rootlessness of the Turkish immigrants who made up a large proportion of the area's population.^[2] NME journalists Roy Carr and Charles Shaar Murray described "Neuköln" as "a mood piece: the Cold War viewed through a bubble of blood or Harry Lime's last thoughts as he dies in the sewer in The Third Man.^[1] The final section features Bowie's plaintive saxophone "booming out across a harbour of solitude, as if lost in fog."^[2]

Cover versions

• Philip Glass - "Heroes" Symphony (1996)

Notes

1. ^ ^{a b} Roy Carr & Charles Shaar Murray (1981). Bowie: An Illustrated Record: p.92
2. ^ ^{a b} David Buckley (1999). Strange Fascination - David Bowie: The Definitive Story: p.325