"THE CHAUFFEUR" DURAN DURAN (1982)

For the month of November, I’ll be selecting songs in conjunction with the music Twitter challenge: #WelcomeToTheOccupation.

My childhood isn’t complete without Rio. Few recordings are as connected to my early musical discovery years as this album. This was an album that a family friend introduced my brother and I to. He raved about the singles. He went on and on about the ballads. And he paid proper homage to “The Chauffeur”. Rio was full of radio-friendly songs that paired nicely with elaborate and exotic video shoots. The album is sugary and sweet, which is what makes the final track a bit of a pleasant surprise. “The Chauffeur”, a fan favorite, is the indisputed anomaly on the album.

“Hungry Like The Wolf”, “My Own Way” and “Rio” grab you, but “The Chauffeur” grows on you. The closing track from Rio revealed a darker, more mysterious side to the pop band. “The Chauffeur” put Duran Duran’s versatility on full display, with a moodier synth experiment from Nick Rhodes and even Simon Le Bon on the ocarina. The track is atmospheric and even visual. I can picture a long, aimless drive by the chauffeur late at night every single time I hear it. It’s not just a great Duran Duran anthem, it’s one of the greatest closing tracks of the eighties.

“Sing, sing blue silver.”

"LAST CHANCE ON THE STAIRWAY" DURAN DURAN (1982)

For October, the Mental Jukebox is dialing it way back to the eighties and going deep. Deep cuts have always been an important element of music listening to me because they’re often the songs that resonate with me most. Deep cuts are usually the ones that the true fans appreciate most. I like my singles and hits, but I love my deep cuts.

Most fans say Rio is Duran Duran’s best album. Which makes it interesting that some of these deep cuts aren’t celebrated more. All the accolades seem to go to the big U.S. singles “Rio” and Hungry Like The Wolf”, Live Aid darling “Save a Prayer” and the universally appreciated closing track, “The Chauffeur”. But the album is stacked from beginning to end. You can’t count out the European disco-tinged single “My Own Way”, the new wave banger “Hold Back The Rain”, the omnious epic “New Religion” that got some attention on the live album Arena, and then there’s Track 7: “Last Chance On The Stairway”.

A deep cut that could’ve been a single. Sounds about right for an outfit like Duran Duran. The shimmery synth lines from Nick Rhodes and bumpy bass lines from John Taylor make “Last Chance On The Stairway” one of my favorite cuts from Rio. But what brings it over the edge for me is the instrumental bridge, featuring a conga drum interlude from Roger. It’s vintage Duran Duran. Everything the fans love about the band, but somehow, strangely, gets overlooked and overshadowed by the big MTV-promoted tracks.

“And sometimes I'm caught in a landslide.”

"RIO" DURAN DURAN (1982)

A great title track is par for the course when it comes to great albums. If the title track doesn’t cut it, what does that say about the album itself? This month, the Mental Jukebox will be playing some of my favorite title tracks – inspired by @NicolaB_73’s music Twitter challenge, #TopTitleTracks.

MTV was my introduction to a lifelong passion of music. I didn’t realize it at the time, but all those videos from the early to mid eighties were a cumulative spark. No other band had the presence that Duran Duran did during that era. Each music video oozed cool. “Girls On Film”, “Planet Earth”, “Rio”, “Hungry Like The Wolf”, “Union Of The Snake”, the list goes on. Some of those videos were like mini movies.

Who can forget the yacht scene in “Rio”? But it’s the song itself – not the images – that earns the highest accolades. John Taylor has a treasure trove of killer bass lines, and “Rio” is often cited as one of his best. The bass line, in fact, could’ve been a song all on its own. Dig a cool sax solo? “Rio” has that too, played by longtime Duran Duran collaborator, Andy Hamilton. Among dozens and dozens of catchy pop singles from the band, “Rio” remains one of their best.

“And when she shines, she really shows you all she can.”

"UNION OF THE SNAKE" DURAN DURAN (1983)

The moment a song is born, the world is different. It’s now a part of our lives. We sing it in the shower. We dance to it at our wedding. We get pumped with it. We break up to it. We memorize it. We try to forget it. We rediscover it. This month, I’m joining Arron Wright’s Twitter music challenge: ##Popiversary2. Because why the hell not. Songs deserve their own anniversaries, too.

Year: 1983

Duran Duran is the first band that I loved. Looking back, I think this fact was unavoidable. My brother and I were glued to MTV – and Duran Duran was king of the station. It seemed like a new video from the band was constantly surfacing. Largely influenced by Japan and Roxy Music, Duran Duran weren’t exactly pioneers. But they were in many ways the perfecters. They knew how to write infectious pop songs, often highlighted by the frenetic stylings on John Taylor’s bass guitar. A prime example of this is “Union of the Snake”.

I still remember seeing the video on MTV and being reeled in by the images and the music. Every band member had his moment to shine on the track, yet none of the instrumentation feels excessive. The breakdown and musical arrangement at the 2:16 mark, in particular, is one of Duran Duran’s finest studio moments and one of the most imaginative musical expressions of the decade. On it, you’ll hear each member playing off of each other in a call-and-response structure, culminating in a sax solo by session player Andy Hamilton. While all the band members seemed to create a unified sonic boom on anthems like “Rio” and “The Reflex”, “Union of the Snake” marched to a different beat by thrusting each member into the spotlight at different points in time.

“There's a fine line drawing my senses together, and I think it's about to break.”

"MY OWN WAY" DURAN DURAN (1982)

This month on Twitter, @sotachetan hosts #BrandedInSongs – which is a head-on collision of my personal world of music and my professional world of branding and advertising. The challenge is to simply pick a song with a brand name in its lyrics or title. I added one more criteria to my picks, which is this: the songs themselves must be as iconic as the brands they mention. No filler here.

When I was 9 or 10 years old, a teenaged family friend played an album for my younger brother and I in his basement. That album was Rio. I didn’t realize it at the time, but it was a pivotal moment in my discovery of music. Most fans don’t think of Rio as album rock mainly because it contained monster hits and music videos in the title track, “Hungry Like The Wolf” and “Save A Prayer”. But this friend of ours didn’t draw our attention to these obvious tracks. He pointed to the depth of the album, and specifically called out the sublime beauty of “The Chauffeur” and the fan-favorite banger “My Own Way”.

Is there a better way to describe this track than disco-tinged new wave banger? I don’t believe so. It’s a collision of worlds. That old late seventies sound of Japan and Roxy Music fueling our beloved Track 2 with one of John Taylor’s finest bass lines (and there are a lot of them). The lesser celebrated Taylors – Andy and Roger – do their thing with some unconventional, seemingly off-key guitar chords and a Brit rock barrage on the drum set. Nick’s synth hooks as always aren’t overdone. Shimmery and perfectly occupying the treble range. And Simon sings with a swagger that makes him the dynamic frontman he is. “Cause I’ve got my own way, ay-yee ay-yee ay-yee ay-yee ay-yee ay-yee ay-yee.”

“I'm on 45tH between 6th and Broadway. 7-UP between Sixth and Broadway.”

"THE CHAUFFEUR" DURAN DURAN (1982)

You can get off to a fast start. You can sustain your opener with the main course, not filler. But can you end on a high note? Sometimes I wonder if recording a strong closer is the most difficult thing to pull off when it comes to album rock. When it comes to the cream of the crop in music, I can think of more strong openers than strong closers. Nonetheless, I still have my favorites which I’ll be featuring on Mental Jukebox all month.

My childhood isn’t complete without this album. Few recordings are as connected to my early musical discovery years as Rio. This was an album that a family friend introduced my brother and I to. He raved about the singles. He went on and on about the ballads. And he paid proper homage to “The Chauffeur”. Rio was full of radio-friendly songs that paired nicely with elaborate and exotic video shoots. The album is sugary and sweet, which is what makes the final track a bit of a pleasant surprise. “The Chauffeur”, a fan favorite, is the indisputed anomaly on the album.

“Hungry Like The Wolf”, “My Own Way” and “Rio” grab you, but “The Chauffeur” grows on you. The closing track from Rio revealed a darker, more mysterious side to the pop band. “The Chauffeur” put Duran Duran’s versatility on full display, with a moodier synth experiment from Nick Rhodes and even Simon Le Bon on the ocarina. The track is atmospheric and even visual. I can picture a long, aimless drive by the chauffeur late at night every single time I hear it. It’s not just a great Duran Duran anthem, it’s one of the greatest closing tracks of the eighties.

“WITH A THOUGHT TO STIFFEN BROODING LIES. AND I'LL ONLY WATCH YOU LEAVE ME FURTHER BEHIND.”

"RIO" DURAN DURAN (1982)

Great album openers get the listeners to keep on listening. They can do this in any number of ways. Some openers set the tone by easing us in. Others jump right in and blow our minds from the very beginning. A great album opener isn’t an easy thing to create. More than a great song, it’s all about the sequence. Track 1 has to be the perfect starter. This month, I’m highlighting my favorites. #AlbumOpeningSongs

I was out of town when Duran Duran played at the Garden in NYC this summer. Hearing from fans and then seeing some of their camera-recorded videos afterwards, it was clear that I missed out on something special. The crowd was so into it because the band was in great form and, for a night, it sounded like everyone in the building was transported back to the eighties. So many of the fan favorites hold up so well some forty years later. Truly a remarkable feat. I remember when a family friend introduced my brother and I to Rio. It felt like a rite of passage. “My Own Way”, “The Chauffeur”, “Hungry Like The Wolf”, “Save a Prayer”, “New Religion”, the album was stacked. And it all begins with one of the greatest Track Ones of the decade: “Rio”.

What an opening. That ominous, metallic noise. Is something closing or opening? Before we know it, the rhythm section of Roger Taylor on drums and John Taylor on bass kicks in as Nick Rhodes lays down the main synthesizer riff that conjures up images of sparkly reflections off the Rio Grande. The drum fill ushers you in, the bass takes it from there. John Taylor is exceptional at melding elements of funk, rock and new wave, squashing any doubt that the bass is a frigging cool instrument. Andy Taylor’s guitar hook is a simple scorcher, like blazing sun rays “through the dusty land”. These are also some of Simon Le Bon’s finest lyrics and vocal performances. Who hasn’t wanted to do karaoke to this? And then we wrap things up with a killer sax solo for the ages. It seems like you can only go downhill from here, but the Rio album doesn’t ever let up. It just starts out with an incredible, unforgettable bang.

“Cherry ice cream smile, I suppose it's very nice.”

"UNION OF THE SNAKE" DURAN DURAN (1983)

One of the most powerful things about music is that it is the soundtrack of our lives. Fellow music fanatic Sharon Hepworth started a music challenge on Twitter for the month of July. Each day, fans around the world will select a song from their life and describe what it means to us. These are my songs. #SoundtrackToYourLife

Day 1

Duran Duran is the first band that I loved. Looking back, I think this fact was unavoidable. My brother and I were glued to MTV – and Duran Duran was king of the station. It seemed like a new video from the band was constantly surfacing. Largely influenced by Japan and Roxy Music, Duran Duran weren’t exactly pioneers. But they were in many ways the perfecters. They knew how to write infectious pop songs, often highlighted by the frenetic stylings on John Taylor’s bass guitar. A prime example of this is “Union of the Snake”.

I still remember seeing the video on MTV and being reeled in by the images and the music. Every band member had his moment to shine on the track, yet none of the instrumentation feels excessive. The breakdown and musical arrangement at the 2:16 mark, in particular, is one of Duran Duran’s finest studio moments and one of the most imaginative musical expressions of the decade. On it, you’ll hear each member playing off of each other in a call-and-response structure, culminating in a sax solo by session player Andy Hamilton. While all the band members seemed to create a unified sonic boom on anthems like “Rio” and “The Reflex”, “Union of the Snake” marched to a different beat by thrusting each member into the spotlight at different points in time.

“There's a fine line drawing my senses together, and I think it's about to break.”

"A VIEW TO A KILL" DURAN DURAN (1985)

After spending an entire month looking back at the 80’s, I realized one thing. I need more. Luckily, a couple of fellow music fans on Twitter came up with the brilliant idea to highlight #30DaysOf80sMovieSongs during the month of April. I couldn’t resist at the opportunity to keep going, to keep listening, and to keep celebrating the decade that has meant more to me than any other from a musical standpoint. Each day I’m playing a different soundtrack favorite on the Mental Jukebox.

Movie: A View To A Kill

Bassist John Taylor, a longtime James Bond fan, approached the film series producer at a party asking when he’s finally going to hire someone decent to do one of their theme songs. So the story goes. That conversation led a meeting between Duran Duran, the producer and two composers, including John Barry. And the project was on. Mental note for those with big ambitions. If you want something, sometimes you just need to talk to the right people and express a strong point of view that you can do better. The result: the biggest hit of any James Bond soundtrack song and one of the band’s all-time classics.

“A View To A Kill” was written by the band and arranged by John Barry. There was no compromise here. It feels 100% Duran Duran, and 100% James Bond at the same time. It took Duran Duran to the next level. The self-titled debut, Rio and Seven and the Ragged Tiger were chock full of synth-laden hits. But “A View To A Kill” put the band on a more aggressive tilt. In the very first second of the track, Roger Taylor unleashes his pounding percussion agenda while Andy Taylor adds a raw guitar hook that sounds like a foreshadowing of his approach with The Power Station. John Taylor’s bass lines still have those characteristic John Taylor hooks, but they’re more calculated here. Simon Le Bon delivers one of his finest vocal performances, hovering dangerous and low in the verses and soaring high in the chorus. And Nick Rhodes is the connective tissue, constructing synth sounds that fully encapsulate the Bond aura.

“Dance into the fire. That fatal kiss is all we need.”

"NEW RELIGION" DURAN DURAN (1982)

It’s time to get back to my favorite decade. For the month of March, I’ll be looking back at some of my favorite jams from the 80s. These songs often came to me via MTV or the radio. NYC-area stations WDRE, WPLJ, WNEW, K-ROCK and Z100 introduced me to everything from irresistible pop confections to under-the-radar post-punk anthems. I would not be who I am today if it weren’t for the 80s. It was the decade when I discovered music can be a truly powerful thing. #31DaysOf80sSongs

During my childhood, Duran Duran was one of my beloved bands. MTV helped bring these infectious songs to life with videos that felt like mini movies. And I remember on a family trip, my parents were walking inside the magnificent Leaning Tower of Pisa. But not me. I was in a tour bus with my brother listening to Duran Duran’s Rio on my walkman. The songs gripped me. Simon Le Bon was one of the great lead vocalists of that era. And every band member had legit skills – from Nick Rhodes’ dreamy synth scapes to John Taylor’s funk-driven bass lines. These guys weren’t just a bunch of pretty boys. Everyone knows “Hungry Like The Wolf” and “Rio”, but the entire Rio album had several classics, including “The Chauffeur”, “Save a Prayer” and a lesser celebrated track called “New Religion”.

The second you play the song, you’ve entered another dimension. Rhodes kicks things off with a sense of mystique and mystery. Something interesting is about to happen on my walkman. Then Andy Taylor and John Taylor lead us through a spiraling labyrinth. It’s like the Leaning Tower of Pisa, except my ass is still firmly planted on the tour bus coach seat. I can see the tower out the window, but in my mind a music video is playing: scenes of the band scrambling and climbing over each other to get to the top of the tower where liberation is waiting. I found it, too, inside that stuffy tour bus.

“I've something to see, I can't help myself. It's a new religion.”

"UNION OF THE SNAKE" DURAN DURAN (1983)

For the month of October, I’m selecting a song each day from the decade that has the most meaning to me: the 80s. It was the decade that I grew up in. The period of time where I discovered my love for music — and explored many different genres. For the next 31 days, I’ll highlight a handful of songs that I truly loved and that were representative of the decade. #31DaysOf80sSongs

Duran Duran had to live with the pretty boy image for far too long. That image has prevented many critics and music listeners from taking them more seriously and appreciating what they have to offer. But that original lineup was something. Simon Le Bon is a vastly underrated singer and songwriter. John Taylor practically invented his own rhythmic, often frenetic stylings on bass that could be heard decades later in Carlos D’s muscular bass lines with Interpol. And Nick Rhodes, Andy Taylor and Roger Taylor are talented musicians and arrangers in their own right. It all came together — and they all shined — on one of my favorite Duran Duran anthems growing up: “Union of the Snake”.

I still remember seeing the video on MTV and being reeled in by the images and the music. Every band member had his moment to shine on the track, yet none of the instrumentation feels excessive. The breakdown and musical arrangement at the 2:16 mark, in particular, is one of Duran Duran’s finest studio moments and one of the most imaginative musical expressions of the decade. On it, you’ll hear each member playing off of each other in a call-and-response structure, culminating in a sax solo by session player Andy Hamilton. While all the band members seemed to create a unified sonic boom on anthems like “Rio” and “The Reflex”, “Union of the Snake” marched to a different beat by thrusting each member into the spotlight at different points in time.

“There's a fine line drawing my senses together, and I think it's about to break.”

"THE CHAUFFEUR" DURAN DURAN (1982)

This week I’m featuring 80’s deep cuts on Mental Jukebox. They’re the non-charting singles. The forgotten b-sides. The unheralded album staples. While they may not be the first songs that come to mind when you think of the 80’s, they’re some of the most important musical statements of the decade.

Rio was full of radio-friendly songs that paired nicely with elaborate and exotic video shoots. But the very last track showed a darker, more mysterious side to the pop band. “The Chauffeur” put Duran Duran’s versatility on full display, with a moodier synth experiment from Nick Rhodes and Simon Le Bon on the ocarina. “Hungry Like the Wolf”, “My Own Way” and “Rio” grab you, but “The Chauffeur” grows on you.

“With a thought to stiffen brooding lies. And I'll only watch you leave me further behind.”