song of the day – “Hungry Like The Wolf” | DURAN DURAN | 1982 / 1983.

Happy Star Wars Day (it’s still Star Wars Day somewhere)!  May The 4th Be With You! (and also with you!  aaah, Catholic humor, I never tire of it…)

Being the singles chart nerd that I am, I was looking through the BILLBOARD Hot 100 charts from the 80s to see if there was (1) a chart dated May 4 (1985 was the only one in the decade), and (2) to see if there was anything out of this world (like Star Wars) that was new and noteworthy to write about.  Mmmm not so much.  But, over in the U.K., I did find a single that might as well have been out of this world, and it was released on May 4, 1982: “Hungry Like The Wolf” by Duran Duran.

I’ve always loved this rooftop picture from the RIO album! From L to R: Andy Taylor, Nick Rhodes, Simon Le Bon, Roger Taylor, John Taylor.

Unbeknownst to me and most of the United States, Birmingham England’s Fab 5, Duran Duran — consisting of lead singer Simon Le Bon, keyboardist Nick Rhodes, bassist John Taylor, guitarist Andy Taylor and drummer Roger Taylor (all three Taylors are unrelated) — was pretty successful in their homeland prior to the first time I had discovered “Hungry Like The Wolf” on the radio. 

Duran Duran formed in 1978, and in 1981, released their eponymous debut album, a No. 3 Platinum release that remained on the U.K. Top 100 album chart for over two years and generated three U.K. Top 40 hits, including the big No. 5 hit, “Girls On Film.”

The original 1981 release of Duran Duran’s eponymous debut album.

But, despite being successful in the U.K. and other parts of the globe, Duran Duran initially had a hard time reaching an audience here in the U.S. with their debut album, and their second album, RIO, which was released globally on May 10, 1982.

At the time of its initial release, “Hungry Like The Wolf” reached No. 5 in the U.K., and No. 4 on the Irish Singles Chart, which was Duran Duran’s first Top 10 hit in Ireland.  “Hungry Like The Wolf” was released in the U.S. in early June 1982, but did not even make the Billboard Hot 100.  U.S. radio wasn’t interested.

A U.K. 12″ single version of “Hungry Like The Wolf.”

But Duran Duran wanted success in America, and then an unexpected part of the equation came to fruition: the untapped resource that was MTV.

One of the many MTV logos in 1982.

MTV (or MTV Music Television as it was known back in the day) was less than a year old at that point, and Duran Duran was not getting any airplay on the new music video channel AT ALL. 

But, in a smart move by music video director Russell Mulcahy, who had directed the band’s first video, for “Planet Earth,”  the video for “Hungry Like The Wolf” (and two other songs on RIO) was filmed in Sri Lanka, was inspired by RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK, and the exotic, slick and creative video paid off.

The powers that be at MTV absolutely loved the video for “Hungry Like The Wolf,” and less than a couple of months after the video was shot, it was already in heavy rotation at MTV.  By then, it was only a matter of time before Duran Duran would get their wish for success in America. 

On Xmas Day 1982, “Hungry Like The Wolf” finally made its debut on the BILLBOARD Hot 100, at No. 77.  Within a month, it worked its way inside the Top 40, and for awhile, it seemed to be a chart race between “Hungry Like The Wolf” and Culture Club’s debut single, “Do You Really Want To Hurt Me,” which had been on the chart for a few weeks more.

Both songs reached the Top 10 of the BILLBOARD Hot 100 the same week in the second half of February 1983, with Culture Club consistently and directly in front of Duran Duran every week for 10 consecutive weeks.  Starting for three weeks at the end of March 1983, “Do You Really Want To Hurt Me” peaked at No. 2 (behind Michael Jackson’s monster hit, “Billie Jean”), and true to form, for the same three weeks, “Hungry Like The Wolf” peaked at No. 3.  Both songs finished the year in the Top 20 for all of 1983 here in America.

The U.S. 7″ single version of “Hungry Like The Wolf.”

A lot of the global success of “Hungry Like The Wolf” can also be attributed to famed American producer, David Kershenbaum, who remastered the RIO album in November 1982, and remixed a number of the songs on the album, including “Hungry Like The Wolf.”  These remixes were part of an EP called CARNIVAL and included “Night Versions” of “Rio,” “Planet Earth,” “Girls On Film” and the aforementioned “Hungry Like The Wolf.”

The European version of the CARNIVAL EP.

Some Carnival remixes that didn’t make the CARNIVAL EP ended up on the U.S. Harvest Records version of RIO, a version of the album that I have had in my collection for almost 40 years.  For the longest time, I didn’t know certain other versions of some of RIO’s songs even existed.  That’s the way I will always remember RIO though — the “U.S. Kershenbaum version 2” release.  It will forever be one of my all-time favorite albums.

Around the globe, fans of the Fab 5 were hungry for “Hungry Like The Wolf,” and it spent five weeks at No. 2 in Canada, reached No. 4 in Finland, Italy, New Zealand and South Africa, No. 5 in Australia, No. 25 in Poland, No. 36 on BILLBOARD’s Dance chart, and spent three weeks at No. 1 on BILLBOARD’s Rock chart.

Between 1982 and 2004, Duran Duran racked up 21 BILLBOARD Hot 100 hits.  15 of those reached the Top 40, 11 of those reached the Top 10, and two went to No. 1 – 1984’s “The Reflex” (also aided by a remix, this one by Nile Rodgers, a longtime collaborator with the band), and 1985’s “A View To A Kill,” still the only James Bond theme to reach No. 1 here in the U.S., despite strong Top 10 attempts by Paul McCartney and Wings, Sheena Easton, Madonna, Adele and the unforgettable Shirley Bassey.

The U.K. version of “A View To A Kill.”

Duran Duran is no longer the Fab 5 (Andy Taylor left the band again after their 2004 reunion album, ASTRONAUT), but in 2015, they released their most recent studio album, the excellent PAPER GODS, which brought them back to the Top 10 of the BILLBOARD Album Chart for the first time in 22 years!

The cover art for the 2015 PAPER GODS album.

The band is still together and thriving today, with their 15th studio album in the works for a Fall 2020 release!  Four years ago, with Duran Duran promoting PAPER GODS, my dear friend Shawn and I got to see them perform (with Nile Rodgers and Chic opening!) in Brooklyn, NYC for one of THE BEST concerts we have ever seen.  And we’ve seen some.  It was totally worth the 34-year wait!

Duran Duran in 2015.

So, even though “Hungry Like The Wolf” may not be “out of this world,” I’m grateful, because it introduced me to a world with Duran Duran in it, a band that remains as one of my all-time favorite bands, and is from an album I will treasure forever.  I also take comfort in the fact that, after nearly 40 years, “Hungry Like The Wolf” is still a staple on radio stations today, and will be for all time, thankfully in a galaxy not so far, far away…

“Burning the ground, I break from the crowd / I’m on the hunt down, I’m after you / I smell like I sound, I’m lost and I’m found / And I’m hungry like the wolf…”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJL-lCzEXgI

Duran Duran, 1982.  I may actually have this poster somewhere!

song of the day – “Election Day” | ARCADIA | 1985.

Well, it’s finally here.  Today (November 8, 2016), my Country, the United States of America, will elect one of the two most unpopular Presidential candidates in recent memory (or all-time).  I’ll come onto that in a bit.

On this historic Election Day in the US of A, today’s “song of the day” (a choice that will prolly surprise no one) is actually by a band from the U.K. – “Election Day” by Arcadia. 

31 years after the fact, almost everyone and their mother knows that, in 1985, when Duran Duran went on a hiatus, two side projects were formed: the “supergroup” known as The Power Station – Robert Palmer, Chic’s Tony Thompson on drums, and Duran’s John Taylor and Andy Taylor – and Arcadia, comprised of the other three members of Duran Duran – Simon LeBon, Nick Rhodes and Roger Taylor.

Both acts were successful but short-lived, and by the time Arcadia’s first single, “Election Day,” was released, The Power Station had already scored a couple of U.S. Top 10 hits and a third Top 40 hit. 

True to its name, “Election Day” was released in October 1985, just weeks before Election Day, and about a month in advance of its parent album, SO RED THE ROSE.  A couple of Saturdays before a pretty tame Election Day here in America (compared to the Presidential election of 1984, where Ronald Reagan was re-elected in a landslide and almost unanimous victory), the song “Election Day” was the highest-debuting song on the BILLBOARD Hot 100 that week, coming in at No. 46. 

AllMusic reviewer Kelvin Hayes referred to “Election Day” (also the opening song on SO RED THE ROSE) as a “darkly romantic irking toward erotic and has brass stabs not dissimilar from their Bond [No. 1 hit from earlier that year] ‘[A] View to a Kill’.”  There’s another connection between “Election Day” and the A VIEW TO A KILL film – Grace Jones appeared in the film AND sang backing vocals on “Election Day” (and served as the song’s narrator).

There was one verse that was dropped from the version which ended up being released, and more than 30 years later, it’s eerie how this verse could pertain to this year’s U.S. Presidential election:

“Don’t even try to induce, In all my restrain there’s no hesitation / All the signs on the loose ’cause sanity’s rare this end of the hard day / Shadows are crawling out of the subway / Any way that you choose in every direction just to confuse me…”

By the end of November 1985, “Election Day” garnered enough votes to reach the Top 10 in just six weeks, but with some pretty heavy contenders ahead of it (three of which would rank in the U.S. Top 10 for all of 1986), “Election Day” stopped at No. 6, spending a couple weeks there just before Christmas 1985.

Around the globe, “Election Day” reached the Top 10 in (at least) the U.K., Canada, Ireland, New Zealand and Norway, and No. 12 in Holland.

Arcadia had one more Top 40 hit on the Hot 100 (“Goodbye Is Forever”) and one other MTV hit (“The Flame,” which was a Top 40 hit in Holland and Ireland), and SO RED THE ROSE would be the only album Arcadia would release.  Simon LeBon, Nick Rhodes and John Taylor reunited for Duran Duran in 1986 and had a huge hit with the title track of their Nile Rodgers-produced album, NOTORIOUS.

As of this writing, Election Day 2016 is underway here in Maine and many parts of America.  If you are kind enough to be reading this blog post and you live in America, I’m not going to tell you how to vote, but PLEASE VOTE if you’re able.  I realize the two main candidates for this Presidential election each have their own baggage and wouldn’t have been my first choices, but whoever you choose, please choose with your heart and with your conscience.

At this point, the best we can do is pray that whoever gets elected will move forward from this election BS and be good for the Country I have loved for a half-century.  If you’re voting, be safe out there and may the Force be with us all…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3Yy6c0Tlvk

song of the day – “Get It On (Bang A Gong)” | THE POWER STATION | 1985.

What do you do when one of your favorite bands splits up and goes their separate ways?  Well, in the case of Talking Heads, you keep listening to the music you fell in love with, enjoy the solo projects they all have, and keep wishin’ and hopin’ and thinkin’ and prayin’ that they’ll get back together for a reunion tour (or just watch STOP MAKING SENSE again). 

In the case of The Police, you keep listening to the music you fell in love with, enjoy the solo projects they all have, and see them on their 2007 reunion tour (like I did), because it’ll prolly never happen again.

And, in the case of Duran Duran in 1985 – one of the first bands that meant a lot to me during the early 80s – you keep hoping they’ll get back together in some form and keep listening to the music you fell in love with.  Duran Duran actually made it easy.  After their 1983 album, SEVEN AND THE RAGGED TIGER, the band went on a “planned” hiatus, splitting into two side projects, but not without giving us the live ARENA album and their second No. 1 song, “A View To A Kill,” from the James Bond film of the same name. 

Arcadia: Simon LeBon, Nick Rhodes and Roger Taylor.

Frontman and lead singer Simon LeBon, keyboardist Nick Rhodes and drummer Roger Taylor went on to form Arcadia, which was reminiscent of their work with Duran Duran.  Bassist John Taylor and guitarist Andy Taylor went a different route with their band, what would become the “supergroup” The Power Station.

The Power Station had an edgier Rock / Funk sound that John and Andy Taylor weren’t able to pull off with Duran Duran.  In 1984, Bebe Buell, singer and former model, part-time Portlander and the biological mother to actress Liv Tyler, was dating John Taylor, and she wanted to do a cover of T. Rex’s 1972 classic, “Get It On (Bang A Gong).”  John proceeded to get some of his famous music friends together to help out, and instead, it turned into something more.

Bebe Buell and John Taylor.

John and Andy reached out to their idols from the 70s Dance/Soul band, Chic.  The amazing Tony Thompson was on board as the drummer, and Bernard Edwards would be the producer.  Now, they needed a singer.  John and Andy approached folks like Billy Idol, Mick Jagger, Richard Butler of The Psychedelic Furs and Mick Ronson, who had worked with David Bowie and Morrissey. 

Originally the band was to be called Big Brother, and the initial idea was to have a revolving door of lead singers, each one singing on a different track on the album.  English singer / songwriter Robert Palmer – who had released several albums since 1975, but with limited success around the globe – had performed live with Duran Duran once in 1983, and was the invited vocalist for the song, “Communication.”  Robert had heard they were doing a cover of “Get It On” and wanted to try out for it, and instead, the band ended up doing the whole album with Robert Palmer.

The Power Station: Tony Thompson, John Taylor, Robert Palmer and Andy Taylor.

The entire band – Robert Palmer on vocals, John Taylor on bass, Andy Taylor on guitar, and Tony Thompson on those amazing drums – appeared on SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE on February 16, 1985, and were introduced to the world.  And from there, The Power Station was a hit, as was their self-titled album, which was certified Gold in the U.K. and reached the Top 10 on the BILLBOARD album chart. 

The “supergroup” also had three Top 40 singles on the BILLBOARD Hot 100, “Some Like It Hot” (No. 6 for 2 weeks, May 1985), their cover of “Get It On (Bang A Gong)” (No. 9 for 2 weeks, August 1985, surpassing the No. 10 peak of the T. Rex original) and “Communication” (No. 34 for 2 weeks, October 1985).  (“Get It On” also reached No. 22 in the U.K., and No. 8 in Australia.) 

For those keeping score, The Power Station did fare better overall than the other equally short-lived Duran Duran side project, Arcadia, whose album, SO RED THE ROSE, was certified Platinum here in the U.S., and they had a couple of Top 40 singles – “Election Day” (No. 6, 1985) and “Goodbye Is Forever” (No. 33), as well as a MTV video hit with “The Flame.”

By the end of 1985, The Power Station was no more.  But, the experience breathed new life and then some into Robert Palmer’s career.  Before the year was out, his eighth studio album, RIPTIDE, was released (recruiting fellow Power Stationers Bernard Edwards as producer, Andy Taylor on guitar, and Tony Thompson on drums).  It was the biggest album of Robert Palmer’s career.  Remember those memorable drums and that guitar solo on his No. 1 hit, “Addicted To Love?” – it was courtesy of Tony and Andy. 

Tony Thompson went on to provide drum support for some acts, and appeared in a few bands, along with the brief return of Chic in 1992.  John Taylor opted to return to Duran Duran, while Andy Taylor did not return in lieu of a solo career.  Both John and Andy had separate Top 30 singles on the Hot 100 in 1986, and both were movie songs.  Andy Taylor could also be found on other hit singles in the second half of the 80s, providing his guitar talents for several artists, notably on Belinda Carlisle’s “Mad About You” (1986) and “Lost In You” and “Forever Young,” from Rod Stewart’s 1989 album, OUT OF ORDER.

They would all get back together in 1996 for their second album, LIVING IN FEAR, though John Taylor had to drop out of the project and wasn’t on the record.  Bernard Edwards was all set to tour with The Power Station, but tragically died during a trip to Japan.  Robert Palmer and Tony Thompson both sadly passed away in 2003, within a couple months of each other.  Robert had just released a Blues album. 

Duran Duran, 2015: Roger Taylor, John Taylor, Nick Rhodes Simon LeBon.

Today, Duran Duran is touring in support of their fourteenth studio album, the wonderful PAPER GODS (Andy Taylor did rejoin the band for their 2004 album, ASTRONAUT, but it was not to be, and the other band members have continued on without him).  With my dear friend Shawn, we saw Duran Duran (with Chic opening) in Brooklyn back in April 2016.  Both bands were brilliant, and both paid tribute to David Bowie.  It is one of THE best shows I’ve ever seen in my life.

And “Get It On (Bang A Gong)” is one of THE best covers I’ve ever heard.  You can hear John Taylor’s impressive, funky bass work; Andy Taylor’s killer guitar; the booming drums courtesy of Tony Thompson; and, the memorable, passionate vocals of Robert Palmer.  One of the things I loved most about The Power Station – and you can especially hear it on this song – is that every member of the “supergroup” is represented, and they never let you forget that… 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2vHbXI2p4k

song of the day – “People Have The Power” | PATTI SMITH | 1988.

Last night (6.12.2016), my little 20-year-old radio show on WMPG community radio in Portland, Maine – STUCK IN THE 80s – brought to the airwaves THE HEAVY 80s (it wasn’t all bubblegum, you know…), highlighting some of the 80s songs that addressed serious issues in their songs.  I was joined by my dear friend Michelle Fire Eater (one of my oldest, closest and coolest friends, and one of the first people I met when I moved to Portland in 1994).  I think I’ll have to do a Part 2 later this Summer, because there so many amazing songs with so many stories and messages in them, we couldn’t possibly get to them all in a couple of hours. 

THE HEAVY 80s was a show initially thought of by Michelle a couple of years ago (I really love the tagline), and it was amazing to have her on the show, and share her thoughts on these songs that have meant a lot to both of us, respectively, for many years.  In an odd way, it seemed a bit fitting we were co-hosting a show about songs with heavy subject matter, one night after the devastating terror attack on a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, where 49 people out at the club, having a great time and just being themselves on a Saturday night, were killed, and more than 50 others wounded. 

Over the years, through events like Columbine and 9.11.01 and the terror attacks last year in Paris, STUCK IN THE 80s paid tribute to those affected with music that had nothing to do with these events, but songs that were played to comfort, played for support, and played to simply keep the music playing. 

When I saw Duran Duran in NYC a couple of months ago, lead singer Simon Le Bon said of “Save A Prayer”: “[the song should] stand as a beacon to show that music is a way of bringing people together, that people are good and that we will not live in fear.”  And, he’s right.  I’m not going to to live in fear.  And, I’m going to express myself the best way I know how – playing music on STUCK IN THE 80s, and writing this blog.  And I’m not going to let some fucking murderous cowards instill any fear in me because of how I want to express myself.  For now, though, I grieve.

Michelle Fire Eater and I were grieving for the folks in Orlando during last night’s show, and we dedicated a couple of songs to everyone affected – Bob Marley’s “Three Little Birds” and, to close out the show, David Bowie’s LIVE AID version of “Heroes.”

Last week on the blog, in advance of THE HEAVY 80s, I posted Prince’s “Sign ‘O’ The Times” as a “song of the day.”  In the blog post, I mentioned how Prince was not a fan of President Ronald Reagan, and though Reagan knew about AIDS as early as the first year of his Presidency (1981), he was reluctant to talk about it for years.  I mentioned how “Sign ‘O’ The Times” was one of the first songs ever to mention AIDS, I think, in part, because Reagan wouldn’t.

I also included the above photo of some protesters holding up signs with Reagan’s face and the words “silence = death.”  Not long after my post, my dear and über-talented friend, Hope, shared this amazing story about her experience with the ACT UP (the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power) and SILENCE = DEATH protest in Washington, D.C., October, 1987.

One of the highlights of the show last night was reading Hope’s recollection of the action in D.C., and I’m grateful to her to allow me to share that recollection again in this forum:

“In 1987 [my excellent friend and former partner] Sarah & I (and 500,000 of our closest friends) converged on DC for three days of action, including a group “wedding” (not legal), a huge & beautiful march (speakers included Cesar Chavez & Jesse Jackson) and an action at the US Supreme Court.  The action was to protest a Supreme Court ruling that gay people do not have a constitutional right to privacy.

“It was a bloodbath.  Sarah & I were set to go under the barricades in the second wave, but there was no second wave.  We couldn’t go because there were too many people lying on the ground, beaten and some barely conscious.

“A terminally ill man in a wheelchair got help to get under the barricade.  Two DC riot cops pulled him out of his wheelchair, dropped him on the ground, and clubbed him.  He survived.  It was literally his dying wish to attend the action, and he died a couple weeks later.

“That’s what ACT UP and SILENCE = DEATH were about. No one would listen, so we got their attention.”

Thank you, Hope.  I highly encourage you check out Hope’s incredible WordPress blog, HEXBREAKER at https://hexbreaker9.wordpress.com/.  She’ll also be sharing her thoughts on Orlando and the 1987 action in D.C. and then some…  Be sure to keep an eye out for it.

The one song – the only song – I thought of to play following my reading of this recollection by Hope was the brilliant “People Have The Power” by the legendary “punk poet laureate,” Patti Smith.

“People Have The Power” is a protest song from her fifth studio album, DREAM OF LIFE, released in June 1988.  It was was co-written by Patti with her then-husband and former MC5 guitarist, the late, great Fred “Sonic” Smith (who passed away in 1994 at age 45 from heart failure), and a song which has been covered by the likes of Bruce Springsteen (her writing partner on 1978’s “Because The Night”) and more recently, U2.

Of this song, Patti Smith once said, “We had both protested the Vietnam War when we were young.  We had been part of the ’60s, where our cultural voice was really strong, and we were trying to write a song that would reintroduce that kind of energy.  It’s sad for me but quite beautiful.  It was really Fred’s song – even though I wrote the words, he wrote the music; the concept was his, and he wanted it to be a song that people sang all over the world to inspire them for different causes.  And he didn’t live to see that happen, but I have.  I’ve seen people.  I’ve walked in marches all over the world where people spontaneously started singing it, you know, whether it’s been in Paris or with the Palestinians or, you know, in Spain or New York City, Washington D.C. – and it’s so moving for me to see his dream realized.

“We wanted to remind the listener of their individual power but also of the collective power of the people, how we can do anything.  That’s why at the end it goes, ‘I believe everything we dream can come to pass, through our union we can turn the world around, we can turn the earth’s revolution.’ We wrote it consciously together to inspire people, to inspire people to come together.”

Regarding what happened two nights ago in Orlando, it’s alright to be sad.  Be sad for the victims, their families, what the LGBTQ community is going through, what everyone is going through.  Be angry.  Be angry about the peace and innocence lost through these attacks, and the fucking cowards disrupting the world with their endless supply of hate.  But don’t let the anger you feel over events like Orlando turn into hate (though easier said than done).  Martin Luther King, Jr. once said, “Hate begets hate; violence begets violence; toughness begets a greater toughness.  We must meet the forces of hate with the power of love.”

What organizations like ISIS and other dark forces around the globe haven’t thought of is that they are not the only ones who have power.  I’m not saying we should go to war over this.  I hope we don’t.  But, we won’t stand for it either.  Patti and Fred sure got it right in 1988, and their 5-minute message is still here in each and every one of us today.  Just let it out.

Don’t let these cowards bully you into fear.  Keep going to nightclubs, keep going to movie theaters, keep traveling, keep listening to community radio, keep breathing, and keep breathing some more.

We’re in this together, LGBTQ and allies alike.  People have the power.  We all do.

#peoplehavethepower

#orlando

#actup

#lovewins

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPR-HyGj2d0

album of the week – RIO | DURAN DURAN | 1982.

This past Tuesday, (4.12.16), my dear friend Shawn (a former Mainer living for many years now in NYC) and I had the amazing opportunity to see Duran Duran perform at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, with Chic featuring Nile Rodgers opening! 

I have long known that Nile Rodgers has worked with Duran Duran regularly since turning the 1983 album version of “The Reflex” into a remix that hit No. 1 worldwide in the Spring and Summer of 1984, so when I saw the pairing of Chic and Duran Duran, I knew I wanted to be there.

Duran Duran in 2015.

The show was more phenomenal than I ever expected, one of the best I’ve ever seen, and in the largest venue I’ve ever attended for a concert.  Duran Duran was promoting their great 2015 album, PAPER GODS, an album that brought them back to the Top 10 of the BILLBOARD Album chart for the first time since their second self-titled effort reached the upper echelon in 1993 (oft-referred to as THE WEDDING ALBUM). 

 

During the show, Duran Duran scattered songs from PAPER GODS, inbetween a barrage of hits spanning decades, and a couple of surprises, including their excellent 1995 cover of “White Lines” (originally a 1984 hit by Grandmaster Melle Mel), and a bit of “Space Oddity,” their tribute to David Bowie, mixed in as a medley with “Planet Earth.”  Duran Duran and David Bowie toured together in the U.S. in 1987, and they were all friends. 

Duran Duran paying tribute to their mentor, hero and friend, David Bowie.

According to Duran Duran’s website, David Bowie was a mentor and hero to the band.  Weeks after David Bowie’s passing, Duran keyboardist extraordinaire Nick Rhodes told BILLBOARD magazine, “There was no question that as a musician, David Bowie was the singular person who inspired me more than anyone else to become a musician.” 

With the concert still very fresh in my mind, I couldn’t think of a better album to feature as my “album of the week” than their brilliant 1982 album (and one of my all-time favorite albums of any decade), RIO. 

RIO was released in May 1982, and was the second album for the Birmingham, England quintet.  Compared to their 1981 self-titled debut album, RIO sounded more like New Romantics than New Wave.  The New Romantics genre was a pop culture offshoot of New Wave and Synthpop, incorporating visual and fashion styles along with the music.  Bands like Visage, Ultravox and Spandau Ballet would also fit this New Romantics category of music.  New Romanticism was once referred to as a reaction to Punk, influenced by the likes of David Bowie and Roxy Music.  And with MTV not even a year old in May 1982, Duran Duran took advantage of the short-form video format and then some, practically single-handedly put themselves (and MTV) on the map.  Their popular videos were filmed in places like Sri Lanka even scored them their only two Grammy Awards to date, in 1984 (for Short-Form and Long-Form video).

Back in 1982 and 1983, I was in high school, and didn’t have a lot of money, so you could say I was a “card-carrying” member of the Columbia House Record and Tape Club.  One of the first albums I ever picked up through Columbia House was RIO.  When RIO was first released, it didn’t do well here in the U.S., so the band recruited producer David Kershenbaum (later one-half of David + David), and he remixed some songs for the band.  There were two versions of RIO released here in the U.S., containing mixes from Duran Duran’s CARNIVAL and NIGHT VERSIONS EPs.  The only difference between the first and second U.S. versions is that, on the second version, “Hungry Like The Wolf” was switched from the U.S. album remix to the Night Version, and that’s the version Columbia House sent me, so it will be the version of RIO that I talk about here.

RIO starts off with the sensational title track, which was released as the fourth and final single from the album in the U.K., and the second single here in America.  It was a big hit worldwide, reaching the Top 10 in the U.K., Canada and Ireland, and debuted on the BILLBOARD Hot 100 in early April 1983, as “Hungry Like The Wolf” was steady in the Top 3. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3W6yf6c-FA

The single “Rio” made a fast climb up the Hot 100, vaulting from No. 31 to No. 17 by the end of April 1983.  But, it lost steam and stalled at No. 14 for 2 weeks in May 1983.  Still, “Rio” remains as one of the band’s most-beloved songs, and was the last song Duran Duran played at the Barclays show, to much applause.

The second song on RIO is the Carnival Remix of “My Own Way,” which was actually released in the U.K. in November 1981, between “Girls On Film” and “Hungry Like The Wolf,” and issued months before RIO was actually released.  Releasing the single between albums worked, and “My Own Way” reached No. 14 in the U.K., No. 10 in Australia, the Top 20 in Finland, Ireland and New Zealand, and reached No. 1 in Portugal.

RIO’s third song is the David Kershenbaum U.S. Remix of “Lonely In Your Nightmare.”  The song was one of 6 songs from RIO with accompanying videos, and most directed by Melbourne, Australia’s Russell Mulcahy, who would work with the band on several videos overall, and who also directed many videos for Elton John, along with classic 80s videos for songs like Spandau Ballet’s “True,” Bonnie Tyler’s “Total Eclipse Of The Heart,” “The War Song” by Culture Club, “Sex” by Berlin, “Gypsy” by Fleetwood Mac, “Turning Japanese” by The Vapors, and the second-biggest song of the 1980s, “Bette Davis Eyes” by Kim Carnes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGdLNbIc2ZA

The Night Version of “Hungry Like The Wolf” was RIO’s fourth song, and the album’s second single.  It would be the band’s most-recognized hit and biggest worldwide single, reaching No. 1 in Canada and BILLBOARD’s Rock chart, the Top 10 in the U.K., Australia, Finland, Ireland, South Africa, New Zealand, and the U.S., where it spent 3 weeks at No. 3 on the BILLBOARD Hot 100 in March / April 1983, and ranked No. 17 for all of 1983.

“Hungry Like The Wolf” has been featured in many TV shows and films since its release, and has been covered from the likes of Courtney Love’s band, Hole, the GLEE cast, and an excellent 1997 Ska cover by California’s Reel Big Fish on THE DURAN DURAN TRIBUTE ALBUM.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOg5VxrRTi0

Side One of my version of RIO closes with the U.S. Album Remix of “Hold Back The Rain,” six-and-a-half minutes of Dance / Synthpop creaminess.  The original version of this song is four minutes long, and while that version is okay, I never listen to it.  It’s too short and this version is the version I have loved and danced to for 34 years. 

The second side of RIO begins with “New Religion,” and the entire second side remains untouched from the original May 1982 version of the album.  The song is described in the RIO liner notes as “a dialogue between the ego and the alter-ego.”  If you listen closely to the song, you’ll hear dueling Simon Le Bon vocals.

On the album’s seventh track, “Last Chance On The Stairway,” you will hear Nick Rhodes rotate from playing the keyboards and synthesizers to singing backing vocals and playing the marimba (which prolly doesn’t happen often). 

The U.K. version of “Save A Prayer.”

The eighth song on RIO is “Save A Prayer,” the band’s third single from the album, in both the U.K. and the U.S., though the chart history is quite different.  The song’s popular video was mostly filmed in Sri Lanka, and was a big hit in the U.K. and Ireland, reaching No. 2 in both countries. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Uxc9eFcZyM

For reasons still unbeknownst to me, “Save A Prayer” was not initially released as a single here in the U.S., though it was a hit on MTV.  Following the release of the band’s 1984 live album, ARENA, the studio version (with the ARENA live version as the B-side) was finally released in America in early 1985, but I think it was a couple of years too late, as it spent a couple of quick weeks at its No. 16 peak in March 1985. 

The U.S. version of “Save A Prayer.”

“Save A Prayer” was always a fan favorite (and certainly a favorite with me), and recently came into the international spotlight by way of the California Rock band, Eagles of Death Metal.  On October 30, 2015, Duran Duran and Eagles of Death Metal performed the song on a new version of the long-running British entertainment TV show, TFI FRIDAY, and they did a version of “Save A Prayer” to close out the show (Eagles of Death Metal covered the song on their 2015 album, ZIPPER DOWN). 

Just 2 weeks after the TFI FRIDAY show, Eagles of Death Metal were performing in Paris when the terror attacks occurred there.  Since the attacks, Duran Duran stated that they would donate all of the royalties they get from the cover version to charity.  At the Barclays show last week, “Save A Prayer” was the first song of the 2-song encore (“Rio” was the last song of the night), and Simon Le Bon mentioned Eagles of Death Metal and the Paris attacks, and stated that “Save A Prayer” should “stand as a beacon to show that music is a way of bringing people together, that people are good and that we will not live in fear.”  It’s so true…

Hey, ocarina!

The ninth and final song on RIO is “The Chauffeur.”  It remains as the band’s most known song that wasn’t released as a single (though it did reach No. 2 on France’s Airplay chart).  It started off a a poem Simon Le Bon wrote two years before joining Duran Duran, and it grew from there.  The flute-like instrument you hear at the end of the song is played by Simon Le Bon and is called an ocarina, an ancient wind instrument that dates back thousands of years. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1B__8N5d_LA

The album cover art for RIO was painted by famed Dayton, Ohio artist, Patrick Nagel, who sadly passed away from a heart attack 2 years after RIO was released.   His work on RIO was among his best known images.

One of the many things I love about RIO is that the band is given equal credit on all nine songs – Simon Le Bon, lead vocals; Nick Rhodes, keyboards, synthesizer, backing vocals; John Taylor, bass guitar, backing vocals; Roger Taylor, drums, percussion; and, Andy Taylor, guitar, backing vocals (all three Taylors are not related).  The band’s “unofficial sixth member,” Andy Hamilton, contributed the saxophone, most notably on the song “Rio,” and has played with folks like David Bowie, Tina Turner, Pet Shop Boys, Radiohead, Elton John and Wham!

The band once known as “The Fab Five” got back together to record and tour for their eleventh studio album, 2004’s ASTRONAUT, and it was the band’s first time since 1985 that all five members of the band were together…and the last.  Andy Taylor left the band (again) before their next album, 2007’s RED CARPET MASSACRE. 

The remaining four members all looked terrific and energetic at the Barclays show, and looked like they were having a great time doing what they love to do, and they do that well.  I will never forget that show in Brooklyn, NYC, nor the great time my friend Shawn and I had while there.  It was well worth the 34-year wait; a wait that started upon my first listen of the brilliant album, RIO…