Romantic Melancholy at the Berlin Wall: The Meaning Behind “Heroes”

By editorial board on December 21, 2023

In 1977, following sessions for Iggy Pop’s Lust for Life, Bowie worked with Brian Eno and longtime producer Tony Visconti and recorded “Heroes” in a West Berlin concert hall that was a former ballroom for the Gestapo.

Bowie wrote “Heroes” about two lovers meeting each day below the guards at the Berlin Wall. He was inspired by Visconti’s relationship with German singer Antonia Maass. Bowie saw them through the studio window, meeting and kissing at the Wall. Because Visconti was married then, Bowie had to keep quiet about the song’s inspiration.

Eno co-wrote the song with Bowie. Like Berlin at the time, melancholy hangs over the music, casting darkness over the inspiring sentiment.

Robert Fripp:  "In the mid-1970s, Berlin was a terrifying place to be. At Hansa Studio, you looked out the window and there was an East German machine gun turret"

If the machine gunner wasn't a Bowie fan, he could've sprayed us!"

Originally released on 14th October, 1977, "Heroes" was David Bowie’s twelfth studio album. To celebrate its 45th anniversary, Parlophone is proud to announce a special limited edition 'bricks & mortar' outlet-only grey vinyl pressing of the album.

Fripp was living in New York in the summer of 1977 when he received a phone call from Eno, who he'd first worked with on their 1973 album (No Pussyfooting), stating that he was in Berlin working with Bowie.

After Eno passed the phone to Bowie, Fripp was asked if he would be interested in playing “some hairy rock’n’roll guitar?” on the record, to which the guitarist replied, “Well, I haven’t really played for three years, but if you’re prepared to take a risk, so will I.” A first-class ticket for a Lufthansa flight to Berlin was duly dispatched to Fripp, who then joined the album sessions at Hansa studio one week later. (Loudersound)

Berlin, for example, which was a great place for Bowie in the mid-1970s. Berlin was a terrifying place to be. I mean, the Heroes album at Hansa Studio, you looked out the window and there was an East German machine gun turret; which means that, for example, if the machine gunner wasn't a Bowie fan, he could've sprayed us! And this in-between-ness, where nothing is quite as fixed as it might normally be in safe and civilized times, it lights up on an artist's antennae.”

 

Recalling the collaboration in the studio, Fripp continues, “I flew to Berlin, and I believe in a total of three days, I played my guitar parts on Heroes, and it was lots of fun, lots of laughter, play, humor... It was great. And David showed me some interesting places in Berlin, too.”

 

Tony Visconti recalls an unpublished tale with David Bowie in Berlin: “Berlin was divided in four parts and the saddest part was the eastern part,” he recalled. “Occasionally we would venture across Checkpoint Charlie and go into East Berlin in the daytime and have a dinner and just walk around. We were allowed to do that. We were watched very carefully.

It was a little harrowing going from the west to the east and vice versa. And the most despairing thing was, when we went back into the west, lined along the roadway were East Berliners who were pleading with us, in broad daylight, if we could put them in boot of the car, or if they could cling to the bottom of the car.
“Seeing the faces on these desperate people I think inspired David to write ‘Weeping Wall’, because on the other side of the Berlin Wall, those people were crying.”

 

 

"Heroes" was a commercial success, peaking at #3 in the U.K. and #35 in the U.S., with NME and Melody Maker both naming it album of the year. The title track is now widely recognised as a classic and as one of Bowie’s most beloved songs, having been used in the London 2012 Olympic opening ceremony and critically acclaimed films such as Moulin Rouge and Jojo Rabbit. It has also become one of Bowie’s most covered songs with interpretations by artists such as Prince, Coldplay, Motörhead, Depeche Mode, Lady Gaga, King Crimson and The Wallflowers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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