"Heroes" (1977)

 

The Bowie Project #12 - "Heroes"

“Heroes” is David Bowie’s 12^th studio album; it was released on 14 October 1977 by RCA Records just nine months after his previous album Low. Under no obligation from his record label to promote his last album due to their perception it would be a guaranteed flop Bowie instead took a back seat and spent much of that year as touring keyboardist with his friend the singer Iggy Pop. After that tour Bowie worked with Pop to record his second studio album Lust for Life before then regrouping with his collaborator Brian Eno and producer Tony Visconti to get to work on “Heroes”. This album was the second instalment of the Berlin trilogy, an experimental trio of records that was preceded by Low would be followed by Lodger in 1979. Out of the three albums, “Heroes” is the only one to be recorded entirely in West Berlin.

This album follows on from the experimental, art rock, and ambitious style that Bowie was exploring at this time. The majority of the tracks were composed on the spot in the recording studio, with much of the lyrics not being written until he was standing in front of the microphone. It’s also got the same structure as the previous album with side one featuring more conventional tracks and the second side being primarily devoted to ambient instrumental pieces.

The cover artwork was taken by Japanese artist Masayoshi Sukita, and like artwork for Iggy Pop’s The Idiot is a nod to German artist Erich Heckel’s paintings Roquairol and Young Man. Bowie said the quotation marks in the title of the album “indicate a dimension of irony about the word 'heroes' or about the whole concept of heroism” but producer Tony Visconti later said the album feels heroic because it was made in a very positive time in Bowie’s life and that during the making of the album everyone felt like heroes. Prior to this, Bowie had been suffering from a severe cocaine habit that lasted many years, living in LA at one point is on record as saying he was taking up to 10 grams a day. His move to Europe and in particular Berlin represents a period of renewal for Bowie, he was getting clean from drugs, and starting to come out of a void of paranoia and manic obsession that had followed him through his entire career. Reading between the lines of the majority of his previous albums he can tell he was suffering and struggling to come to terms with his own identity, “Heroes” as an album presents probably for the first time a person who is becoming at peace with himself, it shines through not only in the lyrical content of the album, but just in the general feel of it, Low sounds like it was made by someone in a rehab state coming to terms the consequences of their negative behaviour, but this album sounds like some who is willing to accept themselves and is happier for it.

Prior to “Heroes” Bowie collaborated with Iggy Pop on Lust for Life

The album opens with the upbeat dance-rock track “Beauty and the Beast”. The powerful instrumentation mixes piano, guitar, synthesisers with incredible backup vocals from Antonia Maass, a German singer from the band the Messengers. It was the second single from the album and kind of flopped but it’s a great opening track and straight out the gate we’re grooving. The lyrical delivery has been described as Bowie turning into the Incredible Hulk right before our eyes and I see what they mean it’s got this infectious vocal steadily rising to a crescendo. The lyrics are said to be looking back at Bowie’s severe mood swings through 1975 and 76 with lyrics “someone fetch a priest” supposed to represent his desire for religious salvation that can be heard on songs like “Word on a Wing” from Station to Station. It’s the beauty and the beast that is the standard dichotomy of good and evil, whether that’s about the internal struggle within himself, or the fighting ideologies of West and East Berlin, it’s up to the listener to interpret it.

“Joe the Lion” was partly inspired the performance artist Chris Burden who was famous for having himself crucified to a Volkswagen in 1974 with two nails hammered into his open palms on the roof, some claim it was an outcry against the forgotten connection between “the people’s car” build by Nazi Germany, while some art historians just called it male egotism (“Nail me to your car, I’ll tell you who you are”). Burden also had himself shot in the arm in 1971 in one of his most infamous performances. However, the song is also seen as representing Bowie’s struggle to overcome the emotional numbness that had permeated his previous release. The vocals were improvised by Bowie in the studio in less than an hour and it’s a powerful performance, you tell Bowie is enjoying himself again.

Then it is “Heroes” which when all is said and done is probably Bowie’s most popular and far-reaching song in his entire career. It was inspired by Tony Visconti and his lover backup singer Antonia Maass embracing by the Berlin Wall. It tells the story of two lovers, one from East and one from West Berlin. Bowie's performance of "'Heroes'" on 6 June 1987, at the German Reichstag in West Berlin has been considered a catalyst to the later fall of the Berlin Wall. As a highly experimental piece of art rock that utilises unusual chord progression, noisy arrangements of guitar, percussion and synthesisers the song has managed to break through and capture public imagination in a way that quite spectacular. Bowie re-recorded the lyrics in both German and French for the single releases in those countries. It’s included on many lists of the greatest songs of all time and Bowie biographer David Buckley described it as “perhaps pop's definitive statement of the potential triumph of the human spirit over adversity”. Following his death in January 2016, the German government thanked Bowie for "helping to bring down the Wall", adding "you are now among Heroes".

The only song composed prior to the recording sessions was “Sons of the Silent Age” and at one point was considered to be the title of the album. The track brings together a number of different concepts with some seeing the song speaking about the silent era of filmmaking, or the silent generation, those born in between the Great War and World War II, or even allusions to the Nazi’s regime and authoritarian States. No matter what these sons of the silent age are mysterious figures, devoid of expression, who wage war and “go to sleep one day”. It’s a unusual song and it’s tough to break through into its intended meaning.

Closing the first side is “Blackout” and although Bowie had pretty much kicked his cocaine habit by this point he was still drinking heavily which this song, along with “Heroes” with the line, “And I, I’ll drink all the time”, references this. Regarding the lyrics, Bowie’s songs are usually packed with layers of symbolism but this one he says is actually about a blackout. In 1977, there was an electrical black that affected most of New York City between July 13-14. This resulted in widespread looting, arson, and criminal activity. In the largest mass arrest in the city’s history 3,776 people were arrested and the damages were calculated to amount to over $300 million or $1.29 billion today if you account for inflation.

Tony Visconti, Robert Fripp, David Bowie and Brian Eno at Hansa Tonstudio, Berlin

Side-two opens with the largely instrumental “V-2 Schneider” which is a tribute to Florian Schneider, co-founder of the band Kraftwerk, who was a huge influence on the sound of the album. The title is a play on the V-2 rocket which had been developed for the Germany Army during World War II. The song features unusual off-beat saxophone work by Bowie who apparently started off on the wrong note and just continued regardless. It’s a fast upbeat track and really demonstrates Bowie’s ability to make engaging and interesting instrumental music.

“Sense of Doubt” is just that, a dark foreboding minimalist song that feels like the perfect soundtrack to an eerie German expressionist movie. This is the point on the album where things start to become a lot more minimal and ambient and the influence of collaborator Brian Eno starts to more obviously come through. The piece was created through the use of Oblique Strategies, a deck of cards designed to promote creativity designed by Eno and multimedia artist Peter Schmidt. Each card conveys an instruction and is supposed to encourage lateral thinking and open up new options in the creative process.

The next track is quite a beautiful instrumental piece called “Moss Garden” although if it wasn’t on this album I never in a million years would have guessed it was a David Bowie track. This is Brian Eno all over. The title is appropriate, and it feels like a moment of quiet meditation on the record. Bowie plays a koto, a plucked half-tube zither and the national instrument of Japan. Not particularly a song to be analysed, just close your eyes, take a deep breath, and relax.

The last of three consecutive instrumental pieces is “Neuköln” which is the name of a district in Berlin. One of the poorest parts of the city, it was characterised as having a high percentage of immigrants. Bowie said with this track he was trying to capture difficult reality for the Turkish immigrants who lived in the area he said, “that reality contributed to the mood of both Low and ‘Heroes’”.

The album closes with “The Secret Life of Arabia” an upbeat slightly funky song, with groovy piano, and an infectious bassline. The song shifts the tone back to a standard song structure. For some it could be seen as a mood killer from the quietly building minimalism of the previous tracks and for others it might be a welcome relief from the dark foreboding experimentation that came before. For me, it’s fantastic and an incredible closer to a great record.

“Heroes” was a commercial success when it was first released and reached number 3 on the UK album charts and was the best received of the Berlin Trilogy. Although as time has gone on it is considered to be less influential than Low. I think it’s a very good album and it’s great to see Bowie approaching a sense of stability in his life after so much turmoil and doubt. I would say the first half is probably stronger than the second and I think the more subdued quieter minimalist instrumentals here less interesting that what was found on his previous album, but with all that said this is an album made by someone in a frenzy of creativity, ready to experiment and explore through so many styles and genres, and shows Bowie as one of the most interesting artists working at this time.

“Heroes” ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ [8/10]