Almost everyone who grew up in the 80s knows that there were two versions of Duran Duran’s “Girls on Film” video.
The “original” (uncensored) version, based on the extended remix of the song, features women having pillow fights, pouring champagne on their lingeried bodies, and other titillating scenes. This version was intended to air on adult video channels and on video screens at nightclubs.
The “edited” version of the video, which used the shorter single mix, is basically the same video, but with the more objectionable bits – like nipples showing through lingerie and topless scenes – cut out. This version was intended to air on MTV and other mainstream music video outlets like Friday Night Videos.
Not everyone knows that there was a third version of the video. This one is almost identical to the original, except that the mud wrestling scene at the end is slightly shorter and at the very end the band hold up a banner that says “Some People Will Do Anything To Sell Records”:
The reason I bring all this up is that I finally received my “Deluxe Edition” of Duran Duran’s first album yesterday (see it at Amazon here). It’s a three disc set: the first disc includes a remastered version of the album with all the B-sides from that era; the second disc contains a bunch of demos and early live versions of the songs from the album; and the third disc is a DVD which contains “live” performances from Top of the Pops, Old Grey Whistle Test, Multi-Coloured Swap Shop as well as all the music videos from that era.
Well, most of them. For some reason, the third version of the “Girls on Film” video is absent. Don’t get me wrong: I love that the two main version of “Girls” are included, as well as “Careless Memories”, “Night Boat”, and both versions of the “Planet Earth” video… including the rarely-seen “Club Version” filmed at the Rum Runner, the Birmingham nightclub where Duran Duran got their start:
But why couldn’t they have included the third version of “Girls on Film”?? As a completest, this drives me insane! Although all the videos look pretty good, it’s not like there wasn’t space enough for it on the disc. I guess it’s just EMI continuing to screw Duran Duran, even after all these years! Here I was, hoping to finally get rid of the crusty old MPEG file of the third version, and now I’ll have to keep it until EMI just decides to give up and release everything on DVD.