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Duran Duran “The Wild Boys”

sfilzen — Thu, 26 Jan 2017 15:17:26 +0000

Duran Duran “The Wild Boys” 1984. I blogged about this 12″ single last summer, but am re-spinning in honor of @tinglealley‘s visit this weekend. She, along with a bunch of other long-time friends, is coming into town for the Great Midwest Trivia Contest hosted by Lawrence University. It’s become an annual tradition for us, and something I have really been looking forward to this year: 72+ hours of levity as a break to the whiplash horror that has been the past few weeks. The contest starts Friday night, so until then we will be “wild girls,” though now in our middle-years this translates into a day of poking around bookstores, going out for lunch, taking a yoga class and then drinking wine and cuddling cats.

Here is a picture of a confused-looking John Taylor cuddling a cat.

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Duran Duran “The Wild Boys”

sfilzen — Wed, 10 Aug 2016 19:09:25 +0000

Duran Duran “The Wild Boys” 1984. 12″ single. Today, August 10th, is Duran Duran Appreciation Day – a celebration of the band and their fans (that’s me!) – so I’m taking “The Wild Boys” out for a spin. Side A is “The Wild Boys (Wilder Than Wild Boys) Extended Mix”, 8 minutes of their most tribal rhythmic funk via John and Roger, Andy throwing down power chords, Nick adding some outtathisworld keyboard effects and Simon singing with passion. Side B is the single version of “The Wild Boys” and “(I’m Looking For) Cracks in the Pavement” from Seven and the Ragged Tiger.

The video for “The Wild Boys,” which hit #2 in both the US and the UK, was at the time in ‘84 the most expensive ever made. Russell Mulcahy, its director, originally conceived Duran Duran writing the soundtrack for a film based on William S. Burrough’s novel The Wild Boys: A Book of the Dead. He spent a staggering 1 million pounds on the video’s production, intending it to be a teaser for the unmade movie, and used the 8:00 minute version of the single for the full-length video promo. The movie never happened but Duran fans got a spectacular video.

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Duran Duran “Arena”

sfilzen — Thu, 12 Nov 2015 20:10:00 +0000

Duran Duran “Arena” released on this date, November 12th, 1984. My copy bought soon after its release, gatefold and with the 8 page concert-style program booklet pictured here. The album reached #6 on the UK charts and #4 in the US.

Arena is a live album featuring tracks from Duran Duran, Rio and Seven and the Ragged Tiger along with one new single, the studio track “The Wild Boys” which became infamous for its Russell Mulcahy video/short film that was one of the most expensive ever shot at that time.

The whole album is, to my extremely biased ears, wonderful but certain tracks stand out: “New Religion” is fantastically complex and DD2 pulls it off in the live environment with perfection with Simon’s lightening fast lyrics, Andy’s guitar goes full-out rock n’ roll and John plays that fucking bass, man! “Seventh Stranger,” a sultry ballad, drips with raw, glorious pain and romantic loss. And “Planet Earth” is exuberant and glorious, with the boys at the top of their game.

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