David Bowie is dead. Many genuine and hollow tributes are being paid to him this morning. Bowie was one of the great artists of the 20th century and somewhere quite low on his list of creative achievements is penning the world's most enduring sports song.
We can be pretty sure that when Bowie was holed up in East Berlin with Robert Fripp, Tony Visconti and Brian Eno writing the follow up to Low, he wasn't thinking about penning an anthem that would find itself on sports montages from here until kingdom come. But that is what is exactly what he did, however accidentally. According to legend, 'Heroes' is a song about two lovers on either side of the side of the Berlin Wall. But there is a universal quality to this love song, and for the last 30 years, it has been the go-to song for sports producers looking to throw together an inspiring montage about the indomitable quality of the human spirit.
It was the song RTE producers reached for when Ireland drew with Germany away in 2014.
It has been used on countless other montages.
'Heroes' is a love song, but nearly 40 years ago after its release, it has been reconfigured as the anthem of world sport. You will hear it blaring after 5ks, marathons and triathlons. You will it hear as an audio bed under highlights of sporting events on TV channels around the globe, especially when underdogs are involved. As a song, 'Heroes' endures, and will forever endure, because it speaks to something fundamentally true about the brief if graspable way we experience greatness as humans. Its mandate is something that the world's greatest athletes and the world's slowest joggers can agree on:
We can be heroes
We can be heroes
We can be heroes
Just for one day
RIP.
