There apparently was a problem with radio, or at least the few radio stations I listened to, getting this song properly identified. Everyone knew the obvious (a duet between David Crosby and Phil Collins) but there were conflicting reports as to whose song it was. I distinctly remember being led down the path that this was a single off the new Phil Collins album, which was incorrect. Usually when Collins was involved someone always liked to assume it was a Genesis track, which would have been incorrect. The correct answer would have been the new David Crosby album, Thousand Roads, though I suspect it didn't matter.
Hero also warranted some of the most solemn DJ work I've ever heard. Thanks to the hazy synthesizers and Crosby's voice, I've always thought of this song as some elegy on lost childhood. (Also, where were Collins's canon drums for this one?) DJs who were too excited too speak coherently and oozing energy over new music by Mariah Carey and Meatloaf suddenly were conveying information about the new Phil Collins song (featuring David Crosby) in such hushed and cheerless tones that you wondered if someone died. Maybe it was their way of showing their sensitive side. Right.
Now that I think about it, maybe some DJs flubbed a little on track ownership since Collins was more of a "name" artist at that time than Crosby, Still, Nash or even Young. Fans of Phil already had to deal with We Can't Dance from two years prior and Both Sides of the Story was mildly popular. As such, Crosby really didn't have much going on at the moment. He needed to only wait a few years to perhaps use this song as a lullaby for his newborn children – thanks in part to Melissa Etheridge. You know, teach your children well, and all that sort of thing.
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Hero
(Phil Collins/David Crosby)
David Crosby
From the album Thousand Roads
1993
It was one of those great stories that you can't put down at night
The hero knew what he had to do and he wasn't afraid to fight
The villain goes to jail while the hero goes free
I wish it were that simple for me
And the reason that she loved him
Was the reason I loved him too
And he never wondered what was right or wrong
He just knew, he just knew
Shadow and shade mix together at dawn
But by the time you catch them simplicity's gone
So we sort through the pieces my friends and I
Searching through the darkness to find the breaks in the sky
And the reason that she loved him
Was the reason I loved him too
And he never wondered what was right or wrong
He just knew, he just knew
And we wonder yes, we wonder
How do you make sense of this
When the hero kills the maiden
With his kiss, with his kiss
Well, it was one of those great stories that you can't put down at night
The hero knew what he had to do and he wasn't afraid to fight
The villain goes to jail while the hero goes free
I wish it were that simple for me
Were that simple for me
