ON THIS DAY IN 1977 - BOWIE WROTE A SONG ABOUT AN ARTIST WHO HAD HIMSELF NAILED TO A VOLKSWAGEN

ON THIS DAY IN 1977, BOWIE WROTE A SONG ABOUT AN ARTIST WHO HAD HIMSELF NAILED TO A VOLKSWAGEN 🔩🚗

Three years earlier, American performance artist Chris Burden had staged one of modern art’s most physically extreme works.

For his 1974 performance Trans-Fixed, Burden had his hands nailed to a Volkswagen. The startling image would later find its way into David Bowie’s music—not as a passing reference, but at the heart of “Joe the Lion.” 🎨

In the summer of 1977, Bowie was recording “Heroes” at Hansa Studios in West Berlin. The sessions ran from July into August, with Bowie and Tony Visconti producing an album built from rhythm ideas, chord changes and experimental textures. ⚡🏙️

“Joe the Lion” became the second track on the album’s first side, arriving immediately after “Beauty and the Beast.” Its imagery of a man being nailed to his car pointed directly toward Burden and Trans-Fixed, transforming an extreme performance-art event into a ferocious rock song. 🎸

Bowie later removed any doubt about the connection. In a 1995 interview, he identified Chris Burden as the inspiration behind the song. What might have sounded like surreal Bowie imagery was rooted in something that had actually happened.

“Heroes” was released in the UK on October 14, 1977. Its title track would become the album’s defining anthem, but “Joe the Lion” carried another kind of power: tense, abrasive and linked to an artist who turned his own body into the work. 🦁

Some songs create impossible scenes. Bowie found one that reality had already made unforgettable.

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