Chords for The making of "Heroes" (Reprise Version) by Moby

[C] _ Hi, I'm Moby.
On my album Reprise,
the majority of songs
are songs that, like,
if you look at the track listing,
you'll see the majority of songs
are songs that either
I've written by myself
or that I've written
with other people,
but there's one cover song
on there, and that cover song
is Heroes, as originally
And _ when I told friends of mine
or people I work with
that I wanted to cover Heroes,
they responded
with understandable wariness
because Heroes is one of
the greatest songs ever written,
and having the temerity
to cover Heroes
is kind of like trying to cover
the Sistine Chapel
or Imagine by John Lennon,
like things that should be
sacrosanct that you probably
should just leave
_ But when I was growing up,
I was obsessed with David Bowie.
I was obsessed with him
as a person, as a cultural figure,
obsessed with his music,
and then in the late 90s,
we became friends,
which was wonderful,
but also very disconcerting
because in my mind,
David Bowie was like a cross
between royalty and a demigod,
but he was also smart and generous
and kind and funny and lovely,
and so we became friends,
and then we became neighbors,
so we went on tour together,
we worked on music together,
we had holidays together,
and I guess in the early 2000s,
[Cm] we agreed to play a fundraiser
for Tibet House,
the [C] Philip Glass charity,
and I suggested that we do
a version of Heroes together.
I thought he would say no,
but he said [F] yes,
and he [C] came over to my apartment one morning,
he just walked across the street
and he brought coffee,
and we sat on the sofa
in my living room
with the sun coming through
the windows and the sun
coming through the skylights,
and just the two of us there,
we played a very simple,
austere, vulnerable version
of Heroes, and it stands as one
of not just the greatest moments
of my musical life,
but one of the greatest moments
of my life,
of my spiritual life,
my professional life,
my creative life,
and so in doing a cover version of Heroes,
I wanted to sort of pay homage
to the song,
to my friendship with David,
and also just to this moment
of sitting on a sofa
in my living room playing Heroes
on acoustic guitar.
So for my version,
I started off just playing
the very simple
acoustic guitar part,
[D] _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [G] _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [D] _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [G] _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [C] _ and then I matched
what I was playing
on acoustic guitar
with simple piano,
_ [D] _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ [G] _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ [D] _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ [G] _ _
_ _ _ _ and then I wanted to add [C] some orchestration.
And so ultimately,
to record the orchestration,
we did that with an orchestra in Hungary,
but when I write orchestral parts,
I write them on a keyboard
using an orchestral library,
so that gives me a sense
of what the parts
might sound like
if they're being played
by [D] an actual [C] orchestra.
So first I wrote
the simple cello parts.
_ [D] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [G] _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [D] _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [G] _ _ _ And _ _ _ _ [C] then as the song builds
at the end,
I sort of added
these much larger,
but still hopefully restrained
And [D] then _ _ _ _
_ _ [G] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [D] _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [G] _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ [C] _ _
finally,
I needed someone
to sing this song,
because clearly I do not have _
this beautiful song.
My friend Mindy Jones
has this huge voice,
like she can fill a theater very _ _ quietly
and very vulnerably.
And so I asked her to sing,
and she did such
this just like simple,
vulnerable performance,
and I wish she was here
right now to sing it for you,
but because of the pandemic,
I can just play you
one of her earlier takes
and show [G] you a picture _ _ _
_ _ [D] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [G] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [D] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [G] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [C] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [Gm] _ [D] _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [G] _ [Am] _ _ _ _ [Em] _
_ _ _ [D] _ _ _ _ _
_ We can [C] be heroes
_ [G] Just _ for [D] one day
So _ _ _ _ _ _ that's [G] how my cover version
of Heroes came together.
And again, I know it's
[D] the height of hubris and temerity
and possible delusion
to think of [G] covering
such a beautiful song.
Hopefully I've done it
some sort of justice,
but again, [D] it's my tribute
or my homage to David,
to our friendship,
and [G] just to that,
I know I've mentioned it
a few times,
but that moment of just sitting
on the sofa
with the greatest [D] musician
of all time,
drinking coffee
that he kindly brought
from Cafe Gitane
down the [G] street,
and playing the greatest song ever written.
Thank you.
_ And the [C] shame
_ _ _ Was on [D] the other side
_ _ _ We [Am] can be done
_ _ [Em] _ _ Forever and [D] ever
We _ _ _