I, I will be king and you, you will be queen

Continuing my trip back through the 1977 album charts.

30/10/77 : Heroes - David Bowie

Well this was a surprise - not that we met Mr Bowie, but that we hadn't already met this!  I had another album listened to and written up and just went to find the link to reference this in the post - but was unable to do so, because it just doesn't exist.  So, with a last minute change of plans, let's listen to our tenth album from the man - I can't say my expectations are massively high after my experience with Low, which was his preceding album (and the first from his famous Berlin trilogy).

Hmmm - it's somewhat challenging (particularly) the second side but, as far as I can remember, it all felt a bit more upbeat and accessible than Low.  Overall, I'd say I quite enjoyed the experience of listening to it without necessarily always loving the music.  I can certainly see I might have got into it back in the day if I'd been just that bit older than nine in 1977 and you certainly can't fault the title track - it's a classic.

We're at #3 in the charts this week on his second week of an eighteen week run, with it peaking in this week - it dropped pretty quickly after that.  The rest of the top five this week were best-ofs from Cliff Richard and Diana Ross, a Genesis live album and The Stranglers and the highest new entry is the incredibly rock and roll Bing Crosby (#9 - he died earlier this month).

Wikipedia has the expected massive amount on the album (334 milliPeppers) - most of it is waaaay too detailed to be of interest to normal people, but it was interesting to read that most of the lyrics were improvised at the microphone (I feel he did a better job of it than I'd manage).  It's also impressive to look at the names involved with Brian Eno, Tony Visconti and Robert Fripp all providing a load of giggles, I'm sure.  Another name that also jumped out at me was Colin Thurston, who I knew I knew but had to look up to see he went on to produce quite a few 80s albums, most notably Duran Duran's Rio.  Back to Heroes, the critics were very taken with it the time but retrospectively the view seems to be "well, it's not as good as Low" (which, at first listen, I'm not sure I agree with).  Commercially, it did OK with mid-table performance in many countries but it only really took off here, Australia (#6) and The Netherlands (#3).

"Customers also listened to" Brian Eno, Iggy Pop, Lou Reed and Roxy Music - I don't think any of those names will surprise anyone.  Overall, this album didn't immediately click with me but it's certainly interesting and it feels like it could be a gateway album back into Low if I felt the need to go there (spoiler alert - I don't).  I'm also interested to see where he goes with Lodger when I make it to 1979 (assuming I get to experience it).

23/10/77 - No more than fine
06/11/77 - A puzzling experience

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