I, I will be king
And you, you will be queen
Though nothing will drive them away
We can beat them, just for one day
We can be heroes, just for one day
And you, you can be mean
And I, I'll drink all the time
'Cause we're lovers, and that is a fact
Yes, we're lovers, and that is that
Though nothing will keep us together
We could steal time, just for one day
We can be heroes forever and ever
What'd you say?
I, I wish you could swim
Like the dolphins, like dolphins can swim
Though nothing, nothing will keep us together
We can beat them forever and ever
Oh, we can be heroes, just for one day
I, I will be king
And you, you will be queen
Though nothing will drive them away
We can be heroes, just for one day
We can be us, just for one day
I, I can remember (I remember)
Standing, by the wall (by the wall)
And the guns shot above our heads (over our heads)
And we kissed as though nothing could fall (nothing could fall)
And the shame was on the other side
Oh, we can beat them, forever and ever
Then we could be heroes, just for one day
We can be heroes
We can be heroes
We can be heroes
Just for one day
We can be heroes
We're nothing, and nothing will help us
Maybe we're lying, then you better not stay
But we could be safer, just for one day
And you, you will be queen
Though nothing will drive them away
We can beat them, just for one day
We can be heroes, just for one day
And you, you can be mean
And I, I'll drink all the time
'Cause we're lovers, and that is a fact
Yes, we're lovers, and that is that
Though nothing will keep us together
We could steal time, just for one day
We can be heroes forever and ever
What'd you say?
I, I wish you could swim
Like the dolphins, like dolphins can swim
Though nothing, nothing will keep us together
We can beat them forever and ever
Oh, we can be heroes, just for one day
I, I will be king
And you, you will be queen
Though nothing will drive them away
We can be heroes, just for one day
We can be us, just for one day
I, I can remember (I remember)
Standing, by the wall (by the wall)
And the guns shot above our heads (over our heads)
And we kissed as though nothing could fall (nothing could fall)
And the shame was on the other side
Oh, we can beat them, forever and ever
Then we could be heroes, just for one day
We can be heroes
We can be heroes
We can be heroes
Just for one day
We can be heroes
We're nothing, and nothing will help us
Maybe we're lying, then you better not stay
But we could be safer, just for one day
Lyrics submitted by magicnudiesuit, edited by retro1986
Heroes Lyrics as written by David Bowie Brian Peter George Eno
Lyrics © Wixen Music Publishing, Freibank Musikverlags und vermarktungs GmbH, BMG Rights Management, Universal Music Publishing Group, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Royalty Network, Bluewater Music Corp., Songtrust Ave, Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd., Warner Chappell Music, Inc., Actual Music, S.L.
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Absurd and very tragic, IMO the best love song ever written. Two very imperfect lovers (not deserving of the label, "Heroes") are in an impossible situation that is tearing them appart. Both, well aware of their limitations know that the "heroic" thing to do is to break up...or at least that's the sense you get from the lyrics, wich are absurdly over the top (intentionally, of course). All the same, possibly the best love song ever written.
Bowie sings two distinctly different versions, one short and one long. The short version of the song, unfortunately, eliminates the ambiguity of the long version, not to mention that it diminishes its effect musically because in the long version Bowie starts the first couple of verses very softly, which makes the whole song a crescendo where at the end he is shouting at the top of his lungs.
This song's vagueness (as winessed in the comments here) allows listeners to insert whatever meaning they may think is there. A homosexual couple facing discrimination or resistance from those around them ("And the shame was on the other side") may think that the song is precisely about them. A married man or woman having an affair may imagine themselves the topic of such a song ("And we kissed as though nothing could fall"). An alcoholic whose habits are ruining his marriage may see himself in the role of the hero and think that he can hang on to his wife despite the odds ("And I, I'll drink all the time."). People striving against great odds may feel that the song inspires them on ("And the guns shot above our heads). It's a deceptively profound song.
By the way, I liked the comment concerning the possibility that this song may have been based on a couple escaping Communist East Germany. It does make sense.
I don't know if I can add to the above. I'd always thought it was about East v. West Germany. I was driving in the car yesterday and this song came up. I'd heard it a hundred times, but realized the most likely case was he was talking about homosexuality. I would put forward that one of the most well known examples of homosexual behavior in the animal world is dolphins and I wish you could swim would suggest freedom, freedom to be who one really is - not a freedom readily available when the song was written. He is trying to provoke what he considers heroic behavior from the other person.
Further, this is the song he choose to perform at the Freddie Mercury benefit concert.
OF course, that makes the lines about the wall metaphorical - but they seem to suggest something impossible, a West German Man and an East German Woman meeting under the wall.
Something impossible, or at least at the time unthinkable.
And we kissed, as though nothing could fall.
Further, I think Bowie is credited with writing the song.
The Berlin Wall was still there and I spent hours looking over the floodlit nightime snow & ice of no-mans land, while East German soldiers stared back. Magic.
The collapse of the Wall was a good thing, but Berlin just isn't the same.
They were heroes.
Down with Big Brother!
Even then though reality breaks through into the singers fantasy though,, it can never really work out for the singer and the subject of his desires but he longingly asks for just one day to be together, to have what he wants and for maybe the whole thing to truly work out for him so he can have the life he longs for.
From there singer starts lamenting not living a more simple life where the strains and stresses they go through now would cease to be an issue. "I, I wish you could swim, like dolphins could swim" to me invokes an image of simple freedom, a wide open ocean to live in without the restraints people normally deal with, just travelling around with the person they care about.
This brings us back to the chorus which is again only fantasy, a simple little story where everything works out and the singer can be with the person they love.
Then we get more of a picture of how the singer ultimately interacts with their beloved, and its ultimately desperate and short lived, the lyrics invoke the image of war or a firing squad with them standing against a wall with guns being shot over their heads, implying on some level they mutually come together because of the harshness of the world towards them. With this and the next few lines I believe the song implies that the couple are in some kind of forbidden relationship, my mind immediately goes to them being either a gay couple or a racially mixed couple due to the time this song was released and David Bowie himself's personal experience as a bisexual man (at the time).
In the end the song sadly proclaims "We're nothing, and nothing will help us", the singer has accepted that they will never get what they want out of the romance and that maybe as implied before they aren't right for eachother anyway. At the same time though it ends on a hopeful note as the singer requests the "just one day" they had fantasized about previously, implying however slim a chance things could turn out the way the singer wanted them to, whether that is right or wrong is left to the listener.
I think this song is the singer saying that if they can't keep what they really want forever, then they could maybe try and have it for one day. 24 hours of pretending they can have it all.
At times I think the singer allows themselves to get carried away ("We can be heroes forever and ever"). Maybe they kid themselves into thinking that that one day will make a difference... who knows, maybe it will. In my mind this song's saying "Let's give it one shot, it probably won't change anything, but maybe it could... if not, at least we'll always have that one day that'll be ours forever."