Are the basslines in Duran Duran's early songs killer or what? Listen to Planet Earth, or Rio and tell me that bass is not going to crack your spine!

I was always disappointed that Seven and the Ragged Tiger largely forsook the sound that made them great, substituting synths and squishy, echoey drums for the "thwack-thwack" of the first two albums, and virtually burying the bass guitar in the mix.

Still, a great band. Sure they are prettyboys, but they don't deserve to be dimissed as only that.

YESSS! Add Wild Boys, Night Rider and Notorious to the list!

"Wild Boys" is still a ridiculously awesome song. I saw Duran Duran as a trio in 1987 at the Philadelphia Spectrum (with guest Erasure). They were simply INCREDIBLE!

LOVE them. saw them live again about a year and a half ago.

"wild boys" ,my favourite of their earlier songs. but it has competition from one of their ballads, "winter marches on". basslines were wicked during their "Big Thing" album.

as far as their newer material, i feel their "Astronaut" album was sorely over looked.

DuranDuran

the new duran special editions are all great btw, they've put all the 12"s and alternate versions together, along with b sides and demo and session versions and a few live sessions, and dvds with the videos. there's a few more out shortly, but the first few (and best) albums are out now

that's the only duran duran song I knew for the first half of my life, I LOOOVE the video too and thought the guys were hot in that leather :p That bridge is sick! I once heard a mashup of that and mj's Bad that was done in a commercial sometime in the 80's

i am big on eighties synthpop...however, duran duran irks me a bit. mostly 'cause i feel they happen to be a Japan rip off however rock and roll and other forms of music tend to bother from each other....so its fair game...

the thing about duran was that they were a real band who played the instruments, but also a pop band in the true sense, the videos, the fashion, the tv and magazine interviews. they wrote the music and played it. whereas the pop acts of the next decade were just faces and singers, and likewise today. i have a few duran bootlegs, and i have a live one from mtv's new year show in 82/83 where they are playing the hits live and it's only them and no other members, and it sounds just like the record, and again i saw the original line up a couple of years ago and it was only them, no extra guitarists or keyboard players, and they sounded just like the records played live

some of the older tours had different arrangements, but they went back to arrangements closer to the records for the last tours

i know a lot of people really hated the covers album they did, but i liked it. amongst the bootlegs i have, theres a ton of interesting covers they did. it was like they were bursting to show off their musical knowledge with stuff very different to what people may expect, ie. public enemy, led zep and neil young covers. they did an accoustic mini tour to promote that album, and i have a few recordings, including soundchecks, and they pulled it off doing stuff accoustically without keyboards. they even did an mtv unplugged which was good, so whilst they had a very prominent synth sound, they had the melodies and lyrics that stood up without the keyboards

the made some great videos too. i remember "the The" making the infected video album as a reaction to the videos, similar locations, but the dirty grimy side. i was listening to a few duran boots earlier in the week and heard tessa niles mentioned as backing vocalist. she was one of the featured vocalists on the infected album by the The! but then you had people like katie kisson etc do backing vocals on tons of records from pink floyd etc and it appears she was one of those great session singers

yeah i have planet earth and rio and a few other DD songs those synths are really different from other 80's songs quite fast paced and sci-fi sounding without being cheesy

John Taylor is probably the funkiest, craziest and most impressive white bass player of all time. He was also (is) the most charismatic and hottest mothercuker of all time. While Simon was the frontman and Nick the artistic weirdo, John was the funkster, the cool one

Of course, Nick and Simon changed the sound of DD for 7&TRG and the off-project Arcadia, and as a result DD was a much less funkier band than ever before. Hey that's not band, everyone has to evolve, and I love DD's experimental/eerie era, but I understand why Roger basically lost interest in the band after 1985 (I think he remained onboard for another 10 years because of the popularity of the band, $, and the 1993 comeback...).

Best new romantic band of all time, anyway. DD and Rio are timeless classics and half of 7&TRG is jawdroppingly good...

They are the first group I ever loved, still my favorite today.

I agree they were always dismissed as pretty boys and were not taken seriously as a talented group.

Had they been ugly like The Rolling Stones or Aerosmith (I like them too), they would've been more popular with male music fans.

They are currently working with Mark Ronson on their next album which is likely going to be a 2011 release.

JoeTyler said:

John Taylor is probably the funkiest, craziest and most impressive white bass player of all time. He was also (is) the most charismatic and hottest mothercuker of all time. While Simon was the frontman and Nick the artistic weirdo, John was the funkster, the cool one

Michael Peter "Flea" Balzary from Red Hot Chili Peppers is probably one of the other top 5 white funky bass players.

Love Duran Duran. One of the coolest bands to emerge in the '80s.

Love them. Usually I'm not into the 80's synthesizer/new wave type of music, but there is something about them that stands the test of time and makes me want to hear what they will do next.

They have a great ability to take risks and try different things but still sound like themselves.

They need to re-capture the band feel again, last project for the most part came off as almost a solo project in the feel of it. There have been to many lineup changes and its plagued them for awhile now, Warren was a big loss to the band, but in hearing them talking about the new album, they are going back to those basic roots with the next album.

ok, i admit, i've loved Ddouble since the 80s, but only via their singles. i only have the Greatest cd (and Red Carpet Massacre) so could someone tell me which album i should start with that has the best album material that i've missed out on? thanks

datdude said:

chronology isn't a sufficient rationale for me. LOL. esp. if i bought RCM first. but be more specific and tell me what non-singles on those first two albums are as good or better than the singles that were released. that'll help me more so, than chronology on "gp"

datdude said:

chronology isn't a sufficient rationale for me. LOL. esp. if i bought RCM first. but be more specific and tell me what non-singles on those first two albums are as good or better than the singles that were released. that'll help me more so, than chronology on "gp"

I didn't say chronology on GP. I said it because their first two albums are their best. There isn't a bad track on either. My favorite non-single on Duran Duran is "Friends of Mine." Rio is perfection through and through. "My Own Way" is a standout. Even though it was the first single, it isn't on Greatest. "The Chauffeur" is a fan-favorite for a good reason. "Lonely in Your Nightmare" is another track that should've made Greatest. You'd do well to get the deluxe edition of Rio released last year as your next purchase.

thank you. those specifics help a lot!

AlexdeParis said:

datdude said:

chronology isn't a sufficient rationale for me. LOL. esp. if i bought RCM first. but be more specific and tell me what non-singles on those first two albums are as good or better than the singles that were released. that'll help me more so, than chronology on "gp"

I didn't say chronology on GP. I said it because their first two albums are their best. There isn't a bad track on either. My favorite non-single on Duran Duran is "Friends of Mine." Rio is perfection through and through. "My Own Way" is a standout. Even though it was the first single, it isn't on Greatest. "The Chauffeur" is a fan-favorite for a good reason. "Lonely in Your Nightmare" is another track that should've made Greatest. You'd do well to get the deluxe edition of Rio released last year as your next purchase.

All my fave songs from Rio. Another funky track that I fell in love with immediately is "Bedroom Toys" from the Astronaut release. Most fans pan it, but it's so cheeky and funky fun. I loved it after the first listen, even though it makes me .

fms said:

Are the basslines in Duran Duran's early songs killer or what? Listen to Planet Earth, or Rio and tell me that bass is not going to crack your spine!

I was always disappointed that Seven and the Ragged Tiger largely forsook the sound that made them great, substituting synths and squishy, echoey drums for the "thwack-thwack" of the first two albums, and virtually burying the bass guitar in the mix.

Still, a great band. Sure they are prettyboys, but they don't deserve to be dimissed as only that.

Yes!! I've always said this to people when speaking of Rio!

Duran Duran's great, and I think they took some interesting directions. I love the Notorious album - a great, slick pop record. Some great things on Big Thing as well.

datdude said:

ok, i admit, i've loved Ddouble since the 80s, but only via their singles. i only have the Greatest cd (and Red Carpet Massacre) so could someone tell me which album i should start with that has the best album material that i've missed out on? thanks

Here are my faves:

Medazzaland - criminally overlooked gem from 1997. It has retro sound (Electric Barbarella) as well as the best songs on any DD album. Midnight Sun and So Long Suicide drive me to tears (in a good way).

Rio - a no-brainer, the one that broke them in 1982. Every song a gem, beautiful melodies, great hooks, bombastic synth, guitar power chords. It plays like a greatest hits album.

Big Thing - the sound of Duran Duran on the verge. They broke out of the "nice" mode of Notorious and let their hair and inhibitions down with this: house music, moody atmospheric ballads, electronica, funk. Kind of a precursor to Medazzaland, imo.

Wedding Album - one of the strongest comeback albums ever. Every cut is dynamic, the production very up front and clean. A new way of defining the Duran Duran sound in the 90s, after the rather dull Liberty. You definitely need this one, because Greatest doesn't have Too Much Information (one of their best cuts ever).

Have fun... .

"Serious" has to be my favo of theirs...just LOVE it!!

I was introduced to Duran Durans music only 2 years ago... i was studying some synthtizers effects, especially the 'arpeggiator effects, and the book l was reading suggested 'Rio' as one of the best uses of synth-arpeggiatos effects... I feel in love with the song, and I liked the album even better... Knowing i wasnt a big fan of 80s synth-pop music (much of it sounds dated to me)

As many have said, I love the whole picture, they had anything the music industry could dream of : a band with complete skills. They could play; sing, write, compose, they had the look, the style, the video, the real pop esthetic...

Fav songs : Girls On Films, Rio, The Chauffeur, Save A Prayer, Planet earth, The Reflex, The vally, Taste the summer...

Fav albums: Rio and Duran Duran (1981)

Can't believe nobody's mentioned Skin Trade off Notorious, gotta love Prince's influence on Simon's vocals in that song..

LCD99 said:

Can't believe nobody's mentioned Skin Trade off Notorious, gotta love Prince's influence on Simon's vocals in that song..

Oh Yeah, Skin Trade is my JAM!