Duran Duran - song-by-song rate & discussion thread

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by Blame The Machines, May 5, 2019.

  1. Colocally

    Colocally One Of The New Wave Boys

    Location:
    Surrey BC.
    I have just spent the few hours playing some of this.
    [​IMG]

    Wish I had the few missing 12" and 7".
     
  2. Blame The Machines

    Blame The Machines Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Swindon
    To The Shore - A brooding synth track (it literally brings thoughts of sea waves). Complimented by the guitar & bass placying. A very evocative track to listen to. I don't understand why it did not make the US cut of the album, as I think there is easily one weaker track on the album. 3.5/5

    Here is the Live at Hammersmith Odeon, 17th December 1981 version:
     
  3. Curveboy

    Curveboy Forum Resident

    Location:
    New York City
    Or, it's a solid precursor to The Chauffeur...
     
    Witchy Woman likes this.
  4. Blame The Machines

    Blame The Machines Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Swindon
    009 Night Boat


    "Night Boat" or "(Waiting for The) Nightboat" is a song by Duran Duran, released on the band's debut album Duran Duran by Capitol-EMI on the 15 June 1981.

    The song was originally written by Simon Le Bon, when he was waiting for a ride from the night bus home. Simon Le Bon's lyric book which dates from the late 1970s to the early 1980s features "Night Boat".

    It is spooky and atmospheric, unlike most of the other songs on the Duran Duran album. It is instrumental until about two minutes into it.

    The video for "Nightboat" was directed by longtime music video director Russell Mulcahy. The video is a mini horror film shot on the Caribbean island side of Antigua.

    Before the music starts, a brief bit of dialog includes Le Bon's recitation of part of a speech by Mercutio in William Shakespeare's play, Romeo and Juliet.

    The band gather in a small beach village as the sun is setting, only to be separated and set upon one by one by zombies, until the ragged night boat arrives to carry Le Bon away. It is possible that the video is a homage to the Italian horror film Zombi 2, with settings and zombies that look very much like the ones in the film.

    The video was filmed in May 1982, several months before Michael Jackson's Thriller album was released. It was released in March 1983 as part of the Duran Duran video album or Duran Duran: The First 11 Videos. This became the world's best selling video collection .... until Michael Jackson's Thriller was released in December 1983.
     
  5. BZync

    BZync Senior Member

    Location:
    Los Angeles
    My three favorite songs on DD are:
    Careless Memories - Great dramatic track
    Anyone Out There - This could have been on Rio. Confident songwriting.
    Friends Of Mine - This is a little more awkward than the previous two but it has a darker flavor to it that I like very much.
     
    Blame The Machines likes this.
  6. mr_spenalzo

    mr_spenalzo Forum Resident

    Night Boat ★★
    I'd have given this a perfect score if the rest of the song were as phenomenal as the eerie opening minutes. Unfortunately it loses its mystery once Le Bon starts singing, about waiting... waiting... waiting... alcoholic paranoia, apocalypse when? Not one of my favourite lyrics. I'll have to look up the DVD that came with the deluxe reissue sometime: I cannot remember the video at all, but sounds entertaining!
     
    Last edited: May 13, 2019
    Blame The Machines likes this.
  7. Curveboy

    Curveboy Forum Resident

    Location:
    New York City
    Night Boat

    One of their weaker tracks...it works in context of listening to the whole album but I'd never single it out.
     
  8. Paul Rymer

    Paul Rymer Forum Resident

    Night Boat - fantastic, love it, but since reading the story behind it and living in London I’ll always think of it as (Waiting For The) Night Bus. 4/5.
     
    Blame The Machines likes this.
  9. Bluepicasso

    Bluepicasso Android Confused

    Location:
    Arlington, Va
    Night Boat, 4/5. Wish they continued in this vein with later tracks. It’s a good rock song! The downfall is the vocals as some have stated. Drags it down.
     
    Blame The Machines likes this.
  10. Scott Davies

    Scott Davies Forum Resident

    To The Shore is an excellent song and perfect for the album. I first heard it in 1982-83 when I bought a bootleg LP of what turned out to be the December 81 concert that's out there for download. At that age I was thrilled and perplexed to hear several songs not on the two albums I had, and didn't know where they were from. It would be the following year when I got 12" singles that included Faster Than Light, as well as Late Bar and Khanada (listed on the bootleg as one song called "instrumental jam"). To The Shore remained elusive until I saw an add in 1986-87 in a Star Hits magazine for a place called Record Runner that advertised the UK debut LP as "incl. To The Shore". I bought it and the mystery was solved. I was surprised when in the early 90's I found there was a remix of the song on one of the Come Undone CD singles.
     
    Blame The Machines and enro99 like this.
  11. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product

    Goofy video, as was the case with so many of the day. I had never seen it before lol.
    I like the song though. Shows a nice diversity. Trying some atmospheric stuff and holding themselves off from being a purely singles pop band.
     
    Blame The Machines likes this.
  12. Bluepicasso

    Bluepicasso Android Confused

    Location:
    Arlington, Va
    ==
    Must get this live recording at one point. There is a hint of Bowie’s Neukoln in the back to me.
     
    Alexlotl likes this.
  13. RobRoyF

    RobRoyF Forum Resident

    Location:
    Southland
    Night Boat

    Pleasant album cut.

    4/5
     
    Blame The Machines and SJP like this.
  14. SJP

    SJP Forum Resident

    Location:
    Anaheim
    This.
     
  15. AFOS

    AFOS Forum Resident

    Location:
    Brisbane,Australia
    Night Bus just doesn't sound as ominous as Night Boat. Better than Night Tram though.

    *** 1/2

    Dark brooding and creepy. Love it
     
    Blame The Machines likes this.
  16. Neonbeam

    Neonbeam All Art Was Once Contemporary

    Location:
    Planet Earth
    I remember Nick talking about how dangerous those nightbus rides home (in full gear) could have been but that's quite something. Those zombies do indeed look a bit like Fulci, Italians do it better!

    Apart from that I'm not sure why a not exactly commercial song like that would get a video at all but I guess it was the 80's.

    The song: Like it. It's a bit bizarre, a bit weird. And I still wonder how this could stay while "To The Shore" was pulled. Yeah.... still talking about the US release.

    Night Boat 3,5/ 5
     
    Blame The Machines likes this.
  17. AFOS

    AFOS Forum Resident

    Location:
    Brisbane,Australia
    Wonder what the guys thought about the US version omitting "To The Shore". Trying to think of other contemporary UK bands whose albums were altered for the US market.
     
  18. AFOS

    AFOS Forum Resident

    Location:
    Brisbane,Australia
    Nice collection. Had a few of those including the nice cardboard cover for "Is There Something I Should Know".
     
  19. negative1

    negative1 80s retro fan

    Location:
    USA
    Love night boat : 5/5

    Great song, great video back when making a video wasn't just miming, and its a different version
    with the added speech, etc.

    As said, it's a nice moody, atmospheric song, that also has rock elements in it.

    Always liked it, and its definitely a stand out from the other great songs on the album.

    Speaking of the video album, I had it on laserdisc, and now DVD, and other version.
    Just recently got the CED version of it.
    ---------------
    Duran Duran - Duran Duran

    [​IMG]

    Interestingly it has this track on it:
    ------------------------------------------

    Tracklist
    2 Planet Earth (Medley)

    I have a CED player, but it doesn't work right, so i don't know if it's a new track
    or just mislabeled, does anyone know? [i asked on the Duran Duran forum, and
    nobody there knows either].

    later
    -1
     
    Blame The Machines and Maffune like this.
  20. negative1

    negative1 80s retro fan

    Location:
    USA
    I've slowly been filling the gaps in my collection with 7 inches, and some 12 inch promos and foreign versions.
    (the 12 inch promos, and foreign ones can get very expensive though)

    The 7 inches seem to be pretty cheap (even the UK ones), today i just got:
    Duran/Duran* - Careless Memories

    [​IMG]

    For $4 in good condition, this is 38 years after release, and I had the 12 inch a long time ago,
    but always skipped over the 7 inches at the time, because i didn't feel they were worth it.

    i use discogs, and ebay for finding them in the US.

    later
    -1
     
    Maffune and AFOS like this.
  21. GLUDFSSR

    GLUDFSSR Senior Member

    Location:
    Los Angeles, CA
    Wow, I have never seen that before, checked out some of the other clips from that show.
    This should be released officially, would have been a great addition to the 1st album deluxe set.
     
    Chris Bernhardt likes this.
  22. GLUDFSSR

    GLUDFSSR Senior Member

    Location:
    Los Angeles, CA
    To The Shore 3/5
    Night Boat 4/5
     
  23. GLUDFSSR

    GLUDFSSR Senior Member

    Location:
    Los Angeles, CA
    The amount of money I spent on all those 12” imports.
    Went to High school, in walking distance to Tower Records on sunset Blvd. Once a week during lunch break would walk there and get whatever new Duran release they had.
    I have just about every Duran release that Tower had from 82-85. They had one of the best selection of imports at the time.
     
  24. GLUDFSSR

    GLUDFSSR Senior Member

    Location:
    Los Angeles, CA
    I wore the VHS of this out, had to buy a 2nd copy, back in the day.
     
    Blame The Machines and negative1 like this.
  25. Neonbeam

    Neonbeam All Art Was Once Contemporary

    Location:
    Planet Earth
    Not only for the US market but some versions of Depeche Modes "Speak & Spell" replaced "I Sometimes Wish I Was Dead" with (non album single) "Dreaming Of Me".

    "New Gold Dream" by the Simple Minds contained some different mixes on the US release.

    There also have been changes on albums by Siouxsie, The Clash, The Cure or Iron Maiden.
     
    negative1 and AFOS like this.

Share This Page

molar-endocrine