Fripp did 3 separate takes for this song, told Bowie “one of these should work” and left the studio. They used all 3 takes simultaneously. Brilliant.

One of the brilliant things about Peter Gabriel's orchestral arrangements is his use of the strings as a substitute rhythm section. It's a common theme throughout his career, both studio and live.

Robert Fripp's endlessly sustained guitar notes hooting in the distance, among the rest of the soundscapes, effects and ambiant noise, all supported by the unstoppable rythmic machine moving on and on. Timeless

I'm a fan of Philip Glass and love his 4th Symphony "Heroes Symphony" based upon this song.

One of the few artists whose death made me cry. Especially the first time I listened to this song after his death. Every listen absolutely moves me every time.

Heros is a timeless masterpiece.It's about time someone figured it out that this is a song for any time in history especially now. I give you credit Doug. Means alot for survival of music and man. If you really get it it will drive you to tears.

What a wonderful song to cover, and I am so glad you included Peter Gabriel’s cover; he brings a different and extraordinary emotion to the piece. As an additional point of background, there is an adjacent interpretation of the song, identifying its theme as the struggle to confront magical thinking with clear-eyed reality. It gives the song a very different and darker mood, but still inspiring in its way, and not exclusive of the ideas you’ve identified. Peter Gabriel’s version, with its alternatively ordered lyrics and emphasis, makes this a bit clearer. Thank you as always for these wonderful videos

Thank you for your honest perspective of this song 🎵 I do hope you explore more of this genius’s work!

The buildup with Bowie going overboard with his vocals is cruell and brilliant. It grabs you by the balls

I believe Heroes became more popular as live performances of it were seen. Truly, the live versions are best with many of his songs. He's far more enjoyable live than in the studio, a rare and wonderful trait considering how great the studio stuff is.

Just awesome how the same song can be interpreted in such different ways and sound equally wonderful

Hell yeah....Bopping along in the UK, great Video Doug....and Peter Gabriel as a bonus.....perfect!!!!

A stunning cover and fantastic orchestration. So much forward motion! Glorious.

Really enjoyed this and have thought of this song in the context of today's events. Glad to see someone with better writing thought the same. I really enjoyed playing my bass along with this tonight!

I got home to late again for live, but I'm watching right now! Great song pick, Doug! You and your fans always find stuff that's awesome, ofcourse, but THIS ONE; SO NEEDED TODAY! This one is for the entire Earth!👏👏👏 We ALL need Heros to inspire us to help others. Even in 2022!💜💜💜

I remember this getting airplay in 1977. It's been one of my favorite songs by Bowie ever since.

The atmosphere that Fripp created .. really pulled the room together.

Bowie and Gabriel, two of my favorite singers and one of my favorite songs. Those soaring, sustaining guitar lines. Then Peter making his version so Gabriel. Excellence

Both versions amazing - especially Fripp’s guitar. Peter Gabriel reinterprets it brilliantly. Please do also see Peter Gabriel’s interpretation of MY BODY IS A CAGE the Arcade Fire song. It is extraordinary and the orchestral arrangements are to die for. Peter doesn’t read so used a colour coded system and discovered that a chunk of the orchestra were following his chart in preference to the score!

I can think of no one better than Peter to cover Heroes. The song has Always inspired me & I shiver every time I hear it. It’s so simple but builds passionately, pleading, screaming we can be Heroes. Pure genius.

Yeah! David was inside the Studio when the kiss happen❤❤❤. Brilliant song! And Peter Gabriel sang like a God! Wonderful! Thank you boths!😊😊

Thanks Doug. I loved your musings. Great, great song. Gabriel's version is so different, so unique.

I saw King Crimson play this as one of their encore songs at a show (awesome!). Fair enough, as Robert Fripp is on the original.

Thank you for the great content! The microfone details are revealing and, for me, they fit perfectly the way I think about the song (Bowie is awesome ). I also heard someone talking about the growing dissonance throughout the song, that it could represent the despair situation that turns one into a hero (heroes rising to the task in desperate moments - so current). I think of a couple in east Berlin ready to say goodbye facing a separation that seemed permanent at the time. In the beginning of the song, using the closest mic, they were still together, dreaming of impossible ways to remain a couple, but confronting the reality (the powers that would separate them). Later in the song (one is in the west and the other in the east), David’s voice is further way and with a dissonance that make you feel the loss. At this point he remembers the kiss by the wall that felt like a last kiss (like nothing could fall ). In the end of the song, more dissonance, voice further way (they are maybe apart by distance and time), they no longer can be heroes, they just ‘could’ be. To finish in a better note, he returns to ‘we can be heroes’ maybe indicating that we cannot change the past but we can learn from it. Very sad, beautiful, inspirational song. Can’t help thinking about the couples (families) separated in Ukraine…

Given the situation we all find ourselves in today - this is the song (Peter Gabriels' version for me), of this moment and is very emotional. All the best from Devon UK, Beamer.

Thanks for doing this one!

The reason recordings from the 1970s sound so good is that they were recorded analog/tape and that the editing/production equipment had reached a peak. The Peter Gabriel version gave me chills - thank you.

I am a little biased.. I love David Bowie, but Peter Gabriel has a voice that just strikes a chord in my soul.. always has

Bowie really was a unique individual. Such a deep and soulful guy and his vision was unreal. His predictions of the internet back in ‘99 were truly prophetic. Love his music so much, it would be fantastic to hear you check out more of his. ⚡️⚡️🙏🏻

I feel pretty sure that the real high points in written/recorded music have that meloncholic yet hopeful feel about them... Like this song. Nice one Doug. More Gabriel please

David Bowie's Heroes has always had such a special place in my heart and in the soundtrack of life (thanks Geebz). It's one of those songs that transcends the mundane. But, watching Stranger Things back in 2016 and hearing Peter Gabriel's version for the very first time was something else. What a cover. What a song. Now I don't even know which version I prefer anymore.

As an artist, PG has loved Bowie's work for his entire career. He and some of the members of Genesis were huge fans of Bowie's record, Hunky Dory. So this tribute to DB and this song has a deep rooted respect that comes over to the listener in powerful fashion. I love both versions very much, and PG really made a crusher version that makes the nose sting and the eyes leak. And I'll point out that his tribute had this powerful effect while Bowie was still alive, but now it's a leveling feeling that leaves us fans in a puddle of tears.

Thank you, for your work and also for your words.

Thank you so much for including this classic. This is a song that has been very important to me for a very long time and I probably need to apologise at the start for what I suspect is going to be a bit of a long and rambling response, but hopefully some of it may be of interest to some one! First though, a quick point about the different single and album versions of the song. The single chops off the first two verses (diving straight into the third "dolphin" verse) and also misses some of the drama of the finale - "We are nothing and nothing can help us. Maybe we are lying; then you'd better not stay. But we could be safer, just for one day" - and personally I think it is a much weaker song as a result. I just mention that, because Peter Gabriel is performing the single version and the "is that it?" element of your response is pretty much my response whenever I hear the single version! Peter Gabriel has taken the trouble to bring together arrangement of this beautiful classic, the orchestral arrangement is lovely and his presence in the performance is, as so often with him, mesmerising. But he only gives us half a song! I probably first heard this song about three years after it came out when I was an impressionable teenager. My brother's girlfriend had a copy of the album and I think that I was knocked out by this track the first time I heard it. I was learning how to play guitar at the time and I was amazed when I saw it in a music book and realised that it had simple chords that even I could play. I have played it ever since and as I have done so, my understanding and interpretation of it has changed. I agree with all of the things that you say about it but I also think it has many layers to it (in particular, as so often, Bowie's lyrics are multi-layered and I suspect bring together a lot of themes that were going around in that incredibly brilliant brain at the time). It is open to many different interpretations - which is probably why there are so many covers. At the moment, I tend to focus on the tender, fragile beauty of the two lovers, which I think gives us a beautiful "doomed love" theme. And that is where I would like to add a personal theory about the lovers. I have heard several different versions of the story of the lovers, including the Tony Visconti one, and the first one was that they were two gay men, who came from different sides of the wall. I think that the power of it is that it is such a universal image that it doesn't matter. The point is that their love is real, but fragile and possibly doomed. And that brings me to wonder about something which was going on in Bowie's life at the time, which is his relationship with a transwoman called Romy Haag, who is often described as his "muse" and whose cabaret act he brought into the video for his Berlin period single Boys Keep Swinging. There are a few places in the Berlin work where there are hints of the sorrow of a doomed relationship (for example the deep sadness of his Low single "Be My Wife"). I wonder whether, as well as their universal meaning, the lovers partly symbolise David and Romy and what, in the context of the 1970s, was a doomed love. If so, there are fascinating parallels to the tender love themes of Lou Reed's Coney Island Baby (inspired by another transwoman - Rachel Humpreys). If so, then amongst all of its other many meanings, Heroes may have a place amongst Bowie's impressive array of trans-anthems, up there with Rebel Rebel. If so, then for me as a transwoman that definitely underlines his position as one of our "Heroes".

I've always loved Bowie's original version. But my god, with Peter Gabriel's, I had a huge frisson when the orchestra swelled, and I openly was weeping by halfway through.

Great song. Great video. Yes, we can be heroes. Try to love one another right now.

I would love to see a video of you covering Peter Gabriel’s Blood of Eden, San Jacinto or Wallflower. That would be so great.

I was introduced to this song through a cover version performed by Blondie with a guest appearance by Fripp that appeared on a 12" single British import. I heard the Bowie version a few years later. 😎

The use of this song at the end of the film, JoJo Rabbit, is masterful to say the least.

Beautiful!!

Goosebumps at the end of PG's cover.

Doug, I’m blaming you for the fact that I’ve been obsessed with Bowie for the last several weeks since you did this review. So thanks.👏👏👏

Thanks for this Doug.

Yes, I am bopping along.

There’s a brilliant 15 min video with Toni Visconti the producer in a studio and he shows how the original Bowie track was recorded, built up and constructed. V insightful and enlightening. Check it out on KZfaq

The greatest rock song ever composed and sung by the greatest rock star of all time.

What a fantastic channel this is so much knowledge, understanding and empathy for the music and such skill perfect pitch? I guess so… but we are alway greedy for more of your reviews…

Excellent video Dave.

A very inspirational reaction, Doug.

To add one more to all these great covers: Apocalyptica and Lindemann. It's a beautifully arranged, an emotional rollercoaster, ranging from both Till's vocal vulnerability to justified anger. They translated the lyrics to German, making it all the more fitting, and to top it off, Lindemann, being from East Germany, makes you understand just how much he knows about what this is song is about.

Peter Gabriel's classical version of "Listening Wind" by Talking Heads reaches directly into your heart, and paints the most vivid mental pictures! Peter's whole "Scratch my Back and Ill Scratch Yours"/"Live Blood" album is a masterpiece in every way, with just brilliant and unexpected classical arrangements.

When Fripp would come into a session like this, he would often perform without hearing the track first. In this case he recorded one take, and Tony (and maybe Brian and David, I don’t recall), weren’t sure it was the one. Robert asked them for a second take, without listening to the first while he recorded it. He then recorded a third take. Tony blended the three takes together, and they are drastically different from each other, but blended into that magical part. Many folks think it was done with an eBow, an electronic device that keeps the guitar string vibrating. But it wasn’t. Just Fripp and a very loud Les Paul Custom. He measured and marked distances from the amp where it would feedback certain notes. I recall reading he was seated (as usual) and could roll to where it would feedback. Here’s Tony playing parts from the master tape, including bits of all three of Robert’s guitar tracks: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/bbdipsaB18mVh3k.html

My favorite cover of this song is done by King Crimson with Adrian Belew on vocals. Adrian gives so much power to this song, I'm sure you would love it.

It never surprises me that the bit of Bowie’s oeuvre I appreciate most is the stuff he did with Brian Eno, a musician and composer who deserves deep exploration.

The whole "Heroes" album as well as "Low" album are fascinating listens and highly recommended.

We have Gabriel's spin on the song and an orchestra -- I can't imagine a better cover!

Great background info! I did not know that

I heard a few "glug" sounds form that glorious bottle. Cheers Doug! You have a talent that means a great deal to me. Some people have life paths that lead away from music ...but we never let go of the impact it has on us. Your perceptions are making up for our life's mistakes.

yes I'm bopping!

Peter Gabriel sings powerful songs, I love this one, and Red Rain, and San Jacinto!

OMG , Peter do it so amazing

I’ve always loved this song of course but the sheer power of it hit me during the 2012 London Olympics opening ceremony. It was played during the GB team walk on, the team walked on last as they were the host team and I don’t think there was a dry eye in the stadium. It’s worth watching on KZfaq.

The 70"s didn't rely on computers, no Protools, no Autotune, no grids, just talent and ingenuity.

Beautiful Doug. I'm cheering you with my Bowen Island Trail Hopper IPA. I Love Heroes. I got the album when it was brand new as a gift. Christmas or birthday can't remember. And I do love the Gabriel version too. We are transfixed by it. I've been playing the song for years but I learned it from an acoustic version that Bowie did. This was a great one. It occurred to me that you might want to listen to some Kinks music and share your thoughts about some of that. Ray Davies is a brilliant song writer one of the Kings of the Kraft.

Definitely one of my favorite Bowie songs. Hard to pick a favorite though.

since you are a classic composer Philip Glass made two symphonies from the Low and Heroes albums in the 90s called Low Symphony and Heroes symphony they are very interesting and a great homage to Bowie (Glass and Bowie were friendly). by the way Bowie sang this song at the concert for the victims of 9/11 in NY (where he lived) short time after that terrible event with a public of firefighters and police officers. there is a video recording of that event.

Thankyou for exploring this song for us in this time. I would like to add an Australian icon John Farnham with the song "The Voice" another anthem for this troubled time that would be good to explore.

Love the Mercury Tribute version with Ziggy and Spider guitarits Ronson reuniting on stage after all those years from ” the last show we’ll ever do”.

Excellent points about the tremendous sound quality of recordings from the 1970's. Something I notice from not only Bowie's albums from that time but many artists/bands is that they shifted to different studios and went for different approaches based-on listening to other albums from bands they liked. While I imagine this certainly goes on still, now artists/bands seem to find more of a zone and stay within it. Also, digital recordings have really impacted studio sound quality and dynamics in a very negative way, along with squashed drums and 'tinker toy' keyboard tones.

im germand and i had the honor to see Peter perform his Version in 2014 live in Berlin at the "25th anniversary of the downfall of the berlin wall party". I cried the whole time while singing along!. It was a magical night. They had a line of brightly lit up balloons that traced a 15-kilometre stretch of the former berlin wall and all 7000 balloons were released into the air at the end of the show.

What a heart warming episode

I was drinking Old Crow and smoking Slap Wagon, as I watched. I love you, man.

King Crimson does a great Heroes cover as well, but of course we know about what they feel about people doing reactions to them....

Phillip Glass composed an entire collection of Bowie and Eno's Berlin songs. It's amazing!

I graduated HS in ‘77 and loved it when it came out. I was into Bowie before Genesis but not before King Crimson. I was also into Roxy Music before Genesis. Interesting how members of all have been involved here in one way or another.

The peak of analogue recording equipment was in the 70s ,tape saturation ,the compressors and the desks of the time along with amazing engineers and musicians that really knew their craft ,music had dynamics and depth ,no autotune or protools 😂

Thanks for a great and intresting video as always. be safe and skilful. Pinge

Berlin era Bowie is amazing. Low, Heros, and the 3rd Lodger (no one heard of). Low is an amazing album. You cant go wrong when the inspiration comes from German bands like Tangerine Dream, Neu!, Harmonia and Kraftwerk :) Low and Heros album and the Heros track really got a push forward with it being the Soundtrack of the Christiane F movie. (Christiane F Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo Soundtrack. Great album.)

I have attended several King Crimson shows where the band played Heroes - the best version after my opinion was done by the last line up though. Saw them in Copenhagen, same year as Bowie died - was really some kind of being reminded of this fantastic song by DB. Love Michael

Miss you beautiful Black Star ... thanks again Doug!

Thanks Doug! Another great one by Bowie. I’m looking forward to Steven Wilson’s surround remix of Robert Fripp’s solo album “Exposure” due out soon. It is a mind blower. Guitarist extraordinaire. Keep up the fantastic reviews!

Thank you for a very enlightening interpretation of this classic song. Your comments, and Ray's really moved me. One of your best on this great channel. Would love to see you cover King Crimson and Kate Bush 🙂

I have a different version that starts with the dolphin verse. I love this song and still listen to it all the time. My favourite live version is David singing it at the Freddie Mercury Tribute concert with Ian Hunter and Mick Ronson accompanying him. Magic.

Only viewed this one today. Beautiful song, awesome cover and heartwarming words Doug. Thanx! And… not to be compared with the original or the PG cover, but to mention… there is another very unique and different short cover, at the Moulin Rouge movie as part of what’s is called ‘the love medley’ sung by Ewan McGregor and Nicole Kidman (!). Love how in this movie famous songs are linked together and how the arrangements are made. Worthwhile checking out!

David Bowie changed my life.

That Peter Gabriel version.. wow.. I'd never heard that before. I didn't want it to stop. And talk about the relevance to today.. crikey. 'The shame is on the other side.. we can beat them.. we can be Heroes just for one day' From his mouth to God's ears.

I always felt that heroes pulled so much from the velvet underground sound especially that underlying rhythm section/beat.

The live version from Berlin 2002 is so f'n good. What a showman.

That Robert fripp guitar it's amazing

PG did a whole series of these slow (deliberately drum-less) orchestral covers, the "Scratch my Back" project, where he would trade cover songs with other songwriters. You end up with some interesting trades. My favorite one of these covers is PG's version of "The Book of Love" (really worth hearing). One of the more interesting swaps was with Paul Simon -- Simon did "Biko".

Aewsome version by Gabriel although the original is one of my favorite songs of all time. So perfect. But the orchestration of the Gabriel version is outstanding. Reminds me of Steve Reich...

I thought Peter's version was just right lengthwise for the time of that particular event. Sharing with Tony. 💕

I'm more of a Gabriel fan than a Bowie fan and that's reflected in my appreciation of these two performances, but I admire the songwriting prowess of the Bowie/Eno duo. I had a weird moment where I was going to suggest that you react to one of Eno's ambient albums (Thursday Aftermoon, Neroli, or one of his Music for X series), and then I realised the irony of suggesting focusing on a long piece that was explicitly designed to be sonic wallpaper! It's explained well in the liner notes to Thursday Afternoon, and as usual Eno does it better than most of those who came after him...

I love the occasional discordant notes on the background sustained guitar (I think they were using an e-bow, but I'm not sure).

1977 I was twenty nine years old Was familiar with Frip and Eno and their works together. Listen to the Eno /Gabriel version of, Here Comes the Flood. Was even into Eno Ambient with him since Roxy. Happy they came back together for Heres.

Always loved Bowie. Point of interest for you Doug. I'm sure I read Jordan Rudess played on Bowie's Low album which is part of the Berlin trilogy and Philip Glass did an orchestral version of the Low album.

I have scanned through most of the comments and cannot see this listed. The mix that Aphex Twin did, combining Bowie with Philip Glass' orchestral version. Really well worth a listen.

For me, the best version I`ve seen live with Bowie, is from Live Aid Wembley Stadium Sat 13th of July 1985!

Wow, Heroes really telegraphs Bowie's later work like Hours, Earthling and Outside... even elements of Tin Machine

At the end of Stranger Things S1 E3 (I think?) they play this song and holy moly. Talk about yanking on the heartstrings. I love the original but that Peter Gabriel version has some serious power. Also, yes, we need this right now. I wish everyone could take a little puff, pass it around, and listen to good music. We'd all get along so well. 😊