“Heroes” is the greatest song ever. If there was such a thing, this would be it. I feel like I should sit down and shut up out of respect, but I just can’t. I’ve had an evolving relationship with “Heroes”. When I was younger, although I could tell it was a great song, I simply didn’t understand it at all. Because firstly, like Born In the USA, it’s one of those songs which means practically the opposite of what it sounds like it means. It sounds, obviously, like something very inspiring to march around and pump your fist to, but when you listen closer, it’s more about being drunk and miserable (again like Born In the USA). But in my misunderstanding, it’s not just a simple failure to grasp the ironic meaning of those quotation marks. I could not understand what he was talking about at all – it all sounded like nonsense. What’s that thing about the dolphins? Who is driving away whom? If fact, it wasn’t until I heard the rendition in Moulin Rouge that it dawned on me that he was addressing a lover, asking them to stay. So I grasped that it wasn’t about being heroic in the traditional sense, it was in some way a love song, but not a very happy one, but on some level the words still meant nothing. Until one day they were suddenly exactly the words I had to say. Nothing will keep us together. Oh, how I struggled to understand that line – shouldn’t it be ‘nothing will keep us apart’? Now I get it. But I can’t tell you what it means, if you don’t already know.
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