A Duran Duran Rant
Ok, for those of you who do not know, I am a big Duran Duran fan or Duranie. :p I am not as big as some others out there but I do enjoy finding those little gems out there that are hard to find and are nice to add to your collection.
So just recently I thought about digging out my DD collection and listening to their earlier albums. I sat down with my laptop and proceeded to listen to the first album. While listening I got to chatting with my friend Amy, who is a bigger Duranie than me. We started talking about how insane some of these bands were in the 80's that had a million mixes of one hit song and the such. Amy then told me how she got a hold of an original UK Lp of "Rio" which is totally different than the Us Lp because of the different versions of some of the songs. I had no idea about this and she told me to check out this website that details all of the pressings of the "Rio" album. Wow, I had no idea what I was about to see or what I was getting myself into. I will post a link on the bottom of my post for you Duran Duran fans to check this out, even if you aren't a fan check it out for the craziness. BUT, before you do so, let me tell you what my thoughts were and how surprised I was.
First off, WTF!!!???? 14 different versions of the song 'Rio'!!! Ok, I know people like to dance to extended mixes, but NOT THAT MUCH! I can't comprehend the strategy of making all those mixes much less listening to all of them. All I could think of was if anyone was to actually sit and listen and figure out all the differences between them all is just psychotic. I immediately wrote back to Amy stating I could no longer be her friend if she had all of those versions, saying that it was scary and insane. She pleaded with me to believe she only had 4 versions out of the 14. :P
Upon further investigation of the site, I was bombarded with the thought of listening to 7 versions of "Hungry Like the Wolf", 6 versions of "My Own Way", 7 versions of "Hold Back the Rain" and 7 versions of "Save A Prayer". OMFG!!!!! I couldn't even look at the list anymore. I was too dazed and confused by looking at all those remixes. Oddly enough there is only 1 version of "Last Chance on the Stairway" Bummer! I was looking forward to listening to 6 other versions of the song....
But then it just made me question, how much different are the US versions of the songs I have grown to love, from the Uk Lp. Apparently quite different according to Amy. To top it off they released 3 different LPs. I guess the record executives decided one LP version of Rio was just not enough.....
So to wrap this up and not drone on, I am very interested in getting the just recently released remastered "Rio" album......again. But this is different as it has the UK pressing and the Dave Kershenbaum lp mixes on here which were on one of the US LPs. Plus a bunch of demos and b-sides. Just one huge collective of what all went on during the recording of the "Rio" album.
Take a look here at this website and be prepared to be dumbfounded.
http://www.ionpool.net/duran/index.html
So just recently I thought about digging out my DD collection and listening to their earlier albums. I sat down with my laptop and proceeded to listen to the first album. While listening I got to chatting with my friend Amy, who is a bigger Duranie than me. We started talking about how insane some of these bands were in the 80's that had a million mixes of one hit song and the such. Amy then told me how she got a hold of an original UK Lp of "Rio" which is totally different than the Us Lp because of the different versions of some of the songs. I had no idea about this and she told me to check out this website that details all of the pressings of the "Rio" album. Wow, I had no idea what I was about to see or what I was getting myself into. I will post a link on the bottom of my post for you Duran Duran fans to check this out, even if you aren't a fan check it out for the craziness. BUT, before you do so, let me tell you what my thoughts were and how surprised I was.
First off, WTF!!!???? 14 different versions of the song 'Rio'!!! Ok, I know people like to dance to extended mixes, but NOT THAT MUCH! I can't comprehend the strategy of making all those mixes much less listening to all of them. All I could think of was if anyone was to actually sit and listen and figure out all the differences between them all is just psychotic. I immediately wrote back to Amy stating I could no longer be her friend if she had all of those versions, saying that it was scary and insane. She pleaded with me to believe she only had 4 versions out of the 14. :P
Upon further investigation of the site, I was bombarded with the thought of listening to 7 versions of "Hungry Like the Wolf", 6 versions of "My Own Way", 7 versions of "Hold Back the Rain" and 7 versions of "Save A Prayer". OMFG!!!!! I couldn't even look at the list anymore. I was too dazed and confused by looking at all those remixes. Oddly enough there is only 1 version of "Last Chance on the Stairway" Bummer! I was looking forward to listening to 6 other versions of the song....
But then it just made me question, how much different are the US versions of the songs I have grown to love, from the Uk Lp. Apparently quite different according to Amy. To top it off they released 3 different LPs. I guess the record executives decided one LP version of Rio was just not enough.....
So to wrap this up and not drone on, I am very interested in getting the just recently released remastered "Rio" album......again. But this is different as it has the UK pressing and the Dave Kershenbaum lp mixes on here which were on one of the US LPs. Plus a bunch of demos and b-sides. Just one huge collective of what all went on during the recording of the "Rio" album.
Take a look here at this website and be prepared to be dumbfounded.
http://www.ionpool.net/duran/index.html