"Heroes" (David Bowie album)
"Heroes" is the 12th studio album by the English musician David Bowie, released on 14 October 1977 through RCA Records. Recorded in collaboration with the musician Brian Eno and the producer Tony Visconti, it was the second release of his Berlin Trilogy, following Low, released in January the same year, and the only one wholly recorded in Berlin. Sessions took place in mid-1977 after Bowie completed work on Iggy Pop's second solo album Lust for Life. Much of the same personnel from Low returned for "Heroes", augmented by the King Crimson guitarist Robert Fripp.
"Heroes"
The majority of the tracks were composed on the spot in the studio, the lyrics not being written until Bowie stood in front of the microphone. The music builds upon its predecessor's electronic and ambient approaches, albeit with more positive tones, atmospheres and passionate performances. The album also follows the same structure as its predecessor, side one featuring more conventional rock tracks and side two featuring mostly instrumental tracks.
The cover photo, like Iggy Pop's The Idiot, is a nod to the painting Roquairol by the German artist Erich Heckel. Upon release, "Heroes" was a commercial success, peaking at number 3 in the UK and number 35 in the US. It was the best-received work of the Berlin Trilogy on release; NME and Melody Maker each named it their respective album of the year. Bowie promoted the album extensively with television appearances and interviews. He supported Low and "Heroes" on the Isolar II world tour throughout 1978, live performances from which appear on multiple live albums.
"Heroes" has received enduring praise, particularly recognised for Fripp's contributions and the album's place within Bowie's longterm artistic development. Though critical opinion has viewed Low as the more groundbreaking record, "Heroes" is regarded as one of Bowie's best, most influential works. The title track, initially unsuccessful as a single, has remained one of his best-known and most-acclaimed songs. An altered and obscured version of the cover artwork was later used for the cover of The Next Day (2013). "Heroes" has been reissued several times and was remastered in 2017 as part of the box set A New Career in a New Town (1977–1982).
Background[edit]
In the second half of 1976, David Bowie moved to Switzerland with his wife Angela to escape the drug culture of Los Angeles.[1][2] He then moved to the Château d'Hérouville in Hérouville, France, with his friend, the singer Iggy Pop, where the two recorded his debut studio album The Idiot in the summer of 1976.[3] After meeting with the musician Brian Eno the same year,[4] Bowie, the producer Tony Visconti and Eno began work on Low, the first instalment of what would come to be known as the Berlin Trilogy.[2] Recording for Low began in September 1976 and continued through November,[5] finishing up at Hansa Studios in West Berlin,[6] following Bowie and Pop's move there.[7]
RCA Records stalled on releasing Low for three months, fearing poor commercial performance.[8] Upon its eventual release in January 1977, it received little to no promotion from both RCA and Bowie himself, who felt it was his "least commercial" record up to that point and instead opted to tour as Pop's keyboardist.[9] The tour, launched to support The Idiot,[10] lasted from March to April 1977.[11] After the tour's completion, Bowie and Pop returned to Hansa Tonstudio 2, where they recorded Pop's next solo album Lust for Life in two and a half weeks, from May to June 1977.[12] By the time he finished Lust for Life, Bowie was ready to begin work on his next record. In mid-June, he travelled to Paris to undertake his first promotional appearances in over a year. He filmed a music video for his Low single "Be My Wife", then taped two interviews with French journalists a week later. Afterwards, Bowie contacted Eno to discuss their next collaboration. The two spent a few weeks devising concepts and ideas for the new album before they were joined by Visconti, who was busy with other commitments.[13]
Production[edit]
Studio and personnel[edit]
For the album, Bowie, Visconti and Eno regrouped at Hansa Studio 2 in West Berlin.[13] Although the album was the second instalment of Bowie's Berlin Trilogy, it was the only one recorded entirely in Berlin.[14] The studio was a former concert hall converted into a recording studio that had been used by Gestapo officers during World War II as a ballroom.[15] The studio was located about 500 yards from the Berlin Wall, leading Bowie to describe it as "the hall by the wall".[16] Describing how the location of the studio affected the creative process, Visconti recalled: "Every afternoon I'd sit down at [a] desk and see three Russian Red Guards looking at us with binoculars, with their Sten guns over their shoulders, and the barbed wire, and I knew that there were mines buried in that wall, and that atmosphere was so provocative and so stimulating and so frightening that the band played with so much energy".[15] The guitarist Carlos Alomar told the biographer David Buckley: "These things [Germans, Nazis, the Wall, oppression] are hanging in the air, and when things get darker physically, you kind of think of darker themes too. Berlin was a rather dark, industrial place to work."[16] Despite the dark atmosphere, Visconti particularly had an exciting time creating the album, saying, "It was one of my last great adventures in making albums."[16]
Music and lyrics[edit]
As the second release of the Berlin Trilogy,[2] the music on "Heroes" expands on the material found on its predecessor Low.[31] The songs have been described by Consequence of Sound as art rock and experimental rock,[32][33] while also further continuing Bowie's work in the electronic[34] and ambient genres.[2][35] Like its predecessor, the songs on "Heroes" emphasise tone and atmosphere rather than guitar-based rock.[2] However, they are more positive in both tone and atmosphere than the songs of its predecessor;[36] the author James Perone considers it more accessible,[37] while Visconti described it as "a very positive version of Low."[38] Biographer Paul Trynka writes that the record evokes "both past and future".[39] It also follows the same structure as its predecessor, with side one featuring more conventional tracks, and side two featuring mostly instrumental tracks.[40]
The author Peter Doggett writes that whereas Low featured lyrics of autobiographical nature, the lyrics of "Heroes" were "oblique and often deliberately evasive", and were sung with an "astonishing" amount of passion.[41] Visconti recalled that lyrics were made up on the spot, with Bowie sometimes ad-libbing entire songs, singing "at the top of his lungs".[19] Songs of this instance included "Joe the Lion", a tribute to the American artist Chris Burden, who was known for his outlandish publicity stunts,[42] and "Blackout", which references the New York City blackout of 1977.[43] Like the second side of Low, the imagery of the Berlin Wall dominates "Heroes" throughout;[44] a kiss between Visconti and Maass at the foot of the Wall inspired a lyric for the title track.[28] Bowie's vocal for "'Heroes'" goes from calm and playful to a near-scream, a style he called "Bowie histrionics".[45] Musically, Fripp's guitar feedback dominates throughout, while the bass pulsates and Eno synthesisers blends in the background.[46] Bowie explained the song is about "facing reality and standing up to it" and finding joyness in life.[47] Buckley particularly highlights the lyric "We can be heroes, just for one day" as "an acknowledgment that the future didn't belong to him anymore, [but] to everyone".[44]
"Sons of the Silent Age" was the only song written before the sessions began[19] and was originally intended to be the album's title track.[48] The lyrics are influenced by the works of Jacques Brel and follow several characters that are, in O'Leary's words, "part-homo superior/part-Bewlay Brothers".[49] Musically, the song is noted by biographers as different than the rest of the songs on the album, in that the themes present reflect ideals from the previous decade rather than the contemporary,[48] while O'Leary likens its sound more to that of Hunky Dory (1971) than the rest of the album.[19] Biographers also consider the album's closer, "The Secret Life of Arabia", as a precursor to what Bowie would explore on Lodger.[50]
The instrumentals are described by Buckley as dark and gloomy.[51] "Sense of Doubt" puts a repeating four-note piano motif against a set of synthesisers to paint an image of a barren landscape.[52] Bowie plays the Japanese instrument koto on "Moss Garden" which, together with synths, evoke a sound resembling aeroplanes flying overhead;[19] Bowie further emphasises his fascination with Japan by stating he's "under Japanese influence" in "Blackout".[53] "Moss Garden" segues into "Neuköln", which is named after a district in Berlin.[19] The track uses sound to capture the feeling of despair and desperation that the Turkish immigrants who lived there experienced.[54]
The majority of Low was influenced by krautrock bands such as Tangerine Dream, Kraftwerk and Neu![55] Earlier in 1977, Kraftwerk name-checked both Bowie and Iggy Pop on the title track of Trans-Europe Express, which was Kraftwerk's response to the title track of Station to Station.[19] Although the influence of Kraftwerk and Harmonia are less prominent on "Heroes" in favour of Edgar Froese,[40] Bowie paid tribute by naming the album after Neu!'s track "Hero" from their album Neu! '75,[20] while "V-2 Schneider" is inspired by and named after Kraftwerk's Florian Schneider.[56] However, many British listeners assumed "V-2" was a reference to the type of rockets used by the German army in World War II.[57] "V-2 Schneider" is also notable for having an off-beat saxophone part played by Bowie, who began the take on the wrong beat but decided he liked it better and kept it as is.[51]
Critical reception[edit]
On release, "Heroes" received very positive reviews from music critics.[15] Allan Jones of Melody Maker named it "album of the year", calling it and its predecessor "among the most adventurous and notably challenging records yet thrust upon the rock audience."[72] Angus MacKinnon of NME also named it the magazine's "album of the year", calling it Bowie's "most moving performance in years" and commended the artist's growing maturity.[73][74] Kris Needs of ZigZag magazine further praised the record, noting that Bowie appeared to be continuing the musical explorations of Low, while at the same time, allowing listeners time to "catch up with Low." Needs ultimately described the album as "a strange, cold sometimes impenetrable album, but Bowie makes all these unlikely ingredients work."[75] Writing in Hit Parader, American musician and author Patti Smith praised it as "a cryptic product of a high order of intelligence."[76]
The record was not without its detractors. Tim Lott of Record Mirror gave the album a more mixed assessment, calling it "disjointed" and criticised the instrumentals on side two as having less "continuity" than the ones found on Low. Lott further considered Bowie's vocals "hollow" and the lyrics "opaque". Overall, although he felt it was intriguing, he stated: "As an album, "Heroes" stuns for just [the title] track. The rest is clever, but not brilliant and you expect no less from Bowie. In that sense it's a disappointment, a come-down from Low."[77] In the US, a reviewer for Billboard also gave a mixed assessment, calling it an "extension" of both "Bowie's cosmic rock vision" and Low, and overall felt the record was "a musical excursion into a realm only Bowie himself can define."[78] In the Los Angeles Times, Robert Hilburn lamented the way Bowie's "fluctuating pop interests caused him to shift from style to style faster than his ability to master them", ultimately calling it one of the artist's "least arresting turns".[79] Creem's Trixie A. Balm liked side one but dismissed side two, ultimately finding "Heroes" "doesn't rock".[80] In Canada, The Gazette's Juan Rodriguez commented on the "melodramatic space-rock from the genre's leading practitioner".[81]
Some reviewers commented on Eno's contributions, including Bart Testa of Rolling Stone, who highlighted Eno's involvement. He contended that after Bowie's "auteurist exploitation" of the former on Low, "Heroes" "prompts a much more enthusiastic reading of the collaboration, which here takes the form of a union of Bowie's dramatic instincts and Eno's unshakable sonic serenity".[82] The Village Voice critic Robert Christgau was less receptive to Eno's contributions, particularly the second side's instrumentals, saying that they are "interesting background" but "merely noteworthy as foreground, admirably rather than attractively ragged", in comparison to "their counterparts on Low".[83] In the Voice's annual Pazz & Jop critics poll, "Heroes" finished 21st in the voting for 1977's top album.[84]
Reissues[edit]
"Heroes" has been reissued several times. RCA reissued the album on vinyl in 1980[122] and released it on compact disc for the first time in the mid-1980s.[123] It was subsequently reissued in 1991 by Rykodisc with two bonus tracks, including the outtake "Abdulmajid".[124][125] A further CD release in 1999 by EMI/Virgin, without bonus tracks, featured 24-bit digitally remastered sound.[126]
In 2017, the album was remastered for the A New Career in a New Town (1977–1982) box set released by Parlophone that September.[127] It was released in CD, vinyl, and digital formats, as part of this compilation and then separately in February 2018.[128] A volume shift in the 2017 remaster of the title track received ire from fans and critics, but Parlophone proceeded to describe it as intentional and unalterable,[129] because of damages in the original master tapes. After the critical voices would not lessen, a statement was released on the official Bowie website announcing corrected replacement disks for the "Heroes" CD and LP;[130] the replacement disc offer lasted until June 2018.[131] The amended remaster featured on the replacement discs was also used for the standalone CD and LP release of "Heroes" in February 2018.[128]