I LOVE Duran Duran!!

As you know, I'm really into my Facebook and I'm loving connecting with friends from yesteryear. That coupled with my 20th high school reunion in October has left me thinking about things from my teen years that I probably haven't thought of, well... since my teen years.

I loved Duran Duran! I don't even think that captures it..... I LOVED Duran Duran!! First of all, let's meet the band:

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1. Simon LeBon - who doesn't like Simon? He's hot, he's got a great voice, he knows how to ride on the front of a yacht, can run through the jungle, and use a Walkman as a bomb detonator... that's hot, people!!

2. John Taylor - the tall, sexy bassist!! Everyone loved John, he was so cute!

3. Roger Taylor - the cute, but painfully shy, drummer. I loved him too - apparently I have a thing for drummers (Exhibit 1: Jon Farriss of INXS; Exhibit 2: Larry Mullen, Jr. of U2; Exhibit 3: Roger Taylor of Duran Duran.)

4. Nick Rhodes - we were all convinced that he was GAY!! Remember Simon and John wore a little eye makeup, but Nick always went full tilt, down to the shiny lip gloss. I now know that he wasn't gay, he just liked makeup. So I apologize to my gay friends for trying to lump him in with them.

5. Andy Taylor - does anyone remember poor Andy? He always had some weird jacked up hair going on. He's hardly in the videos, except for when he pushes his accordion button and makes Nick Rhodes's camera explode in a View to a Kill.

Can you guys my favorites? It was a toss up between Simon, John and Roger. Loved them!!

I'm currently reading Andy Taylor's book: "Wild Boy: My Life in Duran Duran" and I'm learning a lot about the band. Simon and John fought to be the cute boys; Nick may have been the genius behind the band, and they sure enjoyed drinking and some coke (not coca cola, if you catch my drift).

Duran Duran has been around for some major milestones in my life.

1. "The Reflex" - one of my favorite songs, but also the name of a softball team I played on the summer after 8th grade. One of our friends older brother was our coach. We sucked. Bad. But we had fun. We cut the sleeves off of our shirt, wore Jams instead of shorts, and jammed this tune prior to each game. What we lacked in game play, we made up for in spirit and style.



2. "View to a Kill" - I used this song to try out for drill team officer at the end of my sophomore year of high school. Didn't make it, but this was such a kick ass song to dance to.



I'm sorry this video was cool as shit. Simon using his walkman to blow up stuff... look at those headphones..... yeah, baby!! John using the viewer to shoot stuff.... Nick as the fashion photographer.... Andy as the blind accordion playing assassin.... and Roger operating the flying cameras and talking on the phone? Plus Roger Moore and Grace Jones? C'mon... it DOESN'T get better than this!!

3. College Roomie Kara - She had a VHS of Duran Duran videos that we would watch over and over. You have to admit that Duran Duran makes some of the best videos of the early MTV era. (Ed.'s note: For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, MTV used to just show music videos. All day. And night. And we ate that shit up!)

I have to post two more videos:

Rio:



Hungry Like the Wolf:



Thanks for indulging me for a bit with Mo's Blast to the Past. Next lesson, we'll talk about the two splinter bands for Duran Duran: The Power Station (with John/Andy plus Robert Palmer) and Arcadia (Nick/Roger/Simon).