- Music
- 25 Sep 17
It's hard to believe that the seminal track is four decades old this month. And to celebrate the fact, a limited edition 40th anniversary 7" picture disc with an unreleased track has just been released.
The AA of the 7” picture disc is a previously unreleased live version of the track from Marc Bolan’s ‘Marc’ ITV show, the first time public performance of the song.
The track was recorded on the 7th of September 1977, but wasn’t broadcast until later that month by which time Bolan had passed away in a tragic accident.'
'Heroes' was originally recorded in English, French, and German and has over the past forty years become an inspirational anthem.
When Bowie performed the song in West Berlin in 1987 with the Wall as a backdrop, thousands of East Berliners could be heard singing and cheering along.
Bowie later described it as one of the most emotional performances he had ever done.
'Heroes' is one of Bowie’s most-covered tracks with the likes of Prince, Blondie, Oasis, Nico, Depeche Mode, LCD Soundsystem, Peter Gabriel, Janelle Monae, King Crimson, Philip Glass, Kasabian, TV On The Radio, The Wallflowers and many more having performed it.
The new 40th anniversary mixes see Leipzig’s Filburt and Brighton trio KLAX take the track into uncharted territory;
KLAX 'Bowie has been in our collective consciousness since birth and has undoubtedly been a huge influence on our musical development.
The Berlin Trilogy is our favourite of Bowie's many ‘eras', and the track 'Heroes' sticks out as one of the greatest songs of this period.
"To be given the opportunity to add our own touch to such an iconic track was both daunting and astonishing," he says.
"We wanted to maintain the emotion of the original track while placing it firmly in the 'here and now', staying true to Bowie's forward thinking and boundary-pushing legacy.
"It was easily the highest pressure remix we've ever done but we are really happy with the results and hope others feel that too’.
Filburt says: "It was a very great honour to work with the original material. When I first heard the single stems, I got goose bumps.
"For me, David Bowie has always been an exceptional talent, and the song reflects the urge for freedom and change. When working on the remix, it was important to transport the feeling of the original to the modern age, but also to generate a classic disco feeling in the groove."
‘Heroes’ in English, German and French feature on David Bowie;s 'A New Career in A New Town' (1977 – 1982)’ is the third in a series of box sets spanning David Bowie's career from 1969.
The 11 CD box, 13-piece vinyl set and the Mastered For iTunes and standard digital download set is named after a track from the first of the so-called ‘Berlin Trilogy’ LOW, includes ‘LOW’, ‘“HEROES”’, ‘STAGE'.
The former in the vinyl box will be pressed on yellow vinyl, replicating its original limited edition U.K. release and the latter of which featuring two previously unreleased tracks, ‘LODGER’, ‘LODGER (Tony Visconti 2017 Mix)’, ‘SCARY MONSTERS (And Super Creeps)’, ‘RE:CALL 3’ (featuring contemporary single versions, non-album singles, b-sides and songs featured on soundtracks) and the ‘“HEROES”’ E.P., a compilation exclusive to the set celebrating the 40th anniversary of the song, which rounds up the German and French album and single versions of the track in one place for the first time.
Exclusive to each of the box sets is ‘LODGER (Tony Visconti 2017 Mix)’. The remix was started with David's blessing before his passing in January last year.
Tony Visconti has revisited the original multi-tracks at Human Studios and remixed the album with the benefit of modern technology to better highlight the album's nuances.
Always a personal favourite of David's, this version of the album will also feature newly 'remixed' artwork featuring unseen images from the original cover photographic session.
Also exclusive to each box is ‘Re:Call 3’, a new compilation featuring remastered contemporary single versions, non-album singles and b-sides, and songs featured on soundtracks.
The cover features a photo by Christian Simonpietri taken at Hansa Studios in Berlin during the ‘“Heroes”’ sessions in 1977.
The ‘Baal’ E.P. in its entirety is making its CD debut while ‘Beauty And The Beast’ (extended version) and ‘Breaking Glass’ (Australian single version) are making their debuts on CD and digitally.
The physical box set’s accompanying book, 128 pages in the CD box and 84 in the vinyl set, will feature rarely seen and previously unpublished photos by photographers including Anton Corbijn, Helmut Newton, Andrew Kent, Steve Schapiro, Duffy and many others as well as historical press reviews and technical notes about the albums from producer Tony Visconti.
The CD box set will include faithfully reproduced mini-vinyl versions of the original albums, and the CDs will be gold coloured rather than the usual silver.
The vinyl box set has the same content as the CD set and is pressed on audiophile quality 180g vinyl.
A New Career In A New Town (1977-1982) will also be made available in High Definition audio digital formats (192kHZ/24bit and 96kHZ/24bit).
Content varies from other formats due to the resolution of the available original source material.