WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.240 Welcome back to the Deep Dive. Today we are unpacking 00:00:03.240 --> 00:00:05.879 something that, well, I was looking through the 00:00:05.879 --> 00:00:09.859 notes this morning, and the gap between how we 00:00:09.859 --> 00:00:13.179 perceive this topic today versus the reality 00:00:13.179 --> 00:00:17.039 of its creation is just wild. Oh yeah, it really 00:00:17.039 --> 00:00:19.079 is. We are of course talking about David Bowie's 00:00:19.079 --> 00:00:21.899 Heroes, and we are pulling all our facts today 00:00:21.899 --> 00:00:24.500 from the main Wikipedia entry for this song. 00:00:24.780 --> 00:00:27.620 Which is a fantastic source for this. It is because, 00:00:27.739 --> 00:00:29.839 you know, we think of this song as this monolithic 00:00:29.839 --> 00:00:32.780 anthem today. It's a piece of sonic architecture 00:00:32.780 --> 00:00:35.659 that totally defined an era. It's played at the 00:00:35.659 --> 00:00:38.740 Olympics. It's all over pop culture. It's practically 00:00:38.740 --> 00:00:41.039 the alternative national anthem of the UK at 00:00:41.039 --> 00:00:42.880 this point. It's an absolute titan of a track. 00:00:42.979 --> 00:00:44.740 But, and this is the crazy part, if you look 00:00:44.740 --> 00:00:47.899 at the charts from late 1977, you would assume 00:00:47.899 --> 00:00:49.960 it was a total failure. Yeah, that's the part 00:00:49.960 --> 00:00:52.979 that really catches you off guard. It's widely 00:00:52.979 --> 00:00:54.759 considered one of the greatest songs ever written. 00:00:54.960 --> 00:00:57.640 Maybe Bowie's absolute masterpiece. Yet when 00:00:57.640 --> 00:00:59.780 it dropped, it didn't even chart on the Billboard 00:00:59.780 --> 00:01:02.420 Hot 100 in the US. Not even a blip. And in the 00:01:02.420 --> 00:01:05.439 UK, it stalled out at number 24. So it was essentially 00:01:05.439 --> 00:01:07.859 a commercial flop initially. Which is baffling 00:01:07.859 --> 00:01:10.079 to us now. But it makes sense when you actually 00:01:10.079 --> 00:01:12.079 dissect what the song is. I mean, it's not a 00:01:12.079 --> 00:01:14.819 standard rock song. No, not at all. It is basically 00:01:14.819 --> 00:01:18.159 a six -minute experiment in tension. And it was 00:01:18.159 --> 00:01:20.819 recorded in a former Gestapo ballroom in West 00:01:20.819 --> 00:01:23.719 Berlin featuring a guitarist playing my tape 00:01:23.719 --> 00:01:25.519 marks on the floor because he couldn't control 00:01:25.519 --> 00:01:28.019 his own instrument otherwise. So that is our 00:01:28.019 --> 00:01:30.540 mission for you today. We need to unpack how 00:01:30.540 --> 00:01:34.519 a track built on such strange, almost hostile 00:01:34.519 --> 00:01:38.040 technical foundations, and frankly, a very cynical 00:01:38.040 --> 00:01:40.680 lyrical premise, morphed into the world's most 00:01:40.680 --> 00:01:42.840 enduring anthem of hope. It's quite a journey. 00:01:42.980 --> 00:01:45.019 It really is. And I think we have to start with 00:01:45.019 --> 00:01:48.819 the title itself. Because the clue has been staring 00:01:48.819 --> 00:01:51.400 us in the face on the album cover for 40 years. 00:01:51.700 --> 00:01:54.379 You mean the punctuation. Exactly. The punctuation. 00:01:54.379 --> 00:01:56.459 It's not just the word heroes. It's heroes in 00:01:56.459 --> 00:01:59.170 quotation marks. Yes. I remember seeing the vinyl 00:01:59.170 --> 00:02:01.450 years ago and thinking, oh, that's just a cool 00:02:01.450 --> 00:02:03.969 stylistic design choice. But it's actually doing 00:02:03.969 --> 00:02:06.109 a lot of heavy lifting for the whole concept, 00:02:06.189 --> 00:02:08.090 isn't it? It's doing all the lifting, honestly. 00:02:08.990 --> 00:02:11.930 Bowie and Brian Eno, who co -wrote the track, 00:02:12.110 --> 00:02:14.490 they were very specific about those quotes. They 00:02:14.490 --> 00:02:16.889 insisted on them. Right. They signal irony. Because 00:02:16.889 --> 00:02:20.750 Bowie wasn't writing about... superman or these 00:02:20.750 --> 00:02:23.389 grand mythological figures he was writing about 00:02:23.389 --> 00:02:26.669 desperate small people who are indulging in a 00:02:26.669 --> 00:02:29.810 romantic fantasy of heroism just for one day 00:02:29.810 --> 00:02:33.289 exactly just for one day that completely reframes 00:02:33.289 --> 00:02:35.949 the whole chorus for me yeah it's not this triumphant 00:02:35.949 --> 00:02:39.229 we are heroes it's more like We can pretend to 00:02:39.229 --> 00:02:42.490 be heroes. Precisely. It's about facing a really 00:02:42.490 --> 00:02:45.330 grim reality and choosing to escape it for a 00:02:45.330 --> 00:02:47.530 moment, knowing full well that the reality is 00:02:47.530 --> 00:02:49.110 still going to be there waiting for you tomorrow. 00:02:49.330 --> 00:02:52.110 Wow. And to really understand why that escapism 00:02:52.110 --> 00:02:54.389 was so necessary, you have to look at where they 00:02:54.389 --> 00:02:56.129 were physically standing when they recorded this. 00:02:56.189 --> 00:02:57.650 Right. So let's set the scene. It's West Berlin, 00:02:57.849 --> 00:03:01.539 summer of 1977. Bowie is there trying to clean 00:03:01.539 --> 00:03:03.599 up his life, basically getting away from the 00:03:03.599 --> 00:03:07.039 cocaine psychosis of Los Angeles. Yeah, a dark 00:03:07.039 --> 00:03:09.819 period for him. Very dark. And he lands at Hansa 00:03:09.819 --> 00:03:12.990 Studio 2. Also known as Hansa by the Wall. And 00:03:12.990 --> 00:03:14.770 that is not a nickname you take lightly. Yeah. 00:03:14.889 --> 00:03:17.830 The studio was a converted concert hall. During 00:03:17.830 --> 00:03:20.590 World War II, it had actually been a ballroom 00:03:20.590 --> 00:03:23.289 for Gestapo officers. That is just so heavy. 00:03:23.449 --> 00:03:25.810 It is. So the acoustic space they are recording 00:03:25.810 --> 00:03:29.229 in is already haunted by this incredibly dark 00:03:29.229 --> 00:03:32.210 history. And geographically, it's right on the 00:03:32.210 --> 00:03:35.539 jagged edge of the Cold War. The Wikipedia article 00:03:35.539 --> 00:03:38.620 notes it was only about 500 yards from the Berlin 00:03:38.620 --> 00:03:41.199 Wall. It was so close that the Red Army guards 00:03:41.199 --> 00:03:43.159 in the watchtowers could actually look through 00:03:43.159 --> 00:03:45.280 the window right into the control room. That 00:03:45.280 --> 00:03:48.039 is such a surreal image. Isn't it? You're trying 00:03:48.039 --> 00:03:50.159 to make art. You're trying to find this new sound. 00:03:50.319 --> 00:03:52.379 And you look up from the mixing board and see 00:03:52.379 --> 00:03:54.659 a soldier with a rifle staring at you from East 00:03:54.659 --> 00:03:57.120 Germany. It creates a complete pressure cooker 00:03:57.120 --> 00:04:00.280 environment. You have that tension baked directly 00:04:00.280 --> 00:04:02.560 into the DNA of the recording. You can hear it. 00:04:02.620 --> 00:04:05.139 You really can. In a room designed for ballroom 00:04:05.139 --> 00:04:07.719 dancing, used by the Nazis, now overlooked by 00:04:07.719 --> 00:04:10.340 communists, and you're trying to invent the future 00:04:10.340 --> 00:04:13.340 of music. And the sound they found, it's just 00:04:13.340 --> 00:04:15.919 incredibly thick. It doesn't sound like a band 00:04:15.919 --> 00:04:18.060 playing in a room. It sounds like a literal wall 00:04:18.060 --> 00:04:21.139 of noise coming at you. The wall of sound. Yes. 00:04:21.560 --> 00:04:24.980 And I know Brian Eno was... crucial for this 00:04:24.980 --> 00:04:27.639 texture, he brought a very different approach 00:04:27.639 --> 00:04:29.560 than a traditional rock producer would have. 00:04:29.759 --> 00:04:31.879 Eno brought the whole concept of heroism before 00:04:31.879 --> 00:04:34.579 there were even any lyrics. He had this chord 00:04:34.579 --> 00:04:37.600 sequence that he said sounded grand and heroic. 00:04:37.920 --> 00:04:39.879 But the instrumentation is where it gets really 00:04:39.879 --> 00:04:42.019 weird, right? Oh, very weird. He was using an 00:04:42.019 --> 00:04:45.199 EMS Cynthia AKS. Okay, that's the synthesizer 00:04:45.199 --> 00:04:47.139 that looks like a battleship board game built 00:04:47.139 --> 00:04:49.180 into a briefcase, right? That's the exact one. 00:04:49.279 --> 00:04:51.439 I love that thing. It's wild. And it has this 00:04:51.439 --> 00:04:54.649 tiny little joystick on it. Eno used that joystick 00:04:54.649 --> 00:04:57.350 to create this shuddering, chattering effect. 00:04:57.670 --> 00:05:00.389 Like a stutter. Exactly. It's not musical in 00:05:00.389 --> 00:05:02.790 a melodic sense at all. If you isolate that track, 00:05:02.910 --> 00:05:05.329 it literally sounds like machinery breaking down. 00:05:05.490 --> 00:05:07.689 It's just noise. Yeah. But he runs it through 00:05:07.689 --> 00:05:10.350 the entire song, and it slowly builds up and 00:05:10.350 --> 00:05:12.509 up in the background. It creates this underlying 00:05:12.509 --> 00:05:14.970 anxiety that just accumulates as the track goes 00:05:14.970 --> 00:05:17.490 on. So it counters the heroism of the chords. 00:05:17.889 --> 00:05:19.670 Perfectly. The chords are swelling and going 00:05:19.670 --> 00:05:22.269 up, but the synth is just chattering away like 00:05:22.269 --> 00:05:24.740 a nervous d***. Right. And then you add Robert 00:05:24.740 --> 00:05:28.000 Fripp to the mix. Okay. The King Crimson guitarist. 00:05:28.959 --> 00:05:31.019 This has to be one of my favorite stories in 00:05:31.019 --> 00:05:33.240 rock history. It's legendary. So Fripp flies 00:05:33.240 --> 00:05:36.199 in from New York, records his parts in a single 00:05:36.199 --> 00:05:39.180 day, and then just leaves. Yep. In and out. And 00:05:39.180 --> 00:05:42.180 apparently, Bowie gave him almost zero guidance 00:05:42.180 --> 00:05:45.120 on what to play. Pretty much just, here is the 00:05:45.120 --> 00:05:49.100 track, good luck. But Fripp didn't play standard 00:05:49.100 --> 00:05:52.850 chords. He realized that in a room that massive, 00:05:52.889 --> 00:05:55.189 at that sheer volume, he could play the room 00:05:55.189 --> 00:05:58.170 itself. He was using feedback. Exactly. Which 00:05:58.170 --> 00:06:00.129 is crazy because usually as a guitarist, you're 00:06:00.129 --> 00:06:02.230 constantly trying to kill feedback. It's the 00:06:02.230 --> 00:06:04.569 screech you don't want. But Fripp wanted to harness 00:06:04.569 --> 00:06:07.209 it. He actually marked different spots on the 00:06:07.209 --> 00:06:09.810 studio floor with tape. Tape marks. Yeah, he 00:06:09.810 --> 00:06:11.829 figured out the physics of the room. If he stood 00:06:11.829 --> 00:06:14.050 at one mark, let's say four feet from his amp, 00:06:14.209 --> 00:06:17.790 the feedback loop would sustain a perfect G note. 00:06:18.379 --> 00:06:21.259 If he moved to another mark three feet away, 00:06:21.480 --> 00:06:23.879 he'd get an A. So the performance isn't just 00:06:23.879 --> 00:06:26.120 his fingers on the fretboard. It's his physical 00:06:26.120 --> 00:06:29.160 position in the room. He's essentially dancing 00:06:29.160 --> 00:06:32.240 with the amplifier. He is physically moving through 00:06:32.240 --> 00:06:35.480 the space to generate the pitch. And then Tony 00:06:35.480 --> 00:06:38.209 Visconti, the producer. took three of those takes 00:06:38.209 --> 00:06:40.709 and layered them on top of each other three layers 00:06:40.709 --> 00:06:43.490 of feedback right that's why the guitar on heroes 00:06:43.490 --> 00:06:46.410 doesn't sound like strumming it has this dreamy 00:06:46.410 --> 00:06:50.250 wailing quality it sounds like a siren or a scream 00:06:50.250 --> 00:06:52.949 that never quite takes a breath it feels unstable 00:06:52.949 --> 00:06:56.129 which fits the theme perfectly the guitar sounds 00:06:56.129 --> 00:06:58.370 like it's struggling to sustain itself just like 00:06:58.370 --> 00:07:00.509 the heroes in the song that makes total sense 00:07:00.509 --> 00:07:02.470 now we have to talk about the rhythm section 00:07:02.470 --> 00:07:05.360 because for a song that feels so driving The 00:07:05.360 --> 00:07:08.800 mix is very unusual. Ah, the Visconti mix. He 00:07:08.800 --> 00:07:11.819 made a very bold decision with the drums. What 00:07:11.819 --> 00:07:14.279 did he do? Well, usually in rock music, the kick 00:07:14.279 --> 00:07:16.579 drum, the bass drum, is your anchor. It hits 00:07:16.579 --> 00:07:19.120 you right in the chest. But Visconti felt the 00:07:19.120 --> 00:07:21.500 kick was making the track plod. Like it was too 00:07:21.500 --> 00:07:23.600 heavy. Too heavy, too grounded. So he just turned 00:07:23.600 --> 00:07:26.839 it down. He essentially buried it. If you listen 00:07:26.839 --> 00:07:29.600 closely, you can barely hear the kick drum in 00:07:29.600 --> 00:07:31.699 the final mix. That's so counterintuitive. It 00:07:31.699 --> 00:07:34.800 is. but instead he pushed the bass guitar and 00:07:34.800 --> 00:07:37.699 the snare up and that gives the track a floating 00:07:37.699 --> 00:07:41.040 quality it's driving forward but it's not stomping 00:07:41.040 --> 00:07:43.300 on the ground it's propelling you without dragging 00:07:43.300 --> 00:07:46.040 you down exactly and then there's the cowbell 00:07:46.439 --> 00:07:48.500 Or rather what people think is a cowbell. Right, 00:07:48.560 --> 00:07:50.519 the famous cowbell. It sounds like one, but it's 00:07:50.519 --> 00:07:53.860 actually a metal tape canister that Visconti 00:07:53.860 --> 00:07:56.620 salvaged from the trash. From the garbage. Yeah, 00:07:56.699 --> 00:07:58.519 he literally just hit it with a drumstick. Which 00:07:58.519 --> 00:08:01.459 again, adds to that industrial scavenged feel 00:08:01.459 --> 00:08:04.699 of Berlin. It's not polished studio gear. It's 00:08:04.699 --> 00:08:06.860 literally garbage being used to keep the beat. 00:08:07.000 --> 00:08:09.980 It's brilliant. But all of this, the feedback, 00:08:10.120 --> 00:08:12.220 the chattering synth, the trash canister, it's 00:08:12.220 --> 00:08:16.410 really just the bed for the vocal. And this is 00:08:16.410 --> 00:08:18.569 where I think the true genius of the track really 00:08:18.569 --> 00:08:21.370 lives. The vocal recording of Heroes is arguably 00:08:21.370 --> 00:08:23.870 one of the greatest feats of audio engineering 00:08:23.870 --> 00:08:26.829 in the entire 1970s. That's a big statement, 00:08:26.850 --> 00:08:29.269 but I think the source backs it up. It absolutely 00:08:29.269 --> 00:08:32.490 does. The challenge they had was narrative. Bowie 00:08:32.490 --> 00:08:35.509 had this idea for a vocal that starts very intimate 00:08:35.509 --> 00:08:38.389 and conversational, almost whispering. But by 00:08:38.389 --> 00:08:40.769 the end, he wanted to be screaming his lungs 00:08:40.769 --> 00:08:43.110 out. Now, in a modern studio, you just record 00:08:43.110 --> 00:08:46.139 that in sections. Or you'd use a digital compressor 00:08:46.139 --> 00:08:49.080 to squash the loud parts so they don't clip the 00:08:49.080 --> 00:08:51.139 microphone. Exactly. Or you'd just have the engineer 00:08:51.139 --> 00:08:53.299 ride the fader, turn him up when he's quiet, 00:08:53.419 --> 00:08:56.159 turn him down when he gets loud. Right. But Visconti 00:08:56.159 --> 00:08:58.919 wanted to use the natural ambience of that massive 00:08:58.919 --> 00:09:02.139 former Gestapo ballroom. He wanted the room itself 00:09:02.139 --> 00:09:04.100 to be a part of the performance. So what did 00:09:04.100 --> 00:09:07.440 he do? He invented a multi -latch system using 00:09:07.440 --> 00:09:09.720 three microphones. This is such a cool setup. 00:09:09.779 --> 00:09:11.639 Walk us through the spacing of these mics because 00:09:11.639 --> 00:09:14.879 that's the key. Okay, so microphone one is a 00:09:14.879 --> 00:09:18.500 high -end valve U47. It's placed exactly nine 00:09:18.500 --> 00:09:21.019 inches from Bowie's face. Very close. Right. 00:09:21.100 --> 00:09:23.860 That captures the dry, intimate sound you hear 00:09:23.860 --> 00:09:26.450 in the first verse. I will be king. It sounds 00:09:26.450 --> 00:09:28.009 like he's right in your ear. Then you have microphone 00:09:28.009 --> 00:09:31.750 two. Mic two is a U87 placed about 20 feet away 00:09:31.750 --> 00:09:34.850 from him. And microphone three is another U87 00:09:34.850 --> 00:09:37.929 placed 50 feet away, basically at the very back 00:09:37.929 --> 00:09:41.250 of the hall. Wow. 50 feet. And this is the true 00:09:41.250 --> 00:09:44.110 innovation. The two farm microphones were muted. 00:09:44.169 --> 00:09:46.490 They had electronic gates on them. So they're 00:09:46.490 --> 00:09:49.379 effectively turned off. Until his specific condition 00:09:49.379 --> 00:09:52.259 is met. Exactly. They were set to open only when 00:09:52.259 --> 00:09:54.960 Bowie sang loud enough to trigger them. Oh, that's 00:09:54.960 --> 00:09:57.039 incredibly clever. So for the first couple of 00:09:57.039 --> 00:09:59.240 minutes of the song, Bowie is singing softly. 00:09:59.840 --> 00:10:02.440 Only the close mic is active. It sounds dry and 00:10:02.440 --> 00:10:04.519 intimate. Right. But as he starts to push his 00:10:04.519 --> 00:10:07.360 voice in the middle verses, he hits the volume 00:10:07.360 --> 00:10:09.840 threshold for the second mic. The gate snaps 00:10:09.840 --> 00:10:12.460 open. And suddenly you hear the reverb of 20 00:10:12.460 --> 00:10:15.970 feet of space. Yes. The sound physically widens. 00:10:16.009 --> 00:10:18.409 And then when he gets to the climax, the big 00:10:18.409 --> 00:10:20.950 I, I will be king scream, he hits the volume 00:10:20.950 --> 00:10:23.110 threshold for the third mic at 50 feet. And that 00:10:23.110 --> 00:10:26.169 gate slams open and you get the full cavernous 00:10:26.169 --> 00:10:28.750 roar of the entire ballroom echoing behind him. 00:10:28.789 --> 00:10:30.830 It's brilliant. Yeah. Because it means the acoustic 00:10:30.830 --> 00:10:33.169 space of the song actually expands in real time 00:10:33.169 --> 00:10:35.549 with his emotion. That's exactly it. He starts 00:10:35.549 --> 00:10:37.710 in a tiny box and he ends up in a cathedral. 00:10:38.159 --> 00:10:40.019 And the best part is he didn't have to think 00:10:40.019 --> 00:10:42.200 about it while he was singing. He just performed 00:10:42.200 --> 00:10:44.940 the emotion and the room responded to him physically. 00:10:45.460 --> 00:10:48.159 Amazing. They did three takes, but the final 00:10:48.159 --> 00:10:50.139 version you hear on the record is mostly just 00:10:50.139 --> 00:10:53.620 that last take, unbroken. It captures a genuine 00:10:53.620 --> 00:10:56.960 progression from calm to total desperation without 00:10:56.960 --> 00:10:59.879 an engineer ever touching a volume fader. That 00:10:59.879 --> 00:11:02.740 progression mirrors the lyrics perfectly, too. 00:11:03.769 --> 00:11:05.509 We start with a couple standing by the wall, 00:11:05.610 --> 00:11:08.070 and by the end, we're in this desperate screaming 00:11:08.070 --> 00:11:10.870 plea. It fits the story. Let's talk about that 00:11:10.870 --> 00:11:13.529 couple. The lyrics say, standing by the wall, 00:11:13.570 --> 00:11:16.529 and the guns shot above our heads. It's incredibly 00:11:16.529 --> 00:11:18.970 cinematic. It is. And for a long time, the story 00:11:18.970 --> 00:11:20.750 behind those lyrics was just part of the Bowie 00:11:20.750 --> 00:11:23.289 mythology. Right, the official story. Yeah. Bowie 00:11:23.289 --> 00:11:25.509 always told interviewers that he asked Visconti 00:11:25.509 --> 00:11:27.210 to leave him alone in the control room so he 00:11:27.210 --> 00:11:29.509 could write lyrics. He claimed he looked out 00:11:29.509 --> 00:11:32.090 the window and saw this anonymous couple kissing 00:11:32.090 --> 00:11:34.049 in the shadow of the Berlin Wall, and he just 00:11:34.049 --> 00:11:36.090 documented what he saw. But according to the 00:11:36.090 --> 00:11:38.870 Wikipedia deep dive, that was a cover story. 00:11:39.070 --> 00:11:41.649 It was a very necessary lie. It wasn't an anonymous 00:11:41.649 --> 00:11:44.909 couple at all. Who was it? In 2003, Bowie finally 00:11:44.909 --> 00:11:46.990 admitted that the couple he saw out the window 00:11:46.990 --> 00:11:50.429 was actually his producer, Tony Visconti, and 00:11:50.429 --> 00:11:53.049 a backing singer named Antonia Mass. And the 00:11:53.049 --> 00:11:54.990 problem was that Visconti was married at the 00:11:54.990 --> 00:11:57.169 time. He was married to Mary Hopkin, the famous 00:11:57.169 --> 00:11:59.950 folk singer. Oh, wow. So Bowie knew that if he 00:11:59.950 --> 00:12:01.889 went on public radio and said, oh, yeah, this 00:12:01.889 --> 00:12:04.389 song is about Tony and Antonia, he would completely 00:12:04.389 --> 00:12:07.269 destroy his friend's marriage. Right. So he invents 00:12:07.269 --> 00:12:10.330 the anonymous lover's story. To protect his producer. 00:12:10.590 --> 00:12:13.389 Exactly. Which adds this incredible layer of 00:12:13.389 --> 00:12:18.529 doomed reality to the song. The line, we can 00:12:18.529 --> 00:12:21.289 be heroes just for one day, knowing it's about 00:12:21.289 --> 00:12:24.090 an illicit affair that one day becomes very literal. 00:12:24.230 --> 00:12:25.889 They knew this relationship had an expiration 00:12:25.889 --> 00:12:28.950 date. It transforms the song entirely. It takes 00:12:28.950 --> 00:12:31.090 it from being a broad political statement into 00:12:31.090 --> 00:12:33.210 a very personal tragedy that just happens to 00:12:33.210 --> 00:12:35.730 be set against a political backdrop. It's forbidden 00:12:35.730 --> 00:12:39.279 love in a literal forbidden zone. Yes. The wall 00:12:39.279 --> 00:12:41.519 isn't just a political barrier anymore. It's 00:12:41.519 --> 00:12:44.379 a metaphor for the impossibility of their relationship. 00:12:44.740 --> 00:12:47.200 And Bowie didn't just pull from real life for 00:12:47.200 --> 00:12:49.740 the lyrics. He was pulling from art, too. The 00:12:49.740 --> 00:12:52.480 notes mention a specific painting. Lovers Between 00:12:52.480 --> 00:12:55.559 Garden Walls by Otto Mueller. Okay. Bowie and 00:12:55.559 --> 00:12:58.019 Iggy Pop had been visiting the Brook Museum in 00:12:58.019 --> 00:13:00.679 Berlin. The painting depicts a couple separated 00:13:00.679 --> 00:13:03.000 by a wall, which obviously resonated with the 00:13:03.000 --> 00:13:04.919 divided city he was living in. And what about 00:13:04.919 --> 00:13:06.759 the dolphins? I wish you could swim like the 00:13:06.759 --> 00:13:08.799 dolphins. That always felt like such a specific, 00:13:08.860 --> 00:13:12.019 almost psychedelic image to throw into a gritty 00:13:12.019 --> 00:13:14.669 song about Berlin. That's a literary reference. 00:13:15.230 --> 00:13:17.769 Bowie had been reading a book called A Grave 00:13:17.769 --> 00:13:20.970 for a Dolphin. Really? Yeah. It contains a short 00:13:20.970 --> 00:13:23.330 story about a doomed love affair between an Italian 00:13:23.330 --> 00:13:25.889 soldier and a Somali girl during World War II. 00:13:26.409 --> 00:13:29.429 And the girl has this mystical connection with 00:13:29.429 --> 00:13:31.509 a dolphin. So you have the painting, the short 00:13:31.509 --> 00:13:33.590 story, the affair happening right outside the 00:13:33.590 --> 00:13:36.070 studio window, and the armed guards watching 00:13:36.070 --> 00:13:39.029 from the tower. Bowie just synthesizes all of 00:13:39.029 --> 00:13:41.490 this into one lyric. That is the core of his 00:13:41.490 --> 00:13:44.929 genius. He takes these totally disparate inputs, 00:13:45.210 --> 00:13:48.129 high art, trashy romance, geopolitical tension, 00:13:48.450 --> 00:13:51.190 and he creates a unified narrative out of it. 00:13:51.350 --> 00:13:54.149 Okay, so you have this masterpiece of engineering. 00:13:54.429 --> 00:13:57.370 You have lyrics with incredible depth. The track 00:13:57.370 --> 00:14:00.789 is finished. RCA releases it in September 1977. 00:14:01.389 --> 00:14:04.629 They push it hard, too. They do. Bowie goes on 00:14:04.629 --> 00:14:07.429 a massive promotional blitz. He performs on Mark 00:14:07.429 --> 00:14:09.509 Boland's show. He even does a Christmas special 00:14:09.509 --> 00:14:11.490 with Bing Crosby where he sings it. The Bing 00:14:11.490 --> 00:14:14.009 Crosby special is iconic. So they are marketing 00:14:14.009 --> 00:14:16.610 this thing everywhere. And the public just shrugged. 00:14:16.690 --> 00:14:18.870 Why do you think that is? Yeah. I listen to it 00:14:18.870 --> 00:14:21.029 now and it sounds like an instant classic. Was 00:14:21.029 --> 00:14:24.330 it just too weird for 1977? i think context is 00:14:24.330 --> 00:14:26.309 everything here think about the musical landscape 00:14:26.309 --> 00:14:30.049 in 1977. you have the absolute explosion of punk 00:14:30.049 --> 00:14:33.029 the sex pistols the clash right music is becoming 00:14:33.029 --> 00:14:35.950 very fast very short and very aggressive and 00:14:35.950 --> 00:14:37.830 on the other side you have the absolute height 00:14:37.830 --> 00:14:41.250 of disco and here comes david bowie with a six 00:14:41.250 --> 00:14:44.909 minute art rock track with no traditional chorus 00:14:44.909 --> 00:14:48.429 chattering synthesizers and a verse about swimming 00:14:48.429 --> 00:14:51.700 with dolphins it just didn't fit any radio format 00:14:51.700 --> 00:14:53.519 and and the record label didn't help matters 00:14:53.519 --> 00:14:55.720 did they they tried to fix it oh the single edit 00:14:55.720 --> 00:14:58.700 was a total disaster what happened well the album 00:14:58.700 --> 00:15:01.799 version is over six minutes long And it needs 00:15:01.799 --> 00:15:04.379 that length to let the chattering synth build 00:15:04.379 --> 00:15:07.039 up anxiety, to let the vocal gates open naturally 00:15:07.039 --> 00:15:09.100 over time. Right, the progression we talked about. 00:15:09.139 --> 00:15:12.100 Exactly. But RCA hacked it down to 3 minutes 00:15:12.100 --> 00:15:14.279 and 32 seconds, so radio stations would play 00:15:14.279 --> 00:15:16.799 it. And biographers like Chris O 'Leary and James 00:15:16.799 --> 00:15:19.220 Perrone have been pretty harsh about that edit 00:15:19.220 --> 00:15:21.879 in our source material. Rightly so. The edit 00:15:21.879 --> 00:15:23.919 completely cuts the build. It starts the song 00:15:23.919 --> 00:15:25.940 right around the dolphin's verse. So you jump 00:15:25.940 --> 00:15:28.059 right into the climax. Yeah, you're entering 00:15:28.059 --> 00:15:30.450 the song when the energy is already high. but 00:15:30.450 --> 00:15:32.610 as a listener, you haven't earned it yet. It 00:15:32.610 --> 00:15:35.169 feels frantic rather than epic. It completely 00:15:35.169 --> 00:15:37.870 destroys the pacing. So the radio version didn't 00:15:37.870 --> 00:15:40.149 work, and the critical reaction was really mixed 00:15:40.149 --> 00:15:43.539 at the time. NME called it weary. Weary is such 00:15:43.539 --> 00:15:45.779 an interesting critique. It is. Because they 00:15:45.779 --> 00:15:48.720 weren't entirely wrong. It is a weary song. It's 00:15:48.720 --> 00:15:52.360 about total exhaustion. But they saw that as 00:15:52.360 --> 00:15:54.799 a negative thing. Whereas Hit Parader saw it 00:15:54.799 --> 00:15:57.139 differently. Hit Parader saw the cinematic potential 00:15:57.139 --> 00:15:59.899 immediately. They actually predicted it would 00:15:59.899 --> 00:16:02.399 be a theme song for great movies for years to 00:16:02.399 --> 00:16:04.139 come. Which turned out to be the most accurate 00:16:04.139 --> 00:16:06.639 prediction in music journalism history. Seriously. 00:16:07.039 --> 00:16:09.259 But it took nearly a decade to get there. The 00:16:09.259 --> 00:16:10.919 song had to climb out of that initial commercial 00:16:10.919 --> 00:16:13.840 hole. The consensus among music historians seems 00:16:13.840 --> 00:16:17.860 to be that the real turning point was 1985, Live 00:16:17.860 --> 00:16:21.200 Aid. Wembley Stadium. Exactly. Bowie performs 00:16:21.200 --> 00:16:24.259 it live to a massive global audience. No studio 00:16:24.259 --> 00:16:27.539 tricks, no gated mics, just the melody and the 00:16:27.539 --> 00:16:30.480 sheer emotional force of those lyrics. And that 00:16:30.480 --> 00:16:32.919 performance reminded everyone, oh, wait, this 00:16:32.919 --> 00:16:35.279 is actually a massive stadium anthem. It really 00:16:35.279 --> 00:16:37.259 was the moment it clicked for the general public. 00:16:37.419 --> 00:16:39.620 And then two years later, history loops back 00:16:39.620 --> 00:16:43.139 around. Yeah. 1987, Bowie returns to Berlin to 00:16:43.139 --> 00:16:45.340 play the concert for Berlin. This is a moment 00:16:45.340 --> 00:16:47.919 that genuinely gives me chills every time I read 00:16:47.919 --> 00:16:50.960 about it. The stage was set up at the Reichstag, 00:16:51.080 --> 00:16:53.159 right up against the Berlin Wall. Right. The 00:16:53.159 --> 00:16:55.940 speakers were pointing west for the audience, 00:16:56.139 --> 00:16:59.580 but they were massive, so loud. So the sound 00:16:59.580 --> 00:17:02.450 physically bled over the wall. Deliberately, 00:17:02.490 --> 00:17:05.490 thousands of young East Berliners gathered on 00:17:05.490 --> 00:17:07.690 the other side of the wall to listen to the concert. 00:17:07.829 --> 00:17:10.349 Wow. They were beaten back by the Stasi and the 00:17:10.349 --> 00:17:13.329 police, but they stayed. They sang along to Heroes 00:17:13.329 --> 00:17:15.609 while standing in the very death strip the song 00:17:15.609 --> 00:17:18.470 describes. That is the ultimate closing of the 00:17:18.470 --> 00:17:21.759 circle. The song written about the wall. becomes 00:17:21.759 --> 00:17:23.759 the soundtrack to the people trying to tear it 00:17:23.759 --> 00:17:26.420 down. It was a genuine catalyst. In fact, when 00:17:26.420 --> 00:17:29.559 Bowie died in 2016, the German Foreign Office 00:17:29.559 --> 00:17:32.259 actually tweeted a public thank you to him. Really? 00:17:32.440 --> 00:17:35.160 Yes. They said, thank you for helping to bring 00:17:35.160 --> 00:17:38.220 down the wall. They officially acknowledged that 00:17:38.220 --> 00:17:40.640 cultural moment as a key shift in the politics 00:17:40.640 --> 00:17:43.059 of the time. That's incredible. And since then, 00:17:43.200 --> 00:17:46.140 the song has just refused to die. It keeps finding 00:17:46.140 --> 00:17:48.700 new lives in pop culture. We saw the wallflowers 00:17:48.700 --> 00:17:51.269 cover it for the Godzilla movie in 1998. Which 00:17:51.269 --> 00:17:53.990 ironically charted higher in the U .S. than Bowie's 00:17:53.990 --> 00:17:56.210 original ever did. That's hilarious. It hit number 00:17:56.210 --> 00:17:58.849 10 on the modern rock tracks. It proved that 00:17:58.849 --> 00:18:01.470 the melody itself works even without the specific 00:18:01.470 --> 00:18:03.910 Berlin production magic. And then you have the 00:18:03.910 --> 00:18:06.470 X Factor finalists in the U .K. taking it to 00:18:06.470 --> 00:18:09.210 number one in 2010. Which introduces it to a 00:18:09.210 --> 00:18:12.269 whole new pop audience. And then of course most 00:18:12.269 --> 00:18:15.319 recently. Stranger Things. Season 3 finale. A 00:18:15.319 --> 00:18:17.680 huge cultural moment. They used the original 00:18:17.680 --> 00:18:20.799 Bowie track, not a cover. And immediately, streaming 00:18:20.799 --> 00:18:23.740 numbers spiked 500%. Incredible. You have a whole 00:18:23.740 --> 00:18:25.900 generation of kids who know absolutely nothing 00:18:25.900 --> 00:18:28.220 about the Cold War or Tony Visconti's affair, 00:18:28.460 --> 00:18:30.940 but they connect instantly with that sense of 00:18:30.940 --> 00:18:33.559 desperate heroism. It's amazing that a song so 00:18:33.559 --> 00:18:36.500 specific to its time and place, literally recorded 00:18:36.500 --> 00:18:40.000 at the place it describes, has become so universally 00:18:40.000 --> 00:18:42.900 applicable. It works for giant mon - monsters, 00:18:42.900 --> 00:18:45.759 for political revolutions, for teenage sci -fi 00:18:45.759 --> 00:18:48.940 drama? It truly does. It's now ranked by Rolling 00:18:48.940 --> 00:18:51.420 Stone and NME as one of the greatest songs ever 00:18:51.420 --> 00:18:54.900 recorded. It has completely transcended its original 00:18:54.900 --> 00:18:57.980 context to become something much larger. So for 00:18:57.980 --> 00:19:00.700 you listening, when we step back and look at 00:19:00.700 --> 00:19:03.039 the blueprints of this sonic architecture we 00:19:03.039 --> 00:19:06.109 started with, what are we really seeing? We're 00:19:06.109 --> 00:19:08.569 seeing a perfect collision of elements. You have 00:19:08.569 --> 00:19:11.829 the wall of sound technique, Eno's synthesized 00:19:11.829 --> 00:19:14.690 atmosphere colliding with Fripp's chaotic guitar 00:19:14.690 --> 00:19:18.450 feedback. You have Visconti's brilliant engineering 00:19:18.450 --> 00:19:20.930 innovation with the gated mics creating that 00:19:20.930 --> 00:19:24.130 expanding cavernous space. And you have the very 00:19:24.130 --> 00:19:27.190 human element grounding it all. The secret affair, 00:19:27.450 --> 00:19:30.140 the view from the window. That's the real key. 00:19:30.240 --> 00:19:33.079 It's the alchemy of taking a personal messy secret 00:19:33.079 --> 00:19:36.039 and projecting it onto a massive geopolitical 00:19:36.039 --> 00:19:38.799 tragedy. It really changes how you hear the song. 00:19:39.019 --> 00:19:40.920 I don't think I can listen to that cowbell the 00:19:40.920 --> 00:19:42.700 same way again, knowing it's just a piece of 00:19:42.700 --> 00:19:45.039 metal trash found in a studio bin. It's a great 00:19:45.039 --> 00:19:47.579 reminder that masterpieces very often come from 00:19:47.579 --> 00:19:49.240 just making do with what you have in the room. 00:19:49.480 --> 00:19:52.240 Absolutely. Now, before we wrap up today, I want 00:19:52.240 --> 00:19:54.619 to go back to that idea of the weary singer that 00:19:54.619 --> 00:19:56.220 the critics pointed out, because I think that's 00:19:56.220 --> 00:19:58.019 the part that sticks with me the most after reviewing 00:19:58.019 --> 00:20:00.579 all this. It's the final irony I want to leave 00:20:00.579 --> 00:20:03.460 you with today. We started by talking about the 00:20:03.460 --> 00:20:06.759 quotes around the title Heroes, the irony of 00:20:06.759 --> 00:20:09.119 it. Yeah. But think about the emotional state 00:20:09.119 --> 00:20:12.400 of the artist himself. Here is a song written 00:20:12.400 --> 00:20:15.460 by a man who was totally exhausted, trying to 00:20:15.460 --> 00:20:18.119 get sober, recording in a dark ballroom that 00:20:18.119 --> 00:20:20.339 used to belong to the Gestapo. A heavy environment. 00:20:20.829 --> 00:20:23.849 And he's singing about a doomed, adulterous affair 00:20:23.849 --> 00:20:27.450 that he knows can't possibly last beyond that 00:20:27.450 --> 00:20:30.109 single day. By all accounts, it should be a depressing 00:20:30.109 --> 00:20:32.529 song. It should be a complete tragedy. And yet, 00:20:32.609 --> 00:20:34.930 it became the world's most enduring anthem for 00:20:34.930 --> 00:20:37.109 hope. How does that happen? I think it's because 00:20:37.109 --> 00:20:39.289 Bowie tapped into something very true about the 00:20:39.289 --> 00:20:42.839 human condition. Real heroism isn't about winning. 00:20:42.920 --> 00:20:44.940 It isn't about successfully tearing down the 00:20:44.940 --> 00:20:47.480 wall, at least not that day. Right. It's simply 00:20:47.480 --> 00:20:50.579 the act of finding joy just for one day, despite 00:20:50.579 --> 00:20:52.740 the overwhelming odds against it. Survival is 00:20:52.740 --> 00:20:55.220 a form of victory. Exactly. Even if the guns 00:20:55.220 --> 00:20:56.819 are literally sheeting above your heads, you 00:20:56.819 --> 00:21:00.000 kiss anyway. That small personal act of defiance 00:21:00.000 --> 00:21:02.400 is the only heroism that actually matters in 00:21:02.400 --> 00:21:06.259 the end. That is a truly beautiful place. Thank 00:21:06.259 --> 00:21:09.279 you for listening to this deep dive into the 00:21:09.279 --> 00:21:11.579 architecture of heroes. It's been an absolute 00:21:11.579 --> 00:21:13.759 pleasure unpacking this one for you. Keep listening.