Duran Duran Fits In Just Fine on Planet Earth

MTV and Duran Duran were a match made in music video heaven. The five really knew how to dress to impress for success. I doubt Duran Duran would have been quite the juggernaut it became without their fashion savvy videos. You didn't just watch a bunch of drool worthy Brits strut their stuff, you got a backstage pass into their New Romantic way of life. Seeing their videos is like taking an exotic vacation without leaving your armchair. As my way of saluting Earth Day I'd like to express a few sentiments about the first song to make a splash in the band's home stomping grounds, "Planet Earth". At this point MTV was still well into its infancy. The canvas was blank. The world was indeed brave and new. Artists made vids on what would appear to be shoestring budgets and, while cheesier than a pack of Kraft American Singles, they got the artists' names vaulted to the forefront of public imagination. "Planet Earth", the video, keeps it fairly straightforward. Simon LeBon, Nick Rhodes, John Taylor, Andy Taylor, and Roger Taylor are in the process of driving girls crazy from high atop a towering block of ice. They are the boys Mom wouldn't mind seeing her daughter bring home. Earth-appropriate snippets of info about life on Earth such as what's the ratio of men to women living on our planet materialize IBM style on the screen. The song itself is a pretty snazzy debut. John's bass playing stuns much like the Romeo himself. Nick Rhodes frosts up the atmosphere with whipped cream light keyboards. It's those keyboards that give the song an aura that allows it to levitate a little ways above the Earth conceptually. Roger's drumming is sharp, never lagging behind the swagger of his other bandmates. Where John's bass tingles with sexual heat, Andy's alto guitar cries out with some heart-rending pathos, a loosely defined hint of human touch being omitted from the mix by forces lacking a scapegoat identity. Let's face it, many women of the day would've sold their souls to get their mitts on any one of the Duran dudes. Methinks Simon was first choice. There's a lot of impact behind a song fixated on two souls trying to break through to each other. "Look now, look all around, there's no sign of life. Voices, another sound, can you hear me now? This is planet earth, you're looking at planet earth". Two people reaching for other, hoping that they can make a connection without that damned ozone getting in the way. If you sell people, places, and things in nifty packages, chances are the masses will at least stop to sniff the merchandise. "Planet Earth" was Duran Duran's first persuasive argument that they were sniff worthy. The song still holds up astoundingly well today. The danger, the unspoken romance, the dashing trousers. It was all there for viewers to unwrap and they did so with the razor sharp focus of a four year old tearing open his Xmas booty. Duran Duran knew about booty long before it became a regular focal point in hip hop parlance.  "Planet Earth" was phase one of what would ultimately be Duran Duran's '80s domination.