Post by stuporfly on Sept 28, 2010 5:43:09 GMT -5
While on a visit to my mother's house this past weekend, I found a copy of a book I bought as a teenager. It's called The Rock Yearbook 1986 (published and purchased in late 1985, I believe), and there's quite a few references to Duran Duran in there. Sadly (sometimes amusingly), most of the mentions are negative.
For example...
" Even with mass unemployment and enforced leisure and all that, life is still far too short for any sane person to devote forty minutes to listening to an LP by Duran Duran. Nobody listens to Duran Duran LPs, not even Duran Duran. Listening to a record like Rio I am irresistibly reminded of old favorites like A Session With the Dave Clark Five; exactly the same creative and commercial forces are at work." - David Hepworth
On Arena...
"At the very least Arena spares us the spectacle of Le Bon's idiot-dancing, but at very worst it's smothered with his grunts and whoops, clumsy, studied stabs at spontaneity." - Melody Maker
"It is not, one suspects, terribly live, this round-the-world-in-80-limos live album...I had imagined the lads might be able to play their instruments by now, but one can't demand everything...Even Nile Rodgers cannot disguise their apparent lack of feel for this art form." - NME
"If it's critical approbation they're seeking, it won't happen this way." - Record Mirror
On The Power Station...
"The album which proves that John 'Duran' Taylor is every micrometre the noveau riche, styleless, vain young shitball he always hinted at." - NME
"The sheer muscle of sound does hold a sort of forcible fascination." - Smash Hits
"The Power Station have fused nothing with nothing and produced something less than something." - Melody Maker
"For all the talent present, the record sounds remarkably unoriginal." - Circus
"Duran Duran surpassed themselves with the 'Rio'-meets-'Goldfinger' theme for A View to a Kill." - Phil McNeill, The Year in Singles
On Duran Duran Live (Philip Kamin and Peter Godard) and Duran Duran: The First Four Years of the Fab Five (Neil Gaiman)...
Definitely the worst of the brace is the Kamin/Goddard effort. Kamin, the photographer, tops the bill and provides...umm...a lot of pictures, from which we learn that even pretty boys, taken live, have shiny noses, spots, gloopy expressions and ratty hair (these rather suit Andy Taylor); also that Simon Le Bon and Roger Taylor have bad teeth. All this is quite reassuring, if not very attractive on a full color (sort of pinko-grey) life-size double spread. From the words we learn very little, except that the rock and jazz critic of the Toronto Star doesn't know how to spell Suzie (sic) and the Banshees, quotes from a paper called the London Daily Star (ever heard of it?) and does a nice line on portentous one-sentence paragraphs" 'This is where it all began'; 'Le Bon was waiting for them' - that sort of thing. We also learn (from Nick Rhodes) that 'black musicians have this huge sense of rhythm"; from John Taylor that Seven and the Ragged Tiger is the funkiest a white band have ever been, and from Goddard himself are Verdi to Phil Spector's 'Wagnerisms.' On reflection, this must be worth ten dollars.
Too many misprints for nigh on six quid in Neil Gaiman's book, and we don't need to have it explained that Brighton is a 'South coast seaside resort" - but let's be charitable, everybody wants to crack America. Still, is Nick Rhodes' young lady called Julie Anne Friedman or Juliana Freedman? Both on page seventeen - I think we should be told. Otherwise Gaiman gives us a lot of interesting biographical trivia - the Ladybird book of Duran Duran, good for beginners - and coins a great word, Jamesbondian. The intellectual analysis of the videos suffers by having no still to illustrate it (they're all in last year's Book of Words) but reveals that Sri Lankan extras in 'native costume' were paid for their appearance in the videos with a ball-point each. Ho hum. The rest of the book is conveniently chronological, with no confusing hopping about, and provides pictures of everybody's wedding except Andy Taylor's. Also, Gaiman says that the girls don't scream at Andy as much as they do at the others, which is a great shame. He was beginning to grow on me."
On Dancing on the Valentine...
"Three brilliantly executed but conceptually damp promos: 'The Reflex,' 'New Moon on Monday,' and 'Union of the Snake.' The first of these goes by very quickly, the second features female 'revolutionaries' not doing much of anything unless being kissed on the breasts by backlit stormtroopers, and the third aims to be - what's the word? - heavy. 'Union of the Snake' sprouts mystical stuff all over the place; serpents, swords, stars, trees, etc. Imbued with the wisdom of centuries, Nick Rhodes flips through a parchment scroll. Elsewhere in this fantastic kingdom, a mime juggles, little girls dolled up like Etruscan Brooke Shieldses dart towards the offscreen catering tables and all the umbrellas are upside down. Jung wept." - Dessa Fox
On Sing Blue Silver...
"This feature-length tour documentary is as truthful ad contentious as a cashmere sweater: it looks great, it conceals more than it displays, and people will probably think you have limited taste if you put it on all the time. 'Silver' is of course very costly and elegant. Some luxuriant particulars: Best Camera Cliche - hand-held trailing of roadies into the dressing room; Best Rockspeak - 'That was a brilliant vibe onstage' (backup sax aide); Best Facial Expressions - the imploded, worn-out looks on the Taylors as they realize they're going to have to make speeches to Coca-Cola executives; Number of Breakdancers - two." - Dessa Fox
Jon Savage on the Worst Videos of the Year (a list which also includes videos by Paul Hardcastle, Go West, David Bowie and Eurythmics)...
Power Station - "Get it On" (listed at #1) - "Sexist drivel. A great song murdered in every conceivable way, both musical and visual. Nice one, 'lads.'"
Dressed to Conform (in which Duran Duran are paired up with Wham! for a dressing down)...
"What a state! They're so big they don't need to prove anything anymore; but is that any reason to look as if they've just stepped out of Top Man? And as for the hair - rockist or what? Shave it all off, lads, that's my advice."
Quotes...
"The whole things serves a dual purpose - it can raise a lot of money, and I'm really proud of it because it's a celebration of British pop music. I've always wished something like the Beatles' 'All You Need is Love' could happen now." - John Taylor on Band Aid.
"There's nothing more unattractive in an artist than a false sense of importance." - Simon Le Bon
"We're fed up with getting exotic diseases in places like Sri Lanka. All that exotic stuff has got a bit passe now." - Roger Taylor
"As for you poor little cows who buy Duran Duran records, you need serious help because these people are conning you." - John Lydon
"A drunken goat could direct a Duran Duran video." - Morrissey
For example...
" Even with mass unemployment and enforced leisure and all that, life is still far too short for any sane person to devote forty minutes to listening to an LP by Duran Duran. Nobody listens to Duran Duran LPs, not even Duran Duran. Listening to a record like Rio I am irresistibly reminded of old favorites like A Session With the Dave Clark Five; exactly the same creative and commercial forces are at work." - David Hepworth
On Arena...
"At the very least Arena spares us the spectacle of Le Bon's idiot-dancing, but at very worst it's smothered with his grunts and whoops, clumsy, studied stabs at spontaneity." - Melody Maker
"It is not, one suspects, terribly live, this round-the-world-in-80-limos live album...I had imagined the lads might be able to play their instruments by now, but one can't demand everything...Even Nile Rodgers cannot disguise their apparent lack of feel for this art form." - NME
"If it's critical approbation they're seeking, it won't happen this way." - Record Mirror
On The Power Station...
"The album which proves that John 'Duran' Taylor is every micrometre the noveau riche, styleless, vain young shitball he always hinted at." - NME
"The sheer muscle of sound does hold a sort of forcible fascination." - Smash Hits
"The Power Station have fused nothing with nothing and produced something less than something." - Melody Maker
"For all the talent present, the record sounds remarkably unoriginal." - Circus
"Duran Duran surpassed themselves with the 'Rio'-meets-'Goldfinger' theme for A View to a Kill." - Phil McNeill, The Year in Singles
On Duran Duran Live (Philip Kamin and Peter Godard) and Duran Duran: The First Four Years of the Fab Five (Neil Gaiman)...
Definitely the worst of the brace is the Kamin/Goddard effort. Kamin, the photographer, tops the bill and provides...umm...a lot of pictures, from which we learn that even pretty boys, taken live, have shiny noses, spots, gloopy expressions and ratty hair (these rather suit Andy Taylor); also that Simon Le Bon and Roger Taylor have bad teeth. All this is quite reassuring, if not very attractive on a full color (sort of pinko-grey) life-size double spread. From the words we learn very little, except that the rock and jazz critic of the Toronto Star doesn't know how to spell Suzie (sic) and the Banshees, quotes from a paper called the London Daily Star (ever heard of it?) and does a nice line on portentous one-sentence paragraphs" 'This is where it all began'; 'Le Bon was waiting for them' - that sort of thing. We also learn (from Nick Rhodes) that 'black musicians have this huge sense of rhythm"; from John Taylor that Seven and the Ragged Tiger is the funkiest a white band have ever been, and from Goddard himself are Verdi to Phil Spector's 'Wagnerisms.' On reflection, this must be worth ten dollars.
Too many misprints for nigh on six quid in Neil Gaiman's book, and we don't need to have it explained that Brighton is a 'South coast seaside resort" - but let's be charitable, everybody wants to crack America. Still, is Nick Rhodes' young lady called Julie Anne Friedman or Juliana Freedman? Both on page seventeen - I think we should be told. Otherwise Gaiman gives us a lot of interesting biographical trivia - the Ladybird book of Duran Duran, good for beginners - and coins a great word, Jamesbondian. The intellectual analysis of the videos suffers by having no still to illustrate it (they're all in last year's Book of Words) but reveals that Sri Lankan extras in 'native costume' were paid for their appearance in the videos with a ball-point each. Ho hum. The rest of the book is conveniently chronological, with no confusing hopping about, and provides pictures of everybody's wedding except Andy Taylor's. Also, Gaiman says that the girls don't scream at Andy as much as they do at the others, which is a great shame. He was beginning to grow on me."
On Dancing on the Valentine...
"Three brilliantly executed but conceptually damp promos: 'The Reflex,' 'New Moon on Monday,' and 'Union of the Snake.' The first of these goes by very quickly, the second features female 'revolutionaries' not doing much of anything unless being kissed on the breasts by backlit stormtroopers, and the third aims to be - what's the word? - heavy. 'Union of the Snake' sprouts mystical stuff all over the place; serpents, swords, stars, trees, etc. Imbued with the wisdom of centuries, Nick Rhodes flips through a parchment scroll. Elsewhere in this fantastic kingdom, a mime juggles, little girls dolled up like Etruscan Brooke Shieldses dart towards the offscreen catering tables and all the umbrellas are upside down. Jung wept." - Dessa Fox
On Sing Blue Silver...
"This feature-length tour documentary is as truthful ad contentious as a cashmere sweater: it looks great, it conceals more than it displays, and people will probably think you have limited taste if you put it on all the time. 'Silver' is of course very costly and elegant. Some luxuriant particulars: Best Camera Cliche - hand-held trailing of roadies into the dressing room; Best Rockspeak - 'That was a brilliant vibe onstage' (backup sax aide); Best Facial Expressions - the imploded, worn-out looks on the Taylors as they realize they're going to have to make speeches to Coca-Cola executives; Number of Breakdancers - two." - Dessa Fox
Jon Savage on the Worst Videos of the Year (a list which also includes videos by Paul Hardcastle, Go West, David Bowie and Eurythmics)...
Power Station - "Get it On" (listed at #1) - "Sexist drivel. A great song murdered in every conceivable way, both musical and visual. Nice one, 'lads.'"
Dressed to Conform (in which Duran Duran are paired up with Wham! for a dressing down)...
"What a state! They're so big they don't need to prove anything anymore; but is that any reason to look as if they've just stepped out of Top Man? And as for the hair - rockist or what? Shave it all off, lads, that's my advice."
Quotes...
"The whole things serves a dual purpose - it can raise a lot of money, and I'm really proud of it because it's a celebration of British pop music. I've always wished something like the Beatles' 'All You Need is Love' could happen now." - John Taylor on Band Aid.
"There's nothing more unattractive in an artist than a false sense of importance." - Simon Le Bon
"We're fed up with getting exotic diseases in places like Sri Lanka. All that exotic stuff has got a bit passe now." - Roger Taylor
"As for you poor little cows who buy Duran Duran records, you need serious help because these people are conning you." - John Lydon
"A drunken goat could direct a Duran Duran video." - Morrissey