Admittedly, I’m biased. I was 12 years old in 1984 – the perfect age at the perfect time for the perfect tweener band. But my love for the Fab 5, the vanguard of the 2nd British (musical) invasion, has carried on these last 40-odd years.
In this series, I shall endeavor to show you how the lads from Birmingham (and elsewhere) have an underappreciated talent and an underrepresented catalogue.
Let’s begin at the beginning, with a couple of songs that never made it to an album.
Late Bar – 1981. B-side to the single “Planet Earth”. This has very definitive disco overtones, a genre that the band has explored in various ways over time (most obviously with the song “My Own Way” from Rio). Late Bar is a dancey song with not much deeper a meaning than partying in the UK after the pubs have closed. And sex. A perfect tune for a bunch of handsome early-20-somethings in early 80’s urban England.
Take a listen:
Faster Than Light – 1981. B-side to the single “Girls on Film”. This song to me just screams Duran Duran. This is one of the first songs they ever wrote together and gives hints of the classic synth-pop and New Romanticism that defined the band throughout the 80’s. Of particular note here is John Taylor’s nascent talent, getting ready to explode into one of the greatest rock bassists of all time.
Take a listen:
On the next episode, we’ll explore the darker side of the band’s eponymous first (or first eponymous) album.
Never cared much for Duran Duran.
I preferred other junk instead.
I like them equally well. I have their Greatest Hits and some of them are really great.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcMh6GZoFC8
Neat – I’d never heard these two tracks. I especially like the first one.
They’ve always been a “Greatest Hits” band for me. Never bought the individual albums.
Hungry Like the Wolf was the first music video I ever saw.
The Chauffeur, off the same album, is arguably my favorite of all their work, although the video sucks.
There’s a “sequel” to The Chauffeur from one of their more recent albums called The Man Who Stole a Leopard.
Chauffeur (cover)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWes-Gez39U
I appreciate the Double D’s more as an adult than I did as a teenager. Probably because it was very uncool to like them instead of the Dead Kennedys or the Circle Jerks.
Double D’s.
https://archive.ph/e5Vx6/90044ae1067bafaf164f311549d0909c4508d267.jpg
You never disappoint, Q.
Tell me about it.
Some genius called me gay for liking Peter Schilling.
Um… OK, then. I could have whipped out my Judas Priest fan-card… er…. OK.
REM? Ah, geez.
Or Depeche Mode, who put out the gayest song by a bunch of heteros in history.
Ah, another Peter Schilling Fan! Love his take on Major Tom.
My buddy and I were excited to find the German version of that album at Record Theatre.
We were sharing Walkman headphones to listen to it before some class when Nelson Muntz walked up and wanted to know what we were listening to.
Peter Schilling did other songs?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQRaj1vcnrs
Are you also a Billy Squire fan, by chance?
No, but that video is fucking classic.
Li’l Rhywun did like the intro.
Ruined his career.
I read a quote from him along the lines of, the video didn’t ruin my career, I decided afterwards that I wanted to end my career. OK, Billy. I mean, I think it’s a damn shame, I really like his music, but c’mon.
To clarify, I’m not blaming him for making a video that ruined his career. It shouldn’t have. I am just criticizing his not facing the truth.
An elaboration on that.
“cock me tonight”
ALOL
I love Billy Squire back then. The video was a fucking disaster.
Back in the Usenet days (I’m THAT old), I knew a roadie for Billy Squire. Billy paid him in cash to rig the lights and sound (because the guy lived the life of a libertarian outcast). He said Billy Squire’s shows were some of the loudest he’s ever heard.
But he’s in Depeche Mode!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k26aeJL1x44
LOL that show totally gets me.
+1
Uh
haha my memory of Peter Schilling is of going into some mall music store, and I felt so awkward and uncool because I had to ask who did the major tom song since it wasn’t as if I could look it up on the ‘net yet.
I’m pretty sure I was the sole straight girl at an Erasure concert. And I actually thought on the way in with my bf, “it’s mostly chicks who are into new wave so these guys in line are just a few fans.” o sweet summer child.
My early college years we so confusing to me with all the straight boys who were into Depeche Mode and Erasure.
I was like, come on, help me here.
Sorry, dude.
Great song and fits in tonight 👍🏻
Throw in Pet Shop Boys. Balance out with DK, Suicidal Tendencies, ..
Obligatory link:
https://youtu.be/QpolkJPRUs4?t=59
Huh. I have no idea/recollection that movie was ever made. Doesn’t look like I missed much, but still.
I love the movie. Really dumb, but it has some absolutely hysterical scenes. I still reference some scenes in the movie. I think it’s worth a shot to watch.
I’ll add it to the watch list. I love BASEketball and Team America.
In my opinion, Team America > Orgasmo > BASEketball.
I just love all their stuff.
Girls on glibs…
Kind of liked them growing up, but now they show up a lot when I listen to Pandora. They hold up pretty well. I have a lot more appreciation for synth pop from that era, because while it’s electronic, there’s still a very human element to it.
I’m a huge Duran Duran fan. My punk friends thought I was insane. Hell, most of my music-head friends thought I was insane. I have no fucks to give.
DD is one of my favorite bands of all time.
I saw them in the mid-80s and it was one of the best shows I’ve ever seen.
Thanks, KK! Can’t wait for the rest!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1B__8N5d_LA
Right on.
DD endures because they were really talented and wrote great tunes.
You can tell on the early stuff (at least for me) that Le Bon was still growing into his vocal style. He’s a bit all over the place in these tracks.
Here’s a DD cover that I really like (there are a lot of bad covers of this song in particular)
Nice write up KK. I could never get into most of the New Romantics such as DD, but they hold up better than most.
I got there late but I was all over that scene in the latter 80s.
Gary Numan, Visage, AFoS, Ultravox to some extent…
#metoo!!!11
I liked DD for about a year or so around ’84, then discovered Hair Metal and DD was too girly for me after that. But, maybe its time I give them another try. I promise to listen to at least 90 seconds of each song.
Yep…Cinderella, Poison, Winger…not girly at all.
Funny you should drop that hot take. I just listened to this to cleanse my ears.
I was just fucking with you, they had some good songs. Well, except Winger, they just sucked.
And yeah, I’ll give you Winger.
Enuff Z Nuff.
Children! I was 13 in ’84!
OK, Boomer!
Youngster.
I was a mature 14 year old.
(There are a bunch of 1970 babies here, ISTR)
Yeah, it seems like a big chunk of us are in our early 50s now.
Old people. Everywhere.
Hah. I was 31 in 1984.
Ultravox and Numan led the pack for me.
Gah. Too early &/or too old to do math I was 33 in 84.
Midge!
1970 baby here. My favorite bands in ’84 were Maiden, Priest, Metallica, Queensryche, Ozzy, VH, Sabbath, and AC/DC. I read every Hit Parader and Circus magazine cover to cover, along with Axel Kilgore’s Mercenary book series.
I was 15!
*yells at cloud*
Holy shit! Did you ride a horse to school?
No, he wore an onion on his belt, as was the style at the time.
Yep. 13 for me too.
Um… *counts on fingers and toes* …I was 16.
I went the other way into the alternative stuff. (Cure, Smiths, REM, etc.)
Although Tom Petty, AC/DC and Van Halen were all liked by pretty much everyone in our high school era.
🤘🤘
I had graduated from high school, loved heavy metal and punk. I also liked Duran Duran.
While I never listened to any of those bands I bought and sold a lot of their records. I didn’t care what they sounded like, only that someone would pay a higher price than I did. Worked out well for all parties concerned.
OTOH I was already 50ish. My kids may have listened to them.
Thanks KK, for a trip down Memory Lane
A+! I’ve always liked them. I had a friend in HS who did the actual writing hearts on her notebook with John Taylor’s name. It was kinda embarrassing so I didn’t want to be as big a fan as she was. I was over that in senior year when I contemplated doing a new video for Rio (since you could walk to the bluff overlooking the actual Rio Grande from my house) in my film production class – had it sketched out, but it turned into a group project for another idea.
A game show I’m watching is busy censoring “midget” over and over LOL.
And now another commercial begging me for money.
I really need to cut the cord. Everything is so tedious now.
Do I need to write up ”The state of cord cutting in 2023?”
The time to cut is never better than now.
Doesn’t mean shit as long as my landlord doesn’t bring fiber-optic or some other option into the building.
I won’t do it unless I can get off Spectrum because being a long-time customer they will ass-rape me if I try to go internet-only.
OTOH cutting the cord doesn’t actually solve the issues I mentioned above; a change in viewing habits is more in order.
What town do you live in? The possibility of 5G wireless may be available. Several phone companies have that for data now. Boom! Wireless almost as fast as fiber.
Here. This is an example. I haven’t done tons of testing but I have used wifi coming off of 5G, and it was good. Most phone companies have this now in various versions. You just need one that can do continuous duty.
https://www.t-mobile.com/hotspot-iot-connected-devices/t-mobile-5g-hotspot?sku=610214669339
Freedom from fiber.
WordPress doesn’t like my reply.
Brooklyn.
More research needed.
Article welcomed.
https://i.imgur.com/eH0H2ax.jpg
NSFW.
https://i.imgur.com/ok6nh9y.jpg
NSFW.
https://i.imgur.com/C2MefMa.jpg
NSFW.
https://i.imgur.com/mxGmCZe.mp4
NSFW.
I remember her opening for Duran Duran.
LOL! A band I follow just had this to say:
Know your audience of fat middle-aged men, dude.
Hey! I resemble that remark!
So does he.
This is perfectly normal.
Many of the hotels that the global elite killed are now housing Joe’s “asylum seekers”. And I’m paying for it.
We’re all paying for it. But yes, Mayor Adams needs to eat crow and run from the sanctuary city bullshit.
He can’t. He would get primaried by some AOC-style “democratic socialist” so fast his head would spin.
That whole spiel where he pretended to be some sort of “centrist” in order to get elected is long gone. He’s a fucking tool of the Borg.
I guess it will need to get worse before it gets better. The out migration is significant. He is presiding over a shrinking city.
To be fair, it’s nothing like the shrinkage that happened during the seventies. But yeah.
Wait for the incoming market collapse. Then the flight will begin in earnest.
I’m listening to last week’s The Fifth Column. Ben Dreyfuss is on. He is crazy and hysterical (because he is crazy.)
He’s so fantastically funny. He just does not GAF.
It’s a great episode.
LeFevre on Tucker Today. What a boring person.
At least he wasn’t going off on UFOs again.
I don’t know who LeFevre is but Tucker & UFOs is an instant change the channel.
I dunno why he is so obsessed with that shit.
https://twitter.com/JohnLeFevre
His comes across as shallow and thinks he’s smarter than he really is.
He seems to have a knack for stating the obvious.
That at least makes him smarter than most academics who spend their time denying it.
Sorry to shit on KK’s thread but I replaced a shear pin on the snowblower today. A simple task but I barely made it up the steps for a fourth time. So frustrating. Front brain in working order but my lizard part is broken. So frustrating! Also, Duran Duran is terrible.
Shit on.
PS. You’re wrong about Duran Duran.
In 1984 it was George Strait, Willie Nelson, The Judds, and David Allen Coe on the radio in my platoon office.
I had all that going on also.
Sounds like you missed the rise of heavy metal.
“I wouldn’t say ‘missed’…”
another day another dollar…
coldish one this morning, not for the time of year but compared to the very warm winter till now.
morning gliberati
Same here.
First time it went below freezing in about a month.
I have a half-assed theory (that I’ve already been rebuked for here) that most people imprint on the pop music that was the thing when they first started paying attention to pop music. After all, there’s a reason that 60s, 70s, 80s, etc. channels are a thing on Sirius. When I was a lad, the carpool mom who took me and my mates home from school played the popular AOR stuff, so I got into a lot of late prog rock and its successors — Styx, Kansas, Journey, etc. By the time DD came to our shores, I dismissed it as New Age fluff that silly middle school chicks were into. I was wrong, of course. But it took a long time (in your teens / twenties, five years is a long time) to appreciate bands as diverse as Boston and .38 Special and Rush and see that they were all talented musicians who just played to different audiences.
Today, I went to a microbrewery tap room for lunch, and their music was a multi-hour loop of 80s to aughts pop hits done in reggae/ska. It was a little jarring at first to hear Air Supply, Katrina and the Waves, and Taylor Swift sped up and played ska style, but y’know… I liked it.
‘I have a half-assed theory (that I’ve already been rebuked for here) that most people imprint on the pop music that was the thing when they first started paying attention to pop music’
I think this is correct. I still like all the same music I listened to when I was 5-15, and have barely branched out from those genres. Now, it is a wide selection of broadly speaking rock (really old stuff to present day), classical, (which is again, several genres to itself), some reggae (is this just a subset of rock?), and techno/industrial.
I have an irrational dislike of most Duran Duran songs because they remind me of being around people I didn’t like back in the 80’s. Save A Prayer in particular is like nails on a chalkboard for me.
Weirdly enough, while I still am at best ambivalent about DD, that’s their one song that won’t have my finger darting to the “change channel” button in my car when it comes on. De gustibus, I reckon.
In a roundabout way Duran Duran is the reason I use Old Spice. Their ad campaign featuring Bruce Campbell is the only time marketing really convinced me to by something.
*sigh*
I was sleeping okay on the couch until I smelled something burnt. At first I thought one of the kids had left burnt popcorn on the sofa and I was going to yell at them for that tomorrow, but then I realized it was in the air.
Bolted up, started hunting around for smoke, getting ready to evacuate the house.
Turns out the wife burnt some toast to settle her stomach.
Thanks for the adrenaline shot, honey.
Turns out the wife burnt some toast to settle her stomach. – hmmm I knew toast was generally inoffensive to the stomach, and I knew medicinal charcoal can be used for stomach acidity and such, never knew combining the two approaches was a thing,.
I never heard of burning toast for that either. Makes sense I guess.
Heh.
Young ‘Splosives did NOT like Duran Duran. Will listen now for nostalgia.
Mostly listened to Billy Joel at the time. Sister forced me to endure Olivia Newton John (Xanadu). Through my 10 years-older brother, picked up on Ozzy, AC/DC, Cheap Trick, etc. Found U2 through bootleg cassette tapes.
I don’t really have a genre. In my car I just say “Play Classic Rock” and am rarely disappointed.
Obscure Billy Joel song I always liked. From the Nylon Curtain.
This played in my head when I flew to Stockholm many years later.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5g75rHKecM
As long as they don’t try to play Freebird classic rock’s fine. God do I hate that repetitive feels to me like it’s thirty minutes long guitar solo.
The song is like 18 minutes or something. You’re not Rush guys.
/2112
Morning.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Qa5Mawz92xU
🎶🎶
Good morning, Sean, Stinky, U, and Lack, and good afternoon, Pie!
I think I FINALLY finished everything at work that was essentially “year-end” business. Just in time for month-end. 😐
‘Morning ma’am, good timing.
https://fox17.com/news/local/nashville-middle-tennessee-facebook-google-news-instagram-dolly-goes-gold-country-music-icon-receives-prestigious-certification-local-news-newsletter-daily#
Yay for Dolly!
Yay indeed! I’m mostly neutral about her music, but I really admire her as a person.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-64481317
You can all sleep easier now.
“Missing radioactive capsule found in Australia”
“It was a million to one shot, doc!”
https://www.nj.com/politics/2023/01/murphy-says-it-was-not-illegitimate-to-use-covid-funds-to-buy-suvs-to-carry-state-officials.html
🙄
~$65k per car, seems necessary. /s
Anyway, lots of places haven’t been able to spend that cash for the reasons it was allegedly sent, but luckily they’re going to open things up and let localities/states spend it on whatever.
https://www.fox35orlando.com/news/missing-dallas-zoo-monkeys-found-by-dallas-police
Monkeys not gone to heaven.
https://www.wfmz.com/news/good-news/couple-recreates-friends-seinfeld-sets-for-airbnb-suites/article_f458bf82-9d61-11ed-bc6e-3b9569b2507f.html
For that kind of money, I want more luxury, not kitsch.
“Trans Criminals Who Raped Women Are Women, Says Scottish Leader”
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/trans-criminals-who-raped-women-are-women-says-scottish-leader
Accch, sounds like the wee lass might have haggis for brains.
“Another transgender inmate also started identifying as a baby in order to get better treatment in prison, a demand that was “taken seriously” by prison bosses.”
Who are these people? How did they get to be in charge? 😒
Midwits, smart enough to recognize that some nuance might be involved but not smart enough to figure it out exactly.
Or just political sellouts who’ll do or say anything to gain and retain power…actually it’s probably this.
Maybe the women will close the rape gap with the men
“Sturgeon’s assertion that men with penises should be accepted as women was backed up by Keith Brown, her justice secretary, who said: “If somebody presents as a trans person, then we accept that at face value.”
What if I present as an innocent person. Would you accept that at face value?
What a pack of brain dead idiots.
Morning, Glibs.
Gotta go into the office and finish boxing up the cube. I doubt I’ll have any other work duties today, since it’s my last day in the PeopleSoft Group.
No more PeopleSoft!
Well you need to bring cake and wine and have a small going away party on your last day
Alcohol is not permitted to be consumed on state time. That is a fireable offense, even for me.
w00 h00! 😃 So….should today or tomorrow (Day 1 at the new job) be the Official Frabjous Day?
🤷♂️
OK! Both it is! 🥳🥳
No more PeopleSoft!
Now THAT is worthy of a celebration!
‘Morning Reprobates.
Having fun at work this week. Loving my coworkers.
1 group has scheduled a bunch of meetings with the county commissioners and administrators without regard to my boss’s schedule, while an internal team sat on a request of mine for 5 months without starting anything, despite repeated communications and deadlines. Had a good chat about it the other day and they’re committed to tell me when they can bother to get it done this Friday, which I find laughable. /venting off
Does a “good chat” include thinly-veiled threats of dire consequences?
A good ole pistol whipping should get their attention.
Good Morning Gibbs:
KK Wonderful article, wife loves DD. We saw them about 4 years ago in Durant OK. Very nice concert. They still draw a good crowd.
Day 6 of the drill rig stuck on the golf course. I think this mobilization is cursed.
4 Star General has decided that Work From Home is not working and a command needs to come in 3 days/week. Problem AF spend $$ converting hanger that was cubicles into “collaborative spaces” and now does not have the cubes/power/chairs etc. for the entire office staff. March 1st is going to be interesting.
wife loves DD – phrasing
I must have missed the exciting drill rig saga. I gather it didn’t strike oil after all?
Why was the hanger not being used for the proper purpose of housing airplanes?
They all got sent to Ukraine?
Why are we sending Hangers to the Ukraine?
So they pick their shirts up off the floors ?
I don’t know, not my AFB.
I imagine that it was decided it was cheaper to convert hangers into office spaces rather than tear them down to build new buildings.
Some hangers at my base that are still actively used for planes are 70 years old. Some buildings are declared “historic” and are hard to repair.
Drill rig was only supposed to go 15 feet, Its a small tracked rig. I cant tear up the golf course. Good news is that the weather has been ugly and not much golf going on. Never made it to the other areas that we were supposed to look at.
70 year old planes… B-52s?
Oh, you meant the buildings were from the early 50s.
Mornin’, reprobates.
Good morning, ‘patzie! 😃☕
Its only like 11º out there- better put on your band-aids
9 here
29 reporting in
26 here, first time below freezing since forever. Waiting on doc
suh’ fam
whats goody
Good morning, homey! It’s COLD out there!
Is there peace among the pups at your place?
Leisl and new puppy (name TBD) are like peas and carrots- nonstop playing (which was Jugsy’s idea).
The Dozer is still kept separate for safety reasons.
My senior year in high school, I convinced myself I that liked Duran Duran because a girl I was infatuated with was a DD fan. That was never going to happen and after graduation I reverted to my hard rock mean.
>.>
<.<
🕗
Daylight savings time?