David Bowie - Heroes

In this classic mini-epic ballad, Bowie croons to the heavens, underlying the strength of the song’s speaker’s devotion to their beloved.

The song’s renowned bass line is very similar to that of The Velvet Underground’s I’m Waiting for My Man. Here, however, rather than heighten an atmosphere of sordidness and ironic brutality, its firm, consistent reverberations, combined with the softer, more celestial sway of Bowie’s voice and the shimmering guitar riff, reinforce the song’s defiant and heartfelt declaration of love.

Indeed, the synthesis of the song’s differently sounding components into an energetic, harmonious whole can be seen to stand for Love itself- that celestial paradox and ecstatic contradiction.