H E R O E S

issue #01

Radrennbahn Weissensee a year later. The title of the song is a reference to the 1975 track “Hero” by

the German band Neu!, whom Bowie and Eno admired. It was one of the early tracks recorded

during the album sessions, but remained an instrumental until towards the

end of production. The quotation marks in the title of the song, a

deliberate affectation, were designed to impart an

ironic quality on the otherwise highly

romantic, even

“’Heroes’” is a song written by David Bowie and Brian Eno in 1977. Produced by Bowie and Tony Visconti, it was released both as a single and as the title track of the album “Heroes”. A product of Bowie’s “Berlin” period, and not a huge hit in the UK or US at the time, the song has gone on to become one of Bowie’s signature songs and is well known today for its appearance in numerous advertisements. It has been cited as Bowie’s second most covered song after “Rebel Rebel”.

It was the lead track on Peter Gabriel’s 2010 covers album, Scratch My Back. Among other notable covers, the Wallflowers recorded a version of the song for the soundtrack to the 1998 film Godzilla. This version peaked at number 10 on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart in 1998, as well as number 27 on the Billboard Hot 100 Airplay chart, and number 23 on the Billboard Top 40 Mainstream charts. In the UK, the final sixteen acts from the seventh series of The X Factor released a cover version of the song on 21 November 2010 which topped the UK singles chart.

Bowie’s performance of “’Heroes’” on June 6, 1987 at the German

Reichstag in West Berlin was considered a catalyst to the

eventual fall of the Berlin Wall, similar to that of

Bruce Springsteen’s concert at

triumphant, words and music. Producer Tony Visconti took credit for inspiring the image of the lovers kissing “by the

wall”, when he and backing vocalist Antonia Maass (Maaß) embraced in front of Bowie as he looked

out of the Hansa Studio window. Bowie’s habit in the period following the song’s release was to say

that the protagonists were based on an anonymous young couple but Visconti, who was married to

Mary Hopkin at the time, contends that Bowie was protecting him and his affair with Maass. Bowie

confirmed this in 2003.The music, co-written by Bowie and Eno, has

been likened to a Wall of Sound production, an undulating juggernaut of guitars, percussion and

synthesizers. Eno has said that musically the piece always “sounded grand and heroic” and

that he had “that very word – heroes – in my mind” even before Bowie wrote the lyrics. The

basic backing track on the recording consists of a conventional arrangement of piano, bass

guitar, rhythm guitar and drums. However the remaining instrumental additions are highly distinctive. These largely

consist of synthesizer parts by Eno using an EMS VCS3 to produce

detuned low-frequency drones, with the beat

frequencies from the three oscillators

producing a juddering

effect.

BOWIE

Radrennbahn Weissensee a year later. The title of the song is a reference to the 1975 track “Hero” by

the German band Neu!, whom Bowie and Eno admired. It was one of the early tracks recorded

during the album sessions, but remained an instrumental until towards the

end of production. The quotation marks in the title of the song, a

deliberate affectation, were designed to impart an

ironic quality on the otherwise highly

romantic, even

triumphant, words and music. Producer Tony Visconti took credit for inspiring the image of the lovers kissing “by the

wall”, when he and backing vocalist Antonia Maass (Maaß) embraced in front of Bowie as he looked

out of the Hansa Studio window. Bowie’s habit in the period following the song’s release was to say

that the protagonists were based on an anonymous young couple but Visconti, who was married to

Mary Hopkin at the time, contends that Bowie was protecting him and his affair with Maass. Bowie

confirmed this in 2003.The music, co-written by Bowie and Eno, has

been likened to a Wall of Sound production, an undulating juggernaut of guitars, percussion and

synthesizers. Eno has said that musically the piece always “sounded grand and heroic” and

that he had “that very word – heroes – in my mind” even before Bowie wrote the lyrics. The

basic backing track on the recording consists of a conventional arrangement of piano, bass

guitar, rhythm guitar and drums. However the remaining instrumental additions are highly distinctive. These largely

consist of synthesizer parts by Eno using an EMS VCS3 to produce

detuned low-frequency drones, with the beat

frequencies from the three oscillators

producing a juddering

effect.

“’Heroes’” was released in a variety of

languages and lengths (“a collector’s wet dream”

in the words of NME editors Roy Carr and Charles Shaar Murray). In

contrast to the bewildering audio situation, the video (directed by Stanley Dorfman)

was a stark and simple affair, the singer captured performing the song in what appeared to be a single

take with multiple cameras, swaying in front of a spotlight that created a monotone and near-silhouette effect. Despite a

large promotional push, including Bowie’s first live Top of the Pops appearance since 1973, “’Heroes’” only reached number 24 in the UK

charts, and failed to make the US Billboard Hot 100.

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