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    How Watching American Forces Network TV Created a Rock Classic

    RIVERSIDE, CA, UNITED STATES

    03.16.2021

    Courtesy Story

    AFN Broadcast Center

    Rolla Suttmiller
    American Forces Network (AFN) Broadcast Center

    What happens when you mix two rock legends and add a night of American Forces Network (AFN) TV? A rock ‘n’ roll classic that still defines a generation!

    AFN radio has been providing the American military serving overseas with a taste of home since 1943. Since first signing on the air, the DOD’s network for the troops also made a huge cultural impact on host nationals around the world by introducing them to new, at that time, diverse styles of music.

    Robert Plant fondly reminisced to David Letterman about hearing “Muddy Waters” and “Little Richard” on AFN on a faint radio signal from Germany in the 1950s because, “radio in the UK was pretty dire in the mid-50s." Van Morrison remembered the days before rock ‘n’ roll when every night was spent scouring the airwaves in hopes of tuning in AFN. Rolling Stones bassist Bill Wyman, Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page and guitarist Eric Clapton all said the music they tuned in to listen to on AFN radio in Europe was instrumental in shaping their musical interests and talents. But AFN Television influencing rock ‘n’ roll? Read on, read on.

    It was 1977 and David Bowie was holed up in Berlin, producing a series of albums now known as the Berlin Trilogy (“Low,” “Heroes” and “Lodger”). He had moved there early in the year to kick his drug addiction and get clean. Iggy Pop came soon after Bowie's invitation because he too was trying to kick a drug habit, had broken apart his band, The Stooges, and was trying to put out his second solo album. Bowie had produced Pop's first solo album the year before in France and agreed to produce the second. They shared an apartment in the Dahlem area of Berlin, which also happened to be where AFN studios were located.

    "It was like living in a timeless zone,” Bowie told Vogue Magazine in 2003. “No English to speak of except AFN.”

    It was a four-mile straight shot down the street from AFN Berlin to Bowie's apartment. Travel another four miles and you hit the Berlin Wall. Right next to it, about 150 meters back, was the famous "Hansa Studios,” commonly known as “Hansa by the Wall,” the recording studio where Bowie and Iggy spent most of their time. In the song “Heroes,” the line “I can remember, standing by the wall, and the guns shot above our heads, and we kissed so nothing would fall,” was inspired by Bowie looking out the window and seeing his co-producer, Tony Visconti, sneaking away with one of the backing vocalists and making out along the Berlin Wall with East German guard towers right above their heads.

    Early 1977, Pop completed a mini tour for “The Idiot” and joined Bowie in Berlin. As Pop noted, Bowie was in an extremely productive state. “Low” had already been released in January, and Bowie was already working on the second album in the Trilogy, “Heroes.” Bowie was full of ideas that didn't fit the theme or sound of his album. Most of those songs and sounds ended up on Pop's second album “Lust for Life,” an album written and produced in just eight days.

    Iggy once said, "Bowie worked fast, really fast and I knew if I wanted to make it my album I had to keep up."

    The two had developed a routine while living in Berlin. They had favorite cafes, clubs to watch live music for inspiration and even watched a little American TV, courtesy of an old school, over-the-air, AFN TV signal.

    “Once a week the American Forces Network would play “Starsky & Hutch” and watching it was our little ritual,” Iggy told "Q Magazine” in 2013.

    Iggy also mentioned to the New York Times in 2016, "We were sitting on the floor waiting for the Armed (sic) Forces Network telecast of ‘Starsky & Hutch.’ The network would broadcast an ID before the show, a representation of a radio tower with the signal shooting out going ‘Beep, beep, beep....beep, beep, beep, beep....beep, beep, beep’ in a rhythm that was like a Motown beat. David grabbed his son's ukulele laying nearby and repeats the riff, hacking out the beat. He wrote the chord progression and then says, ‘Call it "Lust for Life," write something up!’"

    The next day at Hansa, those staccato beeps of the AFN TV ID became the pounding drumbeat and guitar intro to a song now considered an iconic classic in rock ‘n’ roll. Most of the lyrics were improvised and made up live, on-the-fly by Iggy.

    Rolling Stone placed the song at number 147 in their top 500 Greatest Rock Songs of All Time. The song’s intro is so recognizable, Royal Caribbean used it for a series of commercials and Jim Rome uses it to open his sports talk show. The song was even featured in the movies “Desperately Seeking Susan” and “Trainspotting,” and made its way onto “The Simpsons” and “Rugrats.”

    So it was just 10 seconds of a sound thousands and thousands of people heard while watching AFN TV in Berlin every day for years on end, but it was the right 10 seconds of inspiration played before the right musicians at just the right moment in their musical careers.

    Beep, beep, beep.

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    NEWS INFO

    Date Taken: 03.16.2021
    Date Posted: 03.16.2021 17:32
    Story ID: 391547
    Location: RIVERSIDE, CA, US

    Web Views: 406
    Downloads: 0

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