duran duran RIO

yeah the guitars are perfect too, but they're like the adornments on top of this monstrously great architecture

― imago

I so want Graham Coxon to be the guitarist in this band, he pushes even harder against the grain of a song than Andy Taylor and would therefore have been an ideal foil to John. Every time I hear the Chauffer I anticipate a wobbly Coxon anti-solo that never arrives, it is a far better canvas for him than Damon's mockney showtunes.

Interesting. I think Andy could have played more assertively, and either (a) decided not to or (b) was actively discouraged from doing so by producers and engineers. His side projects and solo work display more independence.

I think in DD he understood his role and played it willingly, but I have no way of knowing this. Well do I remember that at the time of Rio, guitar bands were out and glossy Roland and Yamaha synths were in. Had guitars been more prevalent in the mix, D2 would have sounded out of step.

Long digression: That said, it still surprises me in hindsight to see how many New Wave acts were still fundamentally based around a four-piece rock band. I look at videos of Flock of Seagulls, Go-Gos, Devo, Talking Heads, Human League, Bangles, New Order, the Cure, even Depeche Mode sometimes and it looks suspiciously like the 70s template of a "band" - there's an acoustic drum set in the back middle, flanked by amps; cool-looking people holding conventional instruments on either side, somewhere there's a keyboard or two. Even in records that sound almost wholly synthesized, many acts continued to present pretty standard instrumentation when on MTV.

There are exceptions: Eurythmics, Ultravox, Pet Shop Boys,Thompson Twins, Thomas Dolby. If you were trying to form or join a band at this time (as I was), these acts seemed pretty inscrutable because like, where are all the sounds coming from and how are they getting made simultaneously by this one dork with a DX7?

I read somewhere that LeBon attributed DD's success in the States ​to the recruitment of Andy Taylor and the introduction of a hard rock guitar element to their sound. Which both makes sense and seems contrary to the role their dance remixes played in breaking America.

I don't think Coxon fully asserted himself either until Blur's 5th album, at least in terms of his position in the mix. But his sound is leaner and more cutting than Andy Taylor's. The similarity I perceive is that both guitarists play a role of saboteur. They differ more in degree than in kind.

There's defo something a bit "wrong decade" about what i'm suggesting tho. Blur were derivative enough of DD that it's usually easy to envision what GC might have played. I imagine the spiky Hendrix chords from 'Stereotypes' all over 'Union of the Snake', for example. In my head at least, the schizoid artistry of it is a match.

I read somewhere that LeBon attributed DD's success in the States ​to the recruitment of Andy Taylor and the introduction of a hard rock guitar element to their sound. Which both makes sense and seems contrary to the role their dance remixes played in breaking America.

Yeah that's interesting - quite a few of the brit synth/new romantic bands went in either a rock or a soul direction towards the mid-'80s (some did both I guess, like The Human League going from doing 'The Lebanon' to working with Jam & Lewis) and both of these moves seem like obvious attempts at reaching out to a US audience. I didn't know that about Duran's remixes though.

I direct y'all to Annie Zaleski's marvelous 33 1/3 book.

I find Deflatormouse's thought experiment interesting but at the same time, I just can't imagine those bands being different. I know this isn't profound or anything but music history - like all history - has a contingent element. The things happened as they did, and everything contributed.

Philosophically speaking it's a bit sus to imagine that you can change any one variable and keep everything else the same. Like, a John Lennon who didn't abuse any women could exist (and I wish he did). A John Lennon who didn't get shot, ditto. But does everything else stay constant in that alternate universe? I can't imagine (ahem) that it would. The particular circumstances aligned themselves this way, and we have the culture that resulted from those circumstances.

Blur were derivative enough of DD that it's usually easy to envision what GC might have played.

And indeed, Alex James wrote somewhere that when he was tasked with constructing a bassline for 'Girls & Boys', his guiding principle was, "What would John Taylor play?"

My friend is doing a Rio 40th special on twitch tonight at 8:00 PM CST with chat by Annie Zaleski!

https://m.twitch.tv/VJBigSuit

The main DD set starts at 9:00 PM CST, but come early and stay after for choice early MTV-era videos.

What a fucking incredible album, still.