HEROES

The recent release of Bowie's comeback album "The Next Day" inspired me to do some reviews on his older work, specifically his seventies albums. Although Bowie has made decent albums in every decade since the sixties, his seventies work remains the pinnacle that gave Bowie the legendary status he's had since. When "Heroes" was released in 1977 I was 17 and still discovering what music suited me best. I had heard a lot of good reports and comments about "Heroes" from my friends and in the media (internet was yet a far cry). So I gave it a try in the record shop (in those days they had special cabins in shops with headphones, so you could listen to an album before bying it) and decided to buy it. It was not like anything I had heard before. Side A consisted of mainly rhythm driven songs without a clear melody, except maybe for "Sons of the silent age". The title track was up in the charts and this album contained the extended or original long version, which was in my view way better than the single version. Side B was filled with instrumentals, except for "The secret life of Arabia" and for the sparse vocals in "V2-Schneider". The (semi-) instrumentals were clearly inspired by krautrock. The cold war Berlin atmosphere clearly had its impact on the writing and recording. The album showed Bowie's versatility in writing and performing skills. The singing, the saxofone on "Neukolln", the song structures. It proved once again his penchant for unpredictability and exploring new directions in music. The album completely blew me away and, as often with first buys, at least im my case, has remained my favorite Bowie album up to now. The collaboration of Bowie, Eno ánd Fripp, three of my alltime musical "Heroes" (hence the title?) was to good to be true. But is wás true and it wás good! Progressive? Absolutely! A masterpiece.