The two albums were meant to be released simultaneously, but that process was marked by delays and detours. Gabriel envisioned a 2010 companion album called “I’ll Scratch Yours,” on which the artists he covered would, in turn, record one of his songs. “Scratch My Back” was meant to serve as the start of a song swap. “Which affirms, like many failed takes before it, that the original is about 70% brilliant record and 30% brilliant song,” he wrote. Of Gabriel’s cover of “Heroes,” Richardson wrote it was glacially slow and built to a single climax. In his review for “Pitchfork,” Mark Richardson wrote, “Every song on ‘Scratch My Back,’ regardless of its original tone or meaning, is flattened out and turned into this one melodramatic and depressing thing, often with Gabriel whispering half the words to go with the ultra-slow tempos.” “Scratch My Back” wasn’t particularly well-received by critics. Gabriel’s version of “Heroes” first appeared on his 2010 album “Scratch My Back,” in which he covered songs by artists like Arcade Fire, Bon Iver, Radiohead, Lou Reed, Paul Simon and Vampire Weekend (in a mildly ironic turn, Gabriel covered their song “Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa” which features the lyric: "Feels so unnatural/ Peter Gabriel too”). Rather, the show employs the Peter Gabriel cover, which has a story of its own. A perfect example is its appearance in the 2012 film adaptation of “The Perks of Being a Wallflower.” In that movie, “Heroes” serves as the elusive “tunnel song,” a song that makes the main characters feel alive despite dealing with issues like homophobia and sexual abuse.Įven without knowing the plot of the third season, you can see why it would be a fit in the context of “Stranger Things.”īut "Stranger Things" doesn't use Bowie as Bowie. Which is perhaps why - with the ringing lyrics “We can beat them, forever and ever / Oh, we can be heroes just for one day” - the song is so poignant when found in films about youth making it to the other side of suffering. “Heroes” wasn’t immediately popular when it first came out (it peaked on the UK Singles Chart at number 12 following Bowie's death), but biographer David Buckley deemed it “perhaps pop's definitive statement of the potential triumph of the human spirit over adversity.”
That was the same year Peter Gabriel released his debut solo single “Solsbury Hill” following his departure from the band Genesis.
The song, reportedly Bowie’s second most-covered, was originally released in September 1977. The season goes out on a haunting cover of David Bowie’s “Heroes” by Peter Gabriel (which has been used by the show once before, in episode 3 of the first season). With the exception of this soundtrack reveal, this is a spoiler-free zone, so we’re not here to talk about what leads up to those final moments we’re here to talk about how the show underscores it and the story behind the song. The last few minutes of season 3 of “Stranger Things” turn contemplative after a tightly-edited and action-packed eight hours.
0 kommentar(er)
