Week 16 | Christiane F (soundtrack, 1981)

While Bowie appeared as an actor in several movies, the German film, Christiane F is the only one in which he appeared as himself, singing (“singing, “Station to Station”) at a Bowie concert. Bowie did not write an original soundtrack, but several of his previous songs served as the soundtrack. The movie is about a young drug addict. Its was shocking at the time (I’ve seen it— it still is shocking) and Bowie’s involvement added to its edge.

The soundtrack album turns out to be another compilation. Released the same year as CHANGESTWOBOWIE, it comes closer to being a sequel to CHANGESONE in that most of the songs are from the albums Bowie released after the last album included on the earlier compilation. Specifically, most of the songs, including several instrumentals, appear from the so-called Berlin Trilogy of “Low,” “Heroes,” and “Lodger” (including a German-language version of the song, “Heroes.” In general, I am somewhat critical of Bowie’s instrumental music because I like his voice and lyrics, but as part of a soundtrack they make sense (three of the album’s nine songs are instrumentals).

All together, it is a nifty little artifact.

My version includes, as a bonus, another soundtrack, the EP of the BBC production of Baal, which I will treat as a separate album.