Elemental Duran Duran: Songwriting and Style, Pt. III

By Claudia Rebaza

(c) 1984, 1987, 1989, 1991, 1997, 1999
While Big Thing resolved the issue of how the disparate musical forces in the group could succeed cohesively, Liberty would raise a more troubling one. How much of their musical accomplishment could be attributed to production rather than songwriting skills?

This question first became apparent in the turnaround of "The Reflex" from the album to single version, although the issue may really have surfaced in the production of "Is There Something I Should Know," a single on which a great deal of money was spent. Of course, Nile Rogers also produced the dull "Wild Boys" and the unremarkable Notorious album. Yet it's curious that , after Big Thing , Nick Rhodes could be heard to blame Rogers for the relative commercial failure of Notorious. This is probably because Big Thing stole more from Chic than Rogers might have felt comfortable with during his own stint at the boards, and sounded better for it.

Of course Big Thing was a definite commercial failure in the U.S., and the band went producer shopping again, this time promoting Chris Kimsey as their new savior. After listening to "Burning the Ground" to note just how much can be done by production alone, the band should have chosen to keep writing until every song on the album could be turned into a great remix. It wasn't to be. Though better than Notorious it was most disturbing to hear that Liberty was to be the band's personal make-or-break album. They would not tour for it, the promotion was spotty and it would soon appear that the band's heart was no longer in their work.

The whole post-Liberty era only seemed to recall LeBon's mid-1980s quote that the band would quit when what they did was no longer fun. But instead of going out with a bang, the band appeared to be whimpering along. The once youthful arrogance of success was transformed into a more poignant complaint -- "If we quit, what else would we do? We've never had another job." John, somewhat more tactful, added "Duran Duran is like a football club. We've signed up for life."

With a follow-up album's appearance reaching new heights of procrastination and confusion, gossip became the order of the day. It could be said with some truth that the Duran wives were drawing more headlines than the band members themselves. All three hit the covers of Hello! magazine in family-related pictorials. The most frequent were the le Bons, first with Amber's birth, and, later, daughter Saffron's. In between, Yasmin got her own cover story travelling to South America while at least six months pregnant to demonstrate ecological devotion. She drew more attention, however, a few weeks earlier when a nude pregnant photo of her (Demi Moore, eat your heart out) sold at a charity auction to her husband. A tour of Julie Anne and Nick Rhodes' home foreshadowed their public breakup to anyone reading between the lines, but Julie Anne's dalliance with a new beau barely out of his teens drew more attention than the couple's bankruptcy and child custody tussles. And, finally, the perennial bachelor of the group who had claimed not to be the marrying kind during his long association with (still beloved in some circles) model Renee Simonsen, ended up saying "I do" to someone even more immature than himself. New wife Amanda de Cadenet, most noted for her irresponsible behavior during her barely departed adolescence, made various ill advised public statements, some of which cost her her job hosting a music show. In addition, her stated desire to give birth live on TV only drew attention to her pregnant condition and their hastily arranged marriage. Even the reclusive and long departed Roger Taylor had his share of gossip as the story spread that he and wife Giovanna had split. Warren Cuccurullo alone seemed to keep his personal life personal, and did not follow in the short-lived Sterling Campbell's disemployed footsteps.

Also during this period, Andy Taylor released an album of cover songs, the first single being a passable version of "Lola." An album of original material was also in the works.

If nothing else, the release of the band's seventh album marked a huge departure in the behavior of Capitol Records. Although Duran Duran always managed to garner at least some press for its continued releases, the sales of Liberty were abysmal in the American market with not a single issue cracking the Top 40 and the LP sinking like a lead weight. Indeed, although videos were made for both "Violence of Summer" and "Serious" neither gained much airtime and "Serious" may never have been aired on MTV at all. The album didn't generate a lot of overseas success either, although some markets continued to react favorably.

At first it appeared an album might never be released -- tentative dates were each postponed by months and meetings with the record companies yielded no news. Finally, in the summer of 1992, it appeared the album (titled first "Four on the Floor", and later "Here Comes the Band") was not only completed and mixed, but produced. Promotional copies landed in the hands of various people. Yet the single release date (long held to be "Ordinary World") continued to be postponed and the album's release date was pushed back all the way to the end of February 1993. Apparently the album was completely remixed, repackaged and reproduced (at what cost or to what purpose there was no explanation). The album tracks were largely the same, and bootleg copies sprang up like wildfire. Moreover, "Ordinary World", first performed live back in 1991 for a benefit concert, began to receive unreleased airings on various radio stations across the country and was released overseas back in the fall of 1992. Angry radio stations threatened Capitol with boycotts of any Duran (and perhaps other) material unless the airings were stopped. (It was even reported that the third single, "Too Much Information" was getting airplay.) Yet these and other word of mouth reports (notably from Eric Clapton who was reported to predict "O.W." as a "worldwide smash") created a niche for the group and single when it was finally released in December of 1992. It immediately landed on heavy rotation in stations across the country and the video sprang up on MTV's most requested show. It seemed that Duran Duran would have a fighting chance to reclaim the charts.

Yet some reports circulated it was only le Bon who was decicated to saving the group. An appearance by him and Rhodes on the Billboard awards show was forced by Capitol Records, even though they got a publicity plum from Phil Collins who plugged "Ordinary World", (which was as yet unreleased.) This created the irony of Capitol Records finally making large efforts on behalf of a group which had ceased to care.

The irony was compounded by the fact that The Wedding Album (an informal title which was ignored in favor of Duran Duran, an existing release bound to create confusion) was their weakest since the highly publicized (and successful) Seven and the Ragged Tiger. It would seem Duran Duran was fated to be thrown in the limelight only when they had little to show for themselves.