“They don’t walk, they just glide in and out of life”
(ANCIANT = A New Career In A New Town)
Here’s another instalment of our album focus on “Heroes”.
This is Tony Visconti’s introduction from another set of very informative notes (from the ANCIANT book), regarding the recording of “Heroes”…
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‘”Heroes”’ began in Hansa Studios, West Berlin, by the Berlin Wall. The intense and diverse reaction to the experimental album ‘Low’ proved that the best path for
David, at this point in his career, was to continue to break all the rules. This continued to be the course of action with more or less the same team. Alomar, Murray and Davis returned, Eno and Bowie shared keyboard duties. The tracking sessions were recorded without a lead guitarist. Robert Fripp would arrive two weeks later.
True to form, we all congregated in Berlin with nothing more than chord changes and rhythm ideas, not yet songs. Carlos, George and Dennis instinctively knew what to do from the start but played harder than the previous album. ‘Low’ was like learning a new alphabet. ‘”Heroes”’ was the subsequent pulp fiction novel! Like
‘Low’, it didn’t take very long to record the seven band tracks. They took less than a week. Carlos stayed behind to add more guitar but the parts were more supportive than fiery. We were expecting Robert Fripp to start the fire.
It’s hard to believe that ‘Beauty And The Beast’ to ‘The Secret Life Of Arabia’ were just backing tracks arranged on the spot with no knowledge of titles, vocal melodies or lyrics. Once a riff was established, as in ‘Beauty And The Beast’, a lick, an interjection, a countermelody, a quirky drum fill all fell into place naturally. Somehow it was mutually sensed where singing would and wouldn’t be. Emotional music textures, not songs, were being recorded.
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“HEROES” FACT FILE:
Released in the UK as RCA PL 12522 on 14th October, 1977.
Peak UK chart position: #3
Peak US chart position: #35
Original Tracklisting
SIDE 1
1. BEAUTY AND THE BEAST
2. JOE THE LION
3. “HEROES”
4. SONS OF THE SILENT AGE
5. BLACKOUT
SIDE 2
1. V-2 SCHNEIDER
2. SENSE OF DOUBT
3. MOSS GARDEN
4. NEUKÖLN
5. THE SECRET LIFE OF ARABIA
Bonus tracks on 1991 RykoDisc reissue:
Abdulmajid Previously unreleased track recorded 1976-79
Joe The Lion Remixed version, 1991
Original UK Singles:
“Heroes”/V-2 Schneider released September 1977 – (Peak UK chart position: #24)
Beauty And The Beast/Sense of Doubt released January 1978 – (Peak UK chart position: #39)
“TOMORROW BELONGS TO THOSE WHO CAN HEAR IT COMING” was the rather ironic tagline for “Heroes”. Ironic in that the single only reached #24 in the UK upon release, but as time goes on the song has become more and more popular. This fact was highlighted when streams of Bowie’s music on Spotify reached one billion last week, with “Heroes” topping that list. Forty years later it seems tomorrow has finally arrived.
All songs written by DAVID BOWIE except ‘“HEROES”’ lyrics written by DAVID BOWIE, music written by DAVID BOWIE and BRIAN ENO, ‘MOSS GARDEN’ and ‘NEUKÖLN’ written by
DAVID BOWIE and BRIAN ENO and ‘THE SECRET LIFE OF ARABIA’ lyrics written by DAVID BOWIE, music written by DAVID BOWIE, CARLOS ALOMAR and BRIAN ENO.
Produced by DAVID BOWIE and TONY VISCONTI.
Recorded at HANSA BY THE WALL, BERLIN between 11th July and 8th August, 1977.
Engineers – TONY VISCONTI and COLIN THURSTON and MOUNTAIN STUDIOS, MONTREUX.
Assistant engineers – DAVID RICHARDS and EUGENE CHAPLIN.
Mixed at MOUNTAIN STUDIOS, MONTREUX.
HANSA BY THE WALL in-house engineer: EDUARD MEYER.
Don’t forget you can listen to the official David Bowie: A New Career In A New Town playlist here.
Pre-order ANCIANT here.
#ANCIANTbox #ANewCareerInANewTownBox #BowieHeroes