So, I was skimming through my music collection tonight, and realized that more people should know about this song. Thus, I’m using the awesome power of this blog to reach untold thousands of readers (before I have to head out to collect my Pulitzer of course…)
Yes, this is music from the eighties. Yes, this is Duran Duran – bear with me. The album Rio presented some curious, moody pieces that departed from the style that most people associate with the band, never released as singles in the US. One of those is ‘Save a Prayer,’ which was released in the UK and made it all the way up number 2 on the UK Singles Chart, so how it never got play here I cannot say. Definitely a very strong song in itself, with dynamic vocals against a keyboard-heavy blend of music.
About a decade later, however, it was produced as ‘The Thunder in Our Hearts’ remix by Steve Anderson and released by DMC, introducing a new almost-dance beat while still retaining the breezy mood of the original. It’s not really clubby in my opinion, even though the basic elements are there, but it’s become even richer with added harmonics and subtleties.
Now, there’s always a problem with musical taste, and that’s perspective. Aside from the influence of what anyone has grown up with, which is reputed to dictate their tastes, it also depends on what order one experiences the songs, so I’m taking a chance here with anyone that is not familiar with the original version. It’s just music though, so if you don’t like it, oh well.
I would link to the video, but the only official version is for the original release of the song, and what exists for this remixed version are remixes of that video, not very well done, or just a still image of the 12″ vinyl itself. So, only audio this time.
Save a Prayer (Thunder in our Hearts mix) – Duran Duran
(If you’re curious about why I would feature a song of this title with all the other content on this blog, that last line might have helped a little, but actually I don’t care too much when the music’s solid. If you think about it though, the lyrics also imply that, come the next morning, the prayer might seem hypocritical. This may be intentional – Simon Le Bon is a self-described “concerned agnostic.”)
The original song and video can be found here, from a familiar director – this was among the first of the ‘exotic locale’ videos in the early days of the medium, and shows some nice visuals from Sri Lanka, as well as the painfully inappropriate white Crockettubbs jackets and a mercifully brief pan pipe sequence.
If you handled that video, there’s also ‘Night Boat‘ – a bit too much pretty-boy stuff, but remember, this was in the days of the hair bands, and pretty tame in comparison. I can appreciate the approach to camera angle, though…