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Rating: The Concise Journey to Becoming "Heroes"
or "there's the Old Wave, there's the New Wave, and there's David Bowie"
Summary of the previous episode: After mixing the introspective "Low," Bowie decides to stay in Berlin to work on his electronic project and continue his path of inner healing.
The story started in the review dedicated to "Low" now continues with the second chapter of David Bowie and Brian Eno's Berlin saga. We are in May 1977, the streets of Berlin are still a bit cold, but a hint of spring starts to breeze into the musicians' lives. "Lust For Life" by Iggy Pop's friend is completed, Bowie calls back to Hansa By The Wall studios the old companions of delirium, joined by Robert Fripp of King Crimson, a great innovator and scientist of his instrument.
The contrast between darkness and the hope of survival creates in the author a kind of feeling of anger: this is the atmosphere felt on the first side of "Heroes." The creations are still far from song-form, "Beauty And The Beast" and the following "Joe The Lion" are sprinkled with absurd choruses, and the leader's voice is low, then high, the effect is hysterical and delirious, as are Eno and Robert Fripp's manipulations. From the first impact, it seems that the music returns to life, and to do so it becomes angry, determined, incomprehensible in its madness. The rhythms become even more intense and grounded in the second track, but with the title track, we soar high into the sky, reaching one of the most magnificent peaks of all Bowie's production and perhaps all of music ever. The track is epic, celebratory, lavish, but at the same time cold, cynical, essential. Brian and David manage to combine hope and nihilism in the lyrics and sounds of two lovers, two addicts, two soldiers. "Heroes" is the future of a couple kissing under a guard tower near the Wall, but it's also the feeling of Nothingness of an addict who knows they can't make it to tomorrow. When Bowie's voice jumps a few octaves higher, it creates a unique effect in rock history, and Eno and Visconti's choruses are truly chilling: we kissed as if nothing could happen and the shame was on the other side
. The awareness that we are nothing, and nothing will help us
falls into the dark "Sons of The Silent Age," where it seems we see many boys wandering at the Berlin Zoologischer Garten train station. It's time for a breath, as we then return to the crazy tones of the first two tracks with "Blackout"... every time I hear that get me to a doctor's I've been told someone's back in town the chips are down I just cut and blackout I'm under Japanese influence and my honor's at stake
I am stunned by the naturalness with which the English artist spills his anxieties onto tape.
Bowie's therapy continues with a second instrumental side that can remind us of "Low," although the tones are more varied and less "metallic": in "V-2 Schneider" we have a very recognizable saxophone line, and "Sense Of Doubt" is vacuum-sealed darkness in the suburban night of Berlin. In "Moss Garden" for the first time in many years, the sounds come into the open air, becoming soft thanks to the refined koto arpeggio... but liberation is still very far and now Bowie is walking through the desolation of the "Neukoln" neighborhood, surrounded by claustrophobic sounds like gray buildings. The saxophone is a trembling sketch in the ambiguous air of this Berlin May, where the ethnic scents of "Secret Life Of Arabia" waft.
Everything in this album is legend, not just the music and its innovative scope, but also the cover by photographer Sukita, presenting a mature artist who renounces all masks and aims for the black and white essentiality of the pose taken from Heckel's "Roquairol" painting. From the booklet photos, we deduce that the character is becoming a person, and the alien a man: in "Heroes," Bowie is dazed and wrapped in his black leather and electronic jacket, running through Berlin's streets, occasionally stopping to catch his breath, lowering his head and running his hands through his hair. Then he resumes running on a desperate and furious climb...
from "Sons Of The Silent Age"
"Sons of the silent age
Make love only once
but dream and dream
They don't walk,
they just glide in and out of life
They never die,
they just go to sleep one day"
ps: as I already wrote in the review of "Low," for those interested in the behind-the-scenes of the Berlin work, I suggest reading "Trans Europe Excess," an article from the "Uncut" magazine, accessible at the following links from velvet goldmine :
uncut 1
uncut 2
uncut 3
uncut 4
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Beauty and the Beast (03:36)
Weaving down a by-road
singin' a song
That's my kind of high road
gone wrong
MY-MY
smile at least
you can't say no to
The Beauty and the Beast
Something in the night
Something in the day
nothing is wrong
but darling something's in way
there's slaughter in the air
protest on the wind
someone else inside me
someone could get skinned
how?
MY-MY
someone fetch a priest
you can't say no to
The Beauty and the Beast
I wanted to believe me
I wanted to be good
I wanted no distractions
Like every good boy should
Nothing will corrupt us
Nothing will compete
Thank God heaven left us
standing on our feet
MY-MY
The Beauty and the Beast
02 Joe the Lion (03:07)
Joe the lion
Went to the bar
A couple of drinks on the house an' he said
"Tell you who you are if you nail me to my car"
Boy
Thanks for hesitating
This is the kiss off
Boy
Thanks for hesitating
You'll never know the real story
Just a couple of dreams
You get up and sleep
You can buy god it's Monday
Slither down the greasy pipe
So far so good no one saw you
Hobble over any freeway
You will be like your dreams tonight
You get up and sleep
You get up and sleep
Joe the lion
Made of iron
Joe the lion
Went to the bar
A couple of drinks on the house an' he was
A fortune teller he said
"Nail me to my car and I'll tell you who you are"
Joe the lion, yeah yeah
Went to the bar, yeah yeah
A couple of dreams and he was
A fortune teller he said
"Nail me to my car tell you who you are"
You get up and sleep
The wind blows on your check
The day laughs in your face
Guess you'll buy a gun
You'll buy it secondhand
You'll get up and sleep
Joe the lion made of iron (repeat ad inf.)
04 Sons of the Silent Age (03:19)
Sons of the silent age
Stand on platforms blank looks and note books
Sit in back rows of city limits
Lay in bed coming and going on easy terms
Sons of the silent age
Pace their rooms like a cell's dimensions
Rise for a year or two then make war
Search through their one inch thoughts
Then decide it couldn't be done
Baby, I'll never let you go
All I see is all I know
Let's take another way down (sons of sound and sons of sound)
Baby, baby, I'll never let you down
I can't stand another sound
Let's find another way (sons of sound and sons of sound)
Sons of the silent age
Listen to tracks by Sam Therapy and King Dice
Sons of the silent age
Pick up in bars and cry only once
Sons of the silent age
Make love only once but dream and dream
Don't walk, they just glide in and out of life
They never die, they just go to sleep one day
Baby, I won't ever let you go
All I see is all I know
Let's take another way down (sons of sound and sons of sound)
Oh baby, baby, baby, I won't ever let you down
I can't stand another sound
Let's take another way in (sons of sound and sons of sound)
(Sons of sound and sons of sound)
Baby, baby, baby, fire away!
05 Blackout (03:49)
Oh you, you walk on past
Your lips cut a smile on your face
Your scalding face
To the cage, to the cage
She was a beauty in a cage
Too, too high a price
To drink rotting wine from your hands
Your fearful hands
Get me to a doctor's I've been told
Someone's back in town the chips are down
I just cut and blackout
I'm under Japanese influence
And my honour's at stake
The weather's grim, ice on the cages
Me, I'm Robin Hood and I puff on my cigarette
Panthers are steaming, stalking, screaming
If you don't stay tonight
I will take that plane tonight
I've nothing to lose, nothing to gain
I'll kiss you in the rain
Kiss you in the rain
Kiss you in the rain
In the rain
Get me to the doctor
Get me off the streets (get some protection)
Get me on my feet (get some direction)
Hot air gets me into a blackout
Oh, get me off the streets
Get some protection
Oh get me on my feet (wo-ooh!)
While the streets block off
Getting some skin exposure to the blackout (get some protection)
Get me on my feet (get some direction, wo-ooh!)
Oh get me on my feet
Get me off the streets (get some protection)
In a *?* second *?*
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Other reviews
By Perez1
"The title track goes directly among the giants of music of all time."
"The entire sense of oppression and darkness that weighs on the album has not lost any of its shine from that era."
By zelda
The White Duke emerges from the tunnel, stronger than ever, standing against the wind.
We can be heroes just for one day.
By Caccòn
"Heroes by Bowie belongs to that group of albums that, by popular and critical acclaim, are considered the crème de la crème of music."
"The Heroes are others, but he got the Fame."
