Election Day and the Fab Five

As Americans go to the polls tomorrow, our thoughts turn to New Wave.

Confused? You shouldn't be if you are a fan of New Wave/New Romance. New Wave was a genre that emerged as both a response to and an extension of punk rock in the early 1980's. Heavy on the synth, New Wave is remembered for its flashy fashions and its lyrics that contrasted from light to brooding and angst ridden.

One of the artists that defined the New Romance expression was a group from Birmingham, England not Alabama, called Duran Duran. (Named for a character in the Jane Fonda camp classic Barbarella.) Made up of singer Simon Le Bon, keyboardist Nick Rhodes, bass player John Taylor, drummer Roger Taylor, and guitarist Andy Taylor, Duran Duran approached a Beatlesque level of popularity for a few years, leading to their nickname of the 'Fab Five.' Girls swooned at the sight of the band, and fans bought up their record in drove. Note that none of the Taylors were related.

The look of Duran propelled the band to stardom as much as their music. Duran was able to form a synergy between the two elements using the newly popular genre of the music video. Duran seized on the young medium of MTV to display what were then some of the most creative and innovative music videos on the airwaves. Duran videos captured the look and feel of 1980's New Romance as much as any other entry into the field. The videos were especially known for their exotic third world shooting locales. The band even cut the title track for the last Roger Moore James Bond film 'A View to a Kill.'

All things must come to an end, and Duran Duran's last performance in their original incarnation was at the Live Aid superconcert until they reunited in 2001. Just prior to Andy Taylor and Roger Taylor leaving the band in the late 1980's, the band formed two side projects. John and Andy helped form the Power Station, a group that had some commerical success with Robert Palmer as the lead singer. Nick, Roger, and Simon formed a group called Arcadia, which cut a studio album but never toured.

Arcadia's one hit from their one album was entitled 'Election Day.' The song features a spoken word moment by Grace Jones, who played an evil Bond girl in the film 'A View to a Kill.' So for true believers in Duran, the term 'election day' conjures up thoughts of music as much as votes.

Duran has a special meaning for me as well. My best friend and his father share names with two of the Taylors in Duran, and yes the two Taylors that I know are related. My friend was married back in the spring, with yours truly as best man, near the city of Gainesville, Georgia. During the drive down and back, I listened to the music of Duran, forming an association of Duran with that wedding weekend.

Andy Taylor, who left the band in the 1980's for a solo career, has left the reunited Duran Duran. He has recently released a book on his experiences in rock and roll. You can read a review of it in Galileo. Go from the Galileo homepage to 'databases a-z' then select 'b.' Then go to Book Index with Reviews. Type 'Andy Taylor' in the search bar and the fourth result will be for his book 'Wild Boy: My Life in Duran Duran.' Click on the result link to read a review of the book (the book has received mixed reviews).

Now isn't all that just as interesting as ballot boxes, dimpled chads, swing states, and red to blue/blue to red?

JWF