{"id":307,"date":"2011-05-26T07:00:24","date_gmt":"2011-05-26T15:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/morganrichter.net\/blog\/?p=307"},"modified":"2023-03-08T13:16:28","modified_gmt":"2023-03-08T21:16:28","slug":"duranalysis-my-own-way","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/morganrichter.net\/blog\/duranalysis-my-own-way\/","title":{"rendered":"Duranalysis: My Own Way"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Am I really going to drum up a thousand words or so on Duran Duran\u2019s \u201cMy Own Way\u201d video? I am, aren\u2019t I?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Egad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not that there\u2019s anything particularly wrong with \u201cMy Own Way,\u201d which was the first single released off of the 1982\u00a0Rio<\/em>\u00a0album. It\u2019s a fun, throwaway video for a fun, throwaway song. It\u2019s a little surprising to discover that Russell Mulcahy, the man behind the epic mayhem of \u201cWild Boys\u201d and the large-scale exotic spectacles of \u201cRio\u201d and \u201cHungry Like the Wolf,\u201d directed this agreeable trifle, which looks like it was shot in a couple hours in a high school auditorium on a shoestring budget (expenses: red and black paint, confetti, glitter, headbands\u2026). Like \u201cCareless Memories\u201d and \u201cNight Boat,\u201d the video for \u201cMy Own Way\u201d didn\u2019t make it onto Duran Duran\u2019s 2003\u00a0Greatest<\/em>\u00a0DVD collection. It\u2019s neither\u00a0a mild embarrassment like \u201cCareless Memories,<\/a>\u201d nor\u00a0an overlooked gem like \u201cNight Boat.<\/a>\u201d It simply exists, in an inoffensive and modestly entertaining kind of way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy Own Way\u201d is a straightforward performance video with a few extra frills thrown in for good measure. Frill #1: We open with a cape-twirling matador, who is played by Adrian Paul, the handsome star of Highlander: The Series<\/em>. Apart from helming a buttload of Duran Duran videos (that\u2019s a technical unit of measurement, I believe, buttload), Russell Mulcahy is still best known for directing the first couple of Highlander<\/em> films; I don\u2019t know anything about Mulcahy\u2019s level of involvement in the subsequent television series or whether Paul\u2019s presence here had any bearing on his future casting, but at the very least, it\u2019s a fun coincidence.<\/p>\n\n\n

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

Wow. Check out the amount of makeup on John! He\u2019s tarted up like the Whore of Babylon, and I highly<\/em> approve. While I have no proof, I somehow suspect this was Nick\u2019s doing. Not long after this, when Rio<\/em> broke through in a big way and the band became a worldwide phenomenon, most of the Durans, John included, backed off a bit from the whole pretty-boys-in-heavy-makeup image. Nick, of course, cheerfully started wearing even more<\/em> makeup, just to compensate for his slacker bandmates. This is why Nick is now and ever shall be my favorite Duran.<\/p>\n\n\n

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

John looks smoking-hot here. Kind of aloof and snooty, but smoking-hot nonetheless.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a parakeet running amuck (is that a parakeet? It is, right? I don\u2019t know my exotic birds). The parakeet settles on Roger\u2019s drum kit. Roger, aware that small living creatures and wildly pounding drumsticks make poor bedfellows, regards it with due caution.<\/p>\n\n\n

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

You don\u2019t have to look far for reasons why Duran Duran captured the public\u2019s attention so fiercely in the early 1980s: They were talented, they were beautiful, they were charismatic, they wrote catchy songs, they made dazzling videos\u2026 Not of least importance, they also had crisply-defined and very distinct public personas: You had Simon, the flirty daredevil; John, the sensitive dreamboat; Nick, the oddball diva; Andy, the feisty rebel; and Roger, the sensible wallflower. It made them more than just members of a famous pop band\u2014they were also characters in a glamorous and larger-than-life ongoing drama. So while Simon, John, Nick and Andy, all of whom seemed to have the common sense of coked-up chipmunks during this time, were probably all in favor of having parakeets flapping around the stage, it would fall to poor stalwart Roger to explain how none of them really needed feathers and bird crap all over their expensive instruments and equipment. And the others probably bobbed their pretty heads in feigned agreement while paying no attention whatsoever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The parakeet next decides to pester Our Nick. Nick is totally chill about this. Bird hanging out on his synthesizers? Not a problem. It\u2019s all good.<\/p>\n\n\n

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

Then the bird tries to peck off his synth-playing fingers.<\/p>\n\n\n

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

And Nick is charmed and delighted by this. Nick doesn\u2019t smile much in videos (for starters, smiling messes up his signature pout). A notable exception would be \u201cSave a Prayer<\/a>,\u201d when he\u2019s riding the elephant with John while having the time of his young life. Elephants, parakeets\u2026 Nick often seems relatively indifferent to most humans, his bandmates included, but he sparkles around animals.<\/p>\n\n\n

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

(Digression: This is only tangentially related to Nick\u2019s love of animals, but it\u2019s kind of cool, so bear with me. Nick\u2019s ex-wife, Julie Anne Rhodes, has a website, and it\u2019s\u00a0fabulous<\/em>. She\u2019s now a personal chef in Los Angeles; her blog is a glorious mishmash of recipes and anecdotes about her glamorous life with her magical-pixie ex-husband during the peak of Duran Duran\u2019s fame. For Duran fans or general 1980s pop-culture aficionados, it\u2019s a must-read. Anyway, in\u00a0her post about their legendarily extravagant nuptials, she mentions how Nick had to be talked out of having panthers at the reception (he eventually settled for pink flamingos instead). Words to live by: If you ever find yourself being talked out of having live panthers at your wedding, it\u2019s a sign your lifestyle might be careening wildly\u2014but fabulously!\u2014out of control.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Throughout the video, a cluster of pretty flamenco dancers strut and twirl around the stage. As if that\u2019s not flashy and colorful enough by itself, it turns out their skirts are filled with copious amounts of glitter. A glitter battle ensues.<\/p>\n\n\n

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

This video might be kind of cheap, but it sure does sparkle a lot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Er\u2026 Andy\u2019s hair isn\u2019t really blue, is it? That\u2019s just some weird trick of the stage lights, right? Sure, this was filmed back in the days when Andy was still being a good sport about letting the rest of the band (read: Nick) dictate what he wore and how he styled his hair, but I\u2019m pretty sure he would\u2019ve threatened to break some adorable pixie fingers if Nick had come charging after him, armed with rubber gloves and a box of Rit dye in Prussian Blue. It\u2019s hard to picture Andy reacting any other way.<\/p>\n\n\n

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

Then again, his hair does look mighty blue. Yessirree. No way around it. Blue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While John and the others flirt with the pretty dancers, Simon wriggles around on his belly, snarling and gnashing his teeth in a rabid manner. When Simon decides to chew some scenery, he does it in an astonishingly literal way.<\/p>\n\n\n

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

The pretty dancers flock around Roger and Nick, who are now clad in classic tuxes. The dancers plop in their laps and cheerfully molest the boys for a while. Roger seems mildly bemused by this.<\/p>\n\n\n

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

A freshly-kissed Nick looks delighted<\/em>. Aw, man, this is now officially the most Nick has ever smiled in a video. Set him loose with animals, or send in a pretty girl to smooch him. That\u2019s<\/em> how you make Nick happy.<\/p>\n\n\n

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

Confetti fight! Simon skips around the stage and hurls confetti. Everybody dances up a storm.<\/p>\n\n\n

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

And\u2026 yeah, that\u2019s it. That\u2019s the video. Confetti, glitter, pretty dancers, and a scene-stealing bird. It is what it is. It\u2019s\u00a0cute<\/em>. Not every video aims to be \u201cWild Boys,<\/a>\u201d and that\u2019s probably just as well.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Am I really going to drum up a thousand words or so on Duran Duran\u2019s \u201cMy Own Way\u201d video? I am, aren\u2019t I? Egad. Not that there\u2019s anything […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":320,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-307","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\/307","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=307"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/morganrichter.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1617,"href":"http:\/\/morganrichter.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307\/revisions\/1617"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/morganrichter.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/320"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/morganrichter.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=307"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/morganrichter.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=307"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/morganrichter.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=307"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}