Australian rockers Gang of Youths, who were recently announced as part of the shortlist for the Australian Music Prize, have unveiled a powerful and emotional cover of ‘Heroes’, one of the signature tunes of the late David Bowie, who passed away earlier this week.
“hey, i wish i had some ornate or choice words to express how sad i am at the moment but i don’t, so i figured the best way for me to remember David Bowie was to cover the first song of his that i ever heard,” a missive accompanying the track reads.
“at the risk of being trite, ‘heroes’ changed my life. the melody accompanying ‘i, i will be king/and you/you will be queen’ is to me, not only the finest melody the thin white duke ever wrote but among the finest ever written period.”
“and if you listen to the synth line in the end chorus of our track ‘radioface’ very, very closely you can hear a small nod to ‘heroes’. thank you to another david, david andrew for helping me with this. all hail the goblin king”
The cover has received an extremely positive reception from fans, including fellow Aussie muso Montaigne, who wrote that the band’s cover of the classic tune took her back to the sensation she felt first hearing the original.
“You know that feeling you felt when you first heard ‘Heroes’? That one where your soul feels like an infinite highway, and your ghosts momentarily become friends, and your future is unclear but exciting, and the love you have is precious and the pain of the love you don’t have is glorious?” she writes.
“That’s what I felt, all over again, like the first time, when I heard this cover from my dear friends Gang of Youths. Long live love for the people whose greatness reminds us of our own.”
