Backing track (pictured in 2008), who had the word heroes in mind for the initial chord sequence. After completing his work co-producing
Iggy Pop's
Lust for Life (1977) and various promotional events,
David Bowie spent a few weeks devising ideas and concepts with multi-instrumentalist
Brian Eno for his next studio album. One idea was using the same
G–
D chord sequence he had used for Pop's "Success". Eno wanted to call it "Heroes", as the sequence "sounded grand and heroic", and "I had that very word – heroes – in my mind." According to the biographer Chris O'Leary, the word also paid reference to German
krautrock band
Neu!'s "Hero" (1975). Recording for the album took place entirely in
West Berlin between July and August 1977 at
Hansa Studio 2, a former concert hall converted into a recording studio that had been used by Gestapo officers during
World War II as a ballroom and was located about 500 yards from the
Berlin Wall. The song was co-produced by Bowie and
Tony Visconti, with contributions from Eno. The backing track began with Bowie on piano and, returning from
Station to Station (1976), the core band of
Carlos Alomar on rhythm guitar,
George Murray on bass and
Dennis Davis on drums. Although he had fed Davis's drums through his
Eventide H910 Harmonizer on
Low (1977), Visconti used it sparingly on the album
"Heroes", only during the
mixing stage, and as such, the drum sound is mostly atmospheric to the room. He ran Murray's bass through a
flanger. (pictured in 1974). According to Visconti, the recording sat for a week before
overdubs commenced. Eno brought in his
EMS Synthi AKS, a
synthesiser built in a briefcase, using its joystick,
oscillator knobs and noise filter to create a "shuddering, chattering effect [that] slowly builds up and gets more and more obvious towards the end". Bowie also added
Chamberlin and high-pitched lines on his
ARP Solina synthesiser. The guitarist
Robert Fripp, then on hiatus from his group
King Crimson, was recruited at Eno's suggestion. Receiving little guidance from Bowie, he cut three takes all based on
feedback loops. For each take, Fripp marked different spots on the studio floor with tape and played a different note in each spot, such as
A at four feet from his amp and G at three feet, all while his guitar was fed through Eno's EMS Synthi. When mixing the backing track, Visconti merged Fripp's takes onto one track, creating what he called "a dreamy, wailing quality". He buried Davis's kick drum, finding it "seemed to plod" the track and becoming "more energetic without it", and elevated Murray's
bassline, which Alomar augmented on guitar in a higher
register. An intended horn section was replaced with a synthesised brass line by the Chamberlin, while the bassline replaced the originally planned string section. With percussion, Visconti added tambourine and struck an empty tape canister with a drumstick as a placement for a
cowbell.
Vocals (pictured in 2007) devised the "multi-latch" system used to record the lead vocal and sang backing vocals. Similar to
Low, Bowie neglected to write lyrics until all but he and Visconti had departed. As such, the backing track for Heroes sat untouched for many weeks and for a time was rumoured it would remain an instrumental. On one day, Bowie requested Visconti leave him alone in the studio to focus on writing lyrics. As he stared outside the studio window, he witnessed Visconti and singer Antonia Maass kiss in close proximity to the Berlin Wall, which he used as the basis for the lyric. Bowie initially claimed that the lyric was based on an anonymous young couple, but Visconti, who was married to
Mary Hopkin at the time, contended that Bowie was protecting him and his affair with Maass. Bowie later confirmed the story in 2003, over two decades after Visconti and Hopkin's eventual divorce: "Tony was married at the time, and I could never say who it was. I think possibly the marriage was in the last few months, and it was very touching because I could see that Tony was very much in love with this girl, and it was that relationship which sort of motivated the song." Additionally, he improvised lyrics while standing at the microphone after witnessing Pop use the same method during the making of
The Idiot (1977) and
Lust for Life. To record the lead vocal, Visconti devised a "multi-latch" system that would utilise the ambience of Hansa to full effect. Three
Neumann microphones were used to capture the vocal: the first, a valve
U 47, was set up nine inches from Bowie; the second, a
U 87, was set up 20 feet away; and the third, another , about 50 feet away. The two farther mics were routed through a
noise gate, a volume controlling device that would turn them on as Bowie's voice reached them. Visconti explained: "If he sang a little louder, the next microphone would open up with the gate, and that would make sort of this big splash of reverb, and then if he
really sang loud, the back microphone would open up, and it would just open up this enormous sound." Bowie recorded three takes, the last of which mostly appears in the final song, and was completed in about two hours. Bowie and Visconti immediately recorded the backing vocals afterwards, harmonising in thirds and fifths below the lead vocal. The final mix was done at
Mountain Studios in
Montreux, Switzerland, a studio that would become one of Bowie's mainstays. An engineer at Mountain,
David Richards, would also become one of his regulars. ==Composition==