Discord & Rhyme: An Album Podcast

Discord and Rhyme is a podcast where we discuss the albums we love, song by song.

038 (feat. Libby Cudmore): Duran Duran - Rio (1982)

"I feel sorry for the ’90s, because it was never able to be anything much more than the hangover to the party that was the ’80s.”

—Simon Le Bon

HO-HO-HO, we’re HU-HU-HUNGRY like the wolf! Discord & Rhyme has held off on its namesake album for far too long, so Rich, Amanda, Phil, and returning guest Libby Cudmore are throwing a festive ‘80s holiday party with Duran Duran’s 1982 album Rio. The British music and fashion press were obsessed with the emerging glitter-and-puffy-shirts New Romantic scene when Duran Duran first hit the stage with their self-titled debut in 1981. The quintet was immediately branded as a “haircut band” and written off by the critical elite, and a series of exotic videos filmed in Antigua and Sri Lanka only reinforced this vapid public image. But Rich argues that their second album Rio, recorded during a hot streak for the band, is musically sophisticated, artistically triumphant, and makes for a fun discussion with some mulled wine. 

Miscellany

  • Discord & Rhyme welcomes back Libby Cudmore of the OST Party and Shattered Shield podcasts; she previously joined us to discuss Wild Planet by the B-52s. Rich actually first reached out to Libby because her novel The Big Rewind repeatedly references Rio and The Shield. (Technical note: There were a few tiny glitches with Libby’s audio file, but nothing game-breaking.)

  • Rio contains multitudes, so we didn’t even get the chance to talk about its famous cover. The cover was illustrated by late Playboy artist Patrick Nagel, whose style involved deconstructing photographs into stylized portraits, and was designed by Malcolm Garrett.

  • Duran Duran didn’t spend much time on boats in the early days, but that had changed by 1985, when Simon Le Bon’s vessel capsized during a yacht race off England’s southwestern coast. The incident was quite traumatic for Le Bon, who recounted it in 2018 for this CNN article.

  • We mentioned an abandoned Second Life world in passing, which is a reference to Duran Duran Universe, the band’s actual abandoned Second Life universe. Kotaku wrote a good piece on it, and as of this episode it’s still there, if you want to visit it.

  • Duran Duran’s harmless publicity stunts are a big part of the fun with the band, actually. Just this last summer, in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the moon landing, they performed a concert at NASA featuring 300 drones and a 40-piece choir and orchestra, the setlist featuring songs such as “New Moon on Monday,” “Astronaut” and “Planet Earth.”

  • Special thanks to our oratory pinch-hitter John McFerrin for the opening reading, honed through years of reading bedtime stories to his children in ridiculous voices.

  • Correction: The instrument that we called a vibraphone on “Last Chance on the Stairway” is actually a marimba, played ably by Nick Rhodes. 

Other links 

Discord & Rhyme Roll Call 

  • Rich Bunnell (host)

  • Amanda Rodgers (moderator)

  • Phil Maddox

  • Libby Cudmore (special guest)

  • Mike DeFabio (guest appearance)

  • John McFerrin (guest appearance) 

Rio tracklist 

  1. Rio

  2. My Own Way

  3. Lonely in Your Nightmare

  4. Hungry Like the Wolf

  5. Hold Back the Rain

  6. New Religion

  7. Last Chance on the Stairway

  8. Save a Prayer

  9. The Chauffeur 

Other clips used

Duran Duran:

  • Electric Barbarella

  • I Don’t Want Your Love (Shep Pettibone Mix)

  • Playing with Uranium

  • See Me, Repeat Me

  • My Own Way (single mix)

  • The Reflex (Nile Rodgers Mix)

  • The Wild Boys

  • Nite-Runner

  • Girl Panic! 

Others:

  • Vitamin String Quartet - Hungry Like the Wolf

  • Aurora (ft. Naimee Coleman) - Ordinary World

  • TV Eye - Stevie’s Radio Station

  • Chic - My Forbidden Lover

  • Roxy Music - Virginia Plain

  • The Hollyridge Strings - Jingle Bells/Jingle Bell Rock

  • They Might Be Giants - Spiraling Shape

  • Spandau Ballet - True

  • R.E.M. - Laughing

  • Japan - Talking Drum

  • Phil Collins - In the Air Tonight

  • Eurythmics - Here Comes the Rain Again

  • Pink Floyd - Shine On You Crazy Diamond Part I-V

  • David Bowie - Stay

  • Kendrick Lamar - Swimming Pools (Drank)

  • Afrika Bambaataa and the Soulsonic Force - Planet Rock

  • The Moody Blues - Meet Me Halfway

Songs we mentioned but didn’t clip 

Duran Duran:

  • 911 Is a Joke (Public Enemy cover)

  • Pressure Off

  • New Moon on Monday

  • Is There Something I Should Know?

  • Notorious

  • Come Undone

  • Ordinary World 

Others:

  • The Barbarians - Are You a Boy or Are You a Girl

  • Tracy Chapman - Fast Car

  • XTC - Pink Thing

  • Frank Churchill and Larry Morey - Heigh-Ho

  • Boston - Amanda

  • Soul Coughing - Super Bon Bon

  • John Williams - Ewok Celebration

  • The Who - See Me, Feel Me

  • Emerson, Lake & Palmer - Take a Pebble

  • Megadeth - Peace Sells … But Who’s Buying?

  • Bonnie Tyler - Total Eclipse of the Heart

  • Dire Straits - Money for Nothing

  • They Might Be Giants - S-E-X-X-Y

  • Weezer - No One Else

  • Kajagoogoo - Too Shy

  • They Might Be Giants - XTC vs. Adam Ant

  • Mark Ronson (ft. Bruno Mars) - Uptown Funk!

  • The B-52s - Give Me Back My Man

  • Savage Garden - I Want You

  • Billy Joel - Uptown Girl

  • Dolly Parton - Jolene

  • Dolly Parton - I Will Always Love You

  • Neil Young and Crazy Horse - Cinnamon Girl

  • Black Sabbath - Paranoid

  • The Beatles - Yesterday

  • Thomas Dolby - She Blinded Me with Science

  • Michael Jackson - Billie Jean

  • Culture Club - Do You Really Want to Hurt Me?

  • The Pretenders - Back on the Chain Gang

  • Styx - Mr. Roboto

  • Emerson, Lake & Palmer - Karn Evil 9: 1st Impression, Part 2

  • Def Leppard - Hysteria

  • Pink Floyd - Goodbye Blue Sky

  • Backstreet Boys - Quit Playing Games (With My Heart)

  • Boyz II Men - End of the Road

  • 2gether - U + Me = Us (Calculus)

  • Roxy Music - In Every Dream Home a Heartache

  • Yes - Tempus Fugit

  • Deftones - The Chauffeur

  • Iggy Pop - The Passenger

  • Oasis - D’You Know What I Mean?

  • Fleetwood Mac - Tusk

  • The Moody Blues - So Deep Within You

  • The Moody Blues - Your Wildest Dreams

  • The Grateful Dead - Truckin’

Band/album personnel 

  • Simon Le Bon – lead vocals, vibraphone on "New Religion", ocarina on "The Chauffeur"

  • Nick Rhodes – keyboards, synthesizers, marimba, sound effects, backing vocals on "Last Chance on the Stairway"

  • John Taylor – bass guitar, backing vocals

  • Andy Taylor – guitars, backing vocals

  • Roger Taylor – drums, percussion

  • Andy Hamilton – tenor saxophone on "Rio"

  • Colin Thurston – production and engineering

  • Renate – technician

Credits 

“Discord & Rhyme (theme),” composed by the Other Leading Brand, contains elements of: 

  • Amon Düül II - Dehypnotized Toothpaste

  • The Dukes of Stratosphear - What in the World?? ...

  • Faith No More - Midlife Crisis

  • Herbie Hancock - Hornets

  • Kraftwerk - Autobahn

  • Talking Heads - Seen and Not Seen

  • Duran Duran - Save a Prayer (this episode only) 

You can buy or stream Rio and other albums by Duran Duran at Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, Amazon [affiliate link], and any number of other retailers. Follow Discord & Rhyme on Twitter @DiscordPod for news, updates, and other music stuff that strikes our fancy, often/usually related to the Moody Blues. Editing is by Rich Bunnell, and special thanks to Mike DeFabio for production and original music. See you next album, have a very happy new year, and be ever wonderful.

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