{"id":232,"date":"2011-04-24T14:06:31","date_gmt":"2011-04-24T22:06:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/morganrichter.net\/blog\/?p=232"},"modified":"2023-03-09T06:54:31","modified_gmt":"2023-03-09T14:54:31","slug":"duranalysis-careless-memories","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/morganrichter.net\/blog\/duranalysis-careless-memories\/","title":{"rendered":"Duranalysis: Careless Memories"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u201cCareless Memories\u201d was one of three singles released off of Duran Duran\u2019s 1981 debut album. While the other two, \u201cPlanet Earth\u201d and \u201cGirls on Film,\u201d were big hits for the boys, this one sputtered and went nowhere. This is a shame, as it\u2019s one of their best, darkest, angriest songs. Of course, the other songs were helped up the charts by their sexy, iconic videos: \u201cPlanet Earth<\/a>\u201d has lots of stylish New Romantic weirdness, and \u201cGirls on Film<\/a>\u201d has lots of bare breasts. \u201cCareless Memories,\u201d on the other hand, just has Simon hurling tulips around a white room. No wonder it couldn\u2019t compete.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nick has referred to \u201cCareless Memories,\u201d which was directed by Perry Haines and Terry Jones, as \u201cthe worst video we\u2019ve ever made.\u201d I don\u2019t know about that, Nick, have you watched \u201cA View to a Kill<\/a>\u201d recently? Nick\u2019s claims to the contrary, \u201cCareless Memories\u201d isn\u2019t wretched. Quality-wise, it\u2019s indistinguishable from a lot of the videos that came out during this time, which makes it disappointing only by the lofty standard the boys would soon set for themselves.

We open with a scene of the boys driving around. Simon sits in the front seat, while John and Roger and Andy are wedged together in the back. There\u2019s nary a glimpse of Nick, and the universe is just a little less dazzling and glamorous in his absence. Roger and Andy whisper and snicker to themselves. They\u2019re probably gloating about how they\u2019re the only Durans in this video who didn\u2019t get stuck wearing flouncy white peasant blouses.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Careless<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Next to them in the back seat, John looks mighty pleased about something. John, we\u2019ll find out later, has reason to look pleased.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Careless<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Wow, they all look like adorable little puppies here. They\u2019re so young<\/em>!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a stark white apartment, we see a fleeting glimpse of a lovely dark-haired woman\u2014Simon\u2019s girlfriend, it seems\u2014walking out the door. Simon is feeling very dramatic<\/em> about this turn of events.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Careless<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Actually, you know what he\u2019s doing here? You know the line in the song that goes \u201c\u2026but it always takes so damned long before I feel how much my eyes have darkened\u201d<\/em>? He\u2019s feeling how much his eyes have darkened. No, really. That\u2019s what he\u2019s doing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Keep watching. It gets worse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s not much plot to this video, so it\u2019s padded out with lots of performance footage. Dig the way Simon dramatically poses with finger guns when he sings the \u201cFear hangs a plane of gun smoke\u2026\u201d<\/em> line.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Careless<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Back to Simon\u2019s apartment. Roger and Nick sit at a table and look over a sheet of photographic negatives. Nick! At long last, Nick! Oh, man\u2014they all look really, really young in this video, but Nick, the baby of the group, is practically embryonic. Aside from the performance footage, Nick spends most of his scenes either partially or entirely hidden behind Roger. This marks the first and only time in Duran Duran\u2019s thirty-year history that Nick will be stuck in Roger\u2019s shadow.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Careless<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The plot, such as it is, thickens: On a city street, Simon\u2019s girlfriend secretly canoodles with a leggy bassist. Heh. John, you dog. No wonder he was looking smug in the opening scene.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Careless<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Simon sits on the couch in his apartment and angrily shreds a letter written on pink stationary into tiny pieces. While he emotes in anguish in the foreground, the rest of the band sit at a table behind him, having themselves a fine old time while ignoring Simon\u2019s latest personal drama. Andy talks on the phone, John looks smug, and Nick and Roger still<\/em> pore over those all-important film negatives. Simon flings the shredded pieces of the letter onto the coffee table, just as he sings the lyric, \u201cOn the table, signs of love lie scattered\u2026\u201d<\/em> This is the most painfully literal video ever<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a fit of pique, he yanks a bunch of pink tulips out of a vase and hurls them around the room.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Careless<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

It\u2019s a fair guess the pink letter is from his girlfriend, who\u2019s obviously breaking up with him. It\u2019s also a fair guess that she left out the part about how she\u2019s been seeking comfort in the arms of a leggy bassist, or Simon would be hurling those tulips at John. Actually, that might have perked this video right up. Some vigorous Duran-versus-Duran fisticuffs could\u2019ve sent this video hurtling into the realm of the awesome, especially if it had then degenerated into a hair-pulling, chair-throwing, vase-smashing, multi-Duran brawl.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But no. \u2018Twas not to be. Simon throws tulips around. The rest of the boys continue to pay him no mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yeah, it\u2019s kind of a dorky video, huh? At least Simon appears to be having a good time. If he\u2019s embarrassed by any of this nonsense\u2014the tulip-hurling, the finger guns, the super-dramatic emoting\u2014he sure doesn\u2019t let it show. Just to make this all about me for a moment: Whilst sorting through my worldly goods in preparation for a cross-country move, I came across a box of dusty, decaying VHS tapes of my old appearances on Talk Soup<\/em> from when I worked on the show in the late nineties, back when staff members got routinely dragged in front of the camera because the E! network was too cheap to hire real actors. While this could be exciting and glamorous, it all too often turned into a grim exercise in ritual humiliation. I recall one episode in which I was forced to stick my foot into a frozen turkey (it was our Thanksgiving special, natch). It wasn\u2019t an especially hilarious sketch to begin with, and no, I did not soar above the material.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

This is because I am not Simon Le Bon. You could stick a pair of frozen turkeys on Simon\u2019s feet, and he\u2019d sell the crap out of them without a trace of embarrassment or self-doubt. Born performer, that Simon.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Careless<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Ah, there, see, he\u2019s whipped out his special \u201cFear hangs a plane of gun smoke\u201d<\/em> finger guns again. Never change, Simon.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Careless<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

My fierce admiration and respect for Nick is not going to stop me from mocking his outfit here. Within a few short years\u2014months, really\u2014Nick would evolve into a sleek, stylish fashion icon with the magical ability to wear any awful garment (his nubbly pink princess-sleeved sweater in the \u201cReflex\u201d video springs to mind) and look like the most glamorous pixie in the room. At this early stage, however, the kid\u2019s not quite there yet. Notice how in the performance footage Nick and John are dressed almost like twins (frilly white blouses paired with billowy white pants tucked into ankle boots), but while tall, willowy John looks catwalk-ready, tiny, fragile Nick looks like he just stepped out of the pages of Elfquest<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Careless<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Some may disagree, but to my way of thinking, it is never a good thing to be compared to an Elfquest<\/em> character.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Back at the apartment, the guys are still sitting around the table. Andy still yammers on the phone; John still looks smug. Everybody\u2019s still ignoring Simon\u2019s mad burst of tulip-hurling. And Roger is still<\/em> blocking poor Nick. Nobody puts Nick in a corner.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Careless<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Bereft from being dumped, Simon flings open the door of his apartment and walks out into the sun while singing, \u201cI walk out into the sun, I try to find a new day\u2026\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Careless<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\u2026which is immediately followed by, \u201cBut the whole place, it just screams in my eyes.\u201d<\/em> See? His eyes, they\u2019re screaming.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Careless<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Yeah, it\u2019s probably for the best that Duran Duran quickly dropped this business of having their videos serve as line-by-line reenactments of their lyrics. \u201cWild Boys<\/a>,\u201c for example, would have been very, very different. I\u2019m just picturing Simon pantomiming his way through, \u201cYour telephone\u2019s been ringing while you\u2019re dancing in the rain\u2026\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the backseat of the car, Simon\u2019s girlfriend tries to nuzzle with him. He\u2019s either asleep, or ignoring her, or is just being an ass. In any case, he blows her off.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Careless<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

So she shrugs and turns toward the other window seat, where John appears to be perfectly willing to join her in some nuzzling.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Careless<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Simon pops into his apartment one last time to drop to his knees in the doorway and shoot off more super-dramatic finger guns.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Careless<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

And\u2026 scene!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s the original version of the video. There\u2019s also a slightly<\/em> less dorky version in which some of the cheesier moments have been replaced with added footage of Simon walking down a flight of stairs. Wow, the boys just loved doing alternate versions, didn\u2019t they? I\u2019ve seen two versions of \u201cWild Boys,\u201d two versions of \u201cUnion of the Snake,\u201d three versions of \u201cGirls on Film\u201d\u2026 Counting various Easter eggs, Duran Duran\u2019s Greatest<\/em> DVD, which features a compilation of their best-known videos, contains a staggering five<\/em> different versions of \u201cNew Moon on Monday.\u201d (Curiously, there seems to be only one \u201cA View to a Kill,\u201d which is a video just screaming out for some judicious re-editing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But! Here\u2019s<\/a> a very<\/em> special \u201cCareless Memories\u201d bonus! It\u2019s the animated video the boys whipped together in 2004 to display onstage while performing the song in concert, in which cool anime (Duranime?) versions of the boys wage war against ninjas, UFOs, robots, Godzilla, and, er, the EMI building. The animation is a little on the cheap side, but still, it\u2019s plenty awesome.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Careless<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Oh, sure, the lyrics of \u201cCareless Memories\u201d aren\u2019t really about a ninja massacre, but all the same, doesn\u2019t this fit the song\u2019s angry, urgent mood better than some dreary fluff about how Simon\u2019s girlfriend maybe secretly prefers John? Viewer warning for copious amounts of animated blood (as in, blood, blood, blood, blood, blood<\/em>), but if you\u2019ve ever wanted to see Simon wielding a microphone stand like a samurai sword, or sweet-natured Roger slaughtering a ninja with a cymbal to the brain (and come on<\/em>, who hasn\u2019t wanted to see that?), this is going to be right up your alley.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cCareless Memories\u201d was one of three singles released off of Duran Duran\u2019s 1981 debut album. While the other two, \u201cPlanet Earth\u201d and \u201cGirls on Film,\u201d were big hits […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":241,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-232","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\/232","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=232"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/morganrichter.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1628,"href":"http:\/\/morganrichter.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232\/revisions\/1628"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/morganrichter.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/241"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/morganrichter.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/morganrichter.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/morganrichter.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}