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Who among us doesn't have skeletons in the closet? Musically speaking, I think many of us do, and I can already see you hiding this or that record, saying, "It's true, I have it, but because it was cheap," or "it's not mine, it's my sister's," or even "it was a gift, I've never listened to it."
Let's admit it: it's hard to look ourselves in the mirror. Here we're talking about music, therefore about tastes, moods, desires, and even about trivial and debatable things not to be taken too seriously. Always and in any case.
Those like me, who grew up in the eighties, had to endure and deal with that craze called Duran Duran. If up to "Rio" the phenomenon was still quite limited, and in the end (okay, very deep down), they had done something good, from the subsequent "Seven and The Ragged Tiger" fashion and trends inevitably took over, resulting in the usual decline (assuming it could decline) of the albums to come. In contrast, however, with so much musical depression, there was, inversely proportional, a blatant commercial success. Strike while the iron is hot, and so just to suck out the last drop, they set up, in the glittering eighties, two side projects, Arcadia and Power Station. It's more than enough to be hated by the entire male sex, which, as we know, since its inception pursues mainly (if not exclusively) two things (and don't deny it): women and money. And for at least three, four years, they revel in it beautifully. Then, like all cultural phenomena, but not only, the decline comes, and it turns out they don't even call you for the village feast.
When the three survivors record "Big Thing" in 1988, they are practically at the end of their boy-band adventure. Who could be interested in such a band? Neither the young girls, nor the critics.
In fact, the album is a planetary flop.
Now, let's set aside all prejudices for a moment and pretend that the Duran Duran are not the ones playing and singing on this record. It's hard, I know, many of you get hives just by pronouncing the name, but let's try.
The saying that clothes don't make the man unfortunately often fits perfectly, and this time is no exception.
Songs like "Palomino," "Do You Believe In Shame?", "Land," and "The Edge Of America" are remarkably mature and remarkably pop (in the good sense of the term) that if another band played them, the response would have been quite different. The critics exact their revenge because Duran Duran are always Duran Duran, and they must pay. To the pyre! To the pyre!
No upheavals, mind you, but the record spins beautifully, surpassing all the boy-bands that came after.
After this flop, our guys practically disappeared from the scene for about fifteen years; theoretically, they would try in every way to be taken seriously, even covering the Velvet Underground and even thinking of changing their name, but there's nothing to be done: they are and always will be Duran Duran.
What should I do, put the skeleton back in the closet?
Tracklist Lyrics Samples and Videos
01 Big Thing (03:42)
Get it up get it out get it in time
Hang it up hanging out hanging on a big thing
Move it in move it out move up the line
Bang it up bang it out banging on a big thing
Brothers and sisters let me hear it
Get it up get it on get it in time
Give me the green light and watch me move it
Move it up move it out move up the line
This is temptation power rotation
Give me the friction and watch me make it
Make it up making out making it slide
So glad you came along
This time you won't be wrong
You love to turn it on
And you'renot the only one
Brothers and sisters we can take it
Shake it up shake it out shake it all the time
Give me the suction we can stick it
Lick it up suck it up stick it outside
This is temptation (station)
Power rotation (to station)
Give me the playlist and watch me eat it
Eat it up beat it up beat it in time
So glad you came along
This time you won't be wrong
You love to turn it on
And you'renot the only one
Get it up get it out get it in time
Hang it up hanging out hanging on a big thing
Move it in move it out move up the line
Bang it up bang it out banging on a big thing
Get it up get it out get it in time
Hang it up hanging out hanging on a big thing
Move it in move it out move up the line
Bang it up bang it out banging on a big thing
02 I Don't Want Your Love (04:06)
I, don't mind, if you're keeping someone else behind,
I, don't care, cuz you've got something I can share,
Hey, take your chance, even if it's only -
Only while we're dancing in the light, of your second sight
Because when you understand me you might feel good
around me now.
I don't want your love to bring me down.
I don't want your love so turn it around.
I, won't turn you out, if you've got someone else -
Someone else you care about, because you, must realize,
My obsessive fascination is in your imagination (now pick it
up)...
I don't want your love to bring me down
I don't want your love so turn it around
(I don't what your love, I don't what your love)
Your rythym is the power - to move me
It's something you control - Completely,
I don't want your love,
I don't want your love.
(I Don't what your love)
I, like noise, 'cos I like waking up the house
I cannot sit down, I can't shut my mouth,
But when you understand me,
You might feel good around me (now back it up)...
(chorus) (chorus)
I don't want your love.
(I Don't what your love)
I don't want your love.
(I Don't what your love)
I don't want your love to bring me down..
(I Don't what your love)
03 All She Wants Is (04:35)
All she wants is
All she wants is
All she wants is
Spend your money on the corner now
Know you've gotta save some
For the shoeshine boys
You've been pulling 'em
By the hand inside
Oh...collecting all your toys
If you need a lead heaven now,
Just stick around--
You're going to be there
What do you dare?
What do you care?
What does your heart say now?
All she wants is
All she wants is
All she wants is
Divine intervention
Couldn't keep the word
From leaking out
With your pleasure in suspension
Not to mention
What you hang it around
If you need a lead to heaven, yeah
A place to share
In every position
What do you dare?
What do you care?
What does your heart say now?
All she wants is
All she wants is
All she wants is
More...
All she wants is...
06 Do You Believe in Shame? (04:23)
(LeBon, Rhodes, Taylor)
Do you believe in love?
Do you believe in shame?
And if love can conquer all then why do we only feel the pain?
I heard you speak my name, heard you singing The Stones,
Maybe heard you laughing in a line of static on my telephone
So why your eyelids are closed, inside a case of rust,
And did you have to change all your poets fire into frozen dust?
I've tried to justify it, to learn from your mistake,
But where's the stupid lie that has to make it's point -
With such a pointless waste.
Come out...
Do you believe in shame?
Do you believe in love?
And if they taste the same would you love again or abandon both?
I don't think I ever can, believe my friend has gone,
Keep saying it's alright,
I'm going to bring you back but I know I'm wrong.
There's nothing I can say, there's nothing left to do
It's just that lately I feel so damn lonely when I think of you
And it may seem selfish now, but I'll hold on to the memory
Until all this fear is washed away
Do you believe in love?
Do you believe in life?
'Cos I believe a little part of you inside of me will never die..
'Cos I Believe a little part of you inside of me will never die..
'Cos I believe a little part of you inside of me will never die..
'Cos I believe a little part of you inside of me will never... die.
-Duran duran 1988-
07 Palomino (05:19)
She lays on the wall
watching the strangers drift away
mid-day's aura--thick
with the sun of Arabia
she surrenders her voices
they gather, on the wind
talking, chanting, breathing
into her body...yesterday
Awakened beside
the scent of burned sugar--on her skin
painting eyes--thick
with the color she brings in
always sure and strong
when the lightning tumbles down
don't you frown
everything will be
in time for this evening
if there's secrets
she has to be party to
every one of them
if there's heaven
she gets to the heart
and you'll know...
why she says
when I run out of blue
give me red instead
now I can run to you
why she says
when I run out of blue
give me red instead
now let me run... (let me run)
if there's secrets
she has to be party to
every one of them
if there's heaven
she gets to the heart
and you'll know...
why she says
when I run out of blue
give me red instead
then I will run to you
why she says
when I run out of blue
give me red instead
now let me run... (let me run)
Hey-hey....
why she says
when I run out of blue
give me red instead
now I can run to you
why she says
when I run out of blue
give me red instead
then I will run to you
09 Land (06:12)
Baby, I'm really sorry
To break your dream
When it's so early
Headlights
On the windowpane
They're getting lost
In the light of day
Tomorrow is today
And soon my ship will sail
Away from here
To walk a howling sealane
Stay for me
Your love is life
For love is land
Baby, just hear my story
Before I leave
Before we write the end
Standing, across the ocean stream
I'll need to know
I'll need your country then
Tomorrow and today
You keep my landfall safe
Away from here (away from here)
To walk a howling sealane (away from you)
Stay for me (stay for me)
I need your love to land
Away from here (away from here)
To walk a howling sealane (away from you)
Stay for me (stay for me)
Your love is life, for love is land
Away from here (away from here)
To walk a howling sealane (away from you)
Stay for me (stay for me)
I need your love to land
Away from here (away from here)
To walk a howling sealane (away from you)
Stay for me (stay for me)
Your love is life, for love is land
Love is land
Love is land
Love is land
11 The Edge of America (02:36)
Walk the edge of America
A concrete beach to scrape my hand
Inside the subway stinking fear and shame
Becomes the violent breath
Vigilantes out on dawn patrol
But now there's nothing left to hide
I'm just a number on the metal fence
Which marks the great divide
Hey boy
Give your dreams a rest
If you're tired of searching
This is where it ends
There's nothing left to lose
Nothing to protest
Learn to love your anger now
Anger here is all you possess
Welcome to the age
Below the towers of the citadel
Seems someone overlooked the cost
Forgotten soldier of paradise
Now paradise is lost
Recognition never realized
Salvation lost among the crowd
So tell me beside this sterile sea
Where is your nation now?
And we say
Hey boy
Give your dreams a rest
If you're tired of searching
This is where it ends
There's nothing left to lose
Nothing to protest
Learn to love your anger now
Anger here is all you possess
Welcome to the edge
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Other reviews
By Abraham
"Big Thing is much more than that... It's the bland yet heavy irony of the title track, the well-crafted sobriety of the leading single... the heartrending melancholy of 'Palomino', the pain of 'Do You Believe In Shame'."
"Creating masterpieces absentmindedly. Like the stroke of a champion."
