David Bowie’s ‘Heroes’ And The Berlin Wall Concert That Made German Officials Salute The Thin White Duke On His Death
David Bowie’s “Heroes” is one of the most beloved of the artist’s massive catalog worldwide, but, for many Germans, the tale of forbidden Berlin Wall love is much more than a brilliant track. It’s symbolic of a time period when rock and roll was a form of protest, and David was one its most emblematic revolutionaries — especially in post-World War II Germany.
Good-bye, David Bowie. You are now among #Heroes. Thank you for helping to bring down the #wall. https://t.co/soaOUWiyVl #RIPDavidBowie
— GermanForeignOffice (@GermanyDiplo) January 11, 2016
“Heroes” has been covered, re-worked, and played on airwaves and streaming services so many times that it’s taken on a life of its own — even outside of its political content. No matter how many times it’s been played in a bar at 3 a.m. or on a car radio driving to work at six in the morning, Bowie’s classic tale of lovers trapped on opposing sides of the Berlin Wall is the definition of emotive rock music: every single second of “Heroes” rips at the heart, and, perhaps most impressively, every time it plays, it’s able to elicit that same emotion.
Partially, that may be because David was living intimately with his subject matter. “Heroes” landed on the album of the same name right in the center of his Berlin Trilogy. Bowie moved to West Berlin in 1976 in order to shake a crippling drug addiction and seek new creative influences. Working with two of his closest collaborators, Brian Eno and Iggy Pop, he began work on the set of albums inspired by the Berlin Wall and his life in the divided city.
That journey began with Low in 1977, which was much too experimental for the mainstream following David had amassed. It was a commercial and critical failure in its day but is now considered by many to be his greatest accomplishment. Bowie was undeterred by the album’s reception, and he continued with the same minimalist experimentation on Heroes. While few people esteem that record with the same level of recognition as Low, it yielded the Berlin Wall love song that has maintained relevance for generation after generation.
Still, “Heroes” was far from a hit. It failed to chart in the United States, and only hit No. 24 in Britain — a pitiful ranking for one of the country’s most popular stars. Yet, David had somehow superseded this era’s music industry obsession with rankings. “Heroes” may not have been quite as popular as some of his previous work, but to the Berliners among whom he lived, it was bigger than Bowie, it was bigger than music.
FM #Steinmeier on the death of David #Bowie: The world has lost a uniquely talented artist. https://t.co/t8323phGJw pic.twitter.com/Jw9ysVdbE5
— GermanForeignOffice (@GermanyDiplo) January 11, 2016
Nearly 10 years after completing the trilogy, David returned to his beloved Berlin to give a concert near the Berlin Wall that would be heard by both sides. Youth in East Berlin crowded around the wall in hopes of hearing that wonderful music and perhaps many hoping in particular to hear “Heroes,” the song that spoke of the reality they experienced living in a city split in two. Speaking of the concert later, Bowie regarded it was one of the most important of his career, he told Performing Songwriter.
“We kind of heard that a few of the East Berliners might actually get the chance to hear the thing, but we didn’t realize in what numbers they would. And there were thousands on the other side that had come close to the wall. So it was like a double concert where the wall was the division. And we would hear them cheering and singing along from the other side. God, even now I get choked up. It was breaking my heart. I’d never done anything like that in my life, and I guess I never will again.”
Soon after, Genesis took the stage in the same spot where David Bowie had belted out “Heroes.” As young men and women gathered to hear music again, a brutal police crackdown took place on the East Berlin side to break up the listeners. To say that David or Genesis were responsible for bringing down the Berlin Wall would show a lack of historical understanding of the events that followed, but what is true is that that day they were “Heroes” to many in Berlin — and part of the reason why Germans are among the saddest to hear of Bowie’s passing.
[Photo by Smith/Express/Getty Images]
