A View To A Kill by Duran Duran
The band had spent 5 years becoming huge stars and touring the world. Then they took a break and formed two different bands (see previous posts). Now it was the spring of 1985 and they were back to work on their first contribution to a movie soundtrack. As a life long James Bond fan and a Duran Duran fan, for me, this was the perfect marriage of a band at a very hot point in their career and a movie franchise that was looking to really embrace the decadent, 1980's, flashy, music video world.
The movie is about a KGB trained agent (gone rouge) who is planning to flood the Silicone Valley so he can control the microchip industry. Yes, its VERY 1980's and yes, it's as bad as it sounds. But every James Bond film is about sitting in a dark theater and escaping into Bond's world for a few hours so we'll only hold our nose at this stinker when the movie is over.
The band was picked to do the song after bassist John Taylor approached the producer at a party and drunkenly asked him when they were going to get a good band to do the theme song. The producer (and several, really great, previous musicians) should have been really offended by that comment but the song that Duran Duran created is still the only James Bond theme to reach #1 on the US charts (it reached #2 in the UK).
The music video is classic Duran Duran. The band is milling about on the Eiffel Tower in Paris as James Bond is attacked by one of the henchwomen from the film. But as we can see, the band members are also there as spies and its hard to keep track of which side they're on. It's all a bit cheeky (as the British would say) but I'll be honest, if I had the chance, I'd play a spy in a Bond film, so they're forgiven for being silly.
Please Enjoy.
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