Duran Duran: Classic or Dud?

Search & destroy? For me, I'd have to search just about every single Duran song out there, with the possible exceptions of "Shotgun" and "UMF" (off The Wedding Album) and "911 is a Joke" and "I Wanna Take You Higher" (off Thank You). Those four could be destroyed, thank you very much.

Hungry Like The Wolf is about ORAL SEX?!?!?!? Oh my god, I never knew that. Hey, I mean, I was 12 when it came out, it never dawned on my horny prepubescent brain! That makes it somehow ever better!

I think I've told the story about my Durannie friend and her super-indie boyfriend who sneered at Duran. She said "What would you say to a band who wanted to be a cross between the Sex Pistols, Chic and Brian Eno?" And he went "That would be my NEW FAVOURITE BAND EVAH!!!" and she shoved Rio at him and said "meet your new favourite band evah, suckah."

And don't forget to search for Arcadia, another fantastic album.

Because it was possibly the worst single they ever released! Come on, even at the age of 13 or whatever, I knew that.

New Moon On Monday was actually kinda ace. Yeah. I have the tendency to completely write off Seven and the Ragged Tiger, but it definitely had its moments.

Oh, and DD are ace, simply for having such an incredible body of work dedicated to their fan fiction. Maybe it's just cause I've only read good DD FF, (thanks, UMF/Lovely Blue Planet Of There) but it's of such a blatantly higher calibre that you think they must be doing something right.

(The one time that a band's fans can be held in their favour)

They spoilt it with mortifying spin off bands (Arcadia were ok - Power Station.... oh dear), their pro-Thatcher stance throughout the 80s and their ludicrous make up and dress sense.

And their mystifying arrogance (I've never encountered an arrogant Brummie in my life, have you?).

But a welcome return....

Oh, if that isn't part of what made them so classic I don't know what is. Nick Rhodes dyed for our sins!

http://www.middlemoon.com/sandra/img/nick_rhodes.gif

uuuuuuuuuhhhhhhhhh...

http://www.b3ta.my-webserver.co.uk/colossus.jpg

http://members.tripod.com/rant58/7535eb80.jpg

(Why is it so hard to find a decent picture of Peter on the web?)

This is my favorite picture of Nick Rhodes:

http://www.hanksnet.com/callingplanetearth/nick6/images/nickwht88fash_jpg.jpg

He looks simply gorgeous there.

This is my favorite picture of John Taylor:

http://www.hanksnet.com/callingplanetearth/john4/images/jtjap1_jpg.jpg

This is my favorite pic of the two of them together:

http://www.hanksnet.com/callingplanetearth/misc/images/48d53964_jpg.jpg

*licks computer screen*

PLEASE TELL ME THIS IS A COVER

I've got to stop or I'll be hitting UMF in a mo...

Spencer, I love you. If I wasn't an Anime robot, I'd have your children.

Anyway, there's really nothing wrong with "Is There Something I Should Know" (apparently aka "Please Please Tell Me Now"). It's just there's nothing great about it either. Except for the video, which features this bizarre angle shot of Simon singing his brains out with this extrodinarily angry face on, which I mean seems like it'd work with the title of the song but really it makes no sense about the lyrics when it comes down to it.

I changed my mind on "Notorious" but it's still not really that good. It's all about the lyrics to "The Reflex" people, trust me.

Oh, and Sean, that "fuck off" story is still the most amazing thing I've ever heard.

Kate, you mean this?

http://www.hanksnet.com/callingplanetearth/john3/images/jt34_jpg.jpg

(OK, I am kissing the screen right now, but that's besides the point...)

But that's still a damn good picture. Yum. And as for Barbarella, the only reason I watched that damn movie was because I wanted to know who this Duran Duran character was supposed to be, and every time I heard his name being spoken I just had to giggle like the little fangirl I am. The ex-fiance did have a point, though. Barbarella does seem to be a touch bit soft core porn-ish, what with all the overt sexuality and all.

*goes back to licking computer screen*

Premise: The boys are apparently leading a revolution in a small European town. Their cause is aided by handing out flyers, an old woman using an Apple IIe computer, and Andy & Roger flying a kite. For no obvious reason a guy in face paint starts acting out something on a stage, and that shows up a couple times. By the end people have lit their torches and fireworks while police on horseback do just about nothing. The whole band coems together and begins jumping at the end.

Based out of the movie "Arena". The video begins showing a post-apocalyptic setting of school desks, with the few students breathing fire. For awhile we see a video screen (like the one in "The Reflex") showing Simon, Andy & John performing in individual shots, with a robotic sculpted head nearby observing the action. When the second verse arrives, the video changes to color, creature-humans appear, and Simon is now strapped to a windmill that churns through a pool. the creatures move around the video set, flying, dancing, crawling, tossing firey ropes and riding elevators. A white funnel moves through the set, while Simon falls off the windmill and is nearly killed by a pirhana-like creature. A photographer walks through a nearly-empty set, then we see Nick in a cage with lots of computers. Andy, strapped up in the air, fights off other creatures with his guitar, and Simon pulls some into the pirhana lake. John is strapped to the top of an upright car, forced to watch images of himself on the video screen. Roger is in an airborne chair, fighting off still more creatures. Simon, now on dry land, nearly takes a mysterious hand before the video ends with the creatures dancing, video clips of old Duran videos, the "Wild Boys" video and other tv clips, and ends with Dr. Duran Duran himself (from the movie "Barbarella") laughing (there are clips from "Barbarella" interspersed throughout the video).

The video takes place at the Eiffel Tower, and integrates footage from a chase scene in the James Bond film of the same name. It starts with Roger being transported from the front of a truck to the rear cabin, where he enters a chair and launches a spy camera (an image of a minicam that flies across the screen). Simon is on one level of the tower with a Walkman, John is looking through a telescope, Andy is a blindman with an accordian, and Nick is conducting a fashion shoot. Simon's Walkman allows him to blow up a helicopter and blimp (scenes taken from the film). Nick uses his camera for spying, and John uses a gun disguised as a gun to shoot down one of the flying cameras. Andy uses the accordian to kill off Nick (something goes off in Nick's ear, then his camera explodes). At the end, a woman comes up to Simon, asks who he is, and he replies "Bon, Simon Le Bon". Her tug on his arm causes him to enter a code in the Walkman to blow up the Eiffel Tower -- which leads to a shot of a postcard of the tower blowing up.

The phrase 'a gun disguised as a gun' is such beauty.

I've been biting my tongue on this since late 2018, it's surreal + exciting to be able to share with you that I've produced the next @duranduran album, which features the ace @grahamcoxon on guitar.

Here is a taster of what we've been up to:
'INVISIBLE' https://t.co/1R89ke287e pic.twitter.com/fPCaqKF4Ov

— erol alkan (@erolalkan) May 19, 2021

Surprised how much I'm enjoying the new album. I can't remember the last album they did where I didn't really want to skip a single song. The song with Chai keeps getting stuck in my head.

Yeah it's quite good, like they balanced out their addiction to guests with creating a pretty solid front to back listen.

Haven't listened to the new album yet but have enjoyed all the singles they released from it beforehand

I'm loving Future Past. The previous one (Paper Gods) has it's moments but I find it often very in-your-face(-not-in-a-good-way) poppy & like an older band way too desperately trying to sound contemporary. I'm relieved the new one doesn't have that at all. It's very consistent in its high quality. Simon sounds amazing!
Graham Coxon is featured on 9 of the 15 tracks (deluxe edition) and shares songwriting credit. Can they please make him a fulltime member of the band, at least for as long as Blur isn't doing anything?

Can't totally agree with kitchen person's comment though, as 2010's All You Need Is Now might actually be my favourite Duran Duran album.

DON’T SAVE A PRAYER FOR ME NOW
SAVE IT TILL THE MORNING AFTERRRRRRRR

They've gone goth on us

https://duranduran.com/2023/71443/

Ghost Town, Paint It Black, Spellbound, Psycho Killer... Those who forget the lessons of Thank You are doomed to repeat them

Joking of course. I'll certainly listen to it if the preview singles don't put me off.

The spectre of Thank You looms large - one of the worst albums I've ever purchased. Cool to see Andy and Warren contributing again, certainly makes me more intrigued to check it out

I don't hate Thank You. It's partly silly in a way I can still enjoy and I also think there's some good stuff on there. It makes me happy to hear that Andy and Warren both feature on the new one.

they sounded pretty great from outside the Grandstand at the fair last night, now wishing I'd gotten a ticket

Alas, this would have been the perfect context for a cover of Japan's "Ghosts".

chic opened for them in Sacramento, it sounded pretty sweet. Simon still sounds great.