Duran Duran "astronaut"

I thought I saw a post a while back about this, but a search revealed no matches..

I just got this album and have to say it is one of the best DD albums EVER! Every song is absolutely great! The whole, original band together! This is the album that should have come after 7 and the ragged tiger!! Every album since then was too "studio perfect" with ringer guitarists and drummers. Getting Andy and Roger back got the groove back!

This album is a validation of why I thought they were one of the best of the 80's bands!

Downloading it now...

rehanging the Nagel prints now...

applying eye liner now...

Dyeing my hair now, while watching "Sing Blue Silver."

Stapeling epaulets to my shoulders now...ouch!

[ Edited by: Kono on 2004-11-19 18:53 ]

Smearing my feces onto the backs of naked groupies now....

Oh sorry, that was Warren Cuccurullo.

And then I raaaan,I ran so far awaaaaay....

On 2004-11-20 00:29, martiki wrote:
Smearing my feces onto the backs of naked groupies now....

On 2004-11-20 15:11, docwoods wrote:
And then I raaaan,I ran so far awaaaaay....

No, that was these guys:

DO NOT CONFUSE THEM!! :lol:

Can we all just go back to the 80's now when all the beautiful people were everywhere and no one went out without without their make up and hair done? Now everyone just looks like crap all the time, even at events. WTF? OK, so maybe what's inside is more important, but since there are not that many spiritually beautiful people anyway, I still think they all could use a little make up and hairspray.

Sorry, I should not be PWD (posting while drunk). Oh well. Tough noogies!

Cynfulcynner-you're right! I tend to mix up my big hair bands-I guess a few episodes of "I Love The Eighties" would straighten my right out.

Seriously though, people often judge Duran Duran for thier "look" during the 80's new romantic movement, and they judge them as being a "boy band" just like NKOTB or NSYNC.

But I grew up hearing these guys, and other 80's bands and Duran Duran was always a bit different. In their music are obvious influences: Bowie, Roxy Music, Thin Lizzy, Giorgio Moroder, Chic and others. All great bands. I find it interesting that the guitarist also thought they were pretty lame looking when he first auditioned.

Unlike NSYNC, Duran Duran has been working for 24 years now, and can still come up with an album of fresh, energized material, even in this day and age!

I think they are great!

As a bass player, I have to say that Duran Duran's bass player is one of the best there is, along with the bass player from The Fixx, and Kajagoogoo. I'm not posting this as a joke, these guys were awsome musicians.

On 2004-11-23 08:50, finkdaddy wrote:
As a bass player, I have to say that Duran Duran's bass player is one of the best there is, along with the bass player from The Fixx, and Kajagoogoo. I'm not posting this as a joke, these guys were awsome musicians.

The bass guy from the Fixx was amazing, but if you look at their album pictures he is never in them. The other four guys are in the pix, but the bass player just has his name listed. I always thought this was a little weird!

And the guy from DD is a good bass player too, he's probably the best musician in the band. Listen to what the bass is doing behind the sax solo in the song "Rio" if you need proof.

Yeah, exactly! I love that bass part on Rio. I was a total RUSH freak during high school, so I always appreciated good bass parts! Although Duran Duran and Rush may seem not to have too much in common, they are both bands that care very much about reaching for perfection. John Taylor may not have been the worlds best bass player, but he wrote great bass parts very much in the style of Bernard Edwards (RIP) and to this day, I can remember all of Taylor's parts.

There were a lot of great English bassists, like Mark King (level 42) and Nick Beggs (Kajagoogoo), bassists who transcended the pop bands they were in at the time!

I saw DD during the "reflex" tour in San Diego. They were an awesome band, not just a joke like BOW WOW WOW or FLOCK OF SEAGULLS or BERLIN (Bands that I like, but are hardly musical genius) DD played like a rock band should.

Thier new album is great. Listen to tracks 1 and 2 at high volume in your car, and you will know what I mean!

OK, I'm sober now. And I totally agree with Tiki Mick. In addition to being great bands, they are also really great showmen which is something really lacking these days. I went to see Martin Fry of ABC about 5 years ago and even after a bout with throat cancer some time ago, he sounded just as good as ever and came out in his gold lame suit and gave one hell of a show. The bassist from Kajagoogoo, I think, is the only one from the band still working as a pro musician. And though John Taylor from DD was originally self taught, he really stepped up his skills when he met Nile Rodgers who showed him a thing or two.

My personal favorite though is the bassist for Japan, Mick Karn. But not as many people have heard of him. Apparently, he could not read music at the time of being in Japan, but had one hell of an ear. They could play anything to him and he would instantly play it back. His style was also quite unique. Oh, and he had no eyebrows. After the break up of the band he went on to play with others such as Bill Nelson, Kate Bush, Midge Ure, Joan Armatrading, Gary Numan, David Torn and Peter Murphy.

I also heard a rumor that Haircut 100 were actually a bunch of jazz musicians that decided to go pop to make money. Can anyone verify that one? There have been some jazz bits on Nick Heyward's solo albums.

[ Edited by: vintagegirl on 2004-11-23 11:39 ]

I love ABC!

Spandau Ballet, Adam Ant, Visage, Thompson Twins, Wham....all that stuff and I am not ashamed to admit it! These bands had great musicianship. Look at the first ABC album. I read a story about how Martin Fry recorded it, and the high level of attention to detail that he employed, how he would have a sax part play 30 takes just to get it perfect.

Another great band was Franky Goes to hollywood. The production on thier first album was by Trevor Horn (English producer and former singer for YES)

Pop, in our day, was the bomb. It was smart music, danceable music..and just plain fun music! Compared to the LINKIN PARK and AUDOSLAVE(good bands that I also like a bit)this music had class. I like what V-girl said in her first reply, about how people were more fashion conscious back then. Kind of like the retro-lounge culture a lot of us are into now!

I know what you mean Mick. Kids also took more risks in trying to come up with new and different looks even if they got laughed at in school. Today they're all just sheep buying whatever's in the mall in one-size-fits-all. Also, it's thanks to the 70s punk rockers and subsequently the 80s new wavers that vintage clothing became acceptable to wear as or with modern clothing as part of creating those new looks.

And while Frankie Goes to Hollywood was great I was always sad that ZTT (their label) only had enough money to put on an all-out campaign on one of their bands (Frankie). One of their other main bands (also produced by Trevor Horn) was Propaganda - a German quartet known as the Abba from hell. If you like Frankie, check these guys out too on their album A Secret Wish.

Incidentally, the name for Trevor Horn's label ZTT (short for Zang Tumb Tum) came from a Futurist manifesto that talks about the art of noise (literally, not the band).
http://www.futurism.org.uk/manifestos/manifesto09.htm
Propaganda also had some pretty serious liner notes of the sort too. I love that kind of stuff.

I used to be absolutely sure that that one song they did was "Girls on Pills."

I was crestfallen when someone told me the real lyrics.

Mick Karn was THE MAN. I'd have to say, actually, that Japan was my fave band of that era. All of the members are still doing music to this day. Japan were a huge influence on all of the other bands mentioned above on this thread, having come out a few years before the rest of them. I think their music holds up really well (especially LPs like Tin Drum), and their fashion sense DEFINITELY inpired DD and their ilk.

When I was a kid I listened to most of the bands mentioned above, and now I find that some of them hold up and some don't. In retrospect, A Flock of Seagulls, for example, were a really shitty band, save for perhaps some of the guitar licks on their first record. Frankie GTH, I hate to tell you, couldn't play their instruments at all, and their entire record (save for the vocals) was done by Trevor Horn on Fairlight and Emulator samplers (fact). They were the Ashlee Simpsons and Brit Spears of their day. Propaganda's record was made similarly (it was quite good tho!), and the first Art of Noise (the band, not the manifesto!) LP was also Trevor's samplers in action. But again, it's a good record, lots of fun to this day, no matter how it was made.

One band Mick, that you didn't like that deserves another listen is Bow Wow Wow. I pretty much wrote them off an disposable too, but give some of their albums a listen. There's some good playing there, and they are tight and have some cool tribal grooves.

Visage were great musicians, but they weren't a full time band, they were pulled together by a nightclub owner (Steve Strange) to back him singing his own songs. Still they were a dream-supergroup from the era, with members of Ultravox, Magazine (an AMAZING and largely forgotten band of the era), and Rich Kids helping out. Their first LP stands up to time. It sounds VERY dated, but it is strong enough musically to still work.

Another record like this is the first Missing Persons LP. They were all ex-Zappa sidemen (except the singer), and there is some really hot playing on that record.

Of course, their guitarist went on to join DD, which brings this thread full cicle.

And now:

Tiki.

[ Edited by: tikibars on 2004-11-23 17:25 ]

Bow Wow Wow was cool.

Another Malcolm McLaren project, weren't they?

I dug "I Want Candy."

Candy, in this case, was a euphemism. :wink:

Thanks for knocking loose that old memory!

Do more!

Edited at the risk of invalidating the post:

That is cool trivia about Missing Persons, I did not know that.

I kinda spent that decade under the volcano, so to speak, so I'm digging your posts. I missed all those bands the first time around.

[ Edited by: Geeky Tiki on 2004-11-23 17:32 ]

Visage was a strange band, but also a really cool band! "The Anvil" "we Move" and "night train" were excellent songs. The 2nd Spandau Ballet album may have been thier best. Thompson Twins's second album with "love on your side" was great!

A very overlooked album was Adam Ant "strip" with Phil Collins playing drums on a few tracks. Human League had some cool stuff that still sounds good today.

Now, I actually saw an MTV or VHI bands reunited episode featuring Franky Goes to Hollywood, and although they had Holly Ivy, the main singer, they did have one guy that sang back-ups and danced. (Wearing a hard-hat more then likely!) but the drummer, guitarist and bassist were regular guys, and pro musicians. The orchestral stuff on that first album was done on samplers and synths by trevor Horn.

Missing person's first album still sounds good to this day, and i remember seeing them out in some lonely canyon one time, hooked up to a generator!

I used to dress really strange myself back then. I had multi colored hair, which I somtimes shaved off complelty. Bought New-Ro clothes at a store called GHQ at South Coast Plaza, and also bought vintage shirts at a place that used to be up on chapman avenue, where the santa ana hills start. There was some biker joint nearby at the time, I think it was "bobby Jean's" or something like that. A friend of mine scored a cool vintage bowling shirt, and the previous owner had put his name on the shirt as "beer"!!

On 2004-11-24 08:46, tiki mick wrote:
Thompson Twins's second album with "love on your side" was great!

That was their third LP ("Quick Step and Side Kick" in the UK, "Side Kicks" in the US), and their first as a 3-piece. Their first two UK releases, "Set" and "A Product Of... Participation" were recorded as a 7-piece band (including one Mr. Dolby on keyboards), and were squished into a single-LP compilation for the US called "In the name of Love".

-encyclopedia James

Hey Tikibars, did you ever notice David Sylvian's name on the liner notes of Propaganda's album (along with Glenn Gregory from Heaven 17)? Apparently they also contributed to the making of the album. Steve Jansen also accompanied them on one of their brief tours. I'm disappointed to hear that Propaganda may have not played the instruments on their album especially since Micheal Mertens was also the percussionist for the Dusseldorf symphony and you'd think he'd be playing in addition to the arrangements and writing he was already doing for the band. I actually got to meet Claudia Brucken a couple of years ago when she sang back up for Paul Humpreys (from OMD) here in LA. She was so pleased that I knew all the words to "Duel" (which she sang that night) and that I still had an interest in the new recordings she was then planning.

I'm also a HUGE David Sylvian fan and have followed his solo career since it started in 1984. (I've seen him live 3 times.) So I know what you mean by the huge infuence Japan had and what great musicians they all turned out to be. Early on, I used to see David Sylvian on the British mags and think "Who's that Nick Rhodes imposter?" Then I found out all about Japan.

Though I didn't know many of Visage's songs at the time, I'll always remember the video for "Fade to Grey". I love that one.

Also caught Bow Wow Wow about 6 years ago I thought they were pretty great live. Annabelle had more energy than ever.

I also loved Adam Ant, but preferred the pre-"Strip" stuff. "Stand and Deliver" really does it for me. That lip gloss he wore...oooh, baby! Apparently he was also a collector of antique clothing, even some museum pieces much like the pirate clothes he wore, designed by Vivienne Westwood.

"The scorpios" is my favorite Adam Ant song. I checked out a website earlier and there are very strange pictures of the way he looks now..shaved head! He also supposedly was in trouble for brandishing a gun in a pub.

On 2004-11-24 12:20, vintagegirl wrote:
Hey Tikibars, did you ever notice David Sylvian's name on the liner notes of Propaganda's album

Sylvian apparently made a small contribution to the song "P-machinery". I think it was background guitar or a small keyboard part.

Sylvian's "Secrets of the Beehive" (1987) might be in my top 3 records of all time.

Best Ant LP has to be Kings of the Wild Frontier. FYI, his first three (Dirk, Kings, Prince Charming) were just re-released with many bonus trax. IMHO, those are the only truly great records the man made. "Scorpios" was a mix-tape staple for me, circa 20 years ago!

Shit, am I really old enough to have been making mixes 20 years ago?
:(

[ Edited by: tikibars on 2004-11-24 13:59 ]

But... what about Bauhaus? David J still rules...
I heard he's a DJ for hire now...

I went and read the futurist letter from 1913..wow! This guy envisioned things that really did not occur until 1990, with powerful samplers and computer based samplers showing the waveshape and "fundemental" of any given sound. True enough, because if you used a keyboard sample and record a dog bark, or a cough, or any other shorter duration sound, you can go back and make melodies out of the lower and higher pitches. (like on Ferris Bueller!!)

Great thread! Hey Finkdaddy, if you wanna hear some good bass playing, you should check out New Model Army. They started out in the early '80's w/ a dark post punk/angst sound and are still going strong, though have gone to a more accessable celt/brit/folk/rock sound. The rythym section is awsome. There have been 3 bass players, with the current being the longest standing. He goes by Nelson, and I've heard he played w some noteworthy '80's band but I can't recall the name.
I also love that Adam Ant Bow wow wow tribal drumming sound. Another often overlooked band of that era who have had a great deal of influence over bands then and even now is Killing Jokes (they did that catchy song titled "Eighties"). You cannot listen to their first 2 or 3 records without hearing similarities to everything from Adam Ant to Nirvana, to Ministry. BTW Killing Joke is still going too. Dave Grohl drummed on the last record and I caught their show in Portland. It was really, REALLY, GOOD.

Bau Haus. I DJ'd a big halloween party last month and got to pull out all my old 80's goth stuff. Lot's of fun. There were even a few people there who recognized some of those old tunes- which made the whole thing worth it. I heard that Bowie once said that he considered BauHaus his successor. I dunno, perhaps it's an urban legend, but they sure do the job on Ziggy Stardust.
I heard Peter Murphy has a new album out. What a voice.
I'm sure David J is still rocking. Love and Rockets are still going aren't they?

On 2004-11-24 13:58, tikibars wrote:
Sylvian's "Secrets of the Beehive" (1987) might be in my top 3 records of all time.

I saw that tour in 1988 at the Wiltern theater in Los Angeles. It was, essentially, a religious experience for me. Barbieri and Jansen were of course there. The only one absent to complete the Japan line-up was Mick Karn. I got to meet Steve Jansen briefly after the show. I asked him if they would be playing the states more often and he said that if it were up to him, he would. (What did that mean?) Anyway, I think he was drunk by that point, but he was gracious enough to take a dorky fan photo with me. My "Trophies" lyric book from that tour is one of my most prized possessions. I don't care that they go for over $200 on eBay.

Hey has anybody seen the film "Made in Sheffield"? It came out a couple of years ago and is all about the Sheffield music scene in England and early new wave music. I haven't seen it yet, but am curious how it is.
http://www.sheffieldvision.com/

On 2004-11-24 17:43, vintagegirl wrote:
I asked him if they would be playing the states more often and he said that if it were up to him, he would. (What did that mean?)

He probably meant that tours are dictated not by the desires of the band, but by their record labels, who are looking at profits and the bottom line. As big Sylvian fans as we are, the fact is that his following is pretty small, and Virgin (his label, until recently) isn't going to put him on tour unless he can bring in some cash... which, unfortunately, he can't (as evidenced by the fact that 80% of the dates on his 2002 tour were cancelled). He still does well in Europe and the far east, but not enough of us yanks ever caught on to his tunes to make more frequent touring worthwhile for the label, even if the band might want to.

I just put a HUGE lot of 1980s vinyl LPs up on Ebay, including stuff by a lot of the bands mentioned in this thread. I know there's an Ebay forum now, but it seemed more appropriate to mention it here, since it's not Tiki items that I listed.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=29857&item=4056138431

On 2004-11-23 15:40, Geeky Tiki wrote:
I used to be absolutely sure that that one song they did was "Girls on Pills."

I was crestfallen when someone told me the real lyrics.

I knew all the lyrics when I was 11, but had no idea what it was really about until I saw the long version of the video...... 8)

On 2004-11-23 17:30, Geeky Tiki wrote:
I dug "I Want Candy."

Candy, in this case, was a euphemism. :wink:

I never figured out the true meaning of that one either.

I didn't know a song had dirty lyrics unless Tipper Gore said so. :roll:

On 2004-11-24 12:20, vintagegirl wrote:
I actually got to meet Claudia Brucken a couple of years ago when she sang back up for Paul Humpreys (from OMD) here in LA.

Did Paul Humphreys play solo, or was this with OMD?

Brucken and Humphreys did a tour together doing Propaganda and OMD tunes (and some new stuff) a few years ago.

I love 80s new wave/new romantic stuff, so I am enjoying this thread. I love Japan and VISAGE!!!!
I have a question about a new song that I heard on the radio, it is about a woman who still loves 80's music and how out of touch she is with today's sound, it goes something like "she wishes it were 1985, Springsteen Madonna before there was Nirvana." Does anyone know who sings this, it sounds like its Good Charlotte or one of those new pop/pink bands.

Could it be from the new Gwen Stephani album? I heard it was very retro-80's.

On 2004-11-30 14:21, tiki mick wrote:
Could it be from the new Gwen Stephani album? I heard it was very retro-80's.

I havent heard Gwen's album, but the song I am referring to had a guy singing. By the way I read somewhere that Gwen loves Duran Duran.

TikiGoddess, it's a song called "1985" by Bowling for Soup. I heard it a few weeks ago too only I thought it sounded like Weird Al Yankovic. Here's the lyrics:
http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/bowlingforsoup/1985.html

This is the kind of bland generic pop band that I really can't stand in contemporary music. I've never even heard of them before and they are already appearing at the Mall of America (how fitting) for some tree lighting ceremony.

All these albums you mention and many more of the same ilk are available for about 50 cents in any English charity shop. Please feel free to come over and help free up the space.

Trader Woody

By the way, Gwen's solo album features contributions from Martin Gore, New Order, and Wendy & Lisa!!

What I've heard of it so far isn't that great, sadly.

On 2004-11-30 16:17, vintagegirl wrote:
TikiGoddess, it's a song called "1985" by Bowling for Soup....

Hey thanks!! I saw them on TV doing the theme to that new Gilligan's Island reality show and I thought they had a lousy name for a band. But thats another topic!

The geeky part of me is bothered by that 1985 song.

The part about being into Blondie is 1985 doesn't ring true.

Blondie's last top 40 song was in 1979 and they were pretty much not in the mix at the time of the other artists mentioned in the song.

It just sounds disingenuous to me.

Well, that and the fact that they are ripping off Weird Al Yankovic's style and vocals. If I hadn't been told who it was, I'd be asking which song Weird Al was parodying.

Fair point, that.

That's a pretty common problem with people looking back on the eighties: it all seems like the same thing over the course of the 10 years. I don't know about you, but 1982, 1985, and 1989, for example, were all noticibly different years in terms of music and fashion and a whole lot else. (Think about PCs in 82 and 89!) No, there was a lot of evoultion- and that prbably goes unnoticied by a band like Bowling for Soup where all the members were likely BORN in the 80s!

Well said Martiki! And maybe if Bowling for Soup actually knew something about 80s music they would be able to write a decent pop song that would be around for longer than a "blipvert".

(BTW, just listened to Sound of Thunder by Duran Duran today. I just love that galloping bass line!)

[ Edited by: vintagegirl on 2004-11-30 22:44 ]