DAVID BOWIE - HEROES

"Heroes" is a song written by David Bowie together with Brian Eno in 1977. Produced by Bowie and Tony Visconti, it was released both as a single and as the title track of the album "Heroes". A product of Bowie's fertile 'Berlin' period, life in the city was crystallized into the simple tale of two lovers who come together in the shadow of the 'Wall of Shame' (though here "the shame was on the other side"). While not a huge hit at the time, the song has gone on to become one of Bowie’s signature tunes and is well-known today for its appearance in numerous advertisements.

The title of the song is a reference to the 1975 track "Hero" by the band Neu!, whom Bowie and Eno admired. It was one of the early tracks recorded during the album sessions, but remained an instrumental until towards the end of production. The quote marks in the title, a deliberate affectation, were designed to impart an ironic quality on the otherwise highly romantic, even triumphant, words and music. Producer Tony Visconti took credit for inspiring the image of the lovers kissing "by the wall", when he and backing vocalist Antonia Maass embraced in front of Bowie as he looked out of the Hansa Studio window. Bowie's habit in the period immediately following the song's release was to say that the protagonists were based on an anonymous young couple but Visconti, who was married to Mary Hopkins at the time, contends that Bowie was protecting him and his affair with Maass. Bowie confirmed this in 2003.