Enforced Method Acting: According to one (probably exaggerated) rumour, Lou and producer BobEzrin recorded the coda to "The Kids", which consists of two children crying and screaming for their mother, by putting Ezrin's own kids in front of a microphone and telling them their mother died. While Ezrin acknowledges that those were his kids, he denies that he told them their mother died, saying he just told them to cry into his tape recorder and they got carried away.
Inspiration for the Work: The concept for the album was created when producer Bob Ezrin mentioned to Lou Reed that although the stories told by Reed's songs had great beginnings, they never really had an ending. Specifically, Ezrin wanted to know what happened to the couple from "Berlin" – a song from Reed's first solo album.
Keep Circulating the Tapes: The unused piano segment which appears just after the first track was never included on reissued copies of Berlin, only appearing on certain cassette and 8-Track releases. Its inclusion has been considered an oddity for many people, until its later inclusion on live sets.note However, the segment was most likely included as filler for the 8-track's remaining program space, due to technological limitations of cassettes and tapes of the time.
Write What You Know: Averted — Reed had never even set foot in Berlin when he wrote the album.
