rtm
NOTORIOUS
Posts: 1,498
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Post by rtm on Aug 31, 2017 10:25:26 GMT -5
Skin Trade is indeed a cool song but I regard it as an album track more than anything. Why the band is so proud of this Prince clone of a song still mystified me. When I first bought Greatest around 17 years ago, I had no clue what any of the singles off Notorious/Big Thing/Liberty sounded like. Maybe with the exception of the Notorious title track. So I went into those songs one day basically not knowing to expect. Cue my first ever listen of Skin Trade, and I thought once Simon came in "Wait a second... what's with the Prince vocal here?!" Kind of funny in hindsight! Like I said, it's a good tune though. And it has a sleekness in the instrumentation and vocal delivery that makes me see why the band was so high on it. ^ As some of you know: besides DD I'm a huge Prince admirer and I when I first heard 'Skin Trade' in 1986 I had the same initial reaction. But in hind side: the only resemblance it has to Prince is the falsetto voice which stands out as Simon never used that before on record (apart from some bits on 'faster than light) and maybe the building of the song (lyrically) has some slight winks to 'Kiss'(released April 1986) but thats really it. But hey...they were all big Prince fans (even visited the Prince live shows in Wembley in 1986 while recording the album)
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rtm
NOTORIOUS
Posts: 1,498
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Post by rtm on Aug 31, 2017 10:33:59 GMT -5
Oh my God! Yes, that's the exact article! I must have read that 100 times..... Thought so....now go and read it another 100 times
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Post by Xxxxxx on Aug 31, 2017 10:52:33 GMT -5
Love Skin Trade!
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oakey
PAPER GOD
Posts: 2,600
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Post by oakey on Aug 31, 2017 11:31:27 GMT -5
Skin Trade is one of my favourite Duran songs, like the SB live version as well
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Post by intravenus on Sept 1, 2017 0:42:25 GMT -5
It has a great chorus and middle section, but the intro and verse should have been stronger and less derivative. Quite a different sound for them, but also a big identity risk with uncertain footing. High resolution scans from Shane Marais' excellent website:
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Post by aftertherain on Sept 1, 2017 1:54:50 GMT -5
Skin Trade never grabbed me like the early DD sound however here's the interesting thing, I was totally ready for it years later when I heard it and it was released.
Arcadia and perhaps a little Power Station had prepped me for it?
In February of 1981 when I first fell in love with Planet Earth I was 12, in 86 when SK was released I wasn't 12 anymore.
Skin Trade IMO was a revelation to an extent, well it was for me anyway.
My band was maturing (in sound) and I was growing up & maturing as fast as I possibly could, well I certainly wanted too that's for sure. I was given a taste of DDs new sophisticated sound and I wanted some of that in the most absolute manner. I was 18 and wanted to be much older and wished to be taken seriously, just like my music was aspiring to be. Talk about being influenced, specifically by what sound penetrates ones ears including mind and with that said the subconscious. I was influenced in the most bonafide way. I lived my life knowing and understanding that my band were making the coolest sound available.
How cool is that song title? the songs topic even though a little sleazy still intriguing nevertheless. Apparently there's a book titled "adventures in the skin trade" must get round to reading that one & before I write my own, lol, simply for the sake of inspirational purposes.
From ST on all I wanted to achieve was one sophisticated lifestyle and DDs Notorious LP was most certainly at the helm of my life's soundtrack at the time. (Umm together with Bryan Ferry's Boys & Girls, Bête Noire LPs including Sade's Stronger Than Pride LP). The Notorious LP had that pure sophistication of truly expensive music meticulously created and Skin Trade was "all class" (despite the songs topic) while also having this "gloss" if you like smeared all over it.
At the time I remember SLB suggesting it was about how everybody is selling themselves and that there was a little "hooker" in everyone, or something to that effect. How true, if one is to really give it some thought?
Skin Trade has got this surreal dance groove, it is there and it isn't. One really can't dance to Skin Trade and it ain't a ballad either. It's similar to Election Day and The Promise in fact, hard to dance to if one is interested in dancing to a rhythmic beat I mean. Perhaps it wasn't made for dancing on the dance floor but rather umm partaking in other alternate dancing..............(on the Valentine?). While I'm on the topic it is possible to dance to ST horizontally, but personally its been a while since Skin Trade was chosen for ambience sake during late night bedroom umm enhancement.
Remember the Parisian mix? Songs don't get much sexier really. Even on the LP version JTs bass is OMG sooooo HOT especially leading up to the middle 8. At the time I hadn't heard anything quite like it. Loved what JT was doing and then we have Steve F hitting the skins followed by that slick horn section. UNBELIEVABLE really how the juxtaposition of that song works. Hence why I consider ST all class ! And as mentioned earlier boy did I want me some of that, like daily in my life. I truly believed my/our maestros had created one surreal masterpiece & with Nile R deeply in the mix, they most certainly had.
I see it as timeless piece, IMO it's the albums zenith. Err that bass line was the sexiest thing I'd heard DD play at that point. Lol, It's sultry, seductive and rhythmically complex too. I mean especially if you listen to the stretch mix from 4.26 onwards, personally it does things to me, like a good fragrance (when you get that reaction concededly in your spine & then the eyes water as you try to re align your focus) Umm, THAT'S pure 'bass line eroticism' in my book. And I don't know if it's the involvement of that sexy bass or is it the songs topic as in psychological effect which does it mostly? Might be an idea to speak to my psychopharmacologist about that next visit.
Not many on this board have seen how songs can effect me in a chemical responsive way, but I assure you they can and do. Besides if DD aren't a drug, for this boy in particular, they've sure been an addictive substance (taken thru the ears & processed via the brain in some reactive manner) for what some 36 years now. Back to topic, however I must say, that does make for a great thread "Are DD a drug? or perhaps, Can a rock band become addictive and create an on going long addiction and therefore result in associated addicts?
That ST bass-line, when I close my eyes and deeply think it thru it kinda mimics the fingers of a good lover running/walking their fingers along ya body or a good whisper perhaps during a flirtatious moment in a packed bar, you know like when you ignore & forget the crowd and as far as you're concerned the world has only two people in it who couldn't stand any closer if the tried. Hmm ahh memories. How do I go back there and err trade my skin (for free) like I would back then? Umm Best I leave that one there really.
The beginning of the Skin Trade's Parisian mix ain't too bad either, Doo Doo (too sexy) ohh yes indeed, in other words Do..........Do ! I totally get SLBs vocal and how/why for ages it was SLBs personal favourite, I mean the frivolity in his voice, in all its 'appropriately pronounced glory' is as immaculate as the track itself. Let's face it, Si's vocal on Skin Trade is pretty phenomenal if I must say. If one listens to every sung phrase and pays attention to how he pronounces each n every word within the verse/chorus you will both hear & see what it is I'm describing. He still believes it's his best vocal to date, yet he's been sick of justifying it to this day. How do I know this, coz no shite, I asked him about it in a hotel lobby once.
The other thing that made me even more proud of my/our band was that when I played Skin Trade for company be it background music or in my Mazda 626 deluxe coupe, people would ask "who's this?" and they usually would add "this sounds great/cool/jazzy". I'd then inform them, and get the reply back "this can't be the band that sang HLTW or WBs". I guess such a reply was due to the lack of air play which made SK unfamiliar and a little of the usual DD backlash. Skin Trade unfortunately was truly the first DD single not to get radio play in the same manner as all previous DD single releases including Notorious. Therefore people were unaware who it was that I was playing.
It is an epic DD track and to this day I refuse to listen to the 7inch which doesn't do it quite the same justice where the song is over before one can truly immerse and lose themselves within it.
Who knows ? it may have been the wrong choice or right choice as a second single? It's easy to say after it's release hey. However I don't consider myself as one who knows it all and so I can't say. What I do know is that I never saw the ST clip on Australian TV or even heard it on my local radio station and hence it was doomed, pretty much like every DD single release after it for a while until 92/93.
With ST DD wanted to tell the world we have grown up, our music has matured & it isn't the 5 of us anymore but a three piece instead. This is the stuff we're into. Who would have thought in 1983 that the following DD LP would have three semi laid back tracks one after the other following the opening track? It was a different DD all except for "Hold Me" which fitted in with the DD original roots and with that said was DD "familiar in essence".
Truly grateful that I was into ST and to be honest, have been ever since !
Skin Trade the LP version is still on my late night play list especially when friends are invited over for late night espresso martini's or a night cap and I must say it's so suited and still works well in such an atmosphere, when many other tracks released in 86 wouldn't !
Listening to Skin Trade is an experience IMO..................Period.
But then what do I know? but how my ears and mind process what is I hear and therefore how it reverberates in this romantic heart of mine and with that effect, I'm never the same again.
Lastly, that clever slinky epic masterpiece of a song titled Skin Trade was also played on The Strange Behaviour Tour and Big Thing Tour, but I guess this is common knowledge anyway and I too hear some Prince in it as described previously. Must say I've loved reading all the Smash Hits articles guys, they too have taken me back in time a bit.
Hope you enjoyed my thoughts and unconditional love for Skin Trade !!!
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sugarlips
BIG THING
Deep inside the sugar shack
Posts: 303
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Post by sugarlips on Sept 1, 2017 2:06:24 GMT -5
^ As some of you know: besides DD I'm a huge Prince admirer and I when I first heard 'Skin Trade' in 1986 I had the same initial reaction.
But in hind side: the only resemblance it has to Prince is the falsetto voice which stands out as Simon never used that before on record (apart from some bits on 'faster than light) and maybe the building of the song (lyrically) has some slight winks to 'Kiss'(released April 1986) but thats really it.
But hey...they were all big Prince fans (even visited the Prince live shows in Wembley in 1986 while recording the album) [/quote]
Regards the falsetto, if memory serves it was Roger Waters (who guested on SRTR) who gave Simon advice to change up his vocal style because til then SLB always had the same 'belt it out and harmonise with himself' approach - with the exception of SAP (which i still adore)
I love Skin Trade and indeed everything 86 - 89. In order for the band to survive and evolve away from the teen audience they had to make changes musically and its the genuine hunger to survive and build the band up to somewhere else (stadiums/U2) that makes Notorious and Big Thing so interesting.
If anyone hasnt ever seen the Notorious tour doco, its essential viewing for any fan and gives real insight into the struggles they were having, not just with AT but with the label, getting airplay etc but the camaraderie shines through - band of brothers so to speak, they looked ubercool in 86 as well, loved the Caddy's and Christy Turlington (still do actually!) - timeless stuff
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rtm
NOTORIOUS
Posts: 1,498
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Post by rtm on Sept 1, 2017 2:29:50 GMT -5
It has a great chorus and middle section, but the intro and verse should have been stronger and less derivative. Quite a different sound for them, but also a big identity risk with uncertain footing. High resolution scans from Shane Marais' excellent website:Thnx for pointing me in the direction of Shane Marais' website...what a great archive...this will give me hours and hours of reading pleasure
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Post by aftertherain on Sept 1, 2017 3:16:05 GMT -5
Loved your read too sugarlips
Only thing is I'm preety sure it was David Gilmour from Pink Floyd and it was the immaculate Tatjana Patitz in that clip in all her alluring hot-ness !
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Post by RosyStain on Sept 1, 2017 5:16:17 GMT -5
It has a great chorus and middle section, but the intro and verse should have been stronger and less derivative. Quite a different sound for them, but also a big identity risk with uncertain footing. High resolution scans from Shane Marais' excellent website:Thnx for pointing me in the direction of Shane Marais' website...what a great archive...this will give me hours and hours of reading pleasure Yes, I agree the Shane Marais website is excellent! I'm just looking at the June / July 1986 issue where they have a "Get Smart Duran Special" where they answer questions and share facts about the group. Nick and Simon list their own favourite Duran songs, which is quite interesting, and there's a mini-feature about Andy's retaurant, Rio - which I had totally forgotten about!
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