The Power Station “The Power Station 331/3″ released on this date, March 25th, 1985. This is the second copy I’ve owned, purchased just a week after the first one, which was in June of ‘85 while in Los Angeles for a family reunion. My first copy melted in the trunk of the rental car while we were at Disneyland. (It was the day after I hung out in Anaheim with my up-to-then unmet Duranie pen pal – pen pals were the thing in the 80′s – Tygger, obviously a John fan, and we got along famously, spending the evening watching Duran videos and talking about our love for the band.) I think the only difference was that the original had a black and white photo of the band on the back cover; this copy’s photo is in color.

Funky rock-n-roll with a disparate group of musicians: Duran Duran’s John Taylor plays that fuckin’ bass, likely giddy with pleasure working with Chic’s drummer Tony Thompson, D2′s Andy Taylor finally gets to shred on guitar (you can hear the rockin’ glee during solos like on “Murderess”), and ultra-suave blue-eyed soulman Robert Palmer cooly singing above it all (his breathiness style particularly prevalent on “Lonely Tonight”). The released singles did well on the charts: “Some Like It Hot” made it to #6 in the US and #14 in the UK and “Get It On (Bang a Gong),” a T.Rex cover, hit #9 in the US and #22 in the UK. “Communication” faired a bit less successful, making it to #34 in the US and #75 in the UK.