super groovy delicious bite: duran duran

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Thursday, November 21, 2013

seven and the ragged tiger

Duran Duran became tax exiles during the recording of this tumultuous adventure story. After the success of their eponymous debut and 'Rio', the band moved to a châlet near Cannes in the south of France with producer Ian Little to write and record demos for their third album. When it came time to record, they relocated to George Martin's Air Studios on the Caribbean island of Montserrat joined by producer Alex Sadkin. The sessions would later move to 301 Studios in Sydney, Australia after the band became fed up with the island life. 'Seven and the Ragged Tiger' features Nick Rhodes on keyboards, Simon Le Bon on vocals, John Taylor on bass guitar, Roger Taylor on drums, and Andy Taylor on guitars, with Andy Hamilton on soprano and tenor saxophone, Raphael DeJesus and Mark Kennedy on percussion, and Michelle Cobbs and BJ Nelson providing additional vocals. The band co-produced the album with Sadkin and Little.

Rhodes recalls:   "We felt that we didn't take a large enough step away from the first LP with Rio. It was too timid, although it did work very well for us. With your third album it's easy to get stuck in a rut, which we had no intention of doing."

John Taylor says:   “It was a difficult album. The third album was difficult because we stressed having to pace ourselves. We had a lot of hits. The vultures were circling. They are expecting you to lose it. We changed our producer for the third album. We started that album in France and we couldn’t get our groove on. From there, we went to the West Indies to a studio. I lived in Montserrat."

Roger Taylor remembers:   "We were all just going stir crazy. We were supposed to be there for months, it was bonkers. And John came in one day and said: 'I’ve had enough of this, it’s driving me f---ing nuts.' It was literally like being marooned on an island. We had all the success and all the trappings had started to come in, and we were stuck on Montserrat – and there was nothing there! So John said: 'l’ve heard that Australia is really happening at moment, let’s go to Sydney.' Such was the speed and ridiculousness of our existence."

Saturday, February 23, 2013

the wedding album

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)

Thursday, May 10, 2012

rio

Duran Duran took the world by storm with the lush and sophisticated new wave funk and groundbreaking visuals of this iconic pop masterpiece. 'Rio' was recorded at Associated Independent Recording (AIR) Studios in London with Colin Thurston, who had also produced their eponymous debut. Bassist John Taylor says: "Without Colin's depth of vision, we would never have become the band we became. He will be remembered as an important musical stylist who was a major catalyst for the Eighties sound."

Keyboardist Nick Rhodes explains the process: "We consciously continued writing as soon as we had finished our first album, so 'Rio' was a natural evolution of the band's sound, it was not in any way effected or influenced by the success of the first album...For the second album, we wrote it in six weeks, recorded in another six weeks; and we we wrote it all together as new songs. That is why to us the new album is so much stronger; it's very mature. It's the first proper Duran Duran album."

Lead singer Simon Le Bon remembers: "When we went in to make the second album, when we were starting thinking about it, [John Taylor] came up with the title 'Rio' and said, 'I think this sort of says it all in kind of a Roxy Music cool sort of way.' And we were like, 'Yeah!' It absolutely, does. And we'd been to America and it had a lot of references to America in it. And I'd seen this girl working as a waitress in a cocktail bar. And I just started writing on the back of a napkin about how she was, and that's what turned into the verse."

Drummer Roger Taylor says: " A lot of the songs were written around drum and bass tracks because the songs were changed so much. We'd have a song, John and I would put down the bass guitar and drum tracks, and the guys would put the song down on the top. Then maybe an hour later they'd say, 'I'm not sure about that bit. I'm not sure about this bit.'' Then they'd try something else on the same track. Two days later, the whole track on the top would have changed and the only original things would be the bass guitar and the drums. The whole song would have changed around the same backing track. It's quite weird when I listen back now, because I put the drums down to another song. Also, on some tracks, we actually changed the drums. I'd put the drums down and the song would go over the top. Then I'd think, 'I don't really like the drum track on that,' so I would play along to the song and have a new drum track. There was a lot of chopping and changing on this album. The way we did it was very unorthodox."

The sound of the album is dynamic, with the rhythm section of John and Roger Taylor providing a propulsive undercurrent for the toothy guitar riffs of Andy Taylor and the swirling majesty of Rhodes' synthesizer. While the music is impressive, it was the videos filmed on location in Antigua and Sri Lanka that made the most dramatic impact. They decided to work again with director Russell Mulcahy, who had directed their first video for 'Planet Earth'.

Rhodes recalls: "When the rest of the band had to travel to Sri Lanka to begin filming the videos for the album, I made the decision to stay in London with our producer, Colin Thurston, until the final mixes were completed. The details are very important to me and I wanted to ensure that every mix was as perfect as it could possibly be. So by the time I boarded the plane to Sri Lanka, I had a cassette of the final mixes and was very happy with what we had achieved."

The memorable album cover was painted by artist Patrick Nagel and designed by Malcolm Garrett. Le Bon replies to assertions that they were selling a lifestyle with their fashionable clothing and slick videos: "No! Rio wasn't a lifestyle, it was total fantasy. You don't wear a silk Anthony Price suit on a boat with some painted chick running around. It was a comedy video. None of us had boats. It was a greedy reaction to the hard times that had gone before."

Guitarist Andy Taylor says of the success of their music videos: "Don’t forget, we gave all those videos to MTV for free! They are the two billion dollar company and we give them the content for free... The quid pro quo with top 40 radio and MTV, it was exposure the likes that no one had ever had before. And being filmed young, it keeps you in the right place. It’s like Elvis movies, you know? You just see the young version. But it was television, as well, MTV. You know we had the naysayers and kind of the older artists were like ‘Uggghhh.’ Look, it’s called Music Television, and doesn’t everyone want to get on television?"

The band was convinced by their label to bring in producer David Kershenbaum to create some new dance mixes for their twelve-inch club singles; which were released on an EP called 'Carnival'. Some of these remixed versions were put on a new version of the 'Rio' album for the US market. 'Rio' went to number six in the US, number three in Finland, number two in New Zealand and the UK, and number one in Australia and Canada.

http://www.duranduran.com/

The single for 'Rio' peaked at number nine in Ireland and the UK. Nick says: "We were on holiday in Antigua, staying next to each other, like the Monkees. We were rung up and told, 'Stay there, we're bringing a film crew.' I only like boats when they're tied up, and you can have a cocktail without spilling it. We were initially going to shoot the video for 'Rio' indoors and we'd had Antony Price make these beautiful suits for us. I remember thinking: 'Oh my God, that sea water, it's going to ruin all this silk.'"

"I've seen you on the beach and I've seen you on TV
Two of a billion stars it means so much to me
Like a birthday or a pretty view
But then I'm sure that you know it's just for you
Her name is Rio and she dances on the sand
Just like that river twisting through a dusty land
And when she shines she really shows you all she can
Oh Rio, Rio dance across the Rio Grande"

'My Own Way' was the first song recorded for the album at Townhouse Studios in October of 1981. It was also the first single, charting at number twenty in Ireland, fourteen in Finland and the UK, twelve in New Zealand, and peaking at number ten in Australia.

"Number one public figure: what a pain
Just puts another rattle in your brain
Take another green but it's not the same
So now you're on the sandlane everyday
Dancing with the bulls in any old way
Running like a fox to keep up with me
'Cause I've got my own way,
I can find my own way,
'Cause I've got my own way"

'Lonely In Your Nightmare'

"Even on the darkest night
When empty promise means empty hand
And soldiers coming home like shadows turning red
And when the lights of hope are fading quickly
Then look to me
I'll be your homing angel I'll be in your head
Because you're lonely in your nightmare let me in
And there's heat beneath your winter let me in"

The 'Little Red Riding Hood' inspired 'Hungry Like the Wolf' was a top five hit around the world, driven by the popularity of the Raiders of the Lost Ark style music video filmed in the Sri Lankan jungle. In the US, the song peaked at number three. Roger remembers the response in the US: "That was one of the first places our videos were seen. We'd go to Alabama or Texas and the girls would be screaming and the guys in cowboy hats would be looking at us with clenched fists. I don't suppose they'd seen so many guys in make-up pouting before." Simon says: "It worked for us though. Video made it possible to create a cult of personality across the globe. You arrive on a tour bus and they'd already seen us on a yacht in a video."

"In touch with the ground
I'm on the hunt I'm after you
Smell like I sound, I'm lost in a crowd
And I'm hungry like the wolf
Straddle the line in discord and rhyme
I'm on the hunt I'm after you
Mouth is alive with juices like wine
And I'm hungry like the wolf"

After writing the lyrics to 'Hold Back the Rain', Simon slipped them under John's door. At the time John was doing a lot of cocaine.

"Yes we're miles away from nowhere
And the wind doesn't have a name
So call it what you want to call
It still blows down the lane
People tell me I haven't changed at all
But I don't feel the same
And I've bet you've had that feeling too
You can't laugh all the time
And if the fires burn out there's only fire to blame
(hold back the rain)
No time for worry cause we're on the roam again
(hold back the rain)
The clouds all scatter and we ride the outside lane
(hold back the rain)
Not on your own so help me please hold back the rain
So what if the words ain't rhyming
Did you thing that it's just a game
I probably didn't even say that right
And I really don't give a damn
Okay go off and wander
I'm guilty just the same
Sometimes you're needed badly
So please come back again"

'New Religion' is "a dialogue between the ego and the alter-ego".

"Gotta take pay the saints 'n sinners
In regulation hats 'n scarves 'n things
Walking in formation down the lane,
They carry their cross, make a church bell ring
Army majors pull a mean cool truth,
There lying in a swimming pool
Searching for the undeniable truth that
A man is just a fool
(Don't know why this evil bothers me)
Take another chance boy, carry the fight,
You can take him if you're fast
(So why is he trying to follow me?)
Didn't I say if you're holding on
You'd be laughing at the last
(How many reasons do they need?)
I get along fine with them friends of mine
But you have to make a choice
(I might just believe this time)
You're singing out of tune but the beat's in time
And it's us who makes the noise
I'm talking for free,
I can't stop myself, It's a new religion
I've something to see,
I can't help myself, It's a new religion"

The intoxicating swoon of 'Last Chance on the Stairway' may be my favorite of all of their songs.

"Wonder why
What makes me rise so high
Maybe it's something they put in your perfume
Or the look in your eyes
It could be the atmosphere sinking
I don't even know what you're thinking
I don't even know what you're drinking
But it keeps this heaven alive
And sometimes I'm caught in a landslide
And my heart beats so in time can you look at me
I'm out of reach I'll talk if it feels right
I'm so nervous to say: tell me can't you see
And if you want I'll fall off forever
I can't say no more: baby dance with me
And please don't say leave it till later
I've had my last chance on the stairway"

Duran Duran 'Last Chance On The Stairway ' from flip on Vimeo.

'Save a Prayer' went to number two in Ireland and the UK. During the filming of the video, Andy fell in a lagoon and accidentally drank some of the water. He caught a virus and had to be hospitalized during their Australian tour.

"Pretty looking road,
Try to hold the rising floods that fill my skin
Don't ask me why I'll keep my promise
Melt the ice
And you wanted to dance so I asked you to dance
But fear is in your soul
Some people call it a one night stand
But we can call it paradise
Don't say a prayer for me now,
Save it 'til the morning after
No, don't say a prayer for me now,
Save it 'til the morning after"