Driving to work this morning
I heard that David Bowie has died. We
have lost a hero, an innovator, someone who could redefine himself and rock music repeatedly and in a way that opened up new possibilities for the
rest of us.
I remember when I was a
keen A level English student taking the lyrics from Heroes into my English
class and suggesting to my accommodating teacher, Mr Davey, that they were, in
fact, poetry. I was, it has to be said,
a fan, and perhaps my literary judgement was a little biased. But the sense of defiance, of potential, of
vulnerability in those lyrics was so much of its time in 1977, the same time
that punk rock was making less subtle protests with satirical songs like God
Save the Queen by the Sex Pistols. My
favourite verse in Heroes is:
I, I can remember (I
remember)
Standing, by the wall
(by the wall)
And the guns shot above
our heads
I remember when I was a keen A level English student taking the lyrics from Heroes into my English class and suggesting to my accommodating teacher, Mr Davey, that they were, in fact, poetry. I was, it has to be said, a fan, and perhaps my literary judgement was a little biased. But the sense of defiance, of potential, of vulnerability in those lyrics was so much of its time in 1977, the same time that punk rock was making less subtle protests with satirical songs like God Save the Queen by the Sex Pistols. My favourite verse in Heroes is: