David Bowie really hated the Oasis cover of ‘Heroes’: “I didn’t think it was very good”
Any song that David Bowie put out was meant to be toyed with ever so slightly.
No art is ever truly completed, and even though there are more than a few albums in ‘The Starman’s discography that are as close to perfect as human hands will ever get, there are bound to be a few that could go in a few different directions. But even though there are acts like Nirvana that have recontextualised Bowie’s work for a new generation, that didn’t mean that he had to give his seal of approval to every single one of the copycats out there.
Then again, it’s hard to pin down how many people could have been influenced by what Bowie did. Every single era that he walked into had a much different feel than the last, and there’s no way to accurately pinpoint where he was going to be next. Some people may have jumped on board when they heard those glam hits back in the day, and there are others who would have loved it if he had kept toying with production design when working with Brian Eno on the Berlin trilogy.
But throughout every facet of his career, he was no stranger to writing a great pop song. ‘Life on Mars?’ was proof enough that he was a fantastic talent, but even when he was working on some of his poppiest songs like ‘Let’s Dance’, there were always subtle pieces of his work that kept people guessing, like bringing in Stevie Ray Vaughan to play on the session or having Nile Rodgers throw in some strange jazz chords into the mix.
After coming out of his ‘Phil Collins years’, though, Bowie didn’t want to rest on his laurels anymore. He had a whole new generation that knew him for tracks like ‘Modern Love’, but by the time bands like Nirvana and Pearl Jam started, Bowie had moved on to a completely different persona. Black Tie White Noise set the stage for the 1990s, and while he wasn’t making songs like ‘I’m Afraid of Americans’ yet, he seemed to fit like a glove with the Britpop sounds of the day.
In fact, bands like Suede and Pulp probably wouldn’t have existed had Bowie not come first, and ‘The Thin White Duke’ was more than happy to be one of the reigning kings of the genre even if he didn’t play that style anymore. But when he first heard the Gallagher brothers take a stab at his song ‘Heroes’ during the B-side sessions for Be Here Now, he wasn’t shy about saying that it wasn’t that good.
For all of his twists and turns, Bowie always came by it honestly, and he was the first to say that he felt Oasis didn’t really get the song when they played it, saying, “I heard Oasis’s version of ‘Heroes’ last year. I didn’t think it was very good. That was the first thing that I thought about it. And then, if I remember rightly, I didn’t think about it again. It felt like the very end-of-the-night-in-the-pub kind of thing, which is, I’m sure, how it was produced.”
And while Noel Gallagher was happy to shout his praises of Bowie to anyone within earshot, there’s a reason why his version doesn’t hold up next to the original. The whole track is about the kind of world-weariness in Bowie’s vocal, and when that’s replaced with one of the most self-confident rockstars that Manchester has ever produced, it loses a lot of its lustre when he’s talking about trying to become a hero just for one day.
Bowie’s protagonist seemed to be longing for that one day where everything will be alright, but Noel was more focused on being that person every single day as he sat on his pile of gold and platinum plaques. Be Here Now is already looked at by many as a bit of a misfire, and while not all of those critiques are all that fair, you can see why people would be a little bit upset if this is what they were given as B-sides.
