Heroes

Heroes

1977 – David Bowie

Wow, West Berlin in the 70’s and David Bowie is recording at Hansa Tonstudio in the Kreuzberg district of Berlin, Germany.

Heroes is Bowie’s 12th studio album. Produced by Bowie and Tony Visconti.

The title of the album is a nod to the track “Hero” on the album Neu! ’75 by the band Neu! The record has plenty of German influences but, the musicians are all British and American.

Heroes is the middle installment and best received of Bowie’s “Berlin Trilogy” collaborating with Brian Eno on keyboards/synths and Robert Fripp on lead guitar. Heroes falls after the album “Low” and before the album “Lodger”.

Classic cover photo by Masayoshi Sukita.

Bowie is quoted as saying “The quotation marks in the title indicate a dimension of irony about the word “heroes” or about the whole concept of heroism”.

“I, I will be king

And you, you will be queen

Though nothing will drive them away

We can beat them, just for one day

We can be heroes, just for one day

– David Bowie
Heroes – First Pressing

The RCA marketing slogan for the album was “There’s Old Wave. There’s New Wave. And there’s David Bowie”.

Track listing:

Side 1

  1. Beauty and the Beast
  2. Joe the Lion
  3. Heroes
  4. Sons of the Silent Age
  5. Blackout

Side 2

  1. V-2 Schneider
  2. Sense of Doubt
  3. Moss Garden
  4. Neuköln
  5. The Secret Life of Arabia

Bowie’s performance of Heroes on June 6, 1987 at the German Reichstag in West Berlin has been considered a catalyst to the later fall of the Berlin Wall.

David Bowie died January 10, 2016 at the age of 69.

I would say, he was a hero for more than one day.

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