Vol III, Issue 21 – Heroes (01 Nov 2018)

For the love of rock

Vol III, Issue 21 – Heroes (01 Nov 2018)

www.intheloveofrock.com

Name of song– Heroes

Singer – David Bowie

Album- Heroes

Writers– David Bowie & Brian Eno

Release year– 1977

Peak chart positions

# 8 – Ireland (IRMA) # 9 – Netherlands (Singles Top 100)

# 11 – Australia (AMR) # 17 – Belgium

# 19 – Austria # 19 – Germany

# 24 – UK Singles Chart # 35 – New Zealand

# 126 – US Singles Chart

Special mention

# 46 – Rolling Stone’s “The 500 Greatest Songs Of All time”

# 15 – NME’s “500 Greatest Songs Of All Time”

# 34 – Mojo Magazine’s “The 100 Greatest Singles Of All Time”

# 24 – Radio X’s “The Top 1000 Songs Of All Time”

# 7 – Radio X’s “Best Of British”

# 6 – Pitchfork’s “The 200 Best Songs Of The 1970s”

Heroes

Reviewers- Bikash Shrestha/Nirab Kayastha

“David Bowie” was an English musician who changed the face of world music forever. The founder of glam rock, he ventured into all genres of music and succeeded in all. Whether it is pop, rock, funk, disco, dance, he has been equally successful and influential in all. Undoubtedly, Bowie has been considered as one of the most influential musician of the 20^th century. With more than 140 million album sales worldwide, he is considered one of the world’s best selling music artists. In 2000, he was voted “the most influential artist of all time” by his fellow music stars. Besides music, he was also a talented actor. In modern world, it is almost impossible to find any musician not influenced by him.

He had been credited with numerous albums. “Berlin Trilogy” is a series of 3 albums which he created during his tenure in Berlin during seventies as his effort to overcome his drug addiction. These 3 albums are amongst the most critically acclaimed albums and perhaps his best ones too. “Heroes” is his 12^th studio album produced in 1977, the best among his Berlin Trilogy. It was produced with Brian Eno and Tony Visconti and had King Crimson’s Robert Fripp contributing in guitars. This album has been included in “1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.”

The title song of the album “Heroes” is the most outstanding number from the album. It is one of the most critically lauded and most covered songs by Bowie besides “Rebel, rebel”. Set on the Berlin Wall, this song was co-written by him and Brian Eno. The song is of courage, of hope, of conflict and all that one can think of. The song has been evolved after Bowie had seen Tony Visconti kiss his lover at the close proximity to the Berlin Wall. Visconti was married at that time and he was having an extra marital affair. As the relationship was illicit, the wall did represent a social and customary wall.

The song is definitely a powerful song, literally, lyrically, as well as musically. The song was planned for Eno-Bowie instrumental but as the story evolved, the song was born. With Robert Fripp’s pitched guitar feedback with strong and emotional solo going steady behind equally steady Carlos Alomar’s rhythm guitar, with smooth bass by George Murray and powerful drums by Dennis Davis, the song is truly a powerful rock song. To add on, there is Eno’s oscillating detuned droning synthesizer which gives a constant, beautifully howling background to the song. The amazingly, emotional and powerful vocals by Bowie had been created using variously placed microphones in different distances, turning on and off so, Bowie had to keep singing louder as the song progressed. The song gives us the courage that even for a moment, we can become heroes, and it does not really need to be perfect or forever. The situation may be adverse, we might not be perfect, we do have weaknesses, but even then, we can live for a moment and be heroes. Truly a heroic song!

Well, Bowie has given numerous amazing songs to the world. However, “Heroes” is one song which helps each one of us to become heroes and has truly made Bowie a hero forever.

Happy listening!!

Resources– Wikipedia.org, Allmusic.com, genius.com

Heroes