The late David Bowie was a musical icon.\u00a0 He wrote some of the most creative and lasting popular music of the last several decades.<\/p>\n
This is about one of his works \u2013 one that I believe resonates particularly strongly with veterans of a certain part of the Cold War.\u00a0 I know it certainly does with me.<\/p>\n
And I think I may have finally figured out why.<\/p>\n
Yep, you\u2019re right \u2013 this is yet another verbal \u201cwalkabout\u201d off the normal TAH \u201cres\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0 Better hit yer browser\u2019s back button before it\u2019s too late to escape yet another trip down the proverbial rabbit hole.\u00a0 (smile)<\/p>\n
. . .<\/strong><\/p>\n The four years from 1972 to 1976 were hugely commercially and artistically successful period for Bowie.\u00a0 But the personal cost was substantial.<\/p>\n As a young man, Bowie had been advised to stay away from drugs \u2013 he was later to call this the best advice he\u2019d ever received.\u00a0 Yet like many of that era in the music business he ignored the advice.<\/p>\n Ignoring that advice nearly killed him.<\/p>\n Reputedly, his longtime assistant convinced him to leave the LA music and cocaine scene in the mid-1970s and get clean.\u00a0 He did so \u2013 first moving to Paris, then to Switzerland, and finally settling in a small, shabby apartment in a working-class (and at the time, mostly Turkish) neighborhood near the Berlin Wall.\u00a0 Doing this probably saved his life \u2013 though not his marriage.\u00a0 He and his first wife divorced a few years later, in 1980.<\/p>\n Here, Bowie regained control of his life and recovered.\u00a0 And working with some of the musical luminaries of the day (e.g., Tom Visconti, Brian Eno, David Fripp, and others) he recorded three of his most critically acclaimed albums \u2013 Low<\/u>, \u201cHeroes\u201d<\/u>, and Lodger<\/u>, collectively termed his \u201cBerlin Trilogy\u201d.\u00a0 The album \u201cHeroes\u201d was the only one of these that was written and recorded entirely in Berlin.<\/p>\n This background is IMO significant, because it affected the music Bowie produced during the period.\u00a0 And that ties directly into why I think one of those songs resonates with those who served during that part of the Cold War.<\/p>\n . . .<\/strong><\/p>\n OK, that\u2019s the background about Bowie.\u00a0 Now, some about the tune.<\/p>\n The song in question is \u201cHeroes\u201d (the quotes are part of the title).\u00a0 The music seems upbeat, with perhaps a bit of wistfulness added.\u00a0 Though initially not particularly well-received, it\u2019s become recognized as one of Bowie\u2019s signature works \u2013 perhaps his finest.<\/p>\n Live, it\u2019s anthemic and stirring.\u00a0 It appears to be a triumphant and joyful song \u2013 a musical reminder that one can \u201cbe all that you can be\u201d if one seizes the day.<\/p>\n That interpretation is IMO absolutely wrong.\u00a0 The song isn\u2019t about improving oneself or one\u2019s state in life.\u00a0 Rather, it\u2019s about being caught in a no-win situation.<\/p>\n And that \u2013 plus the timing \u2013 is why I believe the song resonates with those who served during and for a few years after the period in which the song was written.<\/p>\n . . .<\/strong><\/p>\n On the surface, the song is about 2 lovers, told from the man\u2019s perspective.\u00a0 That much is obvious.\u00a0 But the reality of the circumstances inspiring the song is hardly triumphant or inspiring.<\/p>\n In truth, the surface impression is fairly on the mark.\u00a0 An illicit love affair was the inspiration for the song.\u00a0 Bowie wrote it after seeing, from his apartment\u2019s window, the album\u2019s producer embrace his mistress near the Berlin Wall.\u00a0 (Bowie for years claimed it was an anonymous couple, until the man involved \u2013 Tom Visconti \u2013 publicly acknowledged the truth years later.\u00a0 Bowie then confirmed Visconti\u2019s account in 2003.)<\/p>\n Bowie had been around the block enough by then to know how unlikely such a relationship was to last \u2013 he\u2019d gone through many himself by that point.\u00a0 So the song\u2019s inspiration was something Bowie knew was almost certainly doomed to fail.<\/p>\n Those two factors influence the original song\u2019s lyrics, flow, and tone.\u00a0 They\u2019re also essential in understanding it.<\/p>\n Bluntly put, IMO the song is about being in a relationship that\u2019s doomed to fail.\u00a0 And it captures that feeling, both musically and lyrically, exquisitely well.<\/p>\n The original English-language version of the tune can be found here<\/a><\/em>; an English-German version, released a few weeks afterwards, can be found here<\/a><\/em> .\u00a0 (The historical images accompanying the latter version are worth the time it takes to watch, though a few misguided Photoshopped images also appear in the mix.\u00a0 Be forewarned:\u00a0 the images will likely provoke various emotional reactions – among them nostalgia, sadness, anger, disgust, euphoria, and pride.)\u00a0 Many live versions of the tune are also excellent (here is a representative sample<\/a><\/em>).<\/p>\n But for those who served in the US military during the mid\/late 1970s and early 1980s, I believe there’s another reason behind the tune\u2019s appeal.<\/p>\n . . .<\/strong><\/p>\n IMO, in \u201cHeroes\u201d Bowie unintentionally captured something bigger than the song\u2019s obvious storyline.\u00a0 By accident or design Bowie captured the\u00a0 mood of a short period of time \u2013 a time where Western civilization as we know it today could well have ended.<\/p>\n The song was recorded at the depth of the Cold War.\u00a0 It was recorded at the West\u2019s Cold War nadir:\u00a0 during the post-Vietnam period.<\/p>\n That was a time, frankly, when it seemed the West might lose the Cold War.<\/p>\n It was written and recorded in West Berlin \u2013 an enclave of the West 100 miles inside Communist East Germany.\u00a0 A city that knew it was lost if the organic fertilizer ever indeed hit the rotary air movement device.\u00a0 (smile)<\/p>\n It was written while the Berlin Wall still existed as a de facto<\/em> international border.<\/p>\n The historical accounts do not exaggerate.\u00a0 The Berlin Wall (and the rest of the IGB) was indeed monitored by\u00a0 Grenztruppen der DDR<\/em><\/a> (East German Border Troops, often inaccurately called “Volkspolezei” or “VoPo”) guards with orders to shoot those attempting escape.\u00a0 Nearly 140 individuals died<\/em><\/a> at the Berlin Wall between 1961 and 1989.<\/p>\n So those \u201cshots above our heads\u201d Bowie was talking about . . . weren\u2019t just figures of speech.\u00a0 They were all too real.<\/p>\n Korea along the DMZ wasn\u2019t much different.\u00a0 The APF there was damned high, too.\u00a0 And there were periodic incidents there as well.<\/p>\n Bottom line:\u00a0 during the mid\/late 1970s and early 1980s, that Soviet bear and its allies at the time seemed 10 feet tall.<\/p>\n . . .\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n So here’s my theory about why the song affects me, and I’d guess many who served during the late 1970s and early 1980s. \u00a0 Anyone who served in Europe then, or in Korea \u2013 or, well, pretty much anywhere\u00a0 during the same period \u2013 at times felt much \u00ad\u00adlike the song\u2019s hypothetical \u201chero\u201d.<\/p>\n Why?\u00a0 Simple.\u00a0 Those of us anywhere near the IGB or Korean DMZ knew that if the balloon went up . . . we probably weren\u2019t coming home.\u00a0 We knew that many, and probably most if not all, of us were going to die in place doing what we could to stop the enemy.<\/p>\n And we weren\u2019t sure we could.<\/p>\n So, yeah:\u00a0 we understood what Bowie was saying, albeit maybe subconsciously.\u00a0 Like the song\u2019s protagonist we were putting on a brave face \u2013 most of the time.\u00a0 We were whistling as we walked past the graveyard.<\/p>\n But we knew the score, even if we didn\u2019t often speak the truth plainly. We couldn\u2019t deceive ourselves all of the time.<\/p>\n We knew, deep down, if push came to shove . . . we were toast.\u00a0 We just hoped we could buy enough time to preserve something worth saving before we bought the farm.<\/p>\n None of us really wanted to end up in a position to be \u201cheroes\u201d \u2013 not even just for one day.\u00a0 (smile)\u00a0 We knew that often those in such a situation often didn\u2019t come home.\u00a0 But we also knew full well exactly that might happen.<\/p>\n And as strange as it might seem . . . for the most part, we were OK with that.<\/p>\n Thank God those days are past.<\/p>\n . . .<\/strong><\/p>\n David Bowie passed away over a year ago.\u00a0 And it\u2019s a bit ironic to me that he was the one to so nearly perfectly capture the US military’s mood of that time frame.\u00a0\u00a0 His public persona was anything but military.<\/p>\n Still\u00a0 . . . he IMO he did capture that era and that feeling damn near perfectly.\u00a0 So, wherever you are today, Mr. B:\u00a0 an old Cold Warrior sends his thanks.<\/p>\n IMO you certainly “got it right” with that one.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"