Heroes [Remastered] - David Bowie > Reviews > A triumph of ideas....

Author's product rating:   

Originality	Groundbreaking
Lyrics	Thought-provoking
Quality and consistency of tracks	Flawless
How does it compare to the artist's other releases	Outstanding
Value for Money	Good

Advantages:	It's Bowie
Disadvantages:	None come to mind

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

After creating new musical ideas and inspirations for “Low” and refining them while recording and producing Iggy’s Pops album “The Idiot” Bowie returned to the Hansa studio’s in Berlin in the Summer of 1977 to begin work on his own recording called “Heroes”, for this album he assembled a small but powerful cast of musicians which where as follows: - Carlos Alomar (rhythm guitar) George Murray (bass) Dennis Davis (drums) Brian Eno (keyboards and guitar treatments) Tony Visconti production and on lead guitar ex-King Crimson member Robert Fripp.

The reason that Eno had brought Fripp along he later recalled was that he would best respond by being surprised into action, Eno said “ We put the songs on, these songs he’d never heard, he didn’t know what the chords where going to do, what the changes where going to be, he would just launch into them at full speed and somehow navigated his way through them”.
However the key to the decadent grandeur of the recording is the site of the production, the control room that housed the producers console was overlooked by armed guards in an observation tower on the Berlin Wall, which was only a matter of yards away.

This Eno later commented “this was an environment which forced them into greatness, blandness would have been totally inappropriate” as an end result, the album was finished very quickly only taking a month to write and record and many of the takes on the album where the first ones to be recorded.

For me personally I find “Low” the better-realised album whereas “Heroes” won the praise of the pundits of the time even becoming the album of the year in the “Melody Maker” that year, I found myself preferring “Low”.

With the album “Heroes” Bowie retreats even further away from the role of rock icon he told the Melody Maker at the time “I feel incredibly divorced from rock and it’s a genuine striving to be that way”, with the instrumental section on what was side 2 overshadowing what is in truth a set of weak set of vignettes that make up side 1 that are dominated by the 6 minute plus epic title track

Where before the themes of defeatism and complacency along with alienation that the previous album “Low” wallowed in, “Heroes” is full of energy and positivity.
For the songs on the first side of the album Bowie once again reassesses his approach to lyric – writing having figured out how best to eschew the tendencies in his own work that began to bore, frustrate, and depress him after “Station to Station” in fact “Heroes” was the first album since Aladdin Sane to include a lyric sheet.

The now famous advertising slogan that Bowie’s old record company RCA came up with for this album proclaimed, “There’s old wave, there’s new wave and there’s David Bowie”.
This was in the year that the angry slognanising of punk dominated the music press, but Bowie and Eno presented 2 albums that offered a more private musical world that would arguably go on to have just as a great influence as any Clash or Sex Pistols album.

For a taster of the album an edited version of the title track was released as a 7” single on the 23rd of September 1977 in the UK catalogue number RCA PB 1121 and reached only number 24 in the UK singles chart in the October of that year and for some strange reason Bowie recorded 2 other versions one in French catalogue number RCA PB 9167 and another version in German catalogue number RCA PB 9168, Bowie’s singing in German is more effective than his singing in French which is effected by his poor accent and lacks the fluency of his German.
In Spain the track came on a 12” single catalogue number RCA PC 1121 and was the full album cut and to add further to the collector’s nightmare the German version of the album catalogue number RCA PL 42372 is where Bowie sings the first half of the song in English and then sings the other half in German and then for the fade out goes back to English this version is now available in this country on CD for the film “Chistiane F.” catalogue number 7243 5 33093 on the EMI label, RCA originally released this soundtrack in 1981, the EMI version of the soundtrack was re-issued in 2001.

To get the 7” version in English check out “The Best of Bowie” issued in 2002 on the EMI label catalogue number 7243 5 39821 2 6, I have seen this in shops like W H Smith’s for as little as £5.99 which isn’t bad for a double album containing 39 tracks.

The German 7” version which has unfortunately been given a 1989 re-mix is now available on the “Sound and Vision” 4 CD box-set catalogue number 24359 45112 small piece of trivia here a version of the same box set came out in the States in 1989 on the Rykodisc label catalogue number RCD 90120/21/22 on the American pressing of the set the track appeared on disc 3 on the 2003 version it appeared on disc 2 (and yes I have copies of both)

On the 14th of October 1977 the album was released in the UK the highest chart placing for this album in the UK at the time was number 3 the album had 10 tracks and lasted 40 minutes and 38 seconds.

The album starts with the song “Beauty and the Beast” (3.34) the second single release from the album catalogue number RCA PD 1190 the single only managed to reach number 39 in the UK singles chart.
The track begins with a burst of energy from Eno’s treated keyboards and Dennis Davis starts playing a ride cymbal (that’s the big one that usually sits beside the snare drum) and the ominous muscular guitar playing of Robert Fripp howls into life then a vamping piano can be heard as the vocals of Bowie starts with him going “OOOOOOOOO” he sounds like he is going to burst into flames Dennis Davis plays a roll on the snare before Bowie delivers the opening line of “Weaving down a byroad singing a song, that ‘s my kind of Highroad gone wrong MY-MY smile at least, you can’t say no to The Beauty and the Beast”. The discordant riffs played all way through the track are off set against the metallic percussion and thundering drums and backing chorus of MY-MY the sound settles down into a driving purposeful groove, that frames a vocal performance of considerable power and conviction.
The reason why “you can’t say no to The Beauty and the Beast”, Bowie implies is because theoretically it’s an irresistible combination especially in one person, the jarring threatening edge of the material made it one of the most menacing singles released that year and probably put a lot of the single buying public off hence it’s lower chart placing compared to previous single “Heroes” that had attracted the singles buying public with it’s intoxicating romanticism.

The album kicks up a gear with the track “Joe the Lion” (3.06) this tale of the performance artist Chris Burden, who liked being put in a bag on a motorway, being hung over a pool of water with 2 electrodes in his hand and yes being nailed to his car.
The idea of ritual performance art is that the body is an art object; this ground Bowie covered again 18 years later on the “Outside” recording.
Bowie says of the track that the disjointed guitar playing of Fripp was his attempt at the blues which is fragmented and lurching but never lets up, the theme of the desperate struggle against the “Get up and sleep” mentality and survival through stupor builds up to gripping intensity in the middle section that is half-spoken and half screamed “You will be like your dreeeeeaaams tonight” with as much passion and commitment as he’s ever sung anything this newly found positivism is a wonder to hear.

For the title track “Heroes” (6.08), which was co-written with Eno, Bowie gives the impression that you can be like your dreams forever, the song forms the only piece of narrative writing on the whole album and is suppose to be about 2 lovers who where from different sides of the Berlin wall and had secret rendezvous by it and lived their love under gun point, Tony Visconti is suppose to have said the song is actually about an affair he was having at the time of recording album whatever the story it is one of Bowie’s most famous songs which is due in no small part to its performance at “Live Aid” what it is to me is one of the purest love songs he had written since “Young Americans”.
This romantic tale is woven by Fripp’s guitar work and the slowly building musical refrain that is almost excruciating in its climax.

“Sons of the Silent Age” (3.17) the doom-laden saxophone playing of Bowie with the sound of rattling tambourine and the hissing and crashing of the cymbals by Dennis Davis at the start of this piece set the tone for a story of nostalgic futurism, the macabre scenario of the track “The Supermen from “The Man who sold the World” album brought forward or taken back to present times where Bowie describes sound uncomfortably as if they’re going through what Bowie described from a first person point of view with the lines “pacing their rooms just like a cell’s dimension, don’t walk they just drift in and out of life, never die just go to sleep one day”. It’s the incongruity of the structure of the track, which is of interest with the sound of the sax in the played in the minor against the almost cheesy choruses of firstly“ Baby I’ll never let you go, All I see is all I known, Let’s find another way down, (Sons of Sound and Sons of Sound) which is followed by “Baby I’ll never let you down, I can’t stand another sound, Lets find another way in, (Sons of Sound and Sons of Sound) the track ends with more crashing cymbals and the sound of treated keyboards and the chorus of Bowie, Visconti, and Antonia Maass going OOOoooaaaaa then fade out.

To close off what was side 1 on vinyl is the track “Blackout” (3.48) which is about the last great blackout in New York or is it?
There was a story in 1976 that Bowie collapsed in Berlin where he was rushed to hospital this was denied by the man himself at the time.
The lyrics alternate between loud desperation “Get me to a doctor’s, get me off the streets, get me to my feet, get me some protection” and the numbness of the album “Low” check the lines which are done talking in pitch and not singing “If you don’t stay tonight, I will take the plane tonight, I’ve nothing to lose and nothing to gain” with these lines Bowie evokes disorientation, fragmentation and panic.
It has been suggested that the “kiss you in the rain” sequence of the track alludes to the song “Lullaby Letter” form the “Soft Machine’s” first album but that could be pure conjecture, despite the deliberate echo of the vocal performance by Robert Wyatt.
Bowie’s vocals have a breathless quality to them “Me I’m Robin Hood and I puff on my cigarette”
The guitar howls the drums crash the piano vamps and all the way through treated keyboards make a back drop all to play between, the drumming and percussion work of Davis is excellent, I remember when this album came out first I played this track over and over again I loved it, I still do.

After a set of more conventional songs, which show Bowie at half power and half speed, we get to the instrumental part of the album the album really lets it’s charm fly with 4 instrumentals which start with V-2 Schneider (3.10) B-side to the “Heroes” single, a piece of personal trivia here when I bought the Spanish 7” version of “Heroes”(£1.25 for the different picture cover) single it had this track on both sides I later sold it for a rather large sum of money (£80.00) who says hobbies don’t pay.
The track is a light-hearted tribute to Kraftwerk member Florian Schneider with Bowie’s saxophone on the off - beat (Bowie had started his part on the wrong beat but decided to keep it that way) this is intermingled with military style playing on the snare with the sound of the guitars swooping in from the distance with Bowie singing the title over and over again with a big roar on the guitar to close and fade out.

The second instrumental is the bleak sounding “Sense of Doubt” (3.57) this was the B-side to the “Beauty and the Beast” and so found it’s way onto many a pub jukebox, should see what this track does to a room full of happy drinkers it clears the place faster than shouting “last orders”.
The piece is a thoroughly foreboding and makes you think you have committed some hideous error, Eno and Bowie in essence use a very simple 4 note descending refrain where what sounds like Bowie moaning can be heard that along with the high synth line that is so disturbing and dark that the end result is a minimalist masterpiece, with what sounds like the crashing shore line being heard every so often.

From the blackness of previous to the ethereal sound of “Moss Garden” (5.05) treated keyboards create a backdrop for the koto playing of Bowie (a koto is a Japanese instrument similar to a guitar but is played using bamboo plucks) with what sounds like birds singing in the background an atmosphere of calm and reflection is created as Eno treats the keyboards and rumbles are heard from other treated keys and is that a dog barking at the end?

The sound of “Moss Garden” flows into “Neuköln” (4.32) and disturbs the Zen tranquillity of the garden with a 5 note descending guitar riff and Bowie’s wheezing saxophone plays booms away and by the end of the piece is like a fog bound ship in a harbour honking until the end, Neuköln is an area in the former Eastern part of Berlin mainly populated by Turkish immigrants.

To close out what was the end of side 2 on record is the largely ignored vocal track “The secret life of Arabia” which is a Bowie/Eno/Alomar composition and is the best track here along with the title track.
The track has an infectious groove that builds in a typical Bowiesque manner starting with Eastern sounding percussion then a similar riff on the rhythm guitar of Alomar and boom the drums kick in and Bowie sings the line “The secret life” while harmonizing with himself thundering snare then he sings “of Arabia” which put through a treatment to make it sound metallic, which is followed by the chorus of Visconti, Maass, and Bowie singing “secret, secret, secret, and anther roll on the snare this builds to a vamping piano playing the same run as the guitar, this piano pounds away all through the track with shhh being sung at the end of the piano part as to create a back drop for all to play against, as Bowie delivers the first line “I was running at the speed of life, through morning’s thoughts and fantasies, then I saw your eyes at he cross fades the song is just 2 verses and a chorus of “Arabia (secret, secret )repeated over and over to great effect, my favourite part is the section ending with the lines “You must see the movie, the sand in my eyes, I walk through the desert song, when the heroine dies” just at the word dies a section of handclaps start sound at the end of the vamping pianos which are Bowie on the right speaker and Eno on the left speaker and then the tambourine sound starts to add to the bouncy sound and this continues till the fade out and end.

For the 1991 re-issue catalogue number CDP 79 7720 2 (yes I have a copy) of this album EMI tacked on a couple of bonus tracks one of which is an instrumental outtake called “Aboulmajid” (3.40) this track continues the middle east theme and is hauntingly repetitious.

The last track on the 1991 version is an awful re-mix from 1991 of “Joe the Lion” it is almost exactly the same except with extra percussion.

The “Aboulmajid” is also available on the 2001 album “All Saints” catalogue number 7243 5 33045 in a re-mastered form.

This 1999 re-issue of “Heroes” sounds better than the 1991 version it has greater depth, clarity and warm and all the tracks are longer, the 1999 version also recreates the original album, the booklet has a full set of lyrics and rare photographs so if you need to replace your old beat-up vinyl copy this is the one to get.