Berlin Trilogy UK top five. Bowie would later call the music of the trilogy his "DNA". "Consequence of Sound" characterized the trilogy as an "art rock trifecta", while "Rolling Stone" wrote that the Berlin Trilogy "stands as some of the most innovative music in the artist's influential canon". Following Bowie's Thin White Duke period and the commercial success of the singles "Fame" and "Golden Years" in 1976, he was eager to escape the drug culture of Los Angeles, where he had developed a cocaine addiction. He had also become embroiled in controversy regarding comments he made seemingly in favour of fascism. He
Berlin Trilogy condition to want to make friends." Recordings from the tour made up the live album "Stage", released the same year. It was around the time of "Lodger" (1979) that Bowie began framing his previous two albums as the beginning of a Berlin-centered trilogy concluding with "Lodger", largely as a marketing technique to support the unusual new album. "Lodger", the final piece in what Bowie called his "triptych", eschewed the minimalist, ambient nature of the other two, making a partial return to the drum- and guitar-based rock and pop of his pre-Berlin era. Recorded in Switzerland and New York, the result