Let’s continue our deep dive into Duran Duran’s 1982 magnum opus, Rio.
New Religion – 1982. Here we have a bouncy, poppy tune with a dark side. According to the band, it’s about trying to be oneself and overcome conflicting inner dialogues. This becomes evident in the lines just before the chorus, with two competing yet harmonious verses. When I belt out this song in my solo-karaoke moments, I always choose the fast part.
Searching for the undeniable truth
That a man is just a fool
The Chauffeur – 1982. I debated with myself whether to do this song or “Hold Back the Rain”. But I know my audience, and the video below has lesbian fantasies and boobies, courtesy of the Itty Bitty Titty Committee, as promised.
Dark and moody, the song was apparently written in the late 70’s as a poem by frontman Simon Le Bon when he worked on a Kibbutz in Israel.
And watching lovers part I feel you smiling
What glass splinters lie so deep in your mind?
Some of our resident movie buffs may recognize the cinematic inspiration behind this video.
Next time, we’ll get into one of the band’s worst albums (WTF happened to the bass?) from whence comes my all-time favorite Duran Duran song.
I never saw the video for “The Chauffeur”.
Now I know why. (It’s blocked from being embedded here).
Great album.
Sorry, I’m not old enough for that smut.
Me neither. 🙁
There goes the family friendly certification.
Mona Lisa. Bob Hoskins
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMDvh1iq3Nc
But I know my audience, and the video below has lesbian fantasies and boobies, courtesy of the Itty Bitty Titty Committee, as promised.
That’s why it is age restricted.
SIIIING BLUE SILVER 🎵
I love DD, great musicianship, great songs, sad they got stuck in the 80s category, they had staying power
PSA: If you use FreeTube or any Invidious instance there are no age restrictions on YouTube videos. If you stubbornly refuse to use elegant, open source solutions like a Philistine, you can also just type “nsfw” before “youtube” in the URL and be redirected to a proxy site that removes age restrictions.
I wonder if the flute in the final ~58 seconds was real or synth. I’m inclined to think real, because synth wind instruments even now usually don’t sound that good, let alone in 1982, but at the same time Duran Duran was all-in on synths at the time.
Looks like I’m mistaken, it was an ocarina, and it was indeed real. The chirpy sounds and spoken word bits are also samples of a documentary/field recording of crickets created by way of the first commercial sampler, the Nicks Fairlight CMI. We’re into the deep lore now.
I think you made the right choice. There is not a single bad song on the record, but The Chauffeur is superior.
They are coming to Red Rocks this summer. The tickets are absurd, but I’m slightly tempted.
I saw them back in 86(?) and they were fantastic.
Thanks, KK! This is one of my favorite albums ever.
Good stuff, but it doesn’t have that nostalgia oomph since these two tracks are new to me.
I didn’t like Duran Duran at the time (maybe I was tired of my chick contemporaries overdosing on them and buying teen magazines with their pictures everywhere) but I’ve learned to appreciate them since streaming random 80s mixes.
OT: Warty Hugeman got retweeted by Scott Horton:
https://twitter.com/wartyhugeman/status/1630762557534269441?s=46&t=vGhdWsqcqKQlsp3ZShmZ0Q
I didn’t recognize the name “Scott Horton” but recognized the face once I looked him up.
They’re both right. I was 6 when Waco went down, and even at that age I remember the relentless demonization, as if the abusive religious practices of the Branch Davidians had fuck-all to do with why the ATF and FBI decided to charge in guns blazing in the first place.
I was 25. The news was useless. The propaganda was relentless. I didn’t know the truth for probably 20 years.
Fuck everyone who was involved in killing those people. You will get yours.
Legendary marksman Lon Horiuchi in particular.
I was 19, almost 20.
I wanted to believe the government were the good guys and the Davidians were criminally dangerous, not just weirdos. But somehow, reading the newspapers and seeing the coverage on CNN, it didn’t feel right. Without anyone guiding me or persuading me one way or the other, I sensed it was wrong. Even if the Davidians were breaking gun laws, did the LEOs really need to escalate it to a firefight?
Then seeing Janet Reno get so defensive pretty much told me that “we” the government were in the wrong.
And then Elian Gonzales and that famous photo of him being seized at gunpoint from relatives in Florida and sent back to Cuba–that really disabused me of the notion that “the government always has the right intentions, and when they occasionally screw up, it was just an unfortunate accident.”
I don’t think I even noticed Ruby Ridge coverage in 1992.
I definitely didn’t. I don’t think the youngsters understand how easy it was for the Bad Guys to keep things quiet.
Glory in the Internet, kids!
Sometimes I wonder if being blissfully ignorant as I was back then wasn’t preferable to being constantly pissed off like I am now.
That’s fair. Still, I like knowing and being able to help my kids analyze the propaganda.
“Racisty racists deserve to die because of racism”
Being just over the border in eastern WA we got a lot more local coverage, which was more balanced. Ruby Ridge makes my fucking blood boil.
Both Waco and RR demonstrated that the government was willing to kill and coverup those who had wrong-think. They pissed me off then and now to no end.
Re Elian:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Repatriation_of_Cossacks_after_World_War_II
I have a hard time differenciating between what I think (and know) now, vs. what I thought then. I am a hair younger than Tundra, but I remember being pretty upset about it at the time, mostly due to Clintons complete fucking around trying to look all Law and Order. Of course, I was still a Dem at that time.
I was 22, I remember expressing some doubts about the official narrative in class and the professor was just aghast that I could think the gov’t would intentionally kill those people.
Did you ask the professor about why it would be any different from all the previous times the government intentionally killed people?
I was 23 and too busy working my grad degree, chasing tail, and getting drunk to care.
I wasn’t particularly tuned in to the broader world during that period of my life.
Warty, despite his snobbery for this site, is a smart and clever dude.
NOw I’m curious which is your fave on 7&tRT, because the only song I even remember from that is The Reflex and that’s only because it seems to be the only DD song that’s not Rio or Hungry Like the Wolf that ever gets played if you don’t try to get something else.
I like DD but I’ll be honest… I hate that song.
I thought it was a Frankie Goes to Hollywood song when it first came out, lol
The Reflex, Don’t Do It
I gave ‘Welcome to the Pleasuredome’ a re-listen a few months back. It’s not a good album, but has its moments.
If I had to sum it up in one word, it’d be “cocaine”.
Seventh Stranger is good.
Union of the Snake
New Moon on Monday
I remember the rest of the album but those were the other hits.
Wild Boys is a favorite from Arena.
Apropos, Rick Boomerato did a livestream breaking down Ordinary World
The mix on Ordinary World is not very good. There’s no space and no deeper, warmer tones. The bass is lost.
He mentioned at one point that it’s very Spector Wall Of Sound™ ish, which is true, and contributes to that.
That just doesn’t work on that song.
OMG.
https://twitter.com/hamcarless/status/1630765933768724483
This is why the internet exists.
That’s brilliant. I think JFK is Joe Dirt’s father.
GWB looks like Chevy Chase, Reagan looks like Dustin Hoffman, and Johnson looks like Geddy Lee.
Johnson definitely looks like Geddy Lee.
Ford looking like one smooth mofo.
LOL.
I’m watching way too much 70s TV lately and everyone is so sweaty and shiny.
That. Is. Awesome.
Fantastic! Silent Cal reminds me of an elf from LOTR.
Wait, where’s Cal?
Oh, shit, I missed the second group.
Cal does indeed look elfin.
Ike looks like a brachiosaurus with a mohawk.
I could totally see Clinton rocking that look. It’s uncanny.
We need to reanimate Wilson and show him this so he can have an aneurism and die again.
You piqued my interest KK. Why was Simon LeBon working on a kibbutz?
Maybe things will get better for Swiss.
https://dailycaller.com/2023/02/28/lightfoot-loses-chicago-mayor/
This… This is good news.
Hopefully.
The new avatar is 🔥
I could use DJT as a Brock Sampson stand in…
While it’s true, no one rocked a mullet like Brock.
I assume she’ll return to the sea to finish molting?
Back to Innsmouth
Will Chicago pick someone worse?
AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
Oh, you were serious?
OK. I’m listening to 7&TRT.
I’m not even sure what my favorite is, much less KK’s. But yes, what the fuck happened to John?
Still going with Seventh Stranger.
A classic Disney from 1958. The “Grand Canyon Suite” as a short movie. It leaves out the entire second movement (The Painted Desert) but was widely shown in classrooms across the country, including mine in southern AZ.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tp6voHf5kvE
I don’t understand, where are the minority transgender furries?
Great stuff, KK! Looking forward to the next installment of Duranmania.
Normally, I prefer the Duran Duran videos by Highlander director Russell Mulcahy. But, I’ll allow “The Chauffeur,” based on the considerable artistic merits.
Hey peeps, good morning!
😉
Mornin’ Sean, and anyone else awake & aware.
What about those of us dragging ourselves through the morning routine in a general stupor?
Good morning, Shirley, Sean, U, and Stinky! (Is the new avatar a Canadian Super Pig?)
***SIGH!!!*** First of the month again, so month-end report time. Happily, just like last month (funny how that works,) the Board meeting (always the 3rd Tuesday) comes as late as possible, buying me precious time to get those reports done. Of course, because I was off last week, I still have to listen to the Zoom recording and write up the minutes of LAST month’s Board meeting. 😣
On the bright side, this is a three-pay month! 😁
I’m sorry I only half-replied to your email last night. I had some comiseration to do regarding the process you mentioned, but it didn’t make it on the page before I clicked send.
No worries – I just replied a few minutes ago.
Happy March. The flowers are blooming and St Patrick’s Day is approaching.
Thanks and back atcha! I just don’t want the magnificent magnolia by the driveway to bloom too soon and then get clobbered with a late frost. Again. 😢
Which color? My neighbor has a pink-white combination Magnolia that hasn’t bloomed.
Mainly white, but with traces of pink. Gorgeous tree while it’s blooming, but when the petals eventually fall, you have to shovel them off the driveway.
Behold.
Saucer magnolia
Used to have one in the front yard.
Nice. The neighbor’s tree is smaller and in the back. A tree like that needs to be seen.
Reminds me of the re-release cover of Clever Girl’s No Drum And Bass In The Jazz Room
“Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot Loses Re-Election, Comes In Third-Place”
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/chicago-mayor-lori-lightfoot-loses-re-election
Huh, I’ve been busy the past few days and didn’t realize this had occurred. Good on them, now to redeem Tundra’s formerly sane state of Minnesota.
To save Minnesoda, you gotta nuke Minnesoda….
The stats of the day. Absolutely wild.
It’s remarkable how the Millennials and Gen Z are getting gayer with time. How does that work?
Well, if you compare the self-identification to the behaviour, a lot of these people are claiming one thing and doing another.
Social contagion, it’s the modern day equivalent of getting tatted up but with many more long term damaging consequences.
Saw that. So ridiculous.
Of course one Team will read something completely different into that from the other.
What happens when everybody’s gay?
The secret straights that make up 97-98% of the population will keep breeding.
Go into business selling turkey basters?
We will be rid of the Goobacks?
This. Only faster.
“How does that work?”
Well, if the chemicals in the water are turning the frickin’ frogs gay, what do you expect?
Oh dear, I am out of it.
I was about to pour diet dew on my salad when I meant to pour salad dressing. Thankfully I stopped before anything happened.
Taking a big swig of the salad dressing would have alerted you to your error.
“This is strangely decaffinated.”
That’s just the new Mountain Dew Cool Ranch flavor.
He’s already drinking Diet Dew, I would think salad dressing would be an improvement if anything.
Yum.
1986. Summer. I was living in an 8’x8′ cinder block storage building, but I had a boom box and a copy of Rio.
“The Chauffer” would set up amazing resonances in that space.
1986 – I wasn’t tall enough to see over the kitchen counters yet.
I spent most of ’86 gestating.
Today is my 30 year anniversary of being a drone.
2 RIF’s, 2 relocations, 1 divorce. I think i can say my idealism is a spec of carbon lost somewhere.
My armor of cynicism is strong.
Congratulations! I’d have sent cake, but I’m broke, so here’s some eCake. 🎂
Thank you
Avatar checks out