From Michael Jackson, past ‘Total Eclipse of the Heart’, to Duran Duran. Our head-first jump into the heart of the 1980s continues…
Is There Something I Should Know?, by Duran Duran (their 1st of two #1s)
2 weeks, 20th March – 3rd April 1983
Please please tell me now! It’s an aggressive intro, as Simon Le Bon pleads, again and again, while those trademark eighties drums blast through the speakers. In come some jangly, filtered guitars, and an insistent, galloping beat. This is a record that grabs you from the start, and doesn’t really give you a chance to decide whether or not it’s any good…
And it is a good record. After a few listens I’ve settled into it, and am spotting some cool touches. There’s a great bassline, for example, and a nice moment when, just before the choruses, everything fades apart from a pulsing synthesiser that sounds like it’s trying to send a message by Morse Code. I also like the soulful urge in the pre-chorus: With broken glass for us to hold, And I got so far before I had to say…
There are bits I’m not so hot on, though. The weird, harmonica-led ‘solo’ feels like a missed opportunity, and the line You’re about as easy as a nuclear war… jars as much in today’s world as it probably did forty years ago. I also find Le Bon’s delivery, as much as I like it in the chorus, a bit much in the verses. Although they have very different voices, it was the same with Limahl in Kajagoogoo’s ‘Too Shy’: there’s something about the new romantic style of singing that’s a bit too arch at times…
Speaking of ‘Too Shy’, that was actually the first #1 that a member of Duran Duran had a hand in: it was produced by Nick Rhodes. Duran Duran, though, had been around for a lot longer than Kajagoogoo – ‘Girls on Film’ was their first Top 10 hit in 1981 – and would go on to have many more hits. And to me, speaking as someone who doesn’t know them away from the big hits, they are probably the quintessential mid-eighties band. The poster boys of New Romanticism and the 2nd British Invasion. Brash, loud (both musically and in their fashion), and a triumph of style over substance.
But I’m here to have my mind changed on that. I like ‘Is There Something I Don’t Know?’ I don’t love it, but there’s an endearing urgency to the song that sees it through. And in entering the charts at #1, it announces Duran Duran as the biggest band in the nation at this moment (and, unlike many of the biggest British acts since The Beatles, they were about to be huge the whole world over, too…)
The UK Number Ones Blog 
Simon le bons vocals werent among the best of time, but the girls loved them during the Rio period. The glossy videos sold them worldwide, and this one had a Beatles-ey vibe to it, but i didnt start to rate them more seriously till the follow up Union Of The Snake, and especially the Nile Rodgers stuff in 84. Following which, give or take a Bond theme, they lost their mojo until the brilliant resurgence in the 90s with Come Undone, Ordinary World and much much more right up to their recent fab single with Tove Lo. I became a fan, Simon learnt to sing, and they just stayed good!
I saw that you rated their current single on your personal charts – I’ll check it out. I remember their mid-00s comeback, and quite liked ‘Reach up for the Sunrise)’.
The tove lo hook up single is their finest moment sunce Come Undone. Of course i may be biased 🙂
LOL…should I bother? Yep the 80s have really started now…like a toboggan ride to hell. Yea I’m in the minority.
I have a funny memory about them. One of my friend’s sister loved them… She got their albums through Columbia House. Somehow, not known to her…her brother got another copy of the album somwhere else. She came up to her room and he took the album and broke it over his knee and grinned. The look on her face! Of course he gave her the other album after that. Thats pretty much the best memory I have of them.
To be fair…I peaked at the UK 1’s coming up… there are some I like but these guys…I don’t even have to answer.
Ouch. Don’t break a girl’s records! LOL!
Throwing shade on Duran Duran…tsk, tsk, tsk… I wish I had gotten to see them, just once.
You have to admit, though, that John Taylor is a stunning bassist. And, Simon Le Bon was HOT at one time.
I know, I know…I can hear you barfing right now…LOL!
The bassline is great. Same for a lot of their songs…
I do think Duran Duran do represent one side of the eighties, but at least their songs are largely uptempo, and the videos fun… (I even like their Bond-theme.) There was a lot worse soft-rock sludge around at the time…
True.
It was funny as hell!
Yes you hear the retching!
John turned out the cool one…he was fine with power station.
Another good band. I miss Robert Palmer.
Yea I liked him also
I loved Duran Duran. Those hairdos, tho…
Girls On Film was so racy, I don’t think it was allowed to be aired in the US. Americans can be quite uptight…or could. These days, I don’t even recognize my own country.
I just looked and wondered what the fuss was about… Then I saw the uncensored video : ). I doubt that was getting much airtime in the UK either!
It’s wild.
Yeah – Duran Duran were a band I loved right at the outset with ‘Planet Earth’ and all the New Romantic stuff that was going on then.
(To that dude on the left of the picture – we know what you’re doing! 😉 😀 )
Goodness…! Just noticed that : )
Pingback: 519. ‘Let’s Dance’, by David Bowie | The UK Number Ones Blog
Pingback: 520. ‘True’, by Spandau Ballet | The UK Number Ones Blog
Pingback: 534. ‘The Reflex’, by Duran Duran | The UK Number Ones Blog
Pingback: Recap: #511 – #540 | The UK Number Ones Blog