David Bowie “Heroes” This upcoming weekend (October 14th) marks the 40th anniversary of Heroes release in 1977, Bowie’s 12th studio LP and the second of his Berlin trilogy (which includes Low and Lodger. The album was recorded practically within spitting distance of the Berlin Wall and the Cold War and the German location had a profound influence on the record, including the cover photo (taken by Masayoshi Sukita, it was inspired by German artist Erich Heckel’s Roquairol) and Kraftwerk (“V-2 Schneider” is named for one of Kraftwerk’s founders).

Heroes made it to #3 on the UK charts but only hit #35 in the US. However it was almost universally hailed by music critics, named as album of the year by several music publications. Bowie’s collaboration on Heroes with both Brian Eno (synths) and Robert Fripp (guitar) served to make Heroes both a rock album and an art-pop experiment (a great example of this productive tension is the track “Blackout” which is ambient and dissonant yet funky with get-down beats and pop-hook guitars). Bowie released two singles, the title track “Heroes” which charted at #24 in the UK in ‘77 but did not chart in the US until after Bowie’s death in 2016 when it went to #11, and “Beauty and the Beast,” which hit #39 in the UK in early ‘78.