Tonight’s selections from Duran Duran’s 1981 debut album, the self-titled Duran Duran.
Few debut singles set the tone for a band’s career as much as “Planet Earth.” It’s all there: avant garde vocal delivery, keyboard and guitar synth in a masterful call and response, another guitar track toggling between Ronno riffing and Nile Rodgers glassy chop chords, all backed up by a rhythm section solidly locked into a sex beat groove on par with any of the disco veterans. Most notably it name-checked the new romantic scene they were quickly becoming the poster boys for. A sci-fi flavored video soon followed, kicking off the band’s long relationship with filmmaker Russell Mulcahy. It was an auspicious start, and the song charted well. — Louder Than War
Planet Earth
In 1981 Kevin Godley and Lol Creme were still best known as the brains behind 10cc, but they had also directed the video for the new romantic movement’s unofficial theme song, Visage’s “Fade To Grey.” For “Girls On Film” the idea was to present an array of sexual fantasies, in succession, almost as if they were trying to start a turf war with Penthouse magazine. In it, the band performs on a catwalk, while scantily clad women have a pillow fight, on a phallic, shaving cream covered candy cane, before making out and dousing each other in champagne. A cowgirl rides a hunky black male. There is cosplay, mud wrestling, sumo wrestling, an oil massage, ice cubes on nipples, and a near-drowning resulting in a rescue that’s an allegory for a femme fatale’s withdrawal. It certainly has a sense of humour at times, but it’s not a naughty romp straight out of The Benny Hill Show. It stands up next to any erotic film piece of the era. It can be argued that they got away with it because they weren’t the most macho band on earth. There is a fine line between objectification and celebrating sensuality.
None of it would have worked if the song hadn’t been such an undeniable banger. Interestingly, “Girls On Film” had been around nearly as long as the band. The first version, demoed in 1979, with Andy Wickett on vocals, owes more to Pere Ubu than Chic, though the chorus is recognizable. A later version, with the Le Bon lineup, is darker, has some new lyrics, and a power chord pre-chorus where there would be a funk tag in later versions. It’s somewhat plodding, and owes an obvious debt to Roxy Music. Eventually the band landed on the version we all know, pristine, and at an ass-shaking 130bpm, about five faster than the previous rendering, kicking off with the sound of an SLR’s autowinder. — Louder Than War
Girls On Film
"We definitely had a sense that we were appealing to teenage girls by the time the album came out," bassist John Taylor said in a 2021 interview. "One of the major changes that happened, between February and June of that year, was that we started getting a lot of press in the girls' magazines. A lot of covers on magazines like Jackie and My Guy."
By the time "Girls on Film" came out, that fervor was reaching fever pitch.
"We went back on the road in the summer, and suddenly, our audiences had changed enormously," Taylor said. "On that first tour in earlier in the year, our audiences kind of looked like guys in the 'Planet Earth' video. Everybody looked like a New Romantic. By the time we went back out on the road and started doing sold out theaters, [it was] mostly screaming girls, so the album came out around about then. We knew there was an audience for it." — UCR
Is There Something I Should Know?
On July 16, 1980, the classic Duran Duran lineup — singer Simon Le Bon, bassist John Taylor, guitarist Andy Taylor, drummer Roger Taylor and keyboardist Nick Rhodes — played their first show ever. The location: Birmingham, England's Rum Runner, the club that doubled as the group's headquarters and practice space.
Less than a year later, on June 15, 1981, the quintet issued its self-titled debut album. Duran Duran featured the previously released singles "Planet Earth" and "Careless Memories," as well as the future hit "Girls on Film" and six other tracks.
In late 1980 and into early 1981, Duran Duran recorded the LP at the London studios Red Bus and Utopia, as well as at Chipping Norton in Oxfordshire. The band chose as producer Colin Thurston, who boasted an impressive resume: He had previously co-engineered David Bowie's "Heroes" and Iggy Pop's Lust for Life, and produced albums by post-punk band Magazine (Secondhand Daylight) and synth-pop innovators the Human League (Reproduction).
Rhodes was a fan of the latter LP, he told the Observer in 2017. "That one particularly was an inspiration because that came out before ours, and Colin produced that one," he said. "It was one of the reasons that we got Colin Thurston. He had been the engineer of those great albums that Iggy and Bowie made together, and he produced Human League. He knew exactly what we liked." — Ultimate Classic Rock
(Waiting For The) Night Boat
Pitchfork: There's another thing that interests me-- you guys have been productive long enough that the fashion's come around. I hear bands that seem entirely sprung from your bass part on "Planet Earth". And right now there are a lot of bands trying to reconcile those sorts of things-- a little bit dance, a little bit punk, a little bit electronic.
John Taylor: Well, Simon said, you know, we started out as an experimental band, really, who had teeny-pop stardom foisted upon them. It was always quite incongruous to us, really. I'm not saying we ever discouraged teen press-- when you've made an album, you want people to hear the album, and you'll do any kind of press, really. And when I was a kid in school and the girls in my class had their teen magazines, Marc Bolan was in there, and Bowie, and Roxy Music were in there. For me, it was like...what's wrong with that? That's what teen press was in the early 70s. So, you know, we were kind of thrust into that, and next thing you know, that's what we are. But it was nice with this album to sort of...well, everyone around us is always about singles, singles, singles, and it's been nice to pull the reins back on that and make an album, something that's not just a collection of wannabe singles. — Pitchfork
Careless Memories
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WHO’S TALKING TO WHO?
Jimmy Fallon: Sydney Sweeney, Nick Kroll, Andrew Rannells, Liz Glazer
Stephen Colbert: Cynthia Erivo, Tony Gilroy
Seth Meyers: Dakota Johnson, Questlove
After Midnight: Maria Bamford, Zach Noe Towers, Laura Peek
Watch What Happens Live: Hoda Kotb, Mario Cantone
LAST WEEK’S POLL: OF THE ORIGINAL STAR WARS TRILOGY, WHICH IS BEST?
Star Wars 56%
The Empire Strikes Back 25%
Return of the Jedi 0%
Pie 19%
