The powerful & evocative song closes the Netflix series
New Year’s Eve saw the broadcast on Netflix of the final episode of the series finale of the phenomenally successful and critically lauded Stranger Things. The ten-year-in-the-making emotional climax was soundtracked by “Heroes” by David Bowie, one of music’s boldest innovators and enduring visionaries.
The song is expected to be released as part of the complete three-volume Season 5 digital soundtrack on January 1st via Sony’s Legacy Recordings. The Stranger Things: Soundtrack from the Netflix Series, Season 5 will be available on CD, vinyl, and red cassette configurations on Friday, January 30th. Colored vinyl formats include standard black, Amazon’s exclusive red smoke, Target’s exclusive blue smoke, Walmart’s exclusive orange marble, and the Sony Music Store’s exclusive marble-yellow colored vinyl.
Initially released in September 1977, “Heroes” is the title track of the second of Bowie’s hugely influential “Berlin Trilogy” of albums produced by Bowie and Tony Visconti and featuring Brian Eno. Recorded at Hansa Studios in West Berlin, which was situated only 150 metres away from the Berlin Wall and co-written with Eno, the song references the East German soldiers that could be seen from the studio’s control room and a love affair between a couple kissing in the shadow of the Wall.
The song, which has become an iconic anthem, was recorded by Bowie in English, German and French and has been covered by artists such as Oasis, Prince, Coldplay, Yungblud, Lady Gaga, Arcade Fire, Smashing Pumpkins, Depeche Mode, Blondie, Neil Finn, Peter Gabriel, King Crimson, Bon Jovi, Motorhead, Mily Cyrus, Aurora, Moby, David Byrne & St Vincent and The Wallflowers, who took it into the US top ten.
A decade after its release during the Summer of 1987, Bowie brought his Glass Spider Tour to Berlin. He performed as part of a series of shows at the Reichstag, a poignant symbol of the divided city just metres away from the Wall. The concert was held near the border, where many East Berliners crowded along to listen to music forbidden by the Soviet government, allowing the two halves of the city to hear the same show, with ‘Heroes’ as the emotional highlight for both sides.
Bowie later remarked, “We kind of heard that a few of the East Berliners might actually get the chance to hear the thing, but we didn’t realize in what numbers they would. And there were thousands on the other side that had come close to the wall. So it was like a double concert where the wall was the division. And we would hear them cheering and singing along from the other side. God, even now I get choked up. It was breaking my heart. I’d never done anything like that in my life, and I guess I never will again.”
During the shows, the East German authorities cracked down on the fans, attacking them with water cannons and arresting hundreds. The shows helped change the mood around the Wall, which had stood for over a quarter of a century, and was now seen with renewed anger. Within two years, the Wall came down, and it has long been believed that the Concerts For Berlin were a turning point in the East. When Bowie died in 2016, the German Foreign Office confirmed as much by posting a live version of “Heroes” on social media and declaring, “Good-bye David Bowie. You are now among #Heroes. Thank you for helping bring down the #wall.”