Duran Duran “Thanksgiving Live – The Ultra Chrome, Latex and Steel Tour” 1997/2018, Record Store Day 2018 limited edition release (2,000 copies), double marble vinyl. Today, October 27th, is my first boyfriend Simon Le Bon’s 60th birthday (though the boyfriend bit would be a surprise to him I suppose since technically we’ve never actually met). I’m pretty sure Thanksgiving Live is a bootleg; it’s on The Big Bang Concert Series label and is from a concert in Orlando, Florida for the Big Band Radio Broadcast on Thanksgiving in ‘97 and even though it is an official Record Store Day release, there are some online grumblings about its pressing and I can see why. The quality of the album’s production is definitely not up to Duran Duran’s normal stellar standards (Nick Rhodes is a total perfectionist and their records’ production value always reflects that). The late 90′s were also kind of a dark time for D2: John and Roger aren’t even on the album (John left Duran for awhile in ‘97, Roger had left in the 80′s but made a brief return to the band in ‘95 for the recording of Thank You), instead there’s some guy Wes Wehmiller on bass and another dude Steve Alexander on drums. Andy has had a notoriously complicated relationship with his old band so he’s not on Thanksgiving Live either, instead Warren Cuccurullo (formerly in Missing Persons), who at least was briefly an official member, is on guitar. The lack of John and Roger in particular (we’ve all gotten use to MIA Andy) makes the live LP particularly thin: no deep funky play-that-fuckin’-bass-John or Roger’s rich stomping beats.

The track listing is a mix of the great old stuff including “Hungry Like the Wolf,”  “A View to a Kill,” “Save a Prayer” (which Simon dedicates to Michael Hutchence who had just committed suicide), “Friends of Mine,” “Careless Memories,” “Rio” and a super-deep cut “Secret Oktober” (always an old fave of mine) and what was then newer stuff from their 1997 album Medazzaland like “Electric Barbarella,” “Medazzaland,” “Big Bang Generation,” “Who Do You Think You Are?,” “Out of My Mind,” “Be My Icon,” and “Buried in the Sand.” I love Duran Duran but the usual sparkling joy of their music just isn’t present on this live album.