*\u201dViolence of Summer\u201d\u2014bright, simple, bouncy\u2014is a catchy yet ultimately underwhelming Duran Duran song; \u201cSerious\u201d\u2014droning, tuneless, meandering\u2014is a\u00a0ridiculously terrible\u00a0<\/em>Duran Duran song. Simon\u2019s willingness to go to the mat for \u201cSerious\u201d reminds me of the time John referred to the affably mediocre \u201cSkin Trade\u201d as \u201can infinitely better song than \u2018Wild Boys<\/a>\u2019\u201d, which is the sort of remark that makes me second-guess my grasp on the whole Duran Duran phenomenon and, indeed, on everything I hold dear in this world. No universe exists where \u201cSkin Trade\u201d is better than \u201cWild Boys.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cViolence of Summer\u201d does have one vocal and high-profile champion: As recounted in S\u00e9bastien Bataille\u2019s 2012 biography,\u00a0Duran Duran: Les Pop Modernes<\/em><\/a>,<\/em>\u00a0Phil Collins, never a fan of the band\u2019s sound, once proclaimed it his favorite Duran tune and compared it to Fine Young Cannibals\u2019 \u201cGood Thing\u201d. Yep, that works. That\u2019s a totally astute comparison, Phil. If you find the thumping, rollicking, piano-heavy sound of \u201cGood Thing\u201d aurally pleasing, there\u2019s a good chance you\u2019re going to grok \u201cViolence of Summer\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The video opens with Simon, relaxed and casual in a striped jersey, swaggering up to the microphone.\u00a0In a recent interview posted on Duran Duran\u2019s official website<\/a>, Simon waxed philosophic about \u201cViolence of Summer\u201d: \u201dThere was something a bit rude about the song that I quite liked.\u201d \u201cA bit rude\u201d is the vibe he\u2019s working here. He looks great: lean, slinky, sexy as all hell. No idea how he managed to sneak that I-just-pulled-this-off-my-bedroom-floor-and-headed-to-the-set outfit past Nick, though. Even now, decades later, it\u2019s probably still giving Duran\u2019s resident control-freaky fashionista the vapors.<\/p>\n\n\n Per Wikipedia, the performance footage was filmed on \u201ca set constructed to look like a bumper-car rig.\u201d Ah\u2026 sure. Okay. I suppose it does, in a nonspecific way. If Wikipedia had stated that the set was built to look like a bowling alley, or an arcade, or a roller rink, or an especially glossy auto body shop, I\u2019d feel a similar level of noncommittal agreeability. It could be any or all of those things! Or none of those things! Since the plot of the video has nothing to do with bumper cars, or carnivals, or any other setting or situation where one might be likely to see or think about bumper cars, it doesn\u2019t make a lick of difference.<\/p>\n\n\n And yes, this video does have a plot, of sorts. Meet our heroines, who, according to the roll call at the video\u2019s conclusion, are named Dolores, Blanche, Lola, Ultra-Brite, Crisis, Candy, Bick, and China. No, I can\u2019t tell them apart; you probably can\u2019t, either. In fairness, it seems unlikely we\u2019re supposed <\/em>to be able to tell them apart. In their matching wigs, they\u2019re designed to be interchangeably beautiful, the spiritual sisters to the near-identical blank slates who populated Robert Palmer\u2019s iconic videos a handful of years prior to this. China, the woman smack in the center, is the only one relevant to the video\u2019s storyline, which roughly follows the lyrics of the song; when Simon wails, \u201cChina\u2019s hangin\u2019 out by the railings of the motorshed<\/em>\u201d, she\u2019s the one he\u2019s wailing about.<\/p>\n\n\n In my research into this video, I could only identify one of the seven models starring in it: Tess Daly, host of the BBC show Strictly Come Dancing<\/em>. She\u2019s the blonde on the end in the shot below, I say with confidence but only a fair chance of accuracy, because again, I can\u2019t tell them apart. <\/em>In her memoir, The Baby Diaries,<\/em> Daly gives an account of being a die-hard Duranie who grew up with posters of Simon plastered on the walls of her bedroom. Of being cast in this video (as well as the subsequent video for \u201cSerious\u201d), she writes, \u201cIt was as if all those years of loyally displaying my posters had paid off.\u201d I respect this sentiment.<\/p>\n\n\n What do these women do in the video? A lot of stuff<\/em>, mostly. They run around in bra tops and skintight leather pants and bobbed wigs while engaging in mildly naughty shenanigans, like dancing on the tops of vintage cars and riding mechanical bulls and sexing up 1950s-era greasers. Per Simon, the storyline is a literal interpretation of the song lyrics, which are all about a woman named China who takes up with another guy while her boyfriend is otherwise occupied. The video culminates with her boyfriend and his greaser buddies beating the crap out of the dude she slept with, while China seems monumentally unfazed by all of this.<\/p>\n\n\n In an interview about\u00a0Liberty<\/em><\/a>, Nick describes the look of this video as \u201ca kind of tacky sixties dance-hall thing, in a way\u201d. It\u2019s not his most articulate statement ever, but I get what he\u2019s saying. There\u2019s a germ of a good idea in there, but nobody pushed it far enough; if they\u2019d taken that theme into a seedier and more sensationalistic realm\u2014if the video had been less\u00a0Grease<\/em>\u00a0and more\u00a0High School Hellcats<\/em>, in other words\u2014they could\u2019ve ended up with something pretty memorable. As it stands, if you\u2019re super into the aesthetic sensibility of\u00a01990s GUESS ads<\/a>\u00a0(i.e. retro rural Americana as portrayed by buxom blonde pinups in bra tops and cutoffs), the visuals in this video might strike all the right chords with you.<\/p>\n\n\n Check out that Duran Duran lineup, brand spanking new for 1990: We\u2019ve got Simon, we\u2019ve got John looking elegant and lovely even with his new \u201cAngela Merkel resigns as Chancellor of Germany to form a garage band\u201d haircut, we\u2019ve got Warren Cuccurullo on guitar, we\u2019ve got a rare sighting of Sterling Campbell on drums, and somewhere beyond the right edge of the frame, there\u2019s a beautiful and magical pixie fretting over the keyboards.<\/p>\n\n\n Hi, Nick! You\u2019re looking demurely Warholian there. Nick spent the eighties trotting out a wildly different hair color and\/or style for every video. Then 1990 rolled around, and, with the exception of 1994\u2019s brief and dazzling foray into the world of brilliant purple spikes, he decided, no, I\u2019m done, I\u2019m going to stick with this color and length for the next quarter century or so<\/em>. I can\u2019t say that Nick\u2019s decision to keep that same hairdo for so long disappoints me exactly, because the whole mundane human concept of disappointment doesn\u2019t apply to Duran Duran (\u201dAfter that horde of beautiful and weird Roman deities invaded my village and threw a wild Bacchanalia, it was really disappointing when they forgot to take out the trash\u201d\u2014see, it doesn\u2019t work, does it?), but I wouldn\u2019t object if he decided to mix it up at some point.<\/p>\n\n\n This video seems to have less of Nick\u2019s imprint on it than usual. Oh, I\u2019m sure at some fundamental level this was all his idea, because let\u2019s face it, they\u2019re\u00a0all\u00a0<\/em>Nick\u2019s idea, because Duran Duran is not a democracy, it\u2019s a benevolent dictatorship run by a tiny, elegant naiad with a razor-sharp brain and a thirst for glamour. And certainly the aesthetics of it are in keeping with the way Nick rolls (here\u2019s Nick on the look of this video<\/a>: \u201cI love the way that the girls look in it, the styling of them\u2026 Who wouldn\u2019t want to see girls wearing wigs and false eyelashes and those fabulous clothes?\u201d). Still, though, if you listen to Nick talk about this video, he seems kinda underwhelmed, like he\u2019s trying to put a good spin on something he has a few reservations about. Or maybe I just want to assume that\u2019s the case, because this video is attractive but dull, and Nick, strange and magnificent creature that he is, is rarely dull.<\/p>\n\n\n Here\u2019s John on recording the Liberty <\/em>album, as recounted in Steve Malins\u2019 Duran Duran Notorious:<\/em> \u201cLiberty<\/em> was a bitch to make. It seemed the worst place you could be in the world was in Duran Duran\u2026 I smoked a lot of hash oil; that\u2019s all I can really remember about making that album.\u201d Odds are pretty good he doesn\u2019t remember much about making this video, either. At least he seems happy?<\/p>\n\n\n Everything considered, describing\u00a0Liberty\u00a0<\/em>as \u201ca bitch to make\u201d is still more positive than the way\u00a0John described<\/a>\u00a0the process of making the 2007\u00a0Red Carpet Massacre<\/em>\u00a0album (\u201ca fucking nightmare\u201d). Conclusion: John tends not to be a big fan of the whole album-recording process.<\/p>\n\n\n After touring with Duran Duran and working as a session guitarist for both Notorious <\/em>and Big Thing<\/em>, Warren was finally hired as a permanent band member for Liberty<\/em> (just imagine the want ad in the back pages of Music Week<\/em>: long hours, good pay, ability to deal with strong personalities a must, shirt optional). <\/em>From the Wikipedia entry on this video: \u201cNewly muscular guitarist Warren Cuccurullo is almost unrecognizable to fans who were accustomed to his formerly waif-like appearance.\u201d You look good, Warren. Nice pecs. Stop editing your Wikipedia mentions to point out how incredibly buff you are.<\/p>\n\n\n Ah, the elusive Sterling Campbell. Meet Sterling, the talented drummer who, for a handful of months there, was a full-fledged member of Duran Duran. A born-and-bred New Yorker, Sterling moved in with John Taylor while recording\u00a0Liberty\u00a0<\/em>in a London studio. As John explains it in\u00a0his memoir, \u201cThe last thing I needed to be doing was giving over my home life to a kid from New York who was just getting going \u2026 But dude here, he wants to party! He wants to sit up all night playing the rough mixes, analyzing the snare sounds! And he wants to run the band too. He is telling me exactly what Simon should be doing, what Nick should be doing. \u2026 I quickly realized I had made a catastrophic mistake.\u201d There\u2019s a heartbreaking-in-retrospect moment in\u00a0the electronic <\/a>press<\/a> kit<\/a>\u00a0about the making of\u00a0Liberty<\/em>\u00a0in which Sterling, who seems pretty psyched about being a newly-minted Duran, gabs on about how he \u201creally hit it off\u201d with John from the start. (Also in the electronic press kit: \u201cEverybody\u2019s really down to earth!\u201d lies Warren.) After\u00a0Liberty<\/em>\u00a0fizzled on the charts, Sterling quietly left the band, resurfacing shortly thereafter as Soul Asylum\u2019s drummer.<\/p>\n\n\n In researching this video, I found interview footage in which both\u00a0Simon\u00a0<\/a>and\u00a0Nick<\/a>, at the prodding of the interviewer, agree that \u201cViolence of Summer\u201d is similar to\u00a0their iconic video for \u201cHungry Like the Wolf\u201d. Simon: \u201cIt is like \u2018Hungry Like the Wolf\u2019. It\u2019s got the same kind of violent sound, but also kind of uplifting undertones to it.\u201d Nick: \u201cIt has elements within it that\u2026 you mentioned the \u2018Hungry Like the Wolf\u2019 thing, yeah, I think it\u2019s kind of playful.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n Okay, Nick and Simon, let\u2019s put this one to bed, shall we? \u201cViolence of Summer\u201d is not a damn thing like \u201cHungry Like the Wolf\u201d. I know it, you know it, and I know you\u2019re both just being friendly and agreeable for the sake of a smooth interview, but\u2026 no. For starters, \u201cHungry Like the Wolf\u201d featured the band members as key characters in the video\u2019s storyline, instead of relegating them to appearing in scraps of performance footage. Here\u2019s a simple and straightforward change that would\u2019ve instantly elevated \u201cViolence of Summer\u201d: cast the band members as the greasers. Dress them in leather and have them hang out in bars, arm wrestling and brawling and ogling scantily-clad women. Stick Warren and Sterling on motorcycles. Have Simon and John resort to fisticuffs over China\u2019s honor. I don\u2019t imagine there\u2019s any set of circumstances under which Nick Rhodes could or would portray a leather-clad greaser, so have him float around in an impeccable suit, chatting up the ladies while looking like a million bucks. We\u2019ll hash out the details later; the key thing is to get the Durans in there<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n Boom. One small change, and you\u2019ve got yourself a vastly improved video.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Gear up, Simon. Let\u2019s do this. \u201cViolence of Summer (Love\u2019s Taking Over)\u201d was the first single released off of Duran Duran\u2019s 1990\u00a0Liberty\u00a0album. The video, which was shot in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1077,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1076","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-duran-duran"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/morganrichter.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1076","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/morganrichter.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/morganrichter.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/morganrichter.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/morganrichter.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1076"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/morganrichter.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1076\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1527,"href":"http:\/\/morganrichter.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1076\/revisions\/1527"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/morganrichter.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1077"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/morganrichter.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1076"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/morganrichter.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1076"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/morganrichter.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1076"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Duran](\"http:\/\/morganrichter.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Duran-Duran-Violence-of-Summer-Simon-Le-Bon.jpg\")
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