Duran Duran “The Reflex” 1984. 12″ single, picture disc. Today, June 8th, is Nick Rhodes’ 60th birthday! (b. Nicholas James Bates, 1962) Nicknamed by the band “The Controller,” Rhodes changed his last name for aesthetic reasons (of course) and owns the name “Duran Duran,” thereby living up to both his chosen name and his alias.

The third single from Seven and the Ragged Tiger, “The Reflex” hit #1 virtually everywhere and was their first chart-topper in the US. This picture disk has two versions of the track, both remixed by Nile Rodgers: the “Dance Mix,” which is a couple of minutes longer than the single version with a lot of vocal tinkering and looping, and the “The Dance Mix-Edited” which is the same as the regular 7″ single. Both differ slightly from the album version. All are amazing.

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I had the opportunity and pleasure to see Nile Rodgers perform when he and his band opened for Duran Duran in July 2016 in Minneapolis where he played songs he’s released as well as produced, including “Le Freak” (Chic), “We Are Family” (Sister Sledge) and “Get Lucky” (Daft Punk). Here’s a really crappy photo I took of him at that concert.

And here’s a really good photo of him with Duran Duran. I did not take this one.

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Duran Duran “The Reflex” picture disk, 1984. Today, June 20th, is John Taylor’s birthday (b. Nigel John Taylor, 1960) and June 23rd marks the 33rd anniversary of when “The Reflex” hit #1 in the US, the band’s first time to do so; it remained there for two weeks (and kept Bruce Springsteen’s “Dancing in the Dark” from claiming the top spot – heh). Side A has “The Reflex (Dance Mix)” which was remixed by Nile Rogers and Side B has the single version plus “Make Me Smile (Come Up and See Me)” performed live at Hammersmith Odean in London in 1982. “Make Me Smile” was originally performed by Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel in 1975; Steve Harley joined Duran Duran at the Hammersmith performance of the song.

The summer of ‘84 was ALL about “The Reflex.” Sometime in late June or July, I went to Girl Scout camp in northern Wisconsin and we went on a 3 or 4 day canoe trip down the Menomonee River. To my delight, another Duranie was on the trip, Allyson (we met on that trip in ‘84 and we’re still friends!), and we sang “The Reflex” over and over and over and over and over. Another friend on the river was a huge Prince fan. Prince’s “When Dove’s Cry” knocked “The Reflex” out of the number one position on July 7th, 1984, so we heard a lot of that song as well. Singing was a big deal at camp but typically the camp song repertoire was limited to lots singing in the round (think “Row Row Your Boat” but fancier), cadence songs for hiking (i.e. “left, left, left right left, I left my wife and 24 kids without any gingerbread in the cupboard and thought I did right, right, right left right…”) and paddle songs (i.e. “Land of the Silver Birch”). Our camp counselors weren’t really that much older than us, college students working for the summer, so I have a feeling they secretly appreciated some pop infusion into the usual camp fare, though they did seem irritated with us a lot of the time (I’m pretty sure one of them was a Dead Head). Here is a classic 80′s-posed picture from the last day of that canoe trip. I’m in the lower left corner, rocking my Simon LeBon inspired hair.

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I spent the majority of the summer of 1984 singing “The Reflex” and the lyrics are still embedded in my head. One of the highlights of D2 in concert was this song at the House of Blues in Chicago on April 23, 2011, the clip to the intro I’ve uploaded HERE. It was a small show and we were right behind the sound board. Honestly this was one of the best musical moments of my entire life.

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