Members Fender&EHX4ever Posted March 21, 2009 Members Share Posted March 21, 2009 When I first saw the videos for "Hungry Like The Wolf", "Rio", and "Save A Prayer", it was like Fellini meets Indiana Jones. In retrospect, it was born more out of Bowie's Young Americans, Roxy Music's Siren, and Japan's Quiet Life. They claimed that their original vision was to sound like Sex Pistols meets Chic. I definitely hear the Nile Rodgers influence. Sex Pistols? Not so much. And it's never really been cool for dudes to dig Duran Duran, being that they were somewhat of a "Boy Band", albeit a Boy Band that knew how to play their instruments really well, and occasionally write a decent song. But they were pivotal in 1982. They were the shiniest faces to vanguard a huge young European post-punk music scene that most Americans were largely unaware of. They opened the MTV door, and the rest flooded in behind. How many teenagers in 1982 first discovered Rio, and then moved on to The Cure? The Psychedelic Furs? Echo & The Bunnymen? Depeche Mode? The Smiths? etc. etc. ? And yet those bands seem to get more credibility. But I think Rio still stands as a jewel of a record. "The Chauffeur" is, in many ways, the quintessential New Romantics recording, for what that's worth. It's one Duran Duran song that even is fun to play on an acoustic guitar. That's always telling for me. And the Nagel cover was perfect. It epitomized the Warholian idea that vacuous style is beautiful when it's self-aware. Seven & The Ragged Tiger lost me. The formula became too self-aware at that point. I shelved them in favor of U2 War, Police Synchronicity, and Prince 1999. Anyway, I don't imagine this thread will get much response. I'm hoping to at least hear from Aeon and Jules-RM http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2brXlRo5ZtU Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members melx Posted March 21, 2009 Members Share Posted March 21, 2009 It's wierd Duran Duran have grown on me over the years, at the time my sister was a 'duranie' and I was listening to The Specials and the Clash....so obviously I hated them!! But as 'pop' bands got worse and worse over the years I started to look back fondly at the 'pop' bands of the 80's.....they wrote some killer songs and they were fantastic musicians....still are in fact. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members onyxrhino Posted March 21, 2009 Members Share Posted March 21, 2009 I don't much care for the Chauffeur song, but that video was fun. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Fender&EHX4ever Posted March 21, 2009 Author Members Share Posted March 21, 2009 It's wierd Duran Duran have grown on me over the years, at the time my sister was a 'duranie' and I was listening to The Specials and the Clash....so obviously I hated them!! But as 'pop' bands got worse and worse over the years I started to look back fondly at the 'pop' bands of the 80's.....they wrote some killer songs and they were fantastic musicians....still are in fact. I have to confess that I wasn't expecting that response from you, melx. But it makes me smile. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Fender&EHX4ever Posted March 21, 2009 Author Members Share Posted March 21, 2009 I don't much care for the Chauffeur song, but that video was fun. How can you resist? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members myTakamine Posted March 21, 2009 Members Share Posted March 21, 2009 Great album. "Rio" and "Hungry Like the Wolf" are still among my favorite songs. The "Boy Band" image also had a practical downside. Around the time Seven and the Ragged Tiger was a new release I saw them in concert, and I emphasize "saw", because half the time Nick was on the big screen and the girl-screams drowned out the music. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members onyxrhino Posted March 21, 2009 Members Share Posted March 21, 2009 How can you resist? It's like it starts out like your typical arty 80's sex-sells vid, but then turns into a Eurotrash epic wobbling on the precipice of self-parody by the end. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members melx Posted March 21, 2009 Members Share Posted March 21, 2009 I have to confess that I wasn't expecting that response from you, melx. But it makes me smile. I'm full of suprises.........plus any band that take their name from Barbarella are ok with me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members melx Posted March 21, 2009 Members Share Posted March 21, 2009 Great album. "Rio" and "Hungry Like the Wolf" are still among my favorite songs.The "Boy Band" image also had a practical downside. Around the time Seven and the Ragged Tiger was a new release I saw them in concert, and I emphasize "saw", because half the time Nick was on the big screen and the girl-screams drowned out the music. were all the girls Nick Rhodes fans there? everyone I knew loved John Taylor. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Fender&EHX4ever Posted March 21, 2009 Author Members Share Posted March 21, 2009 It's like it starts out like your typical arty 80's sex-sells vid, but then turns into a Eurotrash epic wobbling on the precipice of self-parody by the end. Sure But the blonde's dance moves put Madonna to shame, and precede her by at least 2 years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Jules-RM Posted March 21, 2009 Members Share Posted March 21, 2009 Heh, yeah. Duran Duran as well were the first real band I got into on my own (I liked Bowie, the Beatles and Queen from my sister's records), I had the first album before Rio came out. The first album is still my favorite. "Hungry Like the Wolf" really annoyed the hell out of me (I was 8 at the time), but I bought Rio anyway. I disliked most of the first side - apart from "Lonely in Your Nightmare" - and loved the second side. "New Religion", "Save a Prayer", and my favorite song "The Chauffeur" in particular. I think I edited the two albums together at one point and made one hell of an album. After that like the OP I got into Prince with 1999 and eventually Purple Rain when that came out. Then I got the synthpop bug and fixated on Depeche Mode in 1983 or 84 for a few years as my favorite band (With Pet Shop Boys being my second favorite from the "West End Girls" single) before my love affair with Goth (Bauhaus first, then Siouxsie, then the Cure, then finally Joy Division) when I was 14. While I did love Ziggy era Bowie and the Beatles, it really was Duran Duran that made me obsess about music. They were a lot better band than 99% of the stuff at the time. Their albums were uneven imo, but on balance had a lot more excellent songs that will stand the test of time than most of their contemporaries. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members myTakamine Posted March 21, 2009 Members Share Posted March 21, 2009 were all the girls Nick Rhodes fans there? everyone I knew loved John Taylor. Yeah, for some reason Nick Rhodes was the one that just sent them over the top. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members melx Posted March 21, 2009 Members Share Posted March 21, 2009 This song always reminds me of The Cure.... [YOUTUBE]W1N19zOBKCE[/YOUTUBE] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Fender&EHX4ever Posted March 21, 2009 Author Members Share Posted March 21, 2009 This song always reminds me of The Cure.... I love that song! It has this sort of Sci-Fi Western thing going on. And it Rocks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members melx Posted March 21, 2009 Members Share Posted March 21, 2009 I love that song! It has this sort of Sci-Fi Western thing going on. And it Rocks!Sci-Fi Western??? lol, wtf!!!?? hahaha, it's a great track though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Fender&EHX4ever Posted March 21, 2009 Author Members Share Posted March 21, 2009 Then I got the synthpop bug and fixated on Depeche Mode in 1983 or 84 for a few years as my favorite band (With Pet Shop Boys being my second favorite from the "West End Girls" single) before my love affair with Goth (Bauhaus first, then Siouxsie, then the Cure, then finally Joy Division) when I was 14. Precisely! I'll bet a lot of 80's Goths cut their teeth on the first 2 Duran Duran albums. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Jules-RM Posted March 21, 2009 Members Share Posted March 21, 2009 Still one of my favorite songs to play when I DJ at clubs. Anything Sci-Fi related was cool with me - I guess that hasn't changed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Fender&EHX4ever Posted March 21, 2009 Author Members Share Posted March 21, 2009 Sci-Fi Western??? lol, wtf!!!?? hahaha, it's a great track though. C'mon: "Fear hangs in a plane of gunsmoke drifting in our room"... and that downward pitchbend motif is so Native American sounding Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members melx Posted March 21, 2009 Members Share Posted March 21, 2009 yeah, maybe.......anyway, I don't suppose they showed this on TV over in the US but last year they played Paris with Mark Ronson.....it was pretty cool....basically he 'remixed' the live band (with new arrangements and stuff) and played guitar.[YOUTUBE]pjqPLtDy780[/YOUTUBE][YOUTUBE]eQlM45LPLbY[/YOUTUBE] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members sethlover Posted March 21, 2009 Members Share Posted March 21, 2009 That bass player could lay down some funky grooves that's for sure Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Poltergeist Posted March 21, 2009 Members Share Posted March 21, 2009 awesome bass lines. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members sethlover Posted March 21, 2009 Members Share Posted March 21, 2009 awesome bass lines. I have to say that guy came up with some of the best. I will almost always leave them on to hear that guys work. The bass work on "Rio" is off the hook (for a pop song). @ 3:12 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5c0NeG-8ZI Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Radiofred Posted March 21, 2009 Members Share Posted March 21, 2009 The first two Duran albums are outstanding. The guitar solo in Waiting For The Sound Of Thunder is insane, at least i think it's guitar playing those parts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members aeon Posted March 21, 2009 Members Share Posted March 21, 2009 A fantastic record in every respect, in my view. Great songs, great performances, and great production - and I hope we are talking about the real deal, not the David Kershenbaum version that has mixes from Carnival.Patrick Nagel's design for the cover and the overall packaging were also integral to the total presentation and experience. Even before the videos began to appear, it helped to define the transition from the New Wave and New Romantic aesthetics to a wider expression within music and the culture in general in the early-to-mid 80s.Huge props to you for nailing the Roxy Music, Bowie, and Japan references. Perhaps it is no surprise that I own lots of records by those folks too. Duran Duran had (for better or worse) the commercial appeal and sexual charisma that was lacking for a larger audience as it concerned Ferry, Bowie, and Sylvian. It's great fun listening to those older records and tracing the influence lines to the later Duran Duran recordings.I was well on my way to becoming an Anglophile as it concerned new music by the time Rio came out. I was already listening to The Cure, Depeche Mode, and Duran Duran's first album by the time I first heard Rio. There were certain perks to my father working at a radio/tv station, and bringing home loads of records every week. I don't think Rio was much of anything in the US until the spring-summer of 1983, when the Kershenbaum re-release caught fire because of the continual rotation on MTV of the Sri Lankan and Antiguan videos. Speaking of which, the Duran Duran laserdisc that came out in early 1983 was huge for its time - no other band had anything like it at the time.I've never felt concerned that what I listen to isn't this or that enough, and that was as much true then as it is now. What that meant as it concerns Duran Duran was that I was the only guy in school who publicly liked them. That was OK with me - it meant being able to hang out with a lot of girls who also liked to listen to the stereo. Rio is certainly part of the reason that for me, musically, 1981-1982 is a golden period. Duran Duran really captured the zeitgeist with that record.I really can't articulate how influential Duran Duran and Rio were to me as it concerns songwriting and sound production. Of the thousands of records in my collection, Rio certainly has a special place among them.cheers,Ian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Exdeath Posted March 21, 2009 Members Share Posted March 21, 2009 I have their 'Best Of' album on my hard drive. That's about it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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