It was actually my sister who introduced me to the music of Duran Duran as a whole. Before she started bringing home all their albums and EPs, the only song I knew from them was the heavily-played on MTV song Hungry Like The Wolf. But after a few months of listening to her playing her albums over and over, I actually began to dig their music quite a bit!
I had an RCA Videodisc Player which I had purchased so I could watch The Who’s “Kids Are Alright” movie (the only format it was available in at the time), so most of my music concerts were in the Videodisc format as well. Discs like The Beatles’ “Let It Be” (Yes! They released it on Videodisc!) and Fleetwood Mac’s “Mirage” Tour Concert were bought on a regular basis, and one day my sister asked me if I’d let her use the Videodisc Player if she bought a Videodisc of her own. I said sure, and the following weekend, she came home with a video collection of DURAN DURAN!
For a guy who didn’t know much about Duran Duran , this was a mind-blowing and very educational experience! You got to see the band go through their early new wave roots up to their current (at the time) status as video-as-art mavericks! You got to see them go through several phases of “looks”…The songs segued into each other, making the contrasts of each type of video all the more palatable! And the SONGS were so damn good!
Eventually I had to go ahead and purchase their albums myself, including both versions of their “first” album, as well as what I consider their pop-art masterpiece, RIO.
The cover art for Rio was the (soon to be) iconical image of a smiling woman done by Patrick Nagel, at once capturing the whole “Nu-Romantic” feel before you’d even started playing the record!
1.Rio
The album starts off with a single synthesizer note, then the drums kick in to introduce the beat and then the song turns this into a jumping, rocking piece, setting the stage for your musical trip!
2. Most of the songs here had videos shot on exotic locations (like, famously, Sri Lanka) and so when hearing songs like “Lonely in Your Nightmare” conjures up visions of faraway lands, giving you a melancholy (and quite lonely) feeling, John’s bass solos are particularly expressive here.
3.The version of the song “My Own Way” I learned was from the video, which featured the dance-“night” version of the song, and when I first made a cassette to play in my car, it was THAT version I inserted into the album’s playlist. And even now I still would prefer to listed to that version than the decidedly slower one originally on the album!
4. The one song I’d already known before coming in, this is a fun number that’s only marred by an EXTREMELY irritating end with a lady loudly moaning during the fade out. WTF, this wasn’t so noticeable in the single version!
5. Hold Back The Rain
Side One ended with this longish song in ths style of the above Hungry Like the Wolf track, this one foreshadowed later songs New Moon On Monday and Union of the Snake.
7. New Religion
This is one ROCKING number, another one driven by John’s distinctive bass plucking.
ME and my friends would LOVE to sing this song with its interesting lead vocal overlaid with a counter vocal during the choruses! One of my faves from this album!
8.Last Chance On The Stairway
Ah, another BIG favorite of mine- this one begins with an almost whimsical and romantic feel (with him sweetly reminiscing "I don't remember quite how I met you, wasn't long ago") but turns into a rocking song full of desperation!
9. Save A Prayer
Like Lonely In Your Nightmare, this one was shot on location and so gives an added feel of displacement, loss and loneliness. One of the more famous MTV videos by them, I might add. A truly beautiful and haunting song!
10. The Chauffeur
Did I mention Haunting? MAN, songs like album closer “The Chauffeur” go even further by giving you the strangest sense of unease! its Magical Toyland feel to it, I've always imagined the picture on the cover of Aerosmith's "Toys In The Attic" with the dolls and hobby-horses coming to life, and there's even a disembodied voice asking about "the toys in the attic" A mesmerizing end to an amazing album!!
Did I mention Haunting? MAN, songs like album closer “The Chauffeur” go even further by giving you the strangest sense of unease! its Magical Toyland feel to it, I've always imagined the picture on the cover of Aerosmith's "Toys In The Attic" with the dolls and hobby-horses coming to life, and there's even a disembodied voice asking about "the toys in the attic" A mesmerizing end to an amazing album!!
Years later, and though they’ve made many video collections after that, they’ve never released that original Duran Duran Video Collection on DVD. Sure, the videos themselves are (for the most part) available on other collections, but there was something about the way that old video was put together that just made it…perfect!
