Duran Duran had a major comeback as a quartet with the dreamy textures and updated dance grooves of this topical nuptial restoration. The group had gone through different lineup changes and had seen their popularity gradually wither away when they came to record their new album without a drummer. John Taylor would admit: "The experience all of us had gone through, five or six years (of success) and then suddenly to have all this taken away and everybody saying 'Your career is over' ... It was an enormously disheartening period. We were practically broke - it's amazing how the money came and went. And it really felt very hard. We felt like we were almost being punished for something and we couldn't quite understand what it was."
Nick Rhodes considers: "Over the last few years, we'd been soldiering away, and we'd almost become settled in the belief that we'd got a cult following. And that was the level Duran Duran had been sitting at since about 1988 or something. We sort of locked into that, making our albums and exploring different territories and really being happy with what we were producing. When we started out, really, we came from an art-school background. The audiences we were playing to at the beginning of the '80s, even in America, were very much a college cult audience, for want of a better word."
Taylor says: "We just went into a room in Warren's house and sat around and jammed. Which is what we would have done when we were teen-agers. No roadies, no press agents, nobody hanging around. Just the four of us. And it made for a lot more honesty. We were able to get closer to what we wanted to say ... We went through our secondguessing period when things first started to go wrong, shall we say, around 'Notorious' or 'Big Thing' because we were thinking, 'What did we do wrong?' Previously, we'd put out records and people would start to buy them, and then suddenly there was a big rebuff. After 'Liberty' wasn't a success, we said we've just got to go and do better. It's got to be stronger, the writing, the playing, whatever...We actually second-guessed ourselves a lot less on this record."
The sessions for 'The Wedding Album' were produced by the band with John Jones and featured Warren Cuccurullo on guitar and acoustic guitar; Simon Le Bon on vocals; Nick Rhodes on keyboards; and John Taylor on bass guitar; with John Jones on programming, keyboards, guitar, and vocals; Milton Nascimento on vocals; Steve Ferrone on drums and percussion; Vinnie Colaiuta and Fergus Gerrand on drums; Bosco on percussion; Lamya and Tessa Niles on backing vocals; and Karen Hendrix & Jack Merigg on vocal samples.
Cuccurullo considers the work to be among his most satisfying: "Are you kicking ass, or are you a lazy wimp? You have your idols, and you always try to get up to their standards. Frank Zappa and Bowie and Prince give me the stuff I measure myself against...I use a Gibson Chet Atkins, and John plays a Yamaha plug-in acoustic bass. Nick plays some synths, but no sequencers, and we've got a cello and two violins. I adapted and arranged our material for this ensemble, and it's the most musically fulfilled I've ever been...I'm an electronic guitarist from head to toe, with the biggest Bradshaw rack in existence, but in the last five years I've discovered Brazilian music, and it hits me hard in the heart. With guitar and a simple melody in the hands of someone like Milton Nascimento, every song becomes a music lesson. Working with him on 'Breath After Breath' was a dream come true, just like when I got to work with Frank."
The band's management company was not impressed with the album and pulled it from their release schedule; but the underground buzz over a leaked copy of 'Ordinary World' changed their minds. Le Bon jokes: "It's the down-the-back-of-the-sofa syndrome, really, which we fell behind...it's weird though...we've had a real hard time for the last four years and nobody wanted to know at all and suddenly you come out with one song and it's all just wiped away and people are interested in that- they're just interested in what you have going on for the future. It's great really...As soon as you get that kind of swell of feedback from the man on the street, whatever the critics have been saying about you ceases to matter at all because you're communicating directly to the people that count."
Taylor: "When flairs came back we knew. We said, 'there's a '70s revival going on; it's only a matter of time before they hit the '80s and get to us'."
Rhodes: "When we first came out, we were a fashionable English band, and things that go out of style obviously do come back in style, thank goodness."
Le Bon: "We figured we'd get our current stuff out before we got caught up in any nostalgia whirlpool."
The album was released under the title 'Duran Duran' but has come to be known as 'The Wedding Album' because of the cover art by Nick Egan featuring wedding photos of the parents of each of the band members. The album went to thirty-two in France and New Zealand, twenty-three in the Netherlands and Switzerland, twenty-two in Germany, twenty in Australia and Finland, eight in Canada, seven in the US, six in Italy, and number four in the UK.
www.duranduran.com
duranduran.warnereprise.com
"Ordinary World" went to eighteen in Australia; sixteen in Germany and the Netherlands; twelve in Finland; eleven in Switzerland; eight in France; six in the UK; three in Ireland, New Zealand, and the US; and number two in Italy. It was presented with the Ivor Novello Award for songwriting by the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors (BASCA).
Came in from a rainy Thursday
On the avenue
Thought I heard you talking softly
I turned on the lights, the TV
And the radio
Still I can't escape the ghost of you
What has happened to it all?
Crazy, some'd say
Where is the life that I recognize?
Gone away
But I won't cry for yesterday
There's an ordinary world
Somehow I have to find
And as I try to make my way
To the ordinary world
I will learn to survive
Passion or coincidence
Once prompted you to say
"Pride will tear us both apart"
Well now pride's gone out the window
Cross the rooftops
Run away
Left me in the vacuum of my heart
What is happening to me?
Crazy, some'd say
Where is my friend when I need you most?
Gone away
But I won't cry for yesterday
There's an ordinary world
Somehow I have to find
And as I try to make my way
To the ordinary world
I will learn to survive
Papers in the roadside
Tell of suffering and greed
Here today, forgot tomorrow
Ooh, here besides the news
Of holy war and holy need
Ours is just a little sorrowed talk
And I don't cry for yesterday
There's an ordinary world
Somehow I have to find
And as I try to make my way
To the ordinary world
I will learn to survive
Every one
Is my world, I will learn to survive
Any one
Is my world, I will learn to survive
Any one
Is my world
Every one
Is my world
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDLiVwpv89s
"Come Undone"
was added to the album at the last minute. Cuccurullo came up with the music trying to rework "First Impression"
from their previous album 'Liberty'. Rhodes and Cuccurullo were going to use the song for a project with Gavin Rossdale; but when Le Bon heard it and was inspired to write lyrics on the spot, they decided to quickly record the song. Taylor did not play bass on the song. Jones reveals:
"We had completed and mastered the Wedding Album and had started the cover album "Thank You". One day we took the drum loop and bass groove from a demo of mine called "Face to Face" and added the ultra cool guitar riff that Warren had come up with for a new "cover" version of "First Impression". After a couple of hours of tweaking we played the track over the phone to Capitol in Los Angeles and they loved it and said they wanted it on the Wedding album! When Nick arrived that afternoon the intro was carved into a song that we played to Simon that night. He was back the next day with the lyrics and the melody and I think we finished the vocals the day after that. On the fourth day we finished the track detail and sent it to David Richards in Switzerland to be mixed."The single went to forty-eight in Finland, forty-two in Germany, thirty in Belgium, twenty-six in France, twenty-one in Sweden, nineteen in Australia, sixteen in New Zealand, thirteen in the UK, nine in Ireland, seven in the US, six in France and Italy, and number two in Canada.
Mine, immaculate dream, made breath and skin, I've been waiting for you,
Signed, with a home tattoo, Happy birthday to you was created for you.
(Can't ever keep from falling apart.. At the seams)
(Can't I believe you're taking my heart.. to pieces)
Ahh, it'll take a little time, might take a little crime to come undone
Now we'll try to stay blind, to the hope and fear outside,
Hey child, stay wilder than the wind
And blow me in to cry.
Who do you need?
Who do you love?
When you come undone.
Who do you need?
Who do you love?
When you come undone.
Words, playing me deja vu, Like a radio tune I swear I've heard before,
Chill, is it something real, Or the magic I'm feeding off your fingers
(Can't ever keep from falling apart.. at the seams)
(Can I believe you're taking my heart.. to pieces)
Lost, in a snow filled sky, we'll make it alright, to come undone,
Now we'll try to stay blind, to the hope and fear outside,
Hey child, stay wilder than the wind -
And blow me in to cry.
Who do you need?
Who do you love?
When you come undone.
"Too Much Information"
forty-five on the US pop chart, thirty-five in the UK, thirty on the US modern rock tracks chart, and number seventeen on the US dance club chart.
Destroyed by MTV
I hate to bite the hand that feeds me
so much information
The pressure's on the screen
to sell you things that you don't need
It's too much information for me
Hey TV child
look into my eyes
here by intervention
I want your attention
Promotion boy
in a suit 'n' tie
he wants you to use it
you're too shot to lose it
It's pumpin' down the cable
like never so before
a cola manufacturer
is sponsoring the war
Here comes the news
with love from me to you
Destroyed by ABC
I hate to bite the hand that feeds me
so much information
The pressure's on the screen
to sell you things that you don't need
It's too much information for me
Turn on the tube
hits you with groove
advertisin' music
we want you to choose it
These teeth are white
trainers ultra-brite
This band is perfect
just don't scratch the surface
[ From: http://www.elyrics.net ]
We covered all the angles
the survey people said
Just put us on the cover
we'd be smilin' anyway
This video was made
with love for you
Destroyed by BBC
I hate to bite the hand that feeds me
so much information
The pressure's on the screen
to sell you things that you don't need
It's too much information for me
Destroyed by MTV
I hate to bite the hand that feeds me
so much information
The pressure's on the screen
to sell you things that you don't need
It's too much information for me
Dilate your mind dilate your mind
dilate your mind dilate your mind...
Got to give it to me
Got to listen to me
Got to give in to me
Now I'm on the line
Got to give it to me
Got to listen to me
Got to give in to me
Now I'm on the line
I try
Yes, I try
Oh, I try
Yes, I try
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tbVPpeUUW8
'The Wedding Album'
full album:
01. 00:00 Too Much Information
02. 04:56 Ordinary World
03. 10:36 Love Voodoo
04. 15:34 Drowning Man
05. 20:49 Shotgun
06. 21:42 Come Undone
07. 26:21 Breath After Breath
08. 31:19 UMF
09. 36:51 Femme Fatale
10. 41:13 None of the Above
11. 46:31 Shelter
12. 50:55 To Whom It May Concern
13. 55:19 Sin of the City
*UK edition bonus:
1. "Falling Angel"
2. "Stop Dead"
3. "Time for Temptation"
4. "Come Undone" (12" mix - Comin' Together)
5. "Ordinary World" (acoustic version)
6. "Too Much Information" (David Richards 12" mix)
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