Category: Music

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.

Just thought I’d post this pic… ‘cos I thought it was cool:

I really fell in love with the song “When I’m With You” by the band Best Coast a couple of months ago. But my love affair has been rekindled now that the official music video has been released. The Internet also seem to love it too, judging by how many places have posted the video:

I guess that chick likes hamburgers… which makes her kinda hot.

As I’ve mentioned several times on this site, Duran Duran’s self-titled debut album is one of my all time favorite albums. It was one of the first records I ever bought, and I was certainly the first album I ever bought where I said “this music is for me”.

A few months ago, word leaked that the band was working on a “deluxe version” of this album (as well as Seven and the Ragged Tiger and Arcadia’s So Red The Rose; Rio was done last year).

The three disc set – which includes a remastered version of the album, a disc full of demos and rare live recordings, and a DVD of some rare videos such as live Old Grey Whistle Test performances and the “club version” of the “Planet Earth” video – won’t go on sale for at least a few weeks in the US – Amazon says April 20; DD’s website says it was pushed back to May 20. But the disc has already been released in the UK, and mp3 rips are already showing up online.

Here are some quick thoughts about the set:

– Lots of people are trashing the album remaster, saying it’s the “worst they’ve ever heard”. I won’t go that far – in fact, as far as I can tell, it sounds okay to me… it’s just not that great. I’m listening to the remastered version of “Girls on Film” as I type this, and it sounds more or less like a slightly tinny version of the last (2003) CD issue… and not “as tinny as a 70s TV”, as others have complained.

– The demo version of “Girls on Film” is surprisingly… rocky!

– It seems that “Planet Earth” once had an additional verse. The demo version – which clocks in at 5:03 – has an ending verse which goes something like this:

I came outside
I saw the night fall into rain
She brightened (?) flashes in my brain
Whatever happened to the world we used to know
I’ve got you coming over here

You can also hear this verse in some early live bootlegs, but it’s interesting to hear an “official” version of the “lost” verse.

– And lastly… the thing hardcore Duranies have been waiting to hear for years… the original version of “Tel Aviv”. The version we all know and love is an instrumental tune, thrown in as the last track on the debut album. With the demo, we find out that it was originally a long song (6:03) and had a full set of lyrics. Have a listen:

[audio:duran_aviv.mp3]

Wow! It’s just… something to finally hear this song after almost thirty years. I’ve known about the “original” version of “Tel Aviv” for years, since a snippet of the lyrics once appeared in a Duran Duran book in a photograph of one of Simon’s early lyric notebooks. I mean, I don’t “feel like I can die happy now” having heard the song… but as a longtime Duran Duran fan, I feel like one of the biggest mysteries of the band has finally been solved… ya know?

Happy 30th birthday, R.E.M.!! As incredible as it seems, today marks the date that the band was formed thirty freakin’ years ago!

While my love affair with the band has waned over the years (Bill Berry, while not the best musician in the band, has a great ear for what makes a good rock song, as his absence has been sorely felt), I look to the words of Whitney Matheson for inspiration:

Thirty years ago today, Michael Stipe, Peter Buck, Mike Mills and Bill Berry began an incredible journey together in Athens, Ga.

The journey continues, albeit as a trio. We miss you, Bill! I can’t imagine my life without R.E.M.; they became my favorite band the first moment I heard them, and it’s been that way ever since.

via Happy 30th birthday, R.E.M.! – Pop Candy

I won’t say I love this song yet, but all week I’ve been grooving on the tune “Cherry Tulips” from Champaign, Illinois-based indie rockers Headlights. This song – from the 2008 album Some Racing, Some Stopping – is just the sort of lush, poppy tune I can get into!

Have a listen and tell me what you think!

[audio:headlights.mp3]

“It’s completely different – they’re manufactured people now… like ice cream. Every now and then somebody comes out and I really like them – I really like this Lady Gaga.”

– Ozzy Osbourne, on the state of the music industry