Know something about this song or lyrics?
Add it to our wiki.
I, I wish you could swim
Like the dolphins
Like dolphins can swim
Though nothing, nothing will keep us together
We can beat them, forever and ever
Oh, we can be heroes just for one day
I, I will be King
And you, you will be Queen
Though nothing will drive them away
We can be heroes just for one day
We can be us just for one day
I, I can remember
(I remember)
Standing by the wall
(By the wall)
And the guns, shot above our heads
(Over our heads)
And we kissed, as though nothing could fall
(Nothing could fall)
And the shame, was on the other side
Oh, we can beat them, forever and ever
Then we could be heroes just for one day
We can be heroes
We can be heroes
We can be heroes just for one day
We can be heroes
Like the dolphins
Like dolphins can swim
Though nothing, nothing will keep us together
We can beat them, forever and ever
Oh, we can be heroes just for one day
I, I will be King
And you, you will be Queen
Though nothing will drive them away
We can be heroes just for one day
We can be us just for one day
I, I can remember
(I remember)
Standing by the wall
(By the wall)
And the guns, shot above our heads
(Over our heads)
And we kissed, as though nothing could fall
(Nothing could fall)
And the shame, was on the other side
Oh, we can beat them, forever and ever
Then we could be heroes just for one day
We can be heroes
We can be heroes
We can be heroes just for one day
We can be heroes
Lyrics submitted by magicnudiesuit
Track duration: 03:37
"Heroes" as written by Brian Eno, David Bowie
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, TINTORETTO MUSIC
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
Add your thoughts
Log in now to tell us what you think this song means.
Don’t have an account? Create an account with SongMeanings to post comments, submit lyrics, and more. It’s super easy, we promise!
I think this song is the singer saying that if they can't keep what they really want forever, then they could maybe try and have it for one day. 24 hours of pretending they can have it all.
At times I think the singer allows themselves to get carried away ("We can be heroes forever and ever"). Maybe they kid themselves into thinking that that one day will make a difference... who knows, maybe it will. In my mind this song's saying "Let's give it one shot, it probably won't change anything, but maybe it could... if not, at least we'll always have that one day that'll be ours forever."
Even then though reality breaks through into the singers fantasy though,, it can never really work out for the singer and the subject of his desires but he longingly asks for just one day to be together, to have what he wants and for maybe the whole thing to truly work out for him so he can have the life he longs for.
From there singer starts lamenting not living a more simple life where the strains and stresses they go through now would cease to be an issue. "I, I wish you could swim, like dolphins could swim" to me invokes an image of simple freedom, a wide open ocean to live in without the restraints people normally deal with, just travelling around with the person they care about.
This brings us back to the chorus which is again only fantasy, a simple little story where everything works out and the singer can be with the person they love.
Then we get more of a picture of how the singer ultimately interacts with their beloved, and its ultimately desperate and short lived, the lyrics invoke the image of war or a firing squad with them standing against a wall with guns being shot over their heads, implying on some level they mutually come together because of the harshness of the world towards them. With this and the next few lines I believe the song implies that the couple are in some kind of forbidden relationship, my mind immediately goes to them being either a gay couple or a racially mixed couple due to the time this song was released and David Bowie himself's personal experience as a bisexual man (at the time).
In the end the song sadly proclaims "We're nothing, and nothing will help us", the singer has accepted that they will never get what they want out of the romance and that maybe as implied before they aren't right for eachother anyway. At the same time though it ends on a hopeful note as the singer requests the "just one day" they had fantasized about previously, implying however slim a chance things could turn out the way the singer wanted them to, whether that is right or wrong is left to the listener.
Great Song, but it makes me sad because it reminds me of that movie
They were heroes.
Down with Big Brother!
I love the real interpretation of this song.