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David Bowie: "Heroes"

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Wikipedia:

"Heroes" (the quotation marks are part of the title, for reasons of irony)[1] is an album by David Bowie, released in 1977. Serving as the second installment of Bowie and Eno's "Berlin Trilogy" (the other two being Low and Lodger) "Heroes" is similar in sound to Low but more robust and visceral. Of the three albums, it was the most befitting of the appellation "Berlin", being the only one wholly recorded and mixed there. The mood of the record reflected the zeitgeist of the Cold War, symbolised by the divided city.

The title track remains one of Bowie's best known, a classic story of two lovers who meet at the Berlin Wall. The album is considered one of Bowie's best by critics, notably for the contributions of guitarist Robert Fripp (for which he flew in from the U.S. to record in one day).[2] It was marketed by RCA with the catch phrase, "There’s Old Wave. There’s New Wave. And there's David Bowie…"[3] The album made #3 in the UK and stayed in the charts for 26 weeks, but was less successful in the U.S. where it peaked at #35.

With "Heroes", Bowie again paid tribute to his Krautrock influences: the title is a nod to the track "Hero" on the album NEU! '75 by the German band Neu! while "V-2 Schneider" is inspired by and named for Kraftwerk's Florian Schneider; earlier in 1977, Kraftwerk had name-checked Bowie on the title track of Trans-Europe Express. The cover photo was inspired by Erich Heckel's Roquairol, as was that of The Idiot, one of Bowie's collaborations with Iggy Pop that was released the same year.[4]

Though "Heroes" included its share of dark and atmospheric instrumentals such as "Sense of Doubt" and "Neuköln", as well as the sprawling confessional "Blackout", after the melancholy and inward-looking Low it was regarded as a highly passionate and positive artistic statement.[5][6] This was evident not simply through "Heroes" the song but in the rocking opener "Beauty and the Beast" (released as the second single in January 1978), the raucous "Joe the Lion" and the light-hearted closer "The Secret Life of Arabia".

A number of the album's tracks were played live at Bowie's concerts the following year, captured on record as Stage (1978). Philip Glass adapted a classical suite, "Heroes" Symphony, based on this album, a companion to his earlier Low Symphony. The title track has been covered by numerous artists, whilst "The Secret Life of Arabia" was sung by Billy Mackenzie in 1982 on the British Electric Foundation LP Music of Quality and Distinction."

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