I am continuing on in my series on Classic Pop magazine’s special edition for Duran’s 40th anniversary. As usual, I’m going to focus on the next two articles: Top 40 Tracks and Elder Statesmen. The first one focuses on Duran’s songs whereas the second one takes a look at the 2000s, moving closer to present day Duran. As much as I like reading about Duran history, I am excited about reading about more recent Duran, when I was more actively involved in the fan community.
Top 40 Greatest Duran Duran Tracks:
I am a sucker for lists like this article! I love reading any and all articles about Duran’s best albums, best videos, etc. I adore creating my own lists.
What is interesting about this list is that they first of all specified that they are studio tracks. They did not include any live versions, remixes, or covers. Then, the article states that this list “almost writes itself.” Fascinating. If that was not interesting itself, the author did not put them in order but instead chose to list them in chronological order. I have to wonder why he did not put them in order from worst of the list to the best. Too hard? Too time consuming? Too much risk that it would irritate readers? I don’t know the reason. While I won’t share the exact list here, I will give a rough description of how many tracks from different projects were chosen and then some that I might have been surprised by.
Duran Duran (1st album) – 5 tracks
Rio – 7 tracks
Seven and the Ragged Tiger – 6 or 7 tracks depending on how they might have been categorized
Notorious – 2 tracks
Big Thing – 3 tracks
Liberty – 2 tracks
The Wedding Album – 4 tracks
Medazzaland – 1 track
Pop Trash – 1 track
Astronaut – 1 track
Red Carpet Massacre – 0 (Although Skin Divers is listed as a “guilty pleasure.”)
All You Need Is Now – 4 tracks
Paper Gods – 3 tracks
In some ways, I’m not surprised by that list. I knew that Medazzaland might not have many tracks included but I am surprised that it got more than Red Carpet Massacre. Likewise, both All You Need Is Now and Paper Gods got more than Liberty and Notorious. This leads me to wonder. What 40 tracks would I list? Could I put them in order unlike the author of this article? Maybe it is time for some Daily Duranie homework. What do you all think? Should we each try to create a list of the top 40 Duran tracks? If so, let me know and I’ll create the “assignment”!! Personally, I think it would be fun and might give us something to do to pass Duran downtime.
Elder Statesmen:
This article summarizing the 2000s begins with the reunion. Much of the story I have read about before. Like many of the previous articles, however, there was a tidbit that I had not heard about before. In this case, the article claims the band tried to get the Berrow Brothers back as managers. If that is true, I have to wonder what would have been different. What do you all think? What do you think would have been different? Would it have been better? Worse?
Of course, the article went on to describe Astronaut and the departure of Andy Taylor. I wondered how that was going to be covered and I think the author did a nice job just relaying the facts that are known. Andy was not demonized and neither was the band. Likewise, the author remained neutral when it came to the now-shelved, Reportage, and the decision to start fresh, which eventually became Red Carpet Massacre. Obviously, there are lots of rumors surrounding that time period but the author stayed clear of them all.
The article concludes with a description of the poor performance, commercially, of Red Carpet Massacre as well as the beginnings of the connection with Mark Ronson, which we know results in All You Need Is Now. Besides the recent history lesson, the article has some extras, including a quote of Dom’s from a little blog we know and love. (coughourscough) It also summarizes the “key recordings” of each of the albums from the 2000s and the influence the band had on other modern day artists. Personally, I love those little additions! They add so much!
Next week, I’ll cover Five Decades of Duran Duran and Boys on Film. I’m looking forward to it!
-A