I’ll Cross That Bridge When I Find It

As you all probably know, we ask a “daily” question on Facebook and Twitter.  For a long time, those questions have been brackets of sorts with the goals being that people pick the favorite or preferred one over the other.  The one that gets less votes is eliminated and the winner goes against another choice until all but one has been eliminated.  We have done this for favorite song per album, favorite overall Duran song, favorite video, etc.  As part of this, we have been asking about side and solo projects lately, most specifically John Taylor.  A couple of things have been made clear to us by observing the responses.  First, there are a lot of people who truly are not familiar with the majority of John’s solo work, which makes me a little sad as I think his solo work has a lot to offer.  Second, people then vote when and on the songs that they have heard. This was very obvious this past week when once again the song, I Do What I Do, came up in the daily question.  This daily question got a lot of votes in comparison to other questions about John’s songs.  Then, I Do What I Do won as it has every time it has been included.  Why is that?  Is this really one of John’s best songs?  I would vote no and I suspect that if John was asked, he would agree with me.  It definitely stands out as being VERY different than the rest of his solo catalog.  It doesn’t showcase his vocals, musical ability or lyrics.  Off the top of my head, every single person I know who is familiar with the majority or all of John’s solo catalog agrees with this.  I don’t blame people for voting what they know.  I love that they want to participate.  We want them to participate.  However, one thing that we hope would happen is that people would want to explore John’s work by these questions.  In some cases that has happened.  In other cases, we have had people contact us to express frustration at finding his stuff as it is not on iTunes, which everyone, I think, would agree be good.  Thus, this blog post has a two-fold purpose.  First, as we move very close to picking the favorite John Taylor song, I thought it would be good to try and post some videos so people could vote with some knowledge behind that vote.  Second, I thought I might also share some places to look for his stuff.

The John Taylor songs that are still in the running are:  The Panhandler, Fields of Eden, Hey Day, Immortal, Just Good Friends, This is the Moment, I Do What I Do and Anon.  Here are the songs that I could find on youtube:

The Panhandler–Here is the link.  For some reason, I could put up the video here.

Fields of Eden:

Hey Day:

Immortal–Another one that won’t let me post the video.

I couldn’t find a video for Just Good Friends.  🙁

This is the Moment:

Anon:

Now, everyone can vote with a solid understanding of the songs behind the vote.  This makes my John fan heart happy.  🙂

Of course, the other purpose of the blog is to explain a few places to look for John’s albums, which include the following titles:


Where can you find these?  Unfortunately, Trust the Process, John’s old website, no longer exists. There is no store to buy the albums directly.  I wish there was for the people who are interested in catching up.  Yet, I encourage people to take the time to hunt them down.  Some places I have found his work includes eBay (USA), Amazon (USA) and Duran Duran Collector’s Store.  Now, I already hear some of you responding to this list, which I’m sure is in no way a complete one.  Some of you are pointing out to me that his work is really expensive on these sites.  In some cases, that’s true.  For example, eBay right now has his Meltdown album for $48, but I also see Feelings Are Good for $10.  Amazon has Techno for Two.  If you want a new copy, you could pay $61, but used is available for $25.  I remember trying to find Autodidact.  It was the last album to complete my collection.  I would see it on eBay every once in awhile but I really didn’t want to spend over $60 for it.  Thus, I kept waiting and watching.  Eventually, I saw it on Amazon for $15.  I can’t say that it will be cheap and I can’t say that completing one’s collection will be fast but it can be done and it will be SO worth it.  Another place that often has some of his stuff is Duran Duran Collector’s Store, which you can find here.  When I did a quick search over there, I saw albums like Techno for Two, Meltdown and more.  Again, they might not be cheap but they can be found.  
On that note, I hope that everyone does some online purchasing and listens to the songs posted above in order to make those educated votes.  I would love to increase everyone’s appreciation for John Taylor’s solo career.
-A

Related posts:

  1. John Taylor: Solo Artist
  2. No Regrets!!
  3. Musical Peer Pressure?

By Daily Duranie

Once upon a time, there were two Duran Duran fans. One named Amanda, the other named Rhonda. Over many vodka tonics, they would laugh about the idea of one day writing a book about their fan experiences. While that manuscript is still being composed...Rhonda thought they should write a blog. (What was she THINKING?!) Lo and behold: The Daily Duranie was born.

6 comments

  1. i am gonna be sooooo pissed if “i do what i do” wins. it's okay, but not his best by a long shot. it's not even the best from that era. the stuff off resumé is amazing, but of course it's all been voted off. ugh.

    if i had to pick my favourite off that list right now, i'd probably go with “fields of eden”. it's on the chopping block today. vote, people! 😉

  2. Thanks for all the info. I have all John's solo stuff and love most of it. Very, very different to Duran. I think that's why some people struggle with John's solo work – it is not an extension of Duran (like Arcadia are). I love how autobiographical John's music is – he is a great songwriter and lyricist. Some of the lyrics are very quirky or observational. He can also be a bit naughty too (Tight?).

    You are correct – I Do What I Do is in no way a reflection of his typical solo style.
    Good stuff.

  4. I, too, LOVE how autobiographical John's music is. I'm totally fine with people not being into John's work because it is so different from Duran. I struggle more with those who simply won't take the effort to find it.

    -A

  5. There are people who have exposure or no exposure to John's work. I agree, if you don't have any exposure to his work the voting process is less effective. However, there are people who do. What I see here everyone has different musical tastes & influences. John's solo work is the same. It's not mainstream. What you hear: rock, pop, rhythm & blues, etc. Within those musical influences we found ourselves (REFLECTION) within those genres. I may be mistaken, if I'm wrong, please correct me until I find the actual interview John gave years ago. Mr. Taylor was moved & touched by the script 9 1/2 Weeks & happily agreed to do the theme song. Mr. Taylor stated this past year that Cest Tout Cest Noir was a follow-up to I Do What I Do. I believe DD, Arcadia & John Taylor created all kinds of music designed for all to enjoy. I'm a music lover: I love melodies, harmonies, raspy voices, altos, falsettos, etc. Both Anon and I Do What I Do has a different sound wave & musical taste to each person. This voting is suppose to be fun in spirit. If you ask Mr. Taylor, I'm certain he'll tell you that he wrote these songs as a reflection of what he was going through doing his solo career. Both DD & John according to Nick has suffered through the years because of this. Who am I to judge his/(their) work called: ART. That's their life and their passion.

  6. The reality though is that there are not a lot of people who do have that exposure. It's one thing if they're voting based on their personal tastes – but you have no idea how many people have told us that they don't know any of John's music so they'll just vote for I Do What I Do. It's truly annoying after a certain point, whether or not you care to agree. There is a lot that goes on behind the scenes here for Daily Duranie that we simply don't share on a daily basis…but even so, sometimes it's enough to coax a blog out of us. That is what prompted Amanda's well-written post.

    As far as the spirit of the voting, my opinion is simply that the entire process is far more fun when everyone knows the songs – or is willing to do the “hard work” to hear the music before voting rather than the knee-jerk “I know that song so it's the best”. Come on now.

    I won't argue about the reasons why John wrote songs – that was never up for debate, to the best of my knowledge, and I don't blame John at all for saying that he has fondness for what he has written. That wasn't really the point either. All Amanda was saying is that he has a very full catalog well-beyond I Do What I Do, and that to really understand him and see his full catharsis, it is well-worth the time and energy spent to consume his work as a whole. That wasn't necessarily mentioned as a slam to any particular song as much as it was to encourage listeners to go deeper into his solo work.

    -R

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