David Bowie Performs an Ethereal Version of “Heroes,” with a Bottle Cap Strapped to His Shoe, Keeping the Beat

Months ago, I stum­bled upon this pret­ty won­der­ful video of David Bowie play­ing an “acoustic” ver­sion of “Heroes,” one of my favorite songs, and I thought I’d quick­ly share it today. Why wait?

Appear­ing at Neil Young’s annu­al Bridge School Ben­e­fit con­cert in Octo­ber 1996, Bowie gives us a stripped-down ver­sion of the mov­ing song he co-wrote with Bri­an Eno in 1977. Flanked by Reeves Gabrels on gui­tar and Gail Ann Dorsey on bass, Bowie strums his acoustic gui­tar. All the while, he taps his foot, let­ting a bot­tle cap, taped to shoe, assist in cre­at­ing a per­cus­sive beat. It’s all kept ele­gant­ly sim­ple. Hope you enjoy.

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Relat­ed Con­tent:

Lis­ten to Fred­die Mer­cury and David Bowie on the Iso­lat­ed Vocal Track for the Queen Hit ‘Under Pres­sure,’ 1981

50 Years of Chang­ing David Bowie Hair Styles in One Ani­mat­ed GIF

David Bowie’s Top 100 Books

David Bowie Becomes a DJ on BBC Radio in 1979; Intro­duces Lis­ten­ers to The Vel­vet Under­ground, Talk­ing Heads, Blondie & More


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Comments (6)
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  • George Regis says:

    That’s a beau­ti­ful per­for­mance.

    RIP David Bowie.

  • Barbara Richards says:

    One of the most touch­ing, beau­ti­ful videos I have ever seen. The song, ‘Heroes’, and David Bowie’s mas­ter­ful pres­ence, plus his accom­pa­nists, jux­ta­posed to these blessed chil­dren of the Bridge School as seen here, cre­ates a poet­ic and iron­ic uni­ty, har­mo­ny, that God loves.

  • Jan Jankura says:

    They have blocked this amaz­ing per­for­mance

  • Al Sontrop says:

    I’m also sur­prised and dis­ap­point­ed this amaz­ing trib­ute to those coura­geous par­ents and their chil­dren can’t be shared somehow…Barbara Richards (Jan.18th, 2016) dis­cribed it perfectly…What’s it take to get this back on Cana­di­an com­put­ers.…?!

  • trevor bell says:

    What does it take to get it back on Aussie com­put­ers? There is no depth to the lev­el of stu­pid­i­ty some­times. This is a video that needs to be shared not denied, Bar­bara is right, a touch­ing video.
    Mr Jones would be turn­ing in his grave.….….…

  • frankie says:

    why? denied!!!!!!!!

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