Heroes (David Bowie) - A magazine mock up

HEROES

issue #01

Radrennbahn Weissensee a year l the song is a reference to the 197 the German band Neu!, whom admired. It was one of the ea during the album sessions an instrumental until tow end of production. The

marks in the title of th

“’Heroes’” is a song written deliberate affectati

by David Bowie and Brian Eno in 1977. designed to impa Produced by Bowie and Tony Visconti, it ironic quality on was released both as a single and as the otherwise hig title track of the album “Heroes”. A product romantic, ev 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”.

BOWIE

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

later. The title of triumphant, words 75 track “Hero” by and music. Producer Tony Visconti took credit for m Bowie and Eno inspiring the image of the lovers kissing “by the arly tracks recorded wall”, when he and backing vocalist Antonia Maass s, but remained (Maaß) embraced in front of Bowie as he looked wards the out of the Hansa Studio window. Bowie’s habit in e quotation the period following the song’s release was to say he song, a that the protagonists were based on an anonymous ion, were young couple but Visconti, who was married to art an Mary Hopkin at the time, contends that Bowie was n the protecting him and his affair with Maass. Bowie ghly confirmed this in 2003. ven 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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