You are right, this one: As for comments about Andy Taylor not being a member of the band, & his guitar playing being missed. I think the best time to discuss them is when we get to songs from 1986 (I'm planning on doing both John Taylor's & Andy Taylor's debut solo singles before moving onto to the Notorious album).
khanada is a great early b-side song i thought. although i give it a 3/5, something about the clash of sounds in it, i think. lyrics are ok, weird, and odd, like secret oktober much later on...something middle eastern sounding. definitely a b-side, and would not have worked on the album. was on the several releases: deluxe Duran Duran Duran Duran - Duran Duran Japan - Nite romantics 12 inch Duran Duran - Nite Romantics Japan - Collection Duran Duran - Nite Romantics–Carnival–Tiger Tiger–Strange Behavior Singles 81-85 Duran Duran - The Singles 81-85 later -1
Well.... to be honest I never found the difference between "Duran Duran" and "Rio" to be that extreme. More assured production, more skilled songwriting. In general I think the progessions DD made were more or less subtle. Man, another one I have never heard. I definitely need to get those 12-inches. To date I only have "Rio" and the obligatory "Wild Boys" (literally saved from the recycling bin). And a "Girls On Film" 7" my girlfriend bought me this March. Never played it so far.... As nice as these "track by track" threads can work out - if everybody is making a collaborative effort - the one thing that won't go away is people randomly posting about songs that are not part of the daily discussion.
I think the whole dual vocal thing in Khanada must have inspired New Religion, and they got it right on the second attempt. I do think Khanada is one of the stronger early songs though if it had been on the album instead of maybe Sound Of Thunder it would have made their debut a much darker statement.
'Careless Memories' - I really love the music but don't like Simon's voice in this one. It lacks a chorus, too. If it was a mistake to issue this song as a single, it was an even bigger blunder to not release a Night Version. Sorry, I can only give this a 3/5.
i did mention the lack of a night version. but i don't think they planned to do a remix of it. planet earth was much more disco and dance friendly. and obviously girls on film was also, but that was the early days of dance remixes and long versions. so i don't fault them too much. it's interesting there were alternate mixes for planet earth, and girls on film, that weren't released until much later on with the deluxe releases. later -1
005 Fame This was released on the 12 inch B-side to their second single "Careless Memories" by Capitol-EMI on 20 April 1981. The funk song was written by David Bowie, John Lennon, and Carlos Alomar. It became the second single from Bowie's Young Americans album and became his first US No.1 in 1975. Bowie described the song as "nasty, angry". He admitted the song was written "with a degree of malice" aimed at the Mainman management group with whom he had been working at the time. This was Duran Duran's first cover released, and their first of three covers of David Bowie songs released by the group.
Fame ★★ Easily the most underwhelming recording from the classic 5-piece period (and maybe even their entire eighties). It sounds like they all had to pee really bad, and were told they could finally go to the toilet after they'd completed the song.
Fame - I knew the Duran version before the Bowie version. I checked out the Bowie version and, well, there’s really no competition. Not Duran’s finest moment but having listened this week not as bad as I remember 2/5
I loved this back then, and had no idea it was a cover until my Bowie Back-Catalogue Discovery Phase, which began around 1986. For some time I might have even preferred it to Bowie's version. I'm older and wiser now. I am also a fan of the Duran Duran original composition "911's A Joke."
Absolutely and very true in the case of Duran Duran. They had this very funky bass player, a hard rocking guitar and a techno keyboard sound which made for a fantastic blend.
fame 1/5, i give them that for effort. [probably should be 0.5 / 5] when i first heard it, i liked it a lot more, because there weren't too many duran b-sides, and it was quirky cover song. later on, and now, it's just a horrible embarassing take on a song, showing why it was just a b-side, and not mentioned much or ever. later -1
Woah, never even knew this existed. Some things are better off buried on old b-sides. In general not a fan of DD saying "Thank You" and this is no exception. Not an ideal choice either because "Fame" is a document of a state of mind, DD wouldn't enter before.... say.... 1985. 2/5
Sticking with the last two b-sides on the board now: Khanada...I always liked the song because in my HS days, being in the know when it came to b-sides was always kind of cool. Khanada was very decent in my book, 3.5/5 material. Fame. Jeez, I'd almost be embarrassed to admit that I like this cover but I've never really had a problem with it. Still, It'd rate 3/5 at best these days. I've heard worse Bowie covers, I think.
Listening to Hammersmith ‘81 for the first time in ages and seems Simon had already started the Planet Earth “Switch it off!” thing by then. Secondly, the version of Late Bar on it is great. Much better than the studio version. For Khanada it’s the opposite: doesn’t really work.
What I really like a about Hammersmith '81 is that Duran wasn't so awash in material to the point where b-sides had to be included in the set.
