David Bowie made “Heroes” in 1977 with co-writer and electronic-music pioneer Brian Eno and co-producer Tony Visconti, both of whom regularly collaborated with him throughout his 54-year career. Bowie had moved to West Berlin to escape cocaine addiction and the madness of the L.A. years. He was living austerely: a Spartan life, as he described it, for a person of his means. He worked at Hansa because it felt dangerous and alive in equal measure. His closest collaborator, producer Tony Visconti, described it as a stark, scary place with exciting nightlife. It is widely believed that such an environment was what Bowie required in order to write new music, given his mental and emotional state at the time.
The Bad Penny (beta) 