As I sat down to write this blog post, Duran Duran posted on Twitter a link to a Spotify playlist of David Bowie tracks. This, of course, is part of the continued David Bowie Celebration that features not only a live stream of a tremendous number of artists playing as well as some new music from Duran Duran in the form of a cover of “Five Years”. Words cannot convey the excitement I felt myself and saw echoed in the Duran fan community as the new cover was released yesterday. Many are super excited to tune in tonight to the live stream. Needless to say, Duranies have been starving for anything Duran. It is like we have all been walking across a very long desert with the blazing hot sun beating down on all of us when we finally find an oasis. The sense of relief is overwhelming. The joy is palpable. Yet, there is another reason that all of this activity makes me smile.
The cover, the social media posts, the event, etc. all reminds me that the band members are fans, too. There have been countless interviews over the years in which the band talks about their influences and I’m willing to bet that most, if not all, of them features some mention of David Bowie. It is clear that David Bowie mattered a lot to them. After all, I cannot imagine Duran being as involved with a celebration like this with very many other artists, if at all. Heck, they have probably covered David Bowie more than any other artist throughout their career. Being fans of Bowie led them to form Duran Duran and be the band that we know and love.
So as I sit here on my couch on a Saturday afternoon, I am thinking about how this band that I’m such a big fan of is made up of big fans of David Bowie. Maybe they can understand how I feel about them. Maybe they can understand why Rhonda and I started this blog and continue to keep it up for over ten years now. We all know what is like to be fans. We have that connection. In some ways, realizing that, feeling that line of unity feels just as good as getting a new song of theirs or seeing more activity in Duranland than I have seen in a while. It makes me feel a warmth inside that I desperately need not just this week (but very much including this week) but also the last year. May it be a reminder that we are all together in this thing we call fandom and it is pretty beautiful.
-A
