Editorial note: Opinions expressed here are solely those of the blogger
In hindsight, I liked Duran Duran way more than I let on when I was growing up. I’d play Rio, the band’s 1982 breakthrough album, endlessly on my tinny Samsung stereo system, then 1983’s follow-up – Seven and the Ragged Tiger. I enjoyed the music well enough, knew all the songs by heart. But like most children of the 1980’s, it wasn’t so much what I heard that made me appreciate Duran Duran. It was what I visualized.
Every time I heard a song like “Rio,” or “Hungry Like the Wolf,” I of course pictured the videos – lead singer Simon LeBon wearing a linen suit and snapping his fingers while he sat jauntily astride the bow of a yacht or running through a jungle. And his bandmates – young, cool, handsome, and impeccably dressed, most with the last name Taylor but not related. There I was – a scrawny tween with a Jew fro, nothing at all like the lads from Birmingham, England who were then in their early and mid-Twenties. Yet that never crossed my mind. Somehow, I believed that if I listened to Duran Duran’s records, or watched their videos, some of their inherent coolness and fashion sense would rub off on me. Spoiler alert: it didn’t.
All these memories came rushing back to me last night when my wife Wendy and I watched the Netflix documentary Duran Duran: There’s Something You Should Know. I’ve seen better music documentaries and I wish Duran Duran: There’s Something You Should Know featured a bit more linear storytelling. However, the documentary, just like the band itself, is deceptively good.
Of course, Duran Duran will always be synonymous with MTV – which I, and many of you, grew up with without ever realizing how innovative the format was. The criticism of MTV at the time was that it placed too much emphasis on image but I’m not sure I buy it. We collectively listen to artists like Madonna, The Clash, Devo, Bon Jovi, The Cure, and countless others because of how they sound, not how they look.
I remember several years back hearing the Duran Duran song “Hold Back the Rain,” off the aforementioned album Rio, on the car radio. Despite not being a musician myself, I was impressed with the song’s bass line – a reminder that Duran Duran bassist John Taylor can play.
Since re-discovering “Hold Back the Rain,” it’s become a regular fixture on my running playlist. I shuffle along throughout our Minneapolis neighborhood and, as corny as it sounds, the song really does take me back to my Chester, Connecticut bedroom. Listening to Duran Duran immediately conjures up some sleek, sophisticated world where I can look but not touch. Because the fact that it’s out of reach, in the silliest, most fictious way possible, makes it all the more fun.
Image credit: EMI Records
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