Apocalyptica Heroes
Posted by Moonage | Filed under Interpretations
I made a post a few days ago featuring Till Lindemann fronting Apocalyptica doing ‘Helden’. That got me fascinated. That led me to stumbling on this gem:
FOUR CELLOS?
Okay, so these guys are sitting around the garage wondering how they’re going to make it in the music industry. It’s pretty cut-throat and unforgiving. So, one of the guys says “Hey! I got it! We’ll do industrial metal with ONLY CELLOS!” Apparently the other guys thought this was so brilliant they jumped right on board.
Genius! I LOVE THEIR SOUND! Will definitely be checking out more of their stuff. However, it may be a while. I just can’t seem to tear myself from the Till version.
Now you may be getting a sample of what I DO like. I love creativity. This, folks, is way up there!
Tags: apocalyptica, bowie, cellos, helden, heroes, industrial metal, live
Industrial Heroes
Posted by Moonage | Filed under Interpretations
When Bowie originally recorder ‘Heroes’, it was in German. Being the marketing non-guru that he was at the time, he nevertheless made an English version. The English version is all over the net. Indeed, it’s all over my blog
Sounds kinda crazy huh? An industrial metal version of a Bowie song? Now, for the most part, I hate industrial metal. It’s right up there with rap in terms of musical quality. However, I enjoyed this version a lot more than the sanitized version The Wallflowers
Tags: apocalyptica, david bowie, german, helden, heroes, indutrial, metal, till-lindemann, wallflowers
Heroes and the Glass Spider
Posted by Moonage | Filed under Sound, Vision
One of my favorite performances of ‘Heroes’ was during Glass Spider. Now, a lot of critics panned the tour. I am however, biased. I was there. It was what I expected of Bowie. A little glam, some bizarre choreography, and great tunes performed to perfection. It was his second “happy” tour, featuring a lot of his recent hits at the time. However, he threw in some staples, and, some off-beat stuff such as Sons of the Silent Age. However, the song that got me absolutely over the edge was the same song that always got me pumped:
Immediately after ‘Heroes’ was over, and I was still enthralled with the entire effect of the sound and vision, my date asked me when he was going to perform White Wedding or Rebel Yell. That was her last concert with me.
Tags: david bowie, glass spider, heroes
Heroes for Obama
Posted by Moonage | Filed under Events, Interpretations
Unlike a lot of rockers over the last fifty years or so, Bowie just doesn’t seem to go away. In fact, having been a Bowie fan since the early 70’s, I really can’t remember him being as popular as he is now. His stuff just seems to get more and more popular as time goes by. When Heroes
Now, that’s my idea of a political rally!
H/T to Goodnight to the rock and roll era.
Tags: arcade fire, barack obama, david bowie, heroes, low
‘Heroes’ the Brit National Anthem?
Posted by Moonage | Filed under Interpretations
In an article in The Guardian, John Harris is primarily trashing someone for remaking “Heroes” again. I didn’t care much for that part of the article. However, his description of what makes ‘Heroes‘ a great song is an ultra-special interpretation. I’m going to steal that part totally intact:
The reason is down to what might be rather pretentiously termed authorial specificity. No one apart from Bowie has ever been resident in Berlin with Iggy Pop, drugged to the gills and convinced they might alchemise their own self-importance, the thrilling melodrama of the cold war and humankind’s empathy with dolphins into a six-minute song. Thinking about it, few producers have ever matched Tony Visconti’s inspired idea of setting up three microphones in front of his charge, and taping the loudest verses through the one that was 50ft away, so they sounded like the work of someone bravely yelling into the historical void.
He also lists people who have remade “Heroes”:
- Blondie - Originally a live bootleg. Now a bonus track on “Eat to the Beat”. It’s good, not great.
- Oasis - Something ain’t right about it.
- King Crimson - Never heard this one.
- Nico - Never heard this one. Not sure I want to.
- PJ Proby - No clue.
- Magnetic Fields - Own this. It’s very good. If you don’t listen to any other version, you HAVE to hear this one!
Inexplicably, he leaves out probably the best remake. The Wallflowers version sticks very close to the original. I like it a LOT. Look for it on the Godzilla soundtrack.
I’m going to leave my interpretation pretty much the same as John’s. The story I heard was Bowie was creating a painting, and the story he “painted” he put to words. Doesn’t sound too far-fetched. Here are those lyrics:
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 dayAnd 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 thatThough nothing
Will keep us together
We could steal time
Just for one day
We can be Heroes
For ever and ever
What d’you sayI 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 dayI
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 dayI
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 dayWe 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
Nothing complicated. No subversive double entendre. No seldom-used words no one understands. Simple, straight to the point, and something people can relate to. To me, it’s a song about emotional survival. It doesn’t really matter if you win or lose the game, if nothing else, in your own mind, you can be a Hero, if just for one day. The real Heroes are the people “that can be us”. In other words, are true to themselves. That’s it.
I saw Bowie perform what I think was one of his best performances of Heroes for Glass Spider. The tour was largely panned for being over-produced. But, for a song like Heroes, the multiple layers of music, produced loudly and very clearly, made for one hell of a concert experience. I wanted desperately to see Charlie Sexton, but by the time they made it to Lexington, Charlie had been replaced with Peter Frampton. To say the least, that wasn’t a loss at all. Frampton nailed it. I still would love to see Charlie do it. I don’t much think he ever will now tho.
My special treat for this one is the video of the first known performance of ‘Heroes’:
( Note the drum flubs! )
My version, of course, is over there on my list. It’s one of my oldest mixes. And, still one of my favorites.
Tags: Charlie-Sexton, david bowie, guardian, heroes, Interpretations, john-harris, magnetic-fields, Peter-Frampton, wallflowers
Bing Crosby
Posted by Moonage | Filed under The World Of David Bowie
Bing Crosby gained fame for recording probably the most sold song ever recorded, White Christmas. Penned by Irving Berlin and recorded by Crosby, it blew away the standards for a hit. That was in 1942. He made movies, recorded more hits, and enjoyed a career that lasted to the end of the 70’s.
Starting in the late 60’s, Bing started doing Christmas specials. He usually had very family oriented performers and the shows were, for lack of a better word, very safe. Imagine my, and I imagine most of the world’s surprise, when in 1977, for Christmas, David Bowie appeared on the show with Bing. He talked about his boy, joked, and otherwise acted as safe as Roy Clark would have. It was SHOCKING! Together they performed Peace On Earth/Little Drummer Boy, which was very beautifully done. They fit and countered perfectly. Later in the show, Bowie introduced ‘Heroes’ to the public in the form of a video ( not a normal move in those days ).
I was stuck in a small hotel room with my entire family somewhere in Florida during that Christmas. We were all in one room the night Bing’s special previewed. I had to turn the tv around backwards and cover the entire thing with a blanket to keep the light from bugging my parents. I knew I wasn’t going to be able to hear it very well ( I have never had much hearing ), so I took a cassette recorder and crammed it against the tv so I could play it back later. The tv sent as much sound out the back as it did the speaker, so my dad started yelling and cussing about 2/3 through Heroes. I treasured that recording until it eventually disintegrated. I bought the album, only to find out the song was actually about twice as long as the video, and the video cropped out the best part, “Maybe we’re lying, so you’d better not stay. But we would be safer, just for one day”.
I enjoyed that Bing Crosby special more than any other, even if I couldn’t hear much of it. The one person who never got to see the special was Bing himself, he died before it was aired.
Without any further delay or distraction, here’s that performance:
Peace on Earth - David Bowie / Bing Crosby
Tags: bing-crosby, david bowie, heroes, little-drummer-boy, peace-on-earth, The World Of David Bowie
‘Heroes’
Posted by Moonage | Filed under Sound
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:
