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From: rlr@pyuxn.UUCP (Rich Rosen)
Newsgroups: net.music
Subject: Re: WHY WHY DURAN DURAN?? (good question)
Message-ID: <738@pyuxn.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 13-Jun-84 09:13:23 EDT
Article-I.D.: pyuxn.738
Posted: Wed Jun 13 09:13:23 1984
Date-Received: Thu, 14-Jun-84 00:11:20 EDT
References: <24@whuxi.UUCP>
Organization: Bell Communications Research, Piscataway N.J.
Lines: 61

> Can I get some opinions "unbiased" please?

I always flinch when I see someone make a request like that.  Usually
"unbiased" means "agreeing with the authors and no negative comments that might
upset them".  In this case, my comments may not appear to be "unbiased" in that
sense.  (What is an "unbiased" opinion, anyway?)

> Going back in time, I remember the first time I heard "Hungry Like A Wolf",
> a really liked it.  Then FM and the Clubs really started overplaying it,
> "what else is new?".  I questioned, "Who and What the Hell is Duran Duran".
> Shortly I went out to buy their first album "Duran Duran" and also Rio.
> Their music is REALLY different, some tunes are average, but what
> I would consider "filler" music on most of my favorite groups'
> albums, I actually LIKE by "DD" and think they deserve FM play.
> My favorites are "Hold back the Rain", "Save a Prayer" etc.
> I know they sound so Roxy Music-ish, but I really think that
> they are innovative.

I always wonder what people are really trying to say when they exclaim "they're
so different and innovative" and "they sound like someone else". 

> I even went to see them at the Meadowlands with 2,000 screaming
> little l4 year olds.  
> Do you think they use subliminal advertising.
> SIMON LE BON PLEASE REPLY TO: !whuxi val
> P.S. - Or anyone who looks like him.
---
> Well, I consider my self a music critic and am really into music, and
> coming from a family of professional musicians.  I don't know to
> this day, what really interestes me about "DD".  

Nor I, but from the tone of your request to Mr. Le BonBon, I'd say 1) yes
they do use subliminal advertising in the form of tight pants and other
accoutrements designed to impress impressionable young girls, 2) is the name
"val" a real name or a description?  :-)

Check out the Rolling Stone expose on Duran Duran a few months back.  (RS has
actually been the bastion of music exposes lately; witness their explosion of
the MTV myth in a recent issue.)  In the article, quoting from members of the
band, they explain how, although they originally dissociated themselves from
the "new romantic" movement, they actually thought it was the most convenient
bandwagon to jump on at the time.  "We were poseurs, and we were looking for
good-looking poseurs to be in our band."  And, for those who care, there's a
great incident involving the increasingly rotund Mr. Le Bon's pants buttons
popping just before a concert.  (Couldn't walk out on stage without the right
clothes...)  Well, I'm off to South Iguana to film my next video, so...
(Actually, the band gave up the "let's go to a foreign place to have our
pictures taken" concept for their last video, in which they blatantly FAKED
a live concert.)

They're so easy to pick on, but I'll admit I do like "Hungry Like the Wolf"
and even "Save a Prayer" (with its Wakemanesque synthesizer opening).  And
I'll never miss the "adult" version of the Girls on Film video.  But why does
everything else they do sound alike?  (Remember, they're the band that made
MTV a viable means of "breaking" bands in America...)

Musician magazine reviewed their last album in the following manner:
	Adventure!  Romance!  New haircuts!
-- 
You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy.
				Rich Rosen    pyuxn!rlr