Duran Duran’s career is marked by various “eras” that go along with albums. They have often made these eras more defined themselves. For example, for the Red Carpet Massacre era, they played an electro set and had Jackson Pollack/military uniforms to perform in. The websites always take on new looks with each passing era. Many of the fans have noticed this happening and have taken to dividing up Duran’s history in the same fashion. How many times have fans discussed their favorite time in Duran’s history and heard something along the line of, “I really liked Astronaut and the reunion days” or “My favorite time was during Rio and those videos filmed in Sri Lanka.” We, as fans, really understand this cycle of separate eras and have learned that Duran’s typical fashion has been to write an album, make some videos of songs on that album, play a certain tour with a certain look and setlist until that new album and everything that goes along with it are played out. Then, there might be a little action in between the next album, but, generally, Duran and the fans experience downtime. Then, it starts all over again with a new album.
This process of having defined eras is similar to what I experience as a teacher. It seems to me that other jobs aren’t like that. Changes move through at various times and in various degrees. People come and go whenever. There is not the sense that the process stops and takes a break. I was watching a close colleague of mine say goodbye to people today as she begins her retirement and I thought to myself that she must have always known how the end of her career would be. She always knew that she would end on the last day of class on a day when everyone is leaving, to some extent. She was able to leave at the natural end of one year before the beginning of the next. There were no loose ends and no one needed to come in and finish some element of her job. I envy that. I, too, hope that I am able to leave in such a fashion, during a natural break. I guess I always figured that is how Duran would end as well.
When I was a kid and thought about how Duran might end (probably says a lot about me as a kid if I was thinking about something so…upsetting), I assumed that they would end in between one of their clearly defined eras. They would finish the whole cycle with an album from writing and releasing the album and touring for it. Then, they would just cease to continue this process. No new album would be made and it was be a subtle goodbye. There would be no dramatic exit and that the fans might not even notice it. This idea became more and more reinforced as the years went by and as Duran took longer and longer in between releases. I figured that they was preparing the fans for the bound-to-happen-sometime end. We would get so used to long times in between eras that we wouldn’t even notice when they weren’t working at all. Plus, as the years went on, it was more and more clear that Duran had staying power, which meant to me that they weren’t going to end in some dramatic argument like other bands. It would be more subtle than that. I also figured that members who tend to be a bit more controlling (*ahemNickahem*) would prefer to end when one project was completely done. I even figured that they might be so happy with how well something went down that they didn’t feel the need to do more or that they thought everything went so badly that it was time to end it. Thus, I always get a major sense of relief when a new album is actually coming out. To me, it translated to the band continuing.
Now, I’m not so sure that this is how the band will end. Simon’s voice struggles have made me realize that it might not be so clean, so subtle. It might not be a gradual fade from our collective consciousness. The end might be in the middle of a project. It might be dramatic and horribly painful. Instead of being a slow quiet death, it could be so quick that it leaves us all shaken to the core. Obviously, the end of anything human can end in a quiet, calm way or in a screaming, frantic way. I guess I wished that Duran would go quietly (and much, much, MUCH later) and while we were all sleeping rather than quickly with a lot of screaming and crying about how it wasn’t time yet. Both cause pain but one kind of pain is subtle and the other is sharp and deep.
As I face the next couple of months filled with uncertainty about both my future and also the band’s, I think it is best to try to prepare myself for whatever may come next. I will obviously wish for something bright, positive and wonderful on all fronts and will do whatever I can to reach that, but will also try to come to grips with the unknown, including how the end will be.
-A
