VIDEO VS. MUSIC DURAN DURAN CLIMBS CHARTS WITH BALLAD
Published on Friday, August 13, 1993

Byline: By Dean Rhodes

In the mid-'80s, the video complement of MTV helped British pop band Duran Duran land 12 songs in the Top 40. Of those, nine went Top 10, eight went Top 5, and two -- ''The Reflex'' and ''A View to a Kill'' -- reached No. 1.

But, says Duran Duran's keyboardist Nick Rhodes, it was a good song in the form of singer Simon LeBon's pathos-ridden ballad ''Ordinary World'' that ended the band's four-year drought on the U.S. charts.

''We knew from the reaction that it was getting from our friends when we played it to them that the song had something that was very relatable and touched people in a way some songs can do,'' Rhodes says from a tour stop in Charlotte, N.C.

''Also, I think that something that probably worked to our advantage is there are not a lot of songs around at the moment. Looking at the charts, there's a lot of great groove music around and dance stuff. Actually songs? Not so many. And I think radio really needs songs.''

Rhodes says Duran Duran's cumulative songwriting muse has matured from the surreal images in songs like ''Hungry Like the Wolf'' and ''Rio'' to more accessible lyrics.

''Now, I think the way the times are and everything we're surrounded by, it seems so much more natural to write about things that directly affect you or things you want other people to think about,'' Rhodes says. ''That's one of things that's working again for us on this album.''

By the late '80s, Duran Duran's string of hits and platinum albums ended. ''Big Thing'' and ''Liberty'' were received with as much enthusiasm as another Harold Stassen run for the presidency.

''Liberty,'' released in 1990, fizzled commercially in North America, receiving little promotional support from the band's label, Capitol Records.

''We liked the 'Liberty' album,'' Rhodes says. ''We felt we had some interesting stuff on there. We also were aware it didn't have a screaming single on it . . . I think half the reason for that was at the time, the radio formatting was very much dance-oriented, or heavy rock, neither of which we fitted into. So we were kind of aware when we finished it, although we felt confident that we'd made a good record, that it wasn't going to be an easy task dealing with it commercially.''

Duran Duran passed on touring behind ''Liberty,'' and original members Rhodes, singer LeBon and bassist John Taylor and guitarist Warren Cuccurullo, who joined the band in 1986 and became a member in '89, started writing the next album.

Duran Duran recorded its ninth album, the second self-titled effort, in the living room of Cuccurullo's London home.

When the album was completed, Duran Duran had to overcome entrenched ennui at Capitol. To help prod the label, Duran Duran changed management to Left Bank, a Los Angeles firm.

''They (Left Bank) couldn't believe the unbelievable apathy that existed within the record company about us after we had just delivered the best album we had ever made to them,'' Rhodes says. ''They really helped turn it around.''

It also helped that ''Ordinary World'' was leaked by someone at Capitol to radio (before a video was shot), and response encouraged the label to throw its weight behind the new record.

''Ordinary World,'' about surviving the end of a relationship, reached No. 3. The follow-up single, ''Come Undone,'' peaked at No. 7. The album has sold more than 1 million copies in the United States.

''We had sort of settled down into a nice cult following where we were able to keep making records and experiment away and do what we wanted,'' Rhodes says. ''But this album I think we all really felt that it was time to stick our necks out again and put ourselves firmly back on the map. Also, there were a lot of things that inspired us to write the music that's on this album. This album has an energy and a sort of underlying hysteria that no album we've made in a few years has had.''

Duran Duran hits Blockbuster Desert Sky Pavilion tonight.

Besides new material, Rhodes says Duran Duran will perform many of its old songs with new arrangements by Cuccurullo. The elaborate stage was created by opera designer Stefanos Lazaridis. Rhodes says the third single from ''Duran Duran'' will be ''Too Much Information,'' which slams MTV because it ''feeds me so much information the pressure's on the screen to sell you things that you don't need.''

With platinum sales again, Duran Duran feels comfortable biting the hand that once fed it.

''Whenever you make a record, all you want to do after you satisfy yourself is hope you can communicate with people,'' Rhodes says. ''At the end of the day, that's what it's all about is entertaining people. Making people happy, making people think a little bit, making people dance, maybe.''

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