.Duran Duran and CHIC crossed paths several times. At various times Duran Duran explained their sound as "CHIC meets the Sex Pistols" or "CHIC meets James Bond". As Lady Interference notes
John practically worshipped Chic and their basslines made him switch over from regular guitar to bass. And also, here's a little quote from my personal fave, Nick Rhodes, from the DD "Behind the Music": "Yeah, Nile's got the funk." :)
See the pic of John Taylor and Nile Rodgers from Nile's web site.
Duran Duran took the "machine tooled" current in CHIC's music into mega-bombastic production excess in the 1980's. But Nile Rodgers stayed involved. He produced the "Wild Boys" song, which was included on Duran Duran's 1984 live album "Arena". With long-time CHIC engineer Jason Corsaro, he also did the mixing on "Arena"s version of Duran Duran's killer "The Reflex" single (originally produced by Rick Sadkin, Ian Little, and Duran Duran). This version of "The Reflex" is the quintessential '80's track. It means CHIC not only had the biggest-selling single in the history of Atlantic Records ("Le Freak"), but also one of the biggest-selling singles of the '80's (Reflex spent 15 weeks at #1 in 1984, the pinnacle of the golden age).
Later Nile Rodgers produced the entire "Notorious" album for one half of Duran Duran, which has some similarities with his production of Bowie's "Let's Dance" album -- the dry sound, muted brass, and echo-y keyboards.
"Wild Boys", "The Reflex", and "Notorious" and
"Skin Trade" from "Notorious" are all on Duran Duran's excellent
"Decade" compilation. Hear and buy it at .
All the currents came together when Bernard Edwards,
the other half of CHIC, produced Duran Duran's "A View to a Kill"
for the James Bond movie of the same name, with
John Barry (composer of the legendary 007 theme riffs) doing the orchestration.
The only thing missing was Johnny Rotten as James Bond instead of clowning Roger
Moore ;-)
After Duran Duran parted, Tony Thompson joined John Taylor and Andy Taylor, plus long-time English vocalist Robert Palmer to form the heavy "Power Station" supergroup. I think Bernard Edwards produced it. Or something -- the dog ate my copy of "Power Station".
S Page, last updated February 5, 2000