Sep 21
‘Heroes’
When I first began listening to Bowie, Young Americans was a hit. But, it wasn’t really my style at all. I bought the album, but outside of “Young Americans” and “Fame”, the album didn’t appeal to me at all. He very shortly afterwards released “Station to Station”, which was a far superior album, and closer to my style, but it still didn’t click quite the way his old stuff did. Bowie then cranked out “Low”, which was so bizarre it was hard to get any of my friends to sing along to. My interest in Bowie was starting to wane. I heard that he was working on Part 2 of the Eno Trilogy
, so it had to be good, but Part 1 had left me somewhat disappointed. A couple of good songs, but nothing exciting. Around Christmas time we went on one of our usual family vacations. I was in a hotel room somewhere in Florida with the entire family in the same room. I heard that Bowie was going to be on the Bing Crosby Christmas Special and new I was going to have problems getting to see it. About the time it was to come on, I actually had to turn the hotel tv around backwards, crammed up against the wall with barely enough space for my head to wedge between the tv and the wall. I could barely turn the volume up at all without my dad yelling, so I kept it very low, and in order to get a better idea of what was going on, crammed a cassette recorder against the tv speaker. He came on and did a skit with Crosby doing an improvised version of Little Drummer Boy that is still a classic, and much later in the show, they played his new video. It was “Heroes”. I got so excited seeing something that looked like rock from Bowie that I turned the tv up a little. For a long time I treasured that recording. My first exposure to what would become possibly my all time favorite song by Bowie, by anyone for that matter, with my dad yelling at me in the background. In order to get that recording, I had to be a hero. Just for one day.
I don’t know that too many people ever actually get to feel a sense of pride in their favorite performer, but when Bowie played “Heroes” for the 9/11 emergency personnel, seeing Bowie pleasing those heroes with the song that had always pleased me just made me feel like a king. I knew he could do it, and he did it fabulously. He even remembered all the words this time.
The second most notable performance of Bowie doing “Heroes” had to be the Freddie Mercury tribute. Seeing Mick Ronson play the song he should have been playing all along, knowing he wouldn’t be around much longer, was just heart wrenching for me.
The third most notable performance for me had to be when I saw him during Glass Spider. I took my significantly younger date with me. All through the show Bowie performed pretty much the show I would have asked for. I yelled, I danced, I screamed, I was a kid. At the time I thought I was just embarassing her, but I didn’t care. When he did Heroes I went ballistic. I think it was about that time she asked me when he was going to do Rebel Yell or White Wedding. I never took her to another show. In fact, I don’t think we saw each other much after that.
And my other favorite performance of “Heroes” was a bootleg video I found scouring the ‘net. It’s suggested to be his trial run for the song. The venue is definitely German, which is where he recorded it, so I have no reason to doubt it. It’s definitely rough, and Bowie as usual, slaughters the lyrics. But, it’s about the only time I’ve seen him feature the instrument that gave the recording its unique sound, the ‘lectric fiddle combined with the crying guitar. He should have tried that combo more, it’s a very haunting sound.
Here’s the original:
And a couple of GREAT performances I mentioned above:
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