{"id":1128,"date":"2016-10-20T06:07:25","date_gmt":"2016-10-20T14:07:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/morganrichter.net\/blog\/?p=1128"},"modified":"2023-03-05T07:35:08","modified_gmt":"2023-03-05T15:35:08","slug":"duran-duran-too-much-information","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/morganrichter.net\/blog\/duran-duran-too-much-information\/","title":{"rendered":"Duranalysis: Too Much Information"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This band is perfect, just don\u2019t scratch the surface\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video for \u201cToo Much Information\u201d, the third single off of Duran Duran\u2019s 1993\u00a0Wedding Album<\/em>, was directed by Julien Temple, who also directed\u00a0the band\u2019s lovely and stylish video for \u201cCome Undone<\/a>\u201d. More importantly, though, he\u00a0helmed\u00a0the 1988 sci-fi musical comedy\u00a0Earth Girls Are Easy<\/em>;\u201cCome Undone\u201d is swell, but\u00a0Earth Girls Are Easy<\/em>\u00a0is a classic.<\/em>\u00a0Despite consisting mostly of performance footage, \u201cToo Much Information\u201d still manages to be a raucous good time. Let\u2019s hit it:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video was filmed on the enormous, elaborate, multilevel set Duran Duran used during their 1993 Dilate Your Mind tour. The set, described by Nick as a \u201ccross between Flash Gordon and Kafka\u201d, is a large-scale pastiche of pop-culture ephemera created by legendary English National Opera stage designer Stefano Lazaridis; it required six trucks to move it from venue to venue and ended up being too huge and unwieldy to fit on several of their stages (a scheduled performance at the Hollywood Bowl, for instance, was ultimately shifted to the LA Forum). If you think about it, this sort of works as a metaphor for the entire Duran Duran experience: larger than life, faintly ludicrous, and bursting at the seams with too much awesomeness to be contained by the Hollywood Bowl.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The set was\u00a0all Nick\u2019s idea<\/a>, obviously.<\/p>\n\n\n

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

Nick refers to \u201cToo Much Information\u201d as \u201cone of Simon\u2019s great lyrics\u201d, and he\u2019s probably right; if Simon\u2019s ever written a catchier or more Duran-appropriate opening salvo than\u00a0Destroyed by MTV, I hate to bite the hand that feeds me,<\/em>\u00a0I don\u2019t know what it is. The video features a rapid-fire onslaught of split-second images from news stories and television shows, intercut with ephemeral shots of the band performing. Duran Duran falls back on performance videos far too often for my tastes\u2014given any choice, I\u2019ll always prefer story-based videos\u2014but this one gets the job done. It\u2019s effective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Simon leaps down from a gigantic television set and cavorts across the stage while wearing a gray newsprint-style suit emblazoned with random words (\u201cVOODOO\u201d over his heart, \u201cEURO\u201d on a sleeve, \u201cWINONA\u201d on his abs), thus virtually transforming him into a singing, dancing gossip rag. Because a star of Simon\u2019s magnitude should not be confined to only one outfit, at other moments in the video he\u2019s dressed in a hot pink vest over silver lam\u00e9 pants.<\/p>\n\n\n

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

There are also flickering, fleeting, fragmentary moments in which Simon scampers around the set clad only in shorts. We never get a full, unhampered look at him in this state, which lends the proceedings a voyeuristic feel, like we\u2019re intruding on him in an unprotected moment. That could very well be the point\u2014it would certainly be keeping with the song\u2019s theme of relentless media overexposure. Or maybe the director thought no one would be interested in seeing this much of Simon and thus tried to keep the footage where he\u2019s nearly naked to a minimum.<\/p>\n\n\n

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If that\u2019s the case, the director would be wrong. Feel free to waltz nude around my television screen all you want, Simon. Get comfortable. You have my blessing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Warren Cuccurullo also appears shirtless in this video. I probably didn\u2019t even have to say that, did I? Of course he does. For Warren, going shirtless onstage is second nature, like breathing, or playing the guitar, or\u00a0spouting off-putting conspiracy theories<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n

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

At other points in the video, Warren appears to be wearing the skinned hide of Cookie Monster. I can\u2019t argue with that choice. Looks cozy.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Lovely John Taylor, meanwhile, blossoms forth in an exquisitely tailored velvet suit in brilliant clown colors paired with vibrant cherry locks. He looks simultaneously \u00fcber-stylish and ridiculous, like he showed up to Comic Con dressed as Ultra-Glamorous Rock Star Ronald McDonald.<\/p>\n\n\n

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

The hair color\u2014Clairol Ultress in Cherry Kool-Aid™, I believe\u2014should be a disaster, but John looks good. Elegant, even. That bone structure doesn\u2019t quit.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Hey, Nick! Just take a gander at everybody\u2019s favorite magical pixie there, what with his fancy satin suit in color-blocked pastels and his brilliant purple hair. As Nick\u2019s ex-wife Julie Anne Rhodes explains it in\u00a0her consistently entertaining blog, the first she heard of her ex\u2019s foray into tonsorial mayhem was when their very young daughter Tatjana called her up to giggle about his purple hair. In the background, Julie Anne heard Nick calling out, \u201cIt\u2019s lilac, Tatjana, lilac!\u201d\u00a0It\u2019s lilac<\/em>. Of course.<\/p>\n\n\n

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

Since Duran Duran had no drummer throughout most of the nineties, the Average White Band\u2019s Steve Ferrone supplied the drums for \u201cToo Much Information\u201d in the studio. For the tour, however, British percussionist Fergus Garrand performed with the band; he also appeared in the video. Clearly, Fergus refused to surrender to the sartorial madness surrounding him on all sides. Ten bucks says Nick tried to wheedle him into donning, say, a bottle-green velvet frock coat and a fuchsia fright wig, just to blend in with the Durans.<\/p>\n\n\n

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

In\u00a0a recentish interview<\/a>\u00a0about the\u00a0Wedding Album<\/em>, Nick weighed in on \u201cToo Much Information\u201d, waxing philosophic about the dangers of being a public figure in the internet age: \u201c[Y]ou\u00a0can give away too much. You lose your mysticism. I think when I was a kid and we were growing up listening to David Bowie or Roxy Music, you didn\u2019t know so much about them. You\u2019d read possibly everything you could or see new photos that would come out. But you didn\u2019t have a Twitter feed where you\u2019d find out what they were having for lunch.\u201d This probably explains why Nick still isn\u2019t on Twitter, which: blast it, Nick, get with the program! Mysticism\u00a0be\u00a0damned\u2014I for one would love to know what Nick eats for lunch every\u00a0day,\u00a0because I\u2019m sure it\u2019s weird and fabulous. (I was giddy when someone recently pointed me at\u00a0this 2015 Guardian piece<\/a>, which documents what Nick and journalist Elizabeth Day dined on during the interview in gloriously fetishistic detail:\u00a0Zucchine\u00a0fritte, \u00a35; tuna and\u00a0borlotti\u00a0bean salad, \u00a315.50; chargrilled mackerel, \u00a324.50; selection of three pastas, \u00a324, \u00a317 and \u00a320; Spumante Ca\u2019 Del Bosco, \u00a316 a glass; Librandi Ciro Bianco, \u00a36.50 a glass; green tea, \u00a34.<\/em>\u00a0This is valuable and necessary information.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Per Nick, the inspiration for \u201cToo Much Information\u201d came from the then-unprecedented round-the-clock coverage of the Gulf War on CNN: \u201cIt was all so glamorized and sick \u2026 It had become like a sport. It had a profound effect on the way we were thinking \u2026 so we put ourselves in that position \u2026 \u2018a Cola manufacturer is sponsoring the war,\u2019 the lyrics say. Which wasn\u2019t exactly true. But it was like that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

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That quote from Nick, by the way, comes from a\u00a0blistering article<\/a>\u00a0by longtime\u00a0New Zealand Herald<\/em>\u00a0music critic Graham Reid, who wrote up his thoughts on a 1993 press conference the band gave during the Dilate Your Mind tour; just FYI, Reid\u2019s article is titled\u00a0Duran Duran: Spoiled, Rude, and Stupid<\/em>, so if you\u2019re feeling especially defensive or protective of the Durans, maybe give it a pass. Still, it\u2019s an interesting piece, streaming vitriol and all. Some of Reid\u2019s punches land: Just as the Durans are often effervescent, charming, and quick-witted in interviews, they\u2019re equally capable of seeming spoiled, rude, and\u2026 well,\u00a0stupid<\/em>\u00a0is far too harsh. I\u2019ll put it like this: The various\u00a0Durans\u00a0are, at times, each possessed of a certain wildly entertaining\u00a0Spinal Tap<\/em>-ian cluelessness, as befitting a gaggle of guys who\u2019ve lived in the sheltering, distorting bubble of mega-fame their entire adult lives. The press conference fails to capture them at their shining best; at one point, Nick gives a blithe assessment of apartheid\u2014\u201cIt\u2019s the music lovers in South Africa who have suffered most\u201d\u2014that would make even the most seasoned publicist head straight for the bar to brace herself with a stiff martini before diving in to do damage control. As other interviews have shown, Nick is an intelligent and knowledgeable lecturer on a number of subjects\u2014music, art, film, fashion,\u00a0freakishly high-tech skincare regimens<\/a>\u2014but if I ever find myself in the happy position of indulging in cocktail party chitchat with him, I\u2019ll probably determinedly steer the conversation away from global events. That\u2019s just good sense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have quibbles with Reid\u2019s piece, but for the most part he makes his case. He does, however, fall into the trap of getting bizarrely catty on the subject of Duran Duran\u2019s well-documented pulchritude (for instance, he refers to both Simon and Nick as \u201cpaunchy\u201d). In doing so, he climbs onto a still-rolling bandwagon that first gathered momentum in 1984 when James Henke kicked off his Rolling Stone<\/em> cover story on the boys with a discourse about how Simon doesn\u2019t look all that good naked (\u201c\u2026slightly chubby legs, a little bit of a gut\u201d). Male journalists who dislike Duran Duran will invariably punctuate their argument with jabs at their physical appearance\u2014\u201cThey\u2019re crappy musicians, and they\u2019re not even that pretty!\u201d\u2014as though acting upon some spiteful urge to chip away at the band from all directions. Start looking for this trend in interviews, and you\u2019ll never be able to un-see it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hey, on the subject of \u201cpaunchy\u201d, what do we think Nick weighed in 1993, anyway? One-fifteen, one-twenty? Dude was itty-bitty throughout the nineties, like he spent the decade subsisting on dewdrops and the occasional sip of Armand de Brignac.<\/p>\n\n\n

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

If you\u2019re feeling a bit raw after reading Reid\u2019s excoriating piece, I recommend a soothing elixir: A more gracious assessment comes from novelist\/journalist Michael Bracewell, whose lengthy profile of the band during the Dilate Your Mind tour is recounted in his collected essays,\u00a0When Surface Was Depth: Death by Cappuccino and Other Reflections on Music and Culture in the 1990\u2019s.<\/em>\u00a0Here\u2019s an excerpt, in which the Durans assemble for a record signing in New York: \u201cAt the center of this throng, dressed in a scarlet satin jacket and Vivienne Westwood bondage trousers, his hair dyed platinum-lilac, was Nick Rhodes\u2014the effortlessly photogenic keyboard player of Duran Duran. [\u2026 ] Duran Duran look frail and glamorous: they are all fashionably skinny; Taylor has scarlet hair, Cucurullo is wearing a gold\u00a0lam\u00e9\u00a0biker jacket. Le Bon looks curiously like the young Iggy Pop. You cannot help but be impressed. The group\u00a0are\u00a0good-natured, too, smiling and joking with what seems to be an endless procession of tearful, hyperventilating or downright vampiric girls.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If I haven\u2019t been talking about the video itself, it\u2019s because not all that much really happens. Here, Simon and John grope and nuzzle each other onstage a bit, as they do on a semi-regular basis during performances, because Duran Duran has a comprehensive and finely-honed understanding of the importance of fanservice. Thanks, boys. Much obliged.<\/p>\n\n\n

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

And then Simon throws open a vault leading to the outside world, a place presumably free from the relentless assault of the media, only to be attacked by Warren and John. They club him in the gut with the necks of their guitars and drive him back onto the stage, the rat bastards.<\/p>\n\n\n

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

There\u2019s a nice interlude in which we\u2019re treated to a rapid-fire barrage of extreme close-ups of John and Nick, both of whom look like a zillion bucks.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"Duran<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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Nick should consider switching back to purple (\u2018scuse me,\u00a0lilac<\/em>). It suits him surprisingly well, though his then-girlfriend Madeleine Farley did complain, \u201cIt was like waking up with\u00a0Mrs. Slocombe<\/a>\u00a0every morning.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video winds down with poor Simon on the receiving end of the full Clockwork Orange treatment: strapped down to a chair, eyeballs pried open, wires running into his body, assaulted with an unending stream of stimuli, a clear victim of, yep, too much information.<\/p>\n\n\n

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

Beautiful. The song fizzled on the US charts upon release in 1993, back when the Web was still in the embryonic stages; almost a quarter of a century later, its ominous depiction of toxic media overload seems eerily prescient. Nice work, boys.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This band is perfect, just don\u2019t scratch the surface\u2026 The video for \u201cToo Much Information\u201d, the third single off of Duran Duran\u2019s 1993\u00a0Wedding Album, was directed by Julien […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1145,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1128","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-duran-duran"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/morganrichter.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1128","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/morganrichter.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/morganrichter.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morganrichter.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morganrichter.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1128"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/morganrichter.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1128\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1523,"href":"https:\/\/morganrichter.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1128\/revisions\/1523"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morganrichter.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1145"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/morganrichter.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1128"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morganrichter.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1128"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morganrichter.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1128"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}