More remixed Popular comments. Neither song was particularly meaningful to me, but the memories they invoke are the real point.
Duran Duran, “Is There Something I Should Know”, 26 March 1983
Is there something you should know? Yes, Simon: this song isn’t nearly as big and important as it’s trying to be, the harmonica break is going to date faster than brie, and “I cut so far before I had to say...” doesn’t mean anything.
For me, this is brother pop: my younger brother was the Durannie, not me, so every listen brings back memories of foolish teenage rivalries (if he liked it I obviously couldn’t, and vice versa). Their first two albums had some undeniably catchy songs, but this single signalled the beginning of their decline, even if it wasn’t included on the precipitous Seven and the Ragged Tiger. A change of producer is no doubt why this is the dividing line for me between Good Duran and Bad Duran; their music didn’t justify these new epic aspirations. How strange that it was their first UK number one. Even stranger that they had none in Australia, where this only reached number four—which is about what I’d give it.
Anyone else have a teacher who called them “Durran Durran” (like “Durham”), or was it just me?
David Bowie, “Let’s Dance”, 9 April 1983
This may well be the only of these early 1980s number ones that I’ve heard consistently through the years, thanks to its inclusion on Changesbowie. My interest in Bowie didn’t really take off until I shared a flat with a big fan in 1991 and fell in love with Hunky Dory—which was fortunate, as purchasing a sale copy of Tin Machine the previous year had almost turned me off for life. I haven’t really followed his later output closely, but Heathen recaptures the 70s-Bowie spirit for me, even if not the heights.
Some might consider the commercial sheen and “Bowie goes straight” overtones of “Let’s Dance” to be a calculated bid for the mainstream, but can we truly call someone with so many previous hits a chart outsider who was in a position to “sell out”? He’d already shown many times that he could sell on his own terms. I’m more inclined to see this as a reflection of where his personal life had taken him, which just happened to chime with an emerging glossy ’80s mood. “Let’s Dance” (and all that went with it: the other singles, the new Bowie look) feels like a blueprint for the mid-80s: clean and neat shirts and hair, graphics full of straight lines, angles and pastel colours. And yet the music, like so much of his best, seems to go off on its own tangent; I can’t think of any other song of the time that sounds quite like it. I like how it keeps threatening to climax and then pulls back at the last moment, evoking the promise and disappointment of many a high-school dance.
Its video was another sign of growing international interest in things Australian in 1983, on the heels of Men at Work’s success, but at the time I remember it feeling natural to this young Aussie viewer—of course Bowie would film a clip in the outback, why wouldn’t you? Although there was a little more to it than that.
Back in the day I remember liking “Let’s Dance” well enough, but not to the point of buying the single—a 5 or 6 response, say—but nowadays I’d say it’s a seven.
The Bowie thread also contained an impressively gratuitous dig at the “twee” Nouvelle Vague, to which I responded: I loved their first album (the second was a slight case of diminishing returns), but then I was coming at it off the back of a lengthy obsession with Bebel Gilberto, Koop, Mo’ Horizons and lounge music compilations of old Bossa Nova. From that angle it made perfect sense, and it sounded great. If French and Brazilian chanteuses are twee, sign me up for Garden Gnome Monthly. Still, your mention has led me to learn that they have a new album out soon, so cheers!
And in response to their perceived place as a favourite among the classy set: I’ve never considered myself particularly classy or cool, and using musical choices to achieve either has never been a personal aim, so that side of the Nouvelle Vague phenomenon tended to pass me by. I accept that they’re never going to be anyone’s favourite band from any angle, but their combination of angles did appeal to me as a latterday bossa fan who grew up on new wave. That said, my favourite Nouvelle Vague tracks were the ones I didn’t previously know, like “Marian” and “Too Drunk to Fuck”, so I can see how the whole project might be less appealing if you knew all the source material well. (Although I loved their take on “A Forest” as well.)
Bringing it back to Bowie, I imagine Seu Jorge’s Bowie covers for The Life Aquatic in Brazilian acoustic style could be similarly annoying. I, erm, liked those a lot too.
30 May 2009