Re: Today's unnecessarily snotty retro musing/riddle

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/06/2021 11:26PM by That One Guy.

I thought expertise was down to the 1000 hour paradigm. They barely got close enough to striking distance of "Quiet Life" to almost qualify as a parody. "Polaroids?" Never in a million years!

Former TP subscriber [81, 82, 83, 84]

[postpunkmonk.com]
For further rumination on the Fresh New Sound of Yesterday®

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/06/2021 11:26PM by That One Guy.

I won’t argue the similarity you hear… although I never really connected the two. Sure I now hear the elements in the guitar, but the Japan track is much more slinky while Duran is in your face.

We can’t slag off Duran and bemoan Japan wallowing in relative obscurity. The Rio era was undeniable. It was a confluence of terrific looks and clothes, incredibly catchy songs, fantastic video images and willingness to appeal to teenage girls. How could they have known they’d be SO big?

John Taylor could’ve played a much more simplistic bass line in ‘Rio’. Nick Rhodes could’ve phoned in the keyboards in ‘save a prayer’. But they didn’t….

Both are probably robbing Roxy more than a little….?

I can’t make this up….

Last night I’m washing dishes, probably an hour after I posted. I decide to listen to an episode of the Gary Kemp/Guy Pratt podcast ‘Rockontours’ on a whim. I decide to listen to their Joe Elliot interview on a whim.

Joe brings up how Duran was influenced by Japan!

(Joe is truly a fan of Brit glam and it’s fun to hear his history… other tidbits: def Lep once opened for human league!).



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/06/2021 07:39PM by Bip.

I heartily agree with Bip. One can criticize Duran Duran as a derivative band, but every artist "derives" from someone else, whether they admit it or not. No one creates in a vacuum.

Give Duran credit for beating the sophomore slump. Their first album had a few good songs, but at most, it felt like just that -- a collection of songs. Still, a good debut album. Rio, on the other hand, is nothing short of a classic. Great production, improved playing, and a superb collection of songs from start to finish. When I play Rio, I never even consider skipping a track. The album flows beautifully, start to finish. Some say that the group hit it big more on their looks, fashion sense and videos than their music, but IMO, those people are quite mistaken. Rio is one of my favorite albums from that era, and it has stood the test of time. (I guess one could say, though, that Duran experienced the "junior slump" with Seven and the Ragged Tiger.)

As for Japan, yeah, they started out deriving from the Dolls, and then shifted the focus of their derivation to Roxy. (I've lost count of how many people I've played Japan for, who commented in one way or another to David Sylvian's resemblance to Bryan Ferry.) But hey, who cares what sources an artist "derives" from, as long as they deliver the goods.

Rio is definitely Duran Duran's finest achievement. "The Chauffeur" still takes my breath away.

I agree that no one creates in a vacuum. I'm reminded of Wilde's observation in one of his short stories that "Influence is simply transference of personality," and that "Every disciple takes away something from his master."

Japan's Steve Jansen, incidentally, has acknowledged that Roxy's "Manifesto was something of a musical backdrop throughout the writing/recording of Quiet Life."

I haven't listened to Duran Duran since I was a teen in the '80s. But I just listened to "The Chauffeur," and that was a really good piece of stripped-down pop a la Japan's "Ghosts."

I've made a bunch a instrumental playlists for WFH purposes. The most recent one has Tel Aviv on it. It's a good tune. I can imagine it being sampled.

Is it a glitch, or has That One Guy deleted all the posts he ever made on this site?

If he did, I wonder why? I don't think he ever even got his ears pinned back by STEVE*, a rite of passage which led more than a few people to avail themselves of the ejector seat from this board back in the day, before he mellowed with time.

(*Not stevee, in case the distinction needs making. I don't think stevee would ever rain hellfire on some poor sap for being a fan of latter-day Billy Idol, for instance.)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/07/2021 01:07PM by breno.

Huh. Well, Nephew Ned did that, and he returned. You can leave One Guy but our irresistible charms will lure you back!

I don't think Ned ever attempted to delete his entire interaction with this site, though, as That Guy seems to have done (unless, as I said before, some sort of weird glitch caused every post he ever made to be deleted a couple days ago.)

People have left in a huff before and called everyone here a bunch of jerks on their way out the door, or have announced their departure due to fatigue with the entire business of being an obsessive music nerd (Nosepail springs to mind.) More often than not, they just disappear and leave it up to everyone else to eventually notice they've gone (good old' Erik, and the aforementioned Ned.)

But this is the first time that I know of where someone has apparently attempted to scrub their entire history from this site, which I find curious, as I don't recall them ever posting anything that would need erasing. Heck, not even the person who argued in favor of incest re: John & MacKenzie Phillips went to that extreme. They just kind of quietly went away shortly after that exchange, somewhat understandably.

I feel compelled to apologize to anyone that I ever insulted on this board. I am embarrassed to read most of my older posts, as they reveal a very immature stage of my personality.

Don't get me wrong, I would never want to "wipe them off" the site though. Because they serve as a reminder of the tolerance and good nature you great bunch of fellas showed towards me when I least deserved it.

Awww, Steve ... as far as I'm concerned, there's no need to be too harsh on yourself. In the big picture, it's all good. I've been posting to this board for over 15 years, and I can remember quite a few rude posts I've made over the years. (I don't care to go back and review them all, or even very many of them.)

Remember, you stayed up late (even taking into account a three-hour time zone difference!) to listen to my debut broadcast on KSER. And you called me at the station right afterward, to congratulate me and talk about the show. If I was ever miffed by you, that supportive, caring act more than made up for it. Cheers, man.

It's all good, STEVE. Most everyone here understood your wavelength and knew there was nothing personal in any of it. There was just this bear in the woods that every so often would emerge and roar. Maybe a few timid tourists would flee, but everyone else knew he was just letting everyone know he had some extra salmon back in his cave if anybody wanted dinner.

Glad you're in a place where you're happier with yourself now. The fact that you want to make amends for any past behavior is just indicative of who you were all along.

I remember once I let loose a shitstorm on Erik, of all people - the nicest, most rational guy on the planet - for some incredibly inane reason. I think maybe he'd said something critical about Rob Sheffield that I didn't agree with, which makes it even worse, considering I'm generally apathetic about Sheffield - no issues with the guy, but the only book of his I own a copy of is Love Is a Mixtape, which I have still never read. I was just in a mood. Fortunately, I think I managed to go back an edit it to something more sane before Erik ever saw it, and I don't think it's why Erik eventually wandered away from this board. Anyhow, we all have our moments.

Can't pretend that I wasn't entertained by the STEVE v Shizzle era.

Agreed - this board would not have been the same without STEVE's inimitable contributions over the years! I even kinda miss those late Friday semi-nonsensical posts from him. You're a treasure, STEVE, and don't ever think anything different.

I do remember a couple of times Paganzier went off on me about something, but he's made some invaluable contributions too. Indeed, I wish he showed up a little more of late.

Was That One Guy ever really here?

Former TP subscriber [81, 82, 83, 84]

[postpunkmonk.com]
For further rumination on the Fresh New Sound of Yesterday®

What they said, STEVE. For every cranky thing you may have sent my way, you sent several more nice - even flattering - things. Some of the nicest things ever said about me here actually. So stick around, please?



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 10/29/2021 12:23PM by MrFab.

The turn this thread took (which was quite nice, actually) made me do something I’d never done before… go back and look at some of the initial posts here in the site’s first few years.

Pretty impressed how long some of you have been active here! ( I won’t name names, you know who you are). I was almost fifteen years late to the party.

The posts tend to be a little more ‘quippy’ then. Maybe a little more sarcastic and snarky, but also with intentional humor— and most good humor tends to be edgy on some level.

It was just a brief cursory read, but I didn’t see any social injustices from anyone! Some really terrific thread ideas, actually….ones I wish I would’ve thought of. I decided not to resurrect them.

I have to admit that I lurked for a little while on the site before finally posting. I think I wanted to avoid being shot-down by those more knowledgeable than me? I know now that I was being foolish, and have never felt judged here (except for with a really good sense of humor). Always fun to visit here.

This thread would make a really good holiday movie on the Hallmark channel!

> This thread would make a really good holiday movie
> on the Hallmark channel!

Really? With no women on this board? Please be serious.

> This thread would make a really good holiday movie
> on the Hallmark channel!

Really? With no women on this board? Please be serious.

Hmmm, I suppose you’re right….but heart-warming none the less. Or is that heart burn? A heart murmur? Ulcer? Botulism??

What an amazing lot you all are; all better now. Thank you very much.

BIP's point is well taken, that being, "it's time for us to kill our televisions"