Influenced by artists such as David Bowie, the Human League, Japan and Chic, Duran Duran featured a mixture of new wave, synth-pop and dance-punk tunes with more atmospheric tracks, as well as elements of disco and punk rock. Le Bon's cryptic lyrics cover topics from youthful torment and confusion to the band's goals and ambitions. The cover artwork for the album and singles were designed by Malcolm Garrett.
Three singles appeared for the album, each promoted with music videos, which helped the album reach number three in the UK and remain in the top 100 for 118 weeks. The sexually-provocative video for "Girls on Film" was controversial, and generated publicity for the new MTV channel in the United States, and "Planet Earth" & "Careless Memories."
Childhood friends John Taylor and Nick Rhodes formed Duran Duran in Birmingham, England, in 1978 with John's art-school friend Stephen Duffy. The band performed live throughout 1979, going through numerous lineup changes before securing the lineup of John Taylor, Rhodes, drummer Roger Taylor and guitarist Andy Taylor by early 1980. Around this time, they were hired as the resident band of the Birmingham nightclub Rum Runner; the club's owners Paul and Michael Berrow became their managers.
Drama student Simon Le Bon was hired as Duran Duran's lead singer in May 1980. Le Bon struggled to sing at first and did not fit the band's desire for a singer who, according to Rhodes, was a mix between Reed, Bowie and Iggy Pop. Having written poems and stories during his childhood, the band were impressed with Le Bon's skill with melodies; he composed the lyrics and vocal line for "Sound of Thunder" during his first audition. Andy Taylor told a journalist, "Simon came in with this book of poetry and kept coming up with these ideas and melodies. We were like, 'This guy doesn't even know what his potential is.
Duran Duran spent two months writing songs and developing their sound. According to the biographer Steve Malins, John Taylor was an integral part of the group during this period: "The sensitive, charming, ad-libbing pop star to Rhodes's more controlled Pop Art alter ego". Rhodes worked creatively with Andy, playing around the keyboardist's patterns and solidifying the melodies.
According to John Taylor, grooves, chord progressions and melodies were primarily derived from jam sessions. They further developed tracks they had debuted live, such as "Night Boat", "Late Bar", "Girls on Film", "Sound of Thunder" and an early version of "Tel Aviv". Andy Taylor later said, "In the beginning that worked because as we wrote the songs we'd all be pitching in and experimenting". John Taylor recalls that "Night Boat", in particular, arose from a "drifting keyboard sample" by Rhodes with Andy's Roland guitar synthesiser. Le Bon was a quick writer, coming up with lyrics to "Girls on Film" after receiving the first version. During the writing period, Duran Duran agreed to credit all songs to the band and split all earnings evenly.
By September 1980, Duran Duran had written all of what would become their first studio album. They continued performing live and demoing tracks at Bob Lamb's Birmingham studio and London's 24-track AIR Studios while Paul Berrow worked on attracting record-label attention. Throughout the rest of the year, they opened for Pauline Murray and Hazel O'Connor, and secured an article with Sounds magazine, whose writer Betty Page aligned them with the rising New Romantic movement and drew comparisons with the London-based new wave band Spandau Ballet.
Duran Duran recorded their debut album over a six week period starting in December 1980. Colin Thurston was chosen as producer, having previously worked with Bowie, Pop, the Human League and Magazine; Thurston was happy to work with Duran Duran after hearing the demo of "Girls on Film". John Taylor later said, "Colin was absolutely the right producer for us. He knew how to take what was best about us and magnify it, and boy, did he take our sound to another level". Initial work at Abbey Road Studios was insufficient, so recording moved to West London's Red Bus Studios, a favourite of Thurston's. "Planet Earth" was chosen as the debut single with "Late Bar" as its B-side, so the single was tracked first and sent to pressing plants before the remaining tracks. Tracks recorded at Red Bus included "Careless Memories", "Night Boat", "Anyone Out There", "To the Shore", "Faster than Light", "Tel Aviv" and "Khanada".
The sessions continued in January 1981 at Chipping Norton Recording Studios in Oxfordshire to record the guitar parts, keyboard overdubs and vocals. Due to Le Bon's inexperience with studio recording, the vocal tracks proved difficult; according to Andy Taylor, Thurston was "very rough" on the singer. Le Bon felt pressured, particularly when EMI executives arrived to check on progress. The Berrows were initially concerned that they would have to replace Le Bon before EMI's new A&R director, Dave Ambrose, intervened, telling the singer to take his time and remember "it's all about the songs". Le Bon also stopped drinking and smoking at the instruction of Paul Berrow. Recording completed after the band's first national tour.
Andy Taylor later said, "We wrote the first album to kind of make up what we were going to be, what this futuristic sound was". Writer Annie Zaleski described this sound as "space-age keyboards, post-punk guitars, disco-inspired bass lines and Le Bon's vocal croon". Zaleski highlights the cohesive-yet-contrasting musical styles of Andy Taylor's guitars and Rhodes's synthesisers. Playing in a number of cover bands before joining Duran Duran, Andy's primary influences were rock bands which included AC/DC and Van Halen. He later said, "[Nick] would do Eno and I would do Jeff Beck or Jimmy Page". John Taylor believed that Andy Taylor's influences were responsible for developing their sound and enabling them to break out in America. Malins notes that the album has no guitar solos; Andy contributes "melodic and punchy" work, particularly on "Girls on Film" and "Friends of Mine". The band incorporated additional sounds into some tracks, such as the sound of Paul's Nikon camera opening "Girls on Film"; foghorns, humming motors and buoy bells on "Night Boat", and a string section conducted by Richard Myhill at AIR Studios on the instrumental "Tel Aviv".
Le Bon's cryptic lyrics covered a variety of subjects, from youthful torment and confusion to the band's goals and ambitions. The sexually exploitative "Girls on Film" was a critique of modeling culture, and "Sound of Thunder" tells the story of a man who begins World War III. The social commentary of "Friends of Mine" included a line celebrating the release of George Davis, an armed robber who was the subject of a cause célèbre. Lost love and angst were explored on "Anyone Out There" and "Night Boat", respectively. "To the Shore" was a power ballad filled with, according to Davis, lyrical neologisms such as "gorging your sanhedralites". "Planet Earth" briefly acknowledged the band's association with New Romantics, which Rhodes later called a form of irony; the band disliked their association with the movement.
No hay comentarios.:
Publicar un comentario