heroes

i visited both east and west berlin in 1973 as a sixteen year old with my brother david and my aunt margaret. my memories of berlin are of a city torn in half - east berlin (which at that time was accessed through “checkpoint charlie”) being characterized by faceless blocks of apartments and official buildings - countered by its western half, lit up by flares of colour - neon, loud cafes, modern buildings built to replace all those destroyed in the war. my most powerful and abiding memory is of the interior of the kaiser wilhelm gedächtniskirche a 53 metre high octagonal building built next to the original cathedral which was bombed by the r.a.f. in 1943.





this extraordinary building, seemingly constructed entirely of blue glass tiles, encapsulates my memories of that trip standing as it does as a beautifully modern structure next to an almost entirely destroyed older structure. it seemed to describe berlin more fully than any tourist guide or brochure.

three years after my trip, west berlin became home to a small group of musicians who chose it as a place to escape the pressures and attentions and expectations of the very culture so precisely preserved in the city’s overtly commercial and extravagant recreation of the west. berlin was one of those cities where you couldn’t help feeling that, like any bubble, the slightest pressure would bring the whole edifice crumbling in on itself.

among those musicians who made it their home were david bowie and his creative sidekick iggy pop. david bowie was messed up on drugs and moved into a big apartment in an old building in the district of schöneberg. as well as the diversions offered by the isolated city, berlin became the much-needed inspiration for a new set of songs for bowie which he recorded in the “hansa-by-the-wall” studio. this eventually emerged as the album entitled “heroes”.

it was 1976 that saw this, the second installment of what was to be a musical trilogy, released to critical aclaim. the first album entitled “low”, placed bowie squarely on the fence between his rock heritage and his fascination with experimentation. this divergence is physically apparent in the organization of the record which on side one (this was vinyl remember!) contained danceable but melancholy tunes, and which on side two included some tone poems, ambient excursions and a tip of the hat to what is now termed “krautrock”, a melding of mechanical beats and psych. meanderings overlaid with apparently random lyrics.

heroes followed the stylistic organization of the first album with side one falling into the general rubric of progressive art school rock, and side two with its mix of mechanic beats, koto, wailing sax in a tunnel, and thunderously depressing piano chords setting a more ambient tone - albeit not gentle.

here's the view from the hansa-by-the-wall recording studio. you are looking at the no-man's land area inside the wall:



an excellent interview detailing the process of recording “heroes” can be found here:

http://members.ol.com.au/rgriffin/GoldenYears/Heroes.html

the title song for the album “heroes” depicts a relationship that bowie observed taking place each day as two lovers met by the wall. the juxtaposition of something so essentially human and connecting and affirming as love, and something so essentially human as the artificial separation of the whole of a region into two arbitrarily truncated halves really pulls the human condition as we experience it to the forefront.

the constant disconnect between our inner and outer worlds is tragically contained in bowie’s words:

“Though nothing
Will keep us together
We could steal time
Just for one day”

here are the words, and following that, a live version of “heroes”. i should add that the studio version of this song, which includes the work of brian eno and robert fripp, far exceeds this live version in its sonic expressiveness and most especially for fripp’s repeating sustained three note theme which carries the song on its back in its riding the song’s central theme of optimism amidst despair.

I
I will be king
And you
You will be queen
Though nothing will
Drive them away
We can beat them
Just for one day
We can be Heroes
Just for one day

And you
You can be mean
And I
I'll drink all the time
'Cause we're lovers
And that is a fact
Yes we're lovers
And that is that

Though nothing
Will keep us together
We could steal time
Just for one day
We can be Heroes
For ever and ever
What d'you say

I
I wish you could swim
Like the dolphins
Like dolphins can swim
Though nothing
Will keep us together
We can beat them
For ever and ever
Oh we can be Heroes
Just for one day

I
I will be king
And you
You will be queen
Though nothing
Will drive them away
We can be Heroes
Just for one day
We can be us
Just for one day

I
I can remember
Standing
By the wall
And the guns
Shot above our heads
And we kissed
As though nothing could fall
And the shame
Was on the other side
Oh we can beat them
For ever and ever
Then we can be Heroes
Just for one day

We can be Heroes
We can be Heroes
We can be Heroes
Just for one day
We can be Heroes
We're nothing
And nothing will help us
Maybe we're lying
Then you better not stay
But we could be safer
Just for one day . . .