HEROES

"Heroes" (1977) was the second album of Bowie's Berlin trilogy, produced by Tony Visconti and featuring Brian Eno as a central collaborator. Like the preceding album Low (released earlier in 1977), "Heroes" contains several Krautrock-ish or otherwise experimental, more or less ambient oriented (near-) instrumental tracks on its second vinyl side, and this single represents both sides of the classic album.

The title song 'Heroes' is among David Bowie's best known songs, and it hardly needs an introduction. The title refers to the song called 'Hero' on the German band NEU!'s album Neu! '75; Bowie had asked their guitarist Michael Rother to play on the album but that didn't happen. If I remember right from some documentary, the song was inspired by two young lovers that Bowie saw by the Berlin Wall. Also a German-language version ('Helden') was recorded.

On the B side is 'V-2 Schneider', which is an energetic instrumental (except for the repeated title) featuring saxophone played by Bowie himself. It was a tribute to Florian Schneider of the German band Kraftwerk, while V-2 refers to the first ballistic missile. The piece was later heard on the German biographical drama Christiane F. (1981).

I would probably give four stars for "Heroes" (the album), but perhaps three will do for this single. BTW, confusingly the cover art is the same with the album.