1. David Bowie Heroes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tgcc5V9Hu3g To really understand David Bowies mind-set in the 70s, have a look at the Cracked Actor film. Here was a songwriter who pushed himself to the limits of artistic creativity via recreational drugs, particularly cocaine, yet still knocked out classic after classic and most certainly suffered for his art as a result. Bowie released countless classics in the 70s, he was the definition of a chameleon, shifting from one persona to another, but Heroes is not only his defining moment, its also the song of the decade. It has innate seriousness, is an elegy and an anthem all wrapped into a perfect whole. Written in his Berlin period, Heroes had the perfect team behind it, Tony Visconti on production, co-written with Brian Eno and Robert Fripp on guitar, who unleashed very strange sounds which sounded nothing like a guitar at all. The song stripped everything back from the ostentation of Ziggy Stardust and told the story of the 70s how it needed to be told. It wasn't all funk, disco and hedonism; this was a story of isolation - being lost and desperately searching for some meaning amidst the chaos. On its release Heroes wasn't by any means a commercial smash, but the song defined the alienation of the 70s, both in terms of the sound and the lyrics. Its a song of a thwarted love that sees hope in the bleakest of places, Though nothing, nothing, will keep us together, we could steal time, just for one day. That this song would go onto to be calling card of unification, popping up at the Olympics et al was only half of the real tale. This was the anthem of how disjointed the 70s was and how the individual replaced the masses of the hippy power of the 60s. Heroes signaled the death knell for the summer of love, a song of inspiration with bleakness written through its core that would trigger the hedonism of the 80s. After all, all children rebel against what their parents believe in, and thats the whole point of era defining songs.
Ed Nash
Contributor
What makes music fantastic? Star quality, amazing music, breathtaking lyrics and the ability to bring something new to the table, even if that means a new take on the classics. That's what I love to listen to and write about.
As well as writing for What Culture, I occasionally write a blog http://tedney.blogspot.co.uk and sometimes use Twitter, but sparingly @TedneyNash
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Ed