RIO by Annie Zaleski

What a fun read! Like the official INXS biography, which now I wished I hadn't given away before my two-year jaunt in California, I devoured Duran Duran's Rio in "record" time. At about 140 pages, I read it in under 36 hours over the weekend.

One cool thing about the book is that I heard about R.E.M.'s Chronic Town for the first time, so I bought it off of Amazon. Haven't had a chance to listen to it yet, but looking forward to it.

While reading Rio, I created a Duran instro's playlist (not sure if I'm gonna keep it):

• "Planet Earth (night version" [[first 3 minutes and 26 seconds]]
• "Faith in This Colour"
• "Tiger Tiger (Ian Little Remix)"
• Arcadia's "Rose Arcana" [[5-and-a-half-minute version]]
• Arcadia's "The Flame Game (Yo Homeboy Mix)"
• John Taylor's "Jazz"
• Arcadia's "Say the Word"
• Andy Taylor's "Angel Eyes"
• Andy Taylor's "French Guitar"
• "Flute Interlude"
• "Interlude One"
• "Throb"

Anyway, Zaleski is very good writer. Some of her turn of phrases that sing on the printed page:

. . . Roxy Music's rakish art-pop drama, Bowie's glammy decadence, Chic's throbbing grooves, the lacquered glamour of post-punks Japan, the electronic innovations of both Kraftwerk and early Human League . . . (Chapter 3, "Why Rio Matters", p. 47)

Accordingly, the album possesses colourful bookends: the rainbow-hued bacchanalia of "Rio" beckons listeners into the album, and the enigmatic, dusky-hymn "The Chauffeur" eases them out. (Chapter 3, p.48)

With the clinking sound effects, majestic percussion and Voltaire reference, "Last Chance on the Stairway" puts listeners in the shoes of someone out of their element in a fancy club; "New Religion" is a pause for inward reflection; the buoyant "My Own Way" exemplifies a giddy night out full of possibility; "Hungry Like the Wolf" captures the pulse-pounding feeling of magnetic attraction. (Chapter 3, p. 55)

However, later in the book I took offense over the jibe "the moody rockers the Fixx". I'm a fan of that band, and I think their Beautiful Friction is a million times better than anything Duran has issued post-Notorious.

Nonetheless, props to Zaleski for mentioning that the Rio videos reek of colonialism:

It's clear that everyone involved in the Duran Duran Sri Lanka shoot approached the filming with good intentions and deep respect. That said, in current times, certain aspects of the trip and the resulting music videos wouldn't necessarily be perceived the way they were back in 1982. Contemporary pop culture especially has a more evolved understanding of colonialism and exoticism. Today, artists who choose to film music videos in faraway relative to Europe and the United States, especially white artists who are an ethnic minority in these countries, are often criticized. Even back then, in fact, the "Hungry Like the Wolf" clip received both praise and critique: although The Tampa Tribune in 1982 described the video as "lushly produced," a 1983 Austin-American Statesman column deemed it "racist and sexist." (Chapter 4, "Duran Duran: Video Pioneers", p. 88)

I gave the book 4.5 stars out of 5 at LibraryThing. It was a nice stroll down memory lane. Reminded me of how much great company their records were as I grew up lonely in the conservative '80s, with countless classmates calling Duran "fags".

This was the first book I read in the 33⅓ series. I wishlisted the one on Jawbreaker's 24-Hour Revenge Therapy. Weird how they don't have one on a Cure album . . . then again, Robert Smith helmed several masterpieces (17 Seconds, Pornography, Head on the Door, Disintegration, etc.).