"Heroes" (album)

Did You Know?

• The cover photo was taken by Japanese photographer Masayoshi Sukita at Harajuku Studios in Tokyo in April 1977.
• The title track was released as a single on 23 September 1977 with "V-2 Schneider" as the B-side.
• Bowie said the quotation marks in the title indicate irony about the word 'heroes' or the concept of heroism.

Production

Bowie, Visconti and Eno regrouped at Hansa Studio 2 in West Berlin for the album. Although it was the second installment of the Berlin Trilogy, it was the only one recorded entirely in Berlin. 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. Located about 500 yards from the Berlin Wall, Bowie described it as "the hall by the wall".

Visconti recalled that the location's atmosphere—seeing Russian Red Guards with binoculars and Sten guns, barbed wire, and mines buried in the wall—was provocative and stimulating, causing the band to play with much energy. Despite the dark atmosphere, Visconti had an exciting time creating the album, calling it one of his last great adventures in making albums. Most of the album was recorded with the same personnel as Low: Carlos Alomar, George Murray and Dennis Davis as the core band.

Bowie played piano, having gained more experience during his time with Iggy Pop. Robert Fripp, formerly of King Crimson, was added at Eno's suggestion. Fripp recalled receiving a phone call from Eno while living in New York in July 1977; after being passed to Bowie, he was asked if he wanted to play "some hairy rock 'n' roll guitar". Fripp agreed, and a first-class ticket on Lufthansa arrived.

Upon arrival, he recorded lead guitar parts for tracks he had never heard, with little guidance from Bowie, who had yet to write lyrics or melodies. Fripp completed all his guitar parts in three days. Visconti and Eno praised Fripp's ability to play with such "virtuosity" for songs he had never heard. According to biographer Nicholas Pegg, Fripp was not Bowie's first choice; Michael Rother of the German band Neu! had been considered.

Music and lyrics

The music on "Heroes" expands on the material from Low, described as art rock and experimental rock, continuing Bowie's work in electronic and ambient genres. The songs emphasize tone and atmosphere rather than guitar-based rock, but are more positive in tone and atmosphere than Low. Perone considers it more accessible, while Visconti described it as "a very positive version of Low." The album follows the same structure as Low: side one features more conventional tracks, side two mostly instrumental tracks.

Lyrics were oblique and deliberately evasive, sung with an "astonishing" amount of passion. Visconti recalled that lyrics were made up on the spot, with Bowie sometimes ad-libbing entire songs, singing "at the top of his lungs." Songs included "Joe the Lion," a tribute to artist Chris Burden, and "Blackout," referencing the New York City blackout of 1977. The imagery of the Berlin Wall dominates the album; a kiss between Visconti and Maass at the foot of the Wall inspired a lyric for the title track.

Bowie's vocal on the title track goes from calm to a near-scream, a style he called "Bowie histrionics." Fripp's guitar feedback dominates, while the bass pulsates and Eno's synthesisers blend into the background. Bowie explained the song is about "facing reality and standing up to it" and finding joyness in life. Buckley highlights the lyric "We can be heroes, just for one day" as an acknowledgment that the future belonged to everyone.

Critical reception

Upon release, "Heroes" received very positive reviews from music critics. Allan Jones of Melody Maker described it and Low as "among the most adventurous and notably challenging records yet thrust upon the rock audience." Angus MacKinnon of NME called it Bowie's "most moving performance in years" and commended his growing maturity. Kris Needs of ZigZag magazine praised the record, noting that Bowie appeared to continue the musical explorations of Low while allowing listeners time to "catch up with Low."

Needs described the album as "a strange, cold sometimes impenetrable album, but Bowie makes all these unlikely ingredients work." Patti Smith, writing in Hit Parader, praised it as "a cryptic product of a high order of intelligence." The record had detractors. Tim Lott of Record Mirror gave a mixed assessment, calling it "disjointed" and criticizing the instrumentals on side two as having less "continuity" than those on Low.

Lott considered Bowie's vocals "hollow" and the lyrics "opaque," feeling that other than the title track, the album was "a disappointment" and "a come-down from Low." A Billboard reviewer in the US called it an "extension" of Bowie's cosmic rock vision and Low, feeling it was "a musical excursion into a realm only Bowie himself can define." Robert Hilburn of the Los Angeles Times lamented Bowie's fluctuating pop interests, calling it one of his "least arresting turns."

Creem's Trixie A. Balm liked side one but dismissed side two, finding the album "doesn't rock." The Philadelphia Inquirer gave it one out of four stars, finding it "more self-indulgent than rewarding."

Legacy

After promotional appearances for "Heroes," Bowie recorded narration for an adaptation of Sergei Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf, released as an album in May 1978, which he said was a Christmas present for his son Duncan Jones. He then played the lead role in the David Hemmings-directed film Just a Gigolo, released in February 1979, which was panned by critics and audiences; Bowie called it "my 32 Elvis Presley movies rolled into one." After filming in February 1978, Bowie began rehearsals for the Isolar II World Tour, also known as the Stage Tour, which lasted from March to the end of the year.

Songs from Low and "Heroes" made up most of the shows, along with Ziggy Stardust-era songs and other hits. Buckley writes that the tour was Bowie's first in five years in which he had probably not anaesthetized himself with cocaine before taking the stage, and he was now in a healthy enough mental condition to want to make friends. Performances from the tour were released on the live album Stage in September 1978, and again in 2018 on Welcome to the Blackout.

Although "Heroes" was the best-received work of the Berlin Trilogy on release, critical and public opinion has typically favored Low as more ground-breaking. Pegg writes that the album is seen as an extension or refinement of Low's achievements rather than a "definitive new work." Seabrook notes that Low had the advantage of being released first and seen as "the greatest and canniest musical move" of Bowie's career. However, compared to other records released in 1977, "Heroes" still "sounds like a blast from the future."

Perone finds that the mix of songs and instrumentals makes the album feel more "integrated," with "Sense of Doubt," "Moss Garden" and "Neuköln" flowing into one another, giving the listener the feeling that it was meant to be experienced as a unified whole. "Heroes" has nonetheless been regarded as one of Bowie's best and most influential works.