So in 1985, members of Duran Duran had taken a break from touring and recording and managed to create two separate bands, The Power Station (covered in a previous blog) and this band, Arcadia. While The Power Station was a more rock influenced endeavor, Arcadia was much more of an Art Rock project. Moody and arty, glamorous and hypnotic. This was 180 degrees from the hard hitting sound of The Power Station. Arcadia's musical style was much more in line with the sound often
associated with Duran Duran, so much so that the album is often referred
to as the best Duran Duran album they never made. The band consisted of Duran Duran lead singer, Simon Le Bon, keyboardist, Nick Rhodes and drummer Roger Taylor.
This was the first single from the bands only album, So Red The Rose. It reached #6 on the US charts and featured a spoken word passage from model/actress/singer Grace Jones (she played a character in the movie Duran Duran wrote a theme song for.....more on that in the next blog).
The video was inspired by imagery from a 1946 french film, La Belle et la Bete (English translation: Beauty and the Beast.....impress your friends and small children with that knowledge). Its filled with beautiful people and lavish lifestyles and people dressed as animals....ok, well, there's that....it is inspired by a french film, so what do you expect?
Released in April of 1985, this second single from a super group consisting of two members of Duran Duran, one member of 70's funk band Chic and singer Robert Palmer reached #9 on the US charts and was the bands biggest hit.
During the winter of 1984 Duran Duran were on a scheduled break after completing their Seven And The Ragged Tiger album and tour, the break ended up seeing the creation of two bands, Arcadia (I'll cover them next) and The Power Station. Originally created on a whim, The Power Station (named after the studio the album was recorded in) was supposed to just be a backing band to different singers on each song on the album. Singers mentioned during that phase of the project included Mick Jagger, Billy Idol and Richard Butler from the Psychedelic Furs. Robert Palmer was brought in to sing on one of the songs and when he learned that the band had recorded Get It On from 1970's glam rock band T-Rex, he asked if he could have a go at singing the song. By the time they finished recording Robert's version of the song, the plan was changed to just keep the four current members and not bring in other singers.
The original song was recorded in 1971 and is very much the same basic song with The Power Station adding just a bit more crunch to their version. The original version made it to #10 on the US charts so it was always a hit.
The video is one of those memorable videos with lots of classic, iconic images. the dancing girl, Palmer shaking his paper to emphasize a "yeah", the drummer playing so hard his drums literally dance, a models hairdryer bursting into flames while the hyper-solo is playing. It's full of great images.
Released in April of 1984, this single off their debut album, Shout At The Devil, only made it to #90 on the US charts. Its not a bad song.....maybe the video is what killed its chances. Lets take a look at this masterpiece of bad acting.
A young girl is poor and alone on the streets of some Asian town. She is begging and is not receiving any help from the locals. Except for a mysterious man. The little boy that watches him knows something isn't right about this situation. He runs to tell the band what he's seen. They're just standing around singing and posing.....like you do. Mean while, the girl is getting some food but now its time for her to go as the mysterious man pushes her away. She's taken to what is, obviously, a brothel and the man that owns it comes out to welcome her. She goes in reluctantly.
Looks like the band stopped off to play a bit of the song they've been singing (rescue missions always require a performance break). Now we see the girl being cleaned up and the band is finally back on the job. They walk through the kitchen where the girl was eating and one of the band members stops to look at the food she was eating....is it a clue? Nope, just keep moving.
The band enters the brothel and is ready to confront the owner but his ninjas and sword wielding henchmen are ready to attack. The fight that occurs actually made me laugh out loud, its so comical and staged. One punch and down goes a bad guy. A kick and there goes another. Don't even think of swinging those nunchucks at me...and POW! Its like a fight worse than the old Batman tv series. With obvious misses and fake sound effects.
But lets not get distracted by the badness, there's a young girl to rescue. The brothel owner doesn't look scared. He turns his face toward the band showing them the two black lines on his cheek. But what's this? The young girl they've come to rescue is there as well and she's all clean and dressed up nicely. And on her cheek? Two black lines just like the brothel owner. Well, how's that for gratitude?
Nothing left for the band to do but to walk away in disgust.....except for at the very end when the mysterious man tries to attack the last band member walking through the kitchen. He dispatches the mysterious man just as comically as the rest of the henchmen. But what's the punchline for this joke? He takes a bite of the food and it's awful, so he spits it out.......
....and scene!
Now, I'm making fun of this terrible video but it should be noted that I do like this song and Motley Crue but this is just bad. I'm sure even they are embarrassed by this.
Go watch it and try to not laugh.....who am I kidding? Laugh out loud. Its hilarious.
Edit*** I've had to replace the original version of this video with another version that is backwards! I'm guessing the band requested it be taken down....'cause its awful.***
