Hard to believe that it has been nearly 30 years since Duran Duran created such a stylish, erotic buzz with the single "Hungry Like the Wolf" and its accompanying video. As a horny youngster, I relished fantasizing about nubile, young island girls stalking me as they did the dude in the video. MTV ran that damn video into the ground, but I found myself drawn to it each and every time it came on.
Along with bands like Spandau Ballet and ABC, Duran Duran were described as "New Romantics," which I guess meant the band members dressed too well to be punks and they actually wanted to make money. Well, singer Simon Le Bon, along with John and Andy Taylor, did indeed proceed to make beaucoup cash while rarely deviating from a friendly style of new wave and rock that required little thinking—but they always looked marvelous on video.
This stuff might have had a hint of provocative danger in the early '80s, but with the arrival of grunge in the '90s, bands like Duran Duran were already hitting the oldies circuit. Surprisingly, the band's audience has remained consistent even when the recorded work was decidedly not so steady. Numerous personnel changes and various (as well as dubious) side projects kept the band in and (mostly) out of the limelight. Still looking quite dashing at 50, Le Bon should lead this classic version of the line-up through all the hits and misses, thrilling a large collection of MILFs, at least for a couple of hours, on a school night.
