Manoman, how’d he do it? Lou Reed, he nailed Berlin with a sad, little ballad – austere, historically rich, confusing, very adult, and beautifully sad. The samples don’t hurt toward this success, but still the rest of it’s basically piano. And heartbreak. And resignation. And nostalgia. And the musical personification of the brutalism of Berlin, somehow? But “oh, honey, it was paradise.”

MAPPING IT

There’s a little café not far from Checkpoint Charlie that could easily be the place.

HEARING IT