WEBVTT 00:00:00.879 --> 00:00:05.160 Picture this. It is 1977. OK. And you are standing 00:00:05.160 --> 00:00:07.660 in this massive cavernous room in West Berlin. 00:00:08.220 --> 00:00:11.759 It is a recording studio now. But just 30 years 00:00:11.759 --> 00:00:15.220 prior, this was literally a ballroom where Gestapo 00:00:15.220 --> 00:00:17.620 officers held parties during the Second World 00:00:17.620 --> 00:00:20.219 War. Wow. Right. And you look out the window 00:00:20.219 --> 00:00:23.199 and barely 500 yards away is the Berlin Wall. 00:00:23.420 --> 00:00:25.820 And looking right back at you through binoculars 00:00:25.820 --> 00:00:29.750 are Russian Red Guards. with Sten guns over their 00:00:29.750 --> 00:00:32.070 shoulders. It sounds like the opening scene of 00:00:32.070 --> 00:00:34.880 a spy novel. Or maybe some dystopian film. It 00:00:34.880 --> 00:00:37.460 really does. But this was the literal office 00:00:37.460 --> 00:00:40.200 for David Bowie, Brian Eno and producer Tony 00:00:40.200 --> 00:00:42.259 Visconti. Exactly. And this isn't just, you know, 00:00:42.399 --> 00:00:45.280 cool trivia or scene setting. That specific tension, 00:00:45.380 --> 00:00:47.539 that feeling of being watched in a city cut in 00:00:47.539 --> 00:00:50.039 half. It's practically the invisible instrument 00:00:50.039 --> 00:00:51.880 on the album we are covering today. We're doing 00:00:51.880 --> 00:00:55.179 a deep dive into David Bowie's 1977 masterpiece, 00:00:55.579 --> 00:00:57.939 Heroes, which is the second installment of the 00:00:57.939 --> 00:01:00.140 famous Berlin trilogy. It's sandwiched right 00:01:00.140 --> 00:01:02.240 there after the album Low and Before Lodger. 00:01:02.280 --> 00:01:05.390 Right. And our mission today is to unpack how 00:01:05.390 --> 00:01:07.930 this environment, this hall by the wall, created 00:01:07.930 --> 00:01:09.989 one of the most significant artistic statements 00:01:09.989 --> 00:01:12.349 in history. It really is. We've combed through 00:01:12.349 --> 00:01:14.530 all the production notes, historical accounts, 00:01:15.010 --> 00:01:17.930 and the critical reception. We really want to 00:01:17.930 --> 00:01:21.390 understand how an album recorded next to a minefield 00:01:21.629 --> 00:01:24.810 with improvised lyrics and what Bowie called 00:01:24.810 --> 00:01:27.709 Harry rock -and -roll guitar managed to capture 00:01:27.709 --> 00:01:30.209 the zeitgeist so perfectly. And to do that you 00:01:30.209 --> 00:01:33.049 really have to start with the room itself, Hunza 00:01:33.049 --> 00:01:35.870 Studio 2. It wasn't just a place to put microphones. 00:01:36.329 --> 00:01:39.109 The room itself is basically a character in this 00:01:39.109 --> 00:01:42.590 story. It is huge. Because it was a former concert 00:01:42.590 --> 00:01:45.670 hall. Exactly. And the producer, Tony Visconti, 00:01:45.870 --> 00:01:48.390 he has spoken extensively about how that specific 00:01:48.390 --> 00:01:51.400 history weighed on them. He vividly recalls sitting 00:01:51.400 --> 00:01:53.859 at the mixing desk in the afternoon, looking 00:01:53.859 --> 00:01:56.659 out at those red guards in the turret. He knew 00:01:56.659 --> 00:01:58.620 they were watching him. And knowing there were 00:01:58.620 --> 00:02:00.579 landmines buried in the wall structure right 00:02:00.579 --> 00:02:02.340 in front of them. Yeah, just buried right there. 00:02:02.680 --> 00:02:04.400 Visconti actually said something really profound 00:02:04.400 --> 00:02:07.159 about it. He noted that the atmosphere was so 00:02:07.159 --> 00:02:09.840 provocative and so stimulating and so frightening 00:02:09.840 --> 00:02:12.520 that it actually gave the band more energy. Which 00:02:12.520 --> 00:02:14.159 is counterintuitive, isn't it? You would think 00:02:14.159 --> 00:02:16.020 so, yeah. You would think recording next to a 00:02:16.020 --> 00:02:18.360 death strip would be paralyzing. or at least 00:02:18.360 --> 00:02:22.599 depressing. But for Bowie, it was fuel. And this 00:02:22.599 --> 00:02:25.219 brings us to a really important distinction about 00:02:25.219 --> 00:02:27.840 his headspace at the time. Right, because the 00:02:27.840 --> 00:02:30.560 narrative around mid -70s Bowie is usually about 00:02:30.560 --> 00:02:33.460 the thin white Duke, the paranoia of Los Angeles, 00:02:33.900 --> 00:02:36.259 the heavy drug culture. But by the time he gets 00:02:36.259 --> 00:02:40.039 to heroes, that narrative has shifted. He moved 00:02:40.039 --> 00:02:44.469 to Europe. specifically to detox, to escape that 00:02:44.469 --> 00:02:47.189 LA drug culture. He had spent some time in France 00:02:47.189 --> 00:02:49.930 with Iggy Pop, then moved to Berlin. And during 00:02:49.930 --> 00:02:52.090 the recording of Lowe, the previous album, he 00:02:52.090 --> 00:02:54.090 was still in a pretty dark place emotionally, 00:02:54.710 --> 00:02:56.889 fighting specifically for his sanity. Yeah, very 00:02:56.889 --> 00:03:00.289 internal. But by late 1977, for Heroes, he was 00:03:00.289 --> 00:03:02.430 in recovery, he was healthier, he was in a much 00:03:02.430 --> 00:03:04.789 more positive mental state. Visconti actually 00:03:04.789 --> 00:03:07.789 called this album a very positive version of 00:03:07.789 --> 00:03:11.229 Lowe. So you have this fascinating paradox for 00:03:11.229 --> 00:03:14.599 the listener to consider. a recovering, optimistic 00:03:14.599 --> 00:03:17.860 artist, recording in one of the bleakest, scariest 00:03:17.860 --> 00:03:20.659 locations on earth. And that friction is exactly 00:03:20.659 --> 00:03:22.539 where the texture of the album comes from. It 00:03:22.539 --> 00:03:25.199 is optimism fighting against the weight of history. 00:03:25.599 --> 00:03:27.979 And he assembled a team that can navigate that 00:03:27.979 --> 00:03:30.479 friction perfectly. The core team returning from 00:03:30.479 --> 00:03:32.740 low. Right. You had Bowie, obviously. You had 00:03:32.740 --> 00:03:35.639 Visconti producing. Right. And the brilliant 00:03:35.639 --> 00:03:38.680 Brian Eno as a collaborator and musician. But 00:03:38.680 --> 00:03:40.979 the real wild card here, the element that takes 00:03:40.979 --> 00:03:43.080 this from an art school... experiment to a massive 00:03:43.080 --> 00:03:45.400 rock statement is the guy they flew in from New 00:03:45.400 --> 00:03:47.780 York. Robert Fripp. The king crimson guitarist. 00:03:47.960 --> 00:03:50.840 This story is legendary in music circles. So 00:03:50.840 --> 00:03:52.639 Brian Eno calls Fripp, who was living in New 00:03:52.639 --> 00:03:54.580 York at the time, and just hands the phone to 00:03:54.580 --> 00:03:57.080 Bowie. As you do. And Bowie just asks him point 00:03:57.080 --> 00:03:59.699 blank if he would be interested in playing some 00:03:59.699 --> 00:04:01.879 hairy rock and roll guitar. I love that phrasing 00:04:01.879 --> 00:04:05.180 so much. Not technical guitar, not avant -garde 00:04:05.180 --> 00:04:09.680 guitar. Hairy. It implies something messy, primal, 00:04:10.039 --> 00:04:13.120 unkempt. Exactly. And keep in mind, Fripp had 00:04:13.120 --> 00:04:15.340 not really played in three years. He was effectively 00:04:15.340 --> 00:04:18.259 retired from the music business. Wow. But he 00:04:18.259 --> 00:04:21.139 takes the risk. He flies Lufthansa to Berlin, 00:04:21.480 --> 00:04:23.980 and what he did there is just a testament to 00:04:23.980 --> 00:04:28.000 pure virtuosity. He recorded all his lead guitar 00:04:28.000 --> 00:04:31.079 parts for the entire album in three days. Three 00:04:31.079 --> 00:04:33.500 days? Three days. And from what I gathered in 00:04:33.500 --> 00:04:35.779 the production notes, he had not even heard the 00:04:35.779 --> 00:04:37.910 songs before he arrived. Is that right? He went 00:04:37.910 --> 00:04:40.910 in completely blind. He sat down, heard the backing 00:04:40.910 --> 00:04:43.730 tracks for the very first time, and just played. 00:04:43.930 --> 00:04:46.069 Because Bowie hadn't written the lyrics or melodies 00:04:46.069 --> 00:04:49.509 yet. Exactly. So Fripp is reacting in real time 00:04:49.509 --> 00:04:52.389 to these raw tracks. He is plugging his Les Paul 00:04:52.389 --> 00:04:54.949 into a fuzz box and just wailing over these chord 00:04:54.949 --> 00:04:57.290 changes he has never heard before with very little 00:04:57.290 --> 00:04:59.949 guidance from Bowie. And apparently both Visconti 00:04:59.949 --> 00:05:02.790 and Eno were just floored by his virtuosity. 00:05:03.069 --> 00:05:05.750 Visconti said it was masterful. Fripp would do 00:05:05.750 --> 00:05:07.629 a take, and they would say that was incredible, 00:05:07.850 --> 00:05:09.629 and Fripp would just shrug and say he could do 00:05:09.629 --> 00:05:11.970 it better. It is that lightning in a bottle energy 00:05:11.970 --> 00:05:14.949 you just can't rehearse. If he had weeks to practice, 00:05:15.089 --> 00:05:16.990 it might have sounded too polished. Too safe. 00:05:17.610 --> 00:05:19.310 Speaking of things you can't rehearse and trying 00:05:19.310 --> 00:05:23.069 not to be safe, we have to talk about Brian Eno's 00:05:23.069 --> 00:05:26.490 oblique strategies. Oh, yes. For listeners who 00:05:26.490 --> 00:05:28.790 haven't come across this, it sounds like some 00:05:28.790 --> 00:05:31.529 high -concept art theory, but it is actually 00:05:31.529 --> 00:05:36.180 a physical... deck of cards. It is. They described 00:05:36.180 --> 00:05:39.019 it as part fortune cookie, part monopoly chance 00:05:39.019 --> 00:05:41.879 cards. And the whole idea is to use them to break 00:05:41.879 --> 00:05:44.800 creative blocks. You draw a card and it gives 00:05:44.800 --> 00:05:47.180 you a cryptic instruction. Precisely. It forces 00:05:47.180 --> 00:05:50.220 you to abandon your habits. On Heroes, they use 00:05:50.220 --> 00:05:52.420 them heavily for the instrumentals on side two 00:05:52.420 --> 00:05:54.379 of the album. Like on Sense of Doubt. Right. 00:05:54.420 --> 00:05:56.459 You'd be stuck on a track like Sense of Doubt 00:05:56.459 --> 00:05:58.800 or Moss Garden, draw a card, and it might say 00:05:58.800 --> 00:06:01.660 something like, emphasize the differences. Or 00:06:01.660 --> 00:06:04.060 maybe work at a different speed. I think my favorite 00:06:04.060 --> 00:06:06.300 one of those cards just says, honor thy error 00:06:06.300 --> 00:06:09.930 as a hidden intention. It is brilliant. It introduces 00:06:09.930 --> 00:06:12.829 calculated randomness. It stops the musicians 00:06:12.829 --> 00:06:15.389 from falling into safe, predictable patterns. 00:06:15.949 --> 00:06:18.449 If you are a classically trained musician, your 00:06:18.449 --> 00:06:20.670 fingers naturally want to go to certain notes. 00:06:21.009 --> 00:06:23.250 The cards force you to go somewhere else. It 00:06:23.250 --> 00:06:25.750 is a way of forcing happy accidents. Yeah. And 00:06:25.750 --> 00:06:28.029 frankly, looking at the timeline of this record. 00:06:28.360 --> 00:06:31.180 They needed those shortcuts. I was genuinely 00:06:31.180 --> 00:06:33.920 shocked to learn how fast this whole record came 00:06:33.920 --> 00:06:36.759 together. It was incredibly rapid. Most of the 00:06:36.759 --> 00:06:39.339 basic backing tracks were done in just two days. 00:06:39.579 --> 00:06:42.060 Two days for some of the most complex art rock 00:06:42.060 --> 00:06:45.959 ever made. But the wildest part of the process 00:06:45.959 --> 00:06:49.420 for me is the lyrics, or rather the lack of them. 00:06:49.550 --> 00:06:51.850 This is a great takeaway for any creatives listening. 00:06:52.009 --> 00:06:53.610 You don't need to have it all figured out before 00:06:53.610 --> 00:06:55.490 you start. Most of the lyrics were not written 00:06:55.490 --> 00:06:57.769 until Bowie actually stood in front of the microphone. 00:06:57.970 --> 00:07:00.029 So he would just stand there, no notebook. Just 00:07:00.029 --> 00:07:02.430 him in the mic. He was really inspired by Iggy 00:07:02.430 --> 00:07:05.170 Pop's ability to improvise. Bowie would just 00:07:05.170 --> 00:07:07.589 ad lib and hire songs. Take the track, Joe the 00:07:07.589 --> 00:07:09.550 Lion, for example. That is a perfect example. 00:07:09.930 --> 00:07:11.730 That is the track that pays tribute to Chris 00:07:11.730 --> 00:07:14.610 Burton, the performance artist known for those 00:07:14.610 --> 00:07:17.199 outlandish stunts. like having himself nailed 00:07:17.199 --> 00:07:19.759 to a Volkswagen. Right. And Bowie went into the 00:07:19.759 --> 00:07:22.240 booth and sang that song at the top of his lungs 00:07:22.240 --> 00:07:25.240 without any prior written lyrics. He would sing 00:07:25.240 --> 00:07:28.199 a line, stop, think for a second and sing the 00:07:28.199 --> 00:07:31.019 next one. That sounds incredibly high stakes. 00:07:31.279 --> 00:07:33.819 Yeah. You are in a studio that costs a fortune 00:07:33.819 --> 00:07:37.019 per hour. The tape is rolling and you are just 00:07:37.019 --> 00:07:38.819 screaming off the top of your head. It was actually 00:07:38.819 --> 00:07:41.939 so chaotic that Visconti had to engineer a safety 00:07:41.939 --> 00:07:44.769 net. Because they kept losing the ideas. Exactly. 00:07:44.870 --> 00:07:47.310 The ideas were flowing so fast and often getting 00:07:47.310 --> 00:07:50.610 lost. So Visconti kept a separate two -track 00:07:50.610 --> 00:07:53.490 tape running continuously at all times during 00:07:53.490 --> 00:07:55.990 rehearsals to catch those lost moments. Like 00:07:55.990 --> 00:07:58.069 a black box recorder. Just to catch the light 00:07:58.069 --> 00:07:59.990 in it. It really highlights that the polished 00:07:59.990 --> 00:08:02.870 genius we hear on the record was actually a messy, 00:08:03.269 --> 00:08:06.110 frantic process of trial and error. It wasn't 00:08:06.110 --> 00:08:08.290 written neatly on sheet music. It was carved 00:08:08.290 --> 00:08:11.040 out of noise in real time. Very true. Now, let's 00:08:11.040 --> 00:08:13.560 look at the structure of the album itself. It 00:08:13.560 --> 00:08:16.319 has a bit of a split personality. It really does. 00:08:16.379 --> 00:08:19.040 It mirrors the structure of Lowe in that way. 00:08:19.540 --> 00:08:22.060 Side one is the conventional rock side. Energetic, 00:08:22.420 --> 00:08:25.759 guitar heavy. But side two is mostly ambient 00:08:25.759 --> 00:08:28.360 instrumental tracks. On side one, you have a 00:08:28.360 --> 00:08:30.850 track called V2 Schneider. And I think there's 00:08:30.850 --> 00:08:33.169 a common public misconception about this title 00:08:33.169 --> 00:08:36.149 that we need to clear up immediately. Huge misconception. 00:08:36.470 --> 00:08:40.450 British listeners in 1977 saw V2 and immediately 00:08:40.450 --> 00:08:42.470 thought of the V2 rockets from World War II. 00:08:42.610 --> 00:08:46.389 It fit that dark Berlin mystique perfectly. People 00:08:46.389 --> 00:08:48.289 thought Bowie was obsessing over the war again. 00:08:48.450 --> 00:08:50.690 But it wasn't about the war at all. It was actually 00:08:50.690 --> 00:08:53.009 a tribute to Florian Schneider, the founder of 00:08:53.009 --> 00:08:55.429 the electronic band Kraftwerk. But the track 00:08:55.429 --> 00:08:58.639 V2 Schneider itself... embodies that spirit of 00:08:58.639 --> 00:09:00.860 mistake as art we talked about earlier. The saxophone 00:09:00.860 --> 00:09:03.500 part. Yes. Bowie plays the saxophone on it, but 00:09:03.500 --> 00:09:05.799 he started on the completely wrong beat. It was 00:09:05.799 --> 00:09:07.840 a total mistake, but he liked how it sounded. 00:09:07.960 --> 00:09:10.779 It gave the song this lurching, off -kilter feel, 00:09:10.840 --> 00:09:12.980 so he kept it. Which is such a cool contrast 00:09:12.980 --> 00:09:15.399 to the precision of a band like Kraftwerk. Yeah. 00:09:15.539 --> 00:09:17.399 Then you flip the record over to side two and 00:09:17.399 --> 00:09:20.039 we enter the ambient territory. It becomes much 00:09:20.039 --> 00:09:23.059 moodier. You have the instrumental moss garden 00:09:23.059 --> 00:09:25.440 where Bowie is actually playing the koto. The 00:09:25.440 --> 00:09:27.320 traditional Japanese string instrument. Right. 00:09:27.539 --> 00:09:30.700 And then that segues into Neukölln, which is 00:09:30.700 --> 00:09:33.600 named after a specific quarter in Berlin. At 00:09:33.600 --> 00:09:36.179 the time, that was a neighborhood home to a large 00:09:36.179 --> 00:09:38.279 population of Turkish immigrants. And the music 00:09:38.279 --> 00:09:41.139 is specifically meant to capture the despair 00:09:41.139 --> 00:09:43.240 and isolation of those Turkish immigrants living 00:09:43.240 --> 00:09:46.960 there. It grounds that abstract, ambient music 00:09:46.960 --> 00:09:49.590 in a very human reality. So we have the hairy 00:09:49.590 --> 00:09:52.590 rock, we have the ambient despair. But we cannot 00:09:52.590 --> 00:09:54.809 do a deep dive on this album without talking 00:09:54.809 --> 00:09:57.269 about the centerpiece. The title track itself, 00:09:58.129 --> 00:10:00.750 Heroes. First things first with this track, the 00:10:00.750 --> 00:10:03.909 punctuation. Yes. It is Heroes in quotation marks. 00:10:04.009 --> 00:10:05.809 That has always been a detail that bugs people. 00:10:06.090 --> 00:10:08.419 Why the quotes? Bowie explained that the quotation 00:10:08.419 --> 00:10:11.139 marks indicate irony. He was highly skeptical 00:10:11.139 --> 00:10:13.779 about the concept of heroism. It is not a song 00:10:13.779 --> 00:10:16.960 about absolute triumph. It is about being heroes, 00:10:17.100 --> 00:10:19.600 as the lyrics say, just for one day. And the 00:10:19.600 --> 00:10:22.700 inspiration for the lyrics of that song. is one 00:10:22.700 --> 00:10:25.340 of the great stories of rock history. The famous 00:10:25.340 --> 00:10:27.539 lyric about the lovers kissing by the wall. For 00:10:27.539 --> 00:10:29.620 a long time, people speculated about who they 00:10:29.620 --> 00:10:32.899 were. But the real reveal is that it was inspired 00:10:32.899 --> 00:10:35.720 by producer Tony Visconti and backing singer 00:10:35.720 --> 00:10:38.620 Antonia Mass. But we looked out the studio window 00:10:38.620 --> 00:10:40.360 and saw them kissing at the foot of the Berlin 00:10:40.360 --> 00:10:43.259 Wall. Exactly. Right by the guard towers. A moment 00:10:43.259 --> 00:10:45.759 of connection in a place designed for separation 00:10:45.759 --> 00:10:49.139 and death. And the performance captures that 00:10:49.139 --> 00:10:52.350 desperation perfectly. Bowie's vocal style on 00:10:52.350 --> 00:10:54.789 the track is a master class. He starts off so 00:10:54.789 --> 00:10:57.490 incredibly calm, almost playful. And it builds. 00:10:57.590 --> 00:10:59.870 It moves from that calm delivery into what he 00:10:59.870 --> 00:11:02.269 called Bowie histrionics. He is at a near scream 00:11:02.269 --> 00:11:04.730 by the end. He sounds completely desperate. But 00:11:04.730 --> 00:11:06.909 here is the commercial reality that is so surprising 00:11:06.909 --> 00:11:09.929 for the listener. We think of Heroes as the definitive 00:11:09.929 --> 00:11:12.350 David Bowie anthem today. Oh, absolutely. But 00:11:12.350 --> 00:11:14.950 when it was released in October 1977. It was 00:11:14.950 --> 00:11:17.750 a commercial failure. Total flop. It peaked at 00:11:17.750 --> 00:11:20.980 number 24 in the UK. and it completely failed 00:11:20.980 --> 00:11:24.759 to chart in the US. That is wild. How does a 00:11:24.759 --> 00:11:27.860 song go from not charting to being a global classic? 00:11:28.159 --> 00:11:31.519 It only achieved that classic status years later. 00:11:31.860 --> 00:11:33.879 Notably, after his performance at Live Aid in 00:11:33.879 --> 00:11:36.659 1985, the world just needed time to catch up 00:11:36.659 --> 00:11:39.139 to what he was doing. Let's pivot to the visuals 00:11:39.139 --> 00:11:40.980 and the marketing, because the cover of this 00:11:40.980 --> 00:11:43.700 album is iconic. It really is. The black and 00:11:43.700 --> 00:11:46.059 white shot, the rigid pose, it was described 00:11:46.059 --> 00:11:48.460 as a wild -eyed look. And it is based directly 00:11:48.460 --> 00:11:50.919 on a painting called Roque Roule by the German 00:11:50.919 --> 00:11:53.419 artist, Eric Heckel. Right. And then you have 00:11:53.419 --> 00:11:55.460 the marketing campaign that RCA put together 00:11:55.460 --> 00:11:58.039 for the release, the slogan they used. There's 00:11:58.039 --> 00:12:00.580 old wave, there's new wave, and there's David 00:12:00.580 --> 00:12:03.019 Bowie. That is brilliant positioning. It is, 00:12:03.179 --> 00:12:04.720 because you have to remember the context. Punk 00:12:04.720 --> 00:12:06.980 is exploding. The new wave is taking over. And 00:12:06.980 --> 00:12:09.860 Bowie was 30, which was considered old in rock 00:12:09.860 --> 00:12:12.299 years back then. He risked looking obsolete. 00:12:12.500 --> 00:12:15.200 So this slogan places him entirely above the 00:12:15.200 --> 00:12:17.379 punk movement, which he actually heavily influenced. 00:12:17.480 --> 00:12:19.100 Rather than trying to make him a part of it, 00:12:19.340 --> 00:12:22.840 he is a genre unto himself. So despite the single 00:12:22.840 --> 00:12:25.360 flopping initially, the critical reaction was 00:12:25.360 --> 00:12:27.870 actually quite strong. Right. Very strong. It 00:12:27.870 --> 00:12:30.850 was named Album of the Year by NME and Melody 00:12:30.850 --> 00:12:34.330 Maker. Critics praised it as adventurous. Patti 00:12:34.330 --> 00:12:36.929 Smith even reviewed it and called it a cryptic 00:12:36.929 --> 00:12:39.889 product of a high order of intelligence. Now 00:12:39.889 --> 00:12:42.389 some criticism existed. Record Mirror, for instance, 00:12:42.490 --> 00:12:44.470 called it disjointed. They didn't love the split 00:12:44.470 --> 00:12:47.809 structure. But the cultural impact is undeniable. 00:12:47.990 --> 00:12:50.149 Look at John Lennon. He went on record saying 00:12:50.149 --> 00:12:52.809 his ambition for his comeback album, Double Fantasy, 00:12:53.110 --> 00:12:55.610 was to do something as good as Heroes. That is 00:12:55.610 --> 00:12:57.960 the ultimate compliment. And then you have U2. 00:12:58.279 --> 00:13:01.019 They literally went to record Aftung Baby at 00:13:01.019 --> 00:13:04.340 Hansa Studios specifically to honor this album 00:13:04.340 --> 00:13:06.559 and capture that energy. And it crossed genres, 00:13:06.879 --> 00:13:09.279 too. Philip Glass adapted the album into a classical 00:13:09.279 --> 00:13:12.360 symphony, the Heroes Symphony, in 1997. But there 00:13:12.360 --> 00:13:14.440 is one final piece of the legacy we should touch 00:13:14.440 --> 00:13:18.259 on. It is the cover of a cover. Ah, yes. Bowie's 00:13:18.259 --> 00:13:21.309 2013 album, The Next Day. For the cover of that 00:13:21.309 --> 00:13:23.730 album, he literally used the original hero's 00:13:23.730 --> 00:13:25.730 cover art, but he crossed out the title with 00:13:25.730 --> 00:13:28.009 a black line and obscured his own face with a 00:13:28.009 --> 00:13:30.049 big white box. I remember when that came out. 00:13:30.070 --> 00:13:32.429 It was to recapture the feeling of isolation. 00:13:32.549 --> 00:13:35.009 Right. And looking back at the past. Exactly. 00:13:35.110 --> 00:13:37.009 It was a statement about distance and legacy. 00:13:37.210 --> 00:13:41.049 So to summarize this deep dive, we have an incredibly 00:13:41.049 --> 00:13:44.549 positive record made in a dark place where the 00:13:44.549 --> 00:13:47.299 future and the past collided. an album recorded 00:13:47.299 --> 00:13:49.580 next to a minefield that went on to define a 00:13:49.580 --> 00:13:52.440 generation. It is a remarkable piece of history. 00:13:52.759 --> 00:13:55.340 Before we go, I want to leave you, the listener, 00:13:55.720 --> 00:13:57.740 with one final thought about those quotation 00:13:57.740 --> 00:14:01.059 marks we discussed, the irony in the title, Heroes. 00:14:01.299 --> 00:14:04.539 Right. If the album is about facing reality and 00:14:04.539 --> 00:14:07.879 finding joy just for one day, does the irony 00:14:07.879 --> 00:14:10.299 in the title suggest that heroism is impossible 00:14:10.299 --> 00:14:12.960 to sustain? Or does it mean that brief moments 00:14:12.960 --> 00:14:15.820 of connection, like that kiss by the wall, are 00:14:15.820 --> 00:14:18.639 the only heroism we actually have? That is a 00:14:18.639 --> 00:14:20.759 fascinating question to mull over. Something 00:14:20.759 --> 00:14:22.179 to think about the next time you put the record 00:14:22.179 --> 00:14:23.899 on. Thanks for joining us for this deep dive. 00:14:24.139 --> 00:14:24.679 See you next time.