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

Be My Icon

I didn’t warm to this initially due yet again to Warren’s playing during the verses. However, having given the album a spin a few days back I found myself liking this a lot more. I’ve just heard the Butt Naked version and I think I like that even more than the final product. If you add the outdo of the final version it would be even better.

I might have to make myself my own version of the album as some alternate versions are superior to the final mixes.

By My Icon 4/5
Butt Naked 4.5/5

 

Buried In The Sand

Ah, quite possibly my favourite track on the whole album. It’s dark, mysterious and I love how Simon sings on this. It’s not forced, just like a gentle lullaby full of eastern promise (UK peeps of a certain age will get what I mean). Fabulous instrumentation, a dubby beat, what sounds like fretless bass ( I could be wrong), beautiful synths. Perfect. 5/5

 

Buried in the Sand 4.5/5

What a great mix of electronica and traditional instruments.

The track contains a sample of "Raga Jaijaiwanti" performed by Sarangi-player Ustad Sultan Khan.


When the band played in New York during the Ultra Chrome Latex & Steel tour Sultan Khan took the stage with them to perform the track live together.
The next year, Sultan Khan and Warren Cucurullo jammed together in a studio (Privacy?). In 2014 Cuccurullo released a CD from those sessions.
Sultan Khan died in 2011

You can read more about the collaboration here :
Warren Cuccurullo And Ustad Sultan Khan — Six Degrees Records

 

I just listened to this. On this version on youtube there was some vocal killer filter applied. So what you are hearing is not how the mix was intended to be heard. There's lots of phase shifting compared to the original.

 

Be My Icon, Buried In the sand - superior Duran Duran.

 

Buried in the Sand



On top of Nick's enigmatic and thoughtful lyrics about John leaving the band, I think listening to this is the sonic equivalent of being caught in a sandstorm. It is an hypnotic track which grabs your attention almost like a hymn. Then it fades away and disappears just like a storm or a mirage does. Again this is different to what DD had done before but was still hugely impressive, even if it was not that commercial sounding.

4.5/5

 

134 Michael You've Got A Lot To Answer For?


"Michael You've Got A Lot To Answer For" is a song by Duran Duran, released on the album Medazzaland by Capitol-EMI-Virgin on 14 October 1997.

The acoustic song pretty much written by Simon Le Bon for his friend Michael Hutchence, which is eerily prophetic. This is a ballad that features natural sounding vocals by Le Bon.

The track was recorded in 1996, then released on Medazzaland only a month before Hutchence's death.

"Trust you to get caught up in somebody's war; you'll come out of it all intact, I'm sure.
Just remember what friends were put here for; Michael, you've got a lot to answer for, and I know that you're gonna call ... if you need me."

Duran Duran toured to support the album when Hutchence died, and Le Bon found the song too difficult to perform anymore so it was cut from the set for the remainder of the tour. However it was revived by Duran Duran 2000-1 tour as a tribute.

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For those of you not more aware of the devil and the detail of the INXS frontman's (& partner Paul Yates) troubles. It makes very depressing reading.

By the time Simon pretty much wrote this song. Hutchence's "public brawls and onetime open drug use led London tabloids to dub him the 'wild man of rock.'" During the 1990s Hutchence was romantically linked to Kylie Minogue, Belinda Carlisle, Helena Christensen, before Paula Yates.

In August 1992, Helena Christensen and Hutchence were walking late at night on a street in Copenhagen after drinking heavily when he refused to move for a taxi. The taxi driver then assaulted him, causing him to fall backwards and hit his head on the roadway. Hutchence suffered a fractured skull in the altercation. Hutchence did not immediately seek medical assistance for the injury, instead waiting several days before seeing a doctor. As a result, Hutchence's fractured skull left him with an almost complete loss of the sense of smell and significant loss of taste. This injury led to periods of depression and increased levels of aggression; he had not fully recovered after two weeks in a Copenhagen hospital. According to INXS bandmate Beers, Hutchence pulled a knife and threatened to kill him during the 1993 recording of Full Moon, Dirty Hearts on the isle of Capri. Beers said: "Over those six weeks, Michael threatened or physically confronted nearly every member of the band."

In the mid-1990s, Hutchence became romantically involved with Paula Yates. He had met Yates in 1985, during an interview for her program, The Tube. Yates interviewed Hutchence again in 1994 for her Big Breakfast show, and their affair was soon uncovered by the British press. At the time, Yates was married to The Boomtown Rats' lead singer and Live Aid organiser Bob Geldof (After ten years together, they had married on 31 August 1986 in Las Vegas, with Simon Le Bon acting as best man). Media scrutiny was intense, and Hutchence assaulted a photographer who had followed the couple. Yates' separation from Geldof in February 1995 sparked a public and at times bitter custody battle over their daughters. Yates and Geldof divorced in May 1996. On 22 July 1996, Yates gave birth to Hutchence's daughter, Heavenly Hiraani Tiger Lily Hutchence.

In September 1996, Yates and Hutchence made headlines when they were arrested for suspicion of drug possession after the family nanny reportedly found a small amount of opium in a shoebox underneath their bed. The case was later dropped due to lack of evidence.

On 22 November 1997, Hutchence committed suicide in a hotel room in Sydney, Australia. Yates wrote in her police statement that Hutchence was "frightened and couldn't stand a minute more without his baby." During their phone conversations on the morning of his suicide he had said, "I don't know how I'll live without Tiger." Yates also wrote that Geldof had threatened them repeatedly with, "Don't forget, I am above the law". Yates became distraught, refusing to accept the coroner's verdict of suicide. She eventually sought psychiatric treatment.

In June 1998, Geldof won full custody of the couple's three daughters after Yates attempted suicide. She met Kingsley O'Keke during her stay in treatment, but the pair broke up after a six-week romance. O'Keke later sold his story to a tabloid newspaper. While Yates was fighting for custody of Tiger, it was reported in the media that Jess Yates was not Yates's biological father. A paternity test proved that the talent show host Hughie Green, who died six months before Hutchence, was her biological father.

On 17 September 2000, on Pixie's 10th birthday, Yates, 41, died at her home in London of an accidental heroin overdose. The coroner ruled that it was not a suicide, but a result of "foolish and incautious" behaviour.

Soon after her death, Geldof assumed foster custody of Tiger Lily so that she could be brought up with her three older half-sisters, Fifi, Peaches and Pixie. Her aunt, Tina Hutchence, the sister of Michael Hutchence, was denied permission by the judge to apply for Tiger Lily to live with her in California.

On 7 April 2014, her second oldest daughter, Peaches, also died of a heroin overdose, aged 25. One day before her death, she uploaded a picture to her Instagram of herself as a young girl and her mother under the caption "Me and my Mum."

 

Since I don't know anybody in person, I won't go into the whole Geldof/ Yates miasma and it's enormous and tragic fallout. Wasn't aware that Le Bon knew both parties. But I figure it made these events pretty hard for him.

Michael You've Got A Lot To Answer For:

Fantastic, one of DDs very best songs, even though the lyrics must have haunted Simon during the aftermath. I'm generally not a fan of "confessional" (is that the word?) songwriting but I love it when more guarded lyricists are coming out of their closet and perform something that doesn't sound like a performance. So this is really good, no ****. And: This doesn't sound like anybody else. Which isn't to say it sounded like Duran Duran. That's the beauty of it! Moments like these are why I can make it through more average DD songs.

4,5/ 5

 

Michael You've Got A Lot To Answer For?

It's OK

2/5

 

Michael - 4.5/5: Beautiful, stripped down and an incredibly personal lyric from Simon. Sounds like DD covering REM circa Automatic forbthr People. A welcome break from the electronica that dominates the rest of the album. A Top 10 90s moment for DD, for me personally at least.

 

I do like “Michael” but I feel the lyrics may have been written before the song. They don’t appear to fit very well with the music. However, it’s still a lovely song. 3.5/5

The whole Michael story is sad and it does appear that his injury changed his character somewhat.
Simon was very good friends with him as well as Bono and the three holidayed together with their respective wives/girlfriend in the south of France. Simon has mentioned that they named it “The Lead Singers Club”. Michael was known to be a very mischievous, yet charming man. Women and men loved him but his life turned into a car crash after his head injury (Helena Christensen has since said he became a different person). His liaison with Paula Yates was toxic for both of them. Pauls was a very talented TV personality and a dedicated mother and it all fell apart after she interviewed Michael on Channel 4’s Big Breakfast. Both dead within 5 years and one of her daughters dead 14 years later (Peaches was as talented as her mother). Another sad tale is that Michael’s fortune appears to been “buried” in tax havens and nobody seems to know what has happened to it, least of all, his daughter Tiger. A really sad state of affairs.

The day Michael died I was working at London Heathrow T1 and Yasmin Le Bon was travelling through. She looked distraught. Obviously she had just heard the news about their friend.

 

"Michael, You've Got A Lot To Answer For"
5/5

For me, this is the 3rd peak of Medazzaland, along with "Be My Icon" and "Electric Barbarella." One of DD's most beautiful melodies. The production is faultless and less muddy sounding than the rest of the album, minus perhaps "Out of My Mind." Like "Buried In The Sand," the other unusually biographical track on Medazzaland, the instrumental coda for this track is especially memorable - and haunting, considering Hutchence's imminent death.

 

Michael, You've.... 4.5/5

I like the song. I don't think Simon has ever been that personal in a song.
Great original fingerpicking by Warren.

 

Michael, You've Got A Lot To Answer For. 4.5/5. Lovely song, and the subject matter now renders it heartbreaking. Liked INXS a lot, but Michael made a bad choice getting involved with someone else's wife. Remember seeing Paula and Bob out in Dublin when I used to live there about 94/95. They were in separate corners, and it didn't surprise me they went separate ways. It's a song like this makes me like Simon a lot. He cares about the people around him, and seems like a good mate. Love the ending chimes, which feed perfectly into Midnight Sun.

 

Medazzaland 4/5
Big Bang Gen 4.5/5
Električkaya Barbarela 5/5
Out of my Mind 4/5
WWDYTYA? 3.5/5
Silva Halo 4/5
Be My Icon 4.5/5
Buried in the Sand 4/5
Michael 6/5

 

I do like “Michael” but I feel the lyrics may have been written before the song. They don’t appear to fit very well with the music. However, it’s still a lovely song. 3.5/5

The whole Michael story is sad and it does appear that his injury changed his character somewhat.
Simon was very good friends with him as well as Bono and the three holidayed together with their respective wives/girlfriend in the south of France. Simon has mentioned that they named it “The Lead Singers Club”. Michael was known to be a very mischievous, yet charming man. Women and men loved him but his life turned into a car crash after his head injury (Helena Christensen has since said he became a different person). His liaison with Paula Yates was toxic for both of them. Pauls was a very talented TV personality and a dedicated mother and it all fell apart after she interviewed Michael on Channel 4’s Big Breakfast. Both dead within 5 years and one of her daughters dead 14 years later (Peaches was as talented as her mother). Another sad tale is that Michael’s fortune appears to been “buried” in tax havens and nobody seems to know what has happened to it, least of all, his daughter Tiger. A really sad state of affairs.

The day Michael died I was working at London Heathrow Airport. Yasmin Le Bon was seen there in tears. Obviously she had just heard.

 

Be My Icon
It's not really that great to me. Too abrasive.
2/5


Buried in the Sand
Super interesting sounds. Strange that no one else is credited with any instruments outside of the band other than drums. Mark Tinley worked a lot with Nick on programming and keyboard sounds for Medazzaland, but this really has such an Indian feel to it that I forgot it was just them.

Great lyric as well by Nick, great delivery by Simon.

Strangely, it's not one I think to dust off the shelf and listen to that often though, but it was really nice to revisit it here.

3.5/5

 

Michael You've Got A Lot To Answer For
The title is a bit much, no?

Really interesting catching up here on Michael Hutchence in the 90s. So sad.

But Simon's delivery, Warren's guitar, everything combines to a uncharacteristic gem. A great palate cleanser thematically as well as sonically to reel in the chaos and jarring sounds from the earlier part of the album.

I was at the Duran show the night Michael Hutchence died. It was 22-Nov-97 - the news was announced in the morning in Sydney, and Duran had been on a few night break. There is a 14 hour time difference between Sydney and Lakewood, a suburb of Cleveland where the show was held, so they had a full day or more to digest the news.

For some reason, I thought they really had played it that night. Memory is a strange thing. Setlist.fm only shows Duran performed it live four times before Michael passed away, all were the four previous shows. And they stopped playing it live for years.

I DO recall vividly Simon trying to talk about him at the show, tearing up, and be too choked up to continue speaking. Very powerful. And I recall how he usually has a rough time singing Ordinary World's ending bit, and having no trouble that night.

Duran have played Michael 16 more times live since he passed, all on the 2001 tour.

4.5/5

 

This thread has made me totally reevaluate Seven and the Ragged Tiger. I always thought it sucked, and haven't listened to it in about 15 years. Listening now - it's fantastic! Up there with Rio. Cant' believe I didn't like it way back when.

 

Michael You've Got A Lot To Answer For



Simon & Warren especially show off a vulnerable side of their personalities you rarely saw with the band. As tributes to Michael Hutchence I go I certainly think it is much stronger than the far well known U2 "Stuck In A Moment You Can't Get Out Of".

4.5/5

 

Michael- nice contrast with the rest of the album . Medozzaland is just a really interesting album, their darkest by far.

 

135 Midnight Sun


"Midnight Sun" is a song by Duran Duran, released on the album Medazzaland by Capitol-EMI-Virgin on the 14 October 1997.

This offbeat ballad features John Taylor on bass; & Steve Alexander on drums.

There is a demo version of this track available on youtube, etc which is longer than the finished version and is regarded as having a better ending.

 

Midnight Sun - another beauty of a song. Stunning though the album version it’s missing it’s guitar solo, for whatever reason.
Love it. Cartoon coyote eternity indeed! 5/5

 

A bit of catch up here. Of all the songs on Medazzaland, only three songs have album versions and no known demo / alternate / remix version

5:12 Be My Icon [Album Version]
5:13 Be My Icon [Alternate Mix]|(Demo)|[Alternate]|Butt Naked
3:48 Be My Icon [Coat Demo Instrumental]|[Instrumental]|Butt Naked

4:16 Buried In The Sand [Album Version]

4:06 Michael You've Got A Lot To Answer For [Album Version]

3:38 Midnight Sun [Album Version]|{Remix}
4:59 Midnight Sun [Alternate Mix]|(Demo)|[Alternate]
5:30 Midnight Sun [Coat Demo Instrumental]

 

Midnight Sun - 5/5: The "No Surprises" of Medazzaland, a moody late album gem that somehow sounds better as the years go by. Again, I never realized it until revisiting Medazzaland for this thread but.... BBG through Midnight Sun is an incredibly strong run of songs, arguably one of the best in their entire discography. Too bad the quality of the songs dips with the next two songs.

Just like Who Do You Think You Are, there is a superior mix out there: