7. “Heroes” (1977)

The second of two Bowie albums produced by Brian Eno to be released in 1977, “Heroes” is the only one of the so-called ‘Berlin trilogy’ that was actually recorded fully in the German city that Bowie made his home for a year. Recorded in an old, acoustically rich concert hall that was part of the Hansa studios complex – located just 500 yards from a guard tower along the Berlin wall, inspiring the album’s title track – West Berlin’s no-man’s land was a Spartan antidote to the recording process in Los Angeles that had caused Bowie to completely lose touch with reality in 1976.

Along with its predecessor Low, which is very similar in many ways and effectively a ‘twin album’, the second half of the album was made from four ambient, jazz-like tracks, all of which vary brilliantly in mood and the kinds of landscapes they evoke. ‘Sense Of Doubt’ is a creeping, paranoid dual between low piano and cold synthesiser, while the pulsing ‘V-2 Schneider’, covered in saxophone noodles by Bowie himself, was a tribute to Kraftwerk’s Florian Schneider’. ‘Neuköln’ and ‘Moss Garden’, on the other hand, feel much more dreamy.

The one key difference from Low is the addition of King Crimson guitarist Robert Fripp, who laid down his characteristic metallic tones over many of the tracks after Eno coaxed him out of a three-year retirement. Frequently, Fripp would solo spontaneously over tracks he was just hearing for the first time, his first takes so good that he wouldn’t need to do so again. That sense of spontaneity, which Eno also encouraged through his own techniques, is what comes through in “Heroes”, which is unusual for what is actually a really structured record. That sense of free-form improvisation filled in the gaps that the minimalist song structures left.

In amid the swirling grandiosity and chaos of ‘”Heroes”’, Bowie begins as a calm presence amid the storm before stepping into the eye of hurricane itself, in what is surely his greatest single vocal performance. His lyrics were often spontaneous, giving everything a cut-up, confused stream-of-consciousness feel that reflected the kind of drug-addled lifestyle he was trying to put behind him. The metallic krautrock-funk of opener ‘Beauty And The Beast’ seems to teeter on the edge of sanity, while the stilted ‘Sons Of The Silent Age’ also reflects that cracked personality. However, everything seems to resolve itself at the end of the second half of ambient experiments, ending with the calm and danceable closer ‘The Secret Life Of Arabia’.

1977, the year that punk broke, was also quite a year for Bowie, releasing two of his own records and producing another two for his friend Iggy Pop (The Idiot and Lust For Life), but it is the brace of bold records associated with Berlin for which this period of his career is best remembered. “Heroes” is an unquestionably superb record, slightly overshadowed by the behemoth of its title track, but well worth exploring. (LISTEN)

In his own words: On the sense of perspective Berlin gave him: “We’ll do anything in our power to stay alive. There’s a feeling that the average lifespan should be longer than it is. I disagree. I mean, we’ve never lived so long. Not so very long ago no one lived passed the age of 40. And we’re still not happy with 70. What are we after exactly? There’s just too much ego involved. And who wants to drag their old decaying frame around until they are 90, just to assert their ego? I don’t, certainly.”

Highlights: ‘”Heroes”’; ‘V-2 Schneider’; ‘The Secret Life Of Arabia’