By 1982, due to the perfect storm of their photogenic appearance and their top of the form music videos at exactly the right moment in time, this would-be cult band [with a lower case “c”] who wanted nothing more than to be like their heroes, JAPAN, were catapulted to the forefront of top 40 charts the world over. The first album was a non-starter in America, but thanks to MTV saturation [it was invented for heavy rotation clips like “Hungry Like The Wolf,” I swear…] their second album eventually ignited even in the notoriously backward looking US charts, and I was treated to the uncanny spectacle of Duran Duran becoming stars in America with material I was fully behind. A novelty!
“Rio” sold like hotcakes, and eventually, even America bought the reissued first album with the new hit single, “Is There Something I Should Know,” appended to it…in heaping bucketloads. As the summer of 1983 turned to fall, EMI/Capitol Records were probably gnawing their nails to the quick awaiting the moment that their first single from album number three would drop. The band had all eyes on them as they recorded in a furious cloud of activity with Alex Sadkin, late of Grace Jones’ “Nightclubbing” opus, producing. Would they connect with the ball?
Duran Duran: Union Of The Snake – US – 12″ [1983]
- Union Of The Snake [The Monkey Mix] 6:22
- Union Of the Snake [7″ ver.] 4:20
- Secret Oktober 2:44
I’ll never forget the first time I heard the single. One of my friends was in the throes of Duran Duran obsession and she made sure to buy the single on import as soon as it was in the record store where she worked. Getting the déclassé US edition would not be happening. That store had the absolute best import selection in Central Florida so she actually managed to get one. I can’t say I’ve ever seen the UK 12″ since the US version was beyond ubiquitous and I can’t imagine many were exported.
When I heard it for the first time on a tape in her car, I was… non-plussed. The group had obviously been listening hard to that year’s top selling David Bowie album as the swing horn hooks of “Let’s Dance” [albeit from a synthesizer] were crudely grafted on to the overegged, multi-layer cake of the song. One that threatened to topple over from the excessive fondant icing slathered over the proceedings.
The “Monkey Mix” was closer to the dub mix ethos that had held over from “Is There Something I Should Know,” with the vocals minimized to the point of a single verse making its appearance at the 4:30 mark in the 6:27 song. This song takes the cake for the most percussive Duran Duran song ever, as it’s full to the brim with all manner of clicks, trills, and plenty of temple block abuse. Less impressive was the song’s nearly formless middle eight which was a wordless stew of skyrocketing guitar riffs and synths wooshing into the stratosphere in an empty spectacle as saxophonist Andy Hamilton tried in vain to hold it together with some semblance of melody weaving through the chaos [with cowbell] of it all.
I’d say that I preferred the “Monkey Mix” but it also featured the excesive repetition of the strident chorus that lasted for almost a minute on the fade. Both the 7″ and 12″ could have been at least 45 seconds shorter if anyone had asked me. The crunch chords of Andy Taylor’s guitar held court with LeBon’s isolated BVs in the more sparse “Monkey Mix” which allowed us to hear the bass guitar more readily. It’s always a good thing when one can actually hear John Taylor’s rather spirited bass work in this band! But even Andy Taylor got the benefit of a mix with more spaciousness to it. I’m almost enjoying the 12″ version after 40 years of indifference at the time of this writing!
One could almost smell the patchouli wafting off of “Secret Oktober” with its demure finger cymbals and drum machine groove shot through with synths on delay. Simon LeBon’s doubled vocals added the right touch of mystery to the practically Persian delights of this delicate confection. I can’t say that Duran Duran ever topped the sheer , alien beauty that emanated from this song in thick waves, but at least they came close with songs like “Breath After Breath.”
I’ve heard that this one was thrown together in the last 24 hours after completing the album mix for “Seven + The Ragged Tiger” as alchemists Nick and Simon turned the lead of the turgid “Ragged Tiger” sessions into the gold of this song. It doesn’t sound as if anyone else from the band were in the studio when it was committed to tape and I’d be paying good money for a lot more where this came from if only Nick Rhodes would deign to gift us with more of its kind. I get the impression that all of his extracurricular activities from Double Duran tend to be bloodlessly cold chunks of conceptual art when he obviously has a facility to craft something far more beautiful. If I’m wrong in my assumption, someone please set me straight in the comments.
This single and album were where I got off of the Duran Duran train for a few years. Rejoining with the high water mark of “Notorious” at the behest of my [wise] friend Mr. Ware for what has amounted to a wild and woolly ride through highs and lows like few I’ve seen before from a single band. Not unlike the offerings of this surprisingly representational single.
-30-
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Post-Punk Monk 
You are so right on this – it was also the point I was over them – the first two albums are just superb. I do love Notorious, however… but nothing since. I thought that 7 was overwrought, overblown and it was also the point at which Le Bon’s vocals really started to set my teeth on edge. They spent far too long making this album in Sydney Australia, months if I recall correctly, and I’m not sure why as Sydney was a cultural hell hole then (and is still now, to be honest) and not conducive at all to a paradigm shift or a showcase of their talents. I heard they just clocked on and off every day and it was like a job and it sounds like it. 7 needed better decision-making and judgement – less following the trends and more being who they are – which Japan did and never wavered.
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G-Man – Welcome to the comments! I think you have something there with LeBon’s vocals setting one’s teeth on edge. He never met a pitch he couldn’t ignore. Not that I need dull as dishwater professional singers, but he tends to try to leap beyond his range. I actually love the much reviled “Red Carpet Massacre;” primarily for the novelty of him actually singing in is range for once! He sounds great to me for a change. Either that or the AutoTune technician did a bang up job on that album.
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Spot on…they just went boring after Rio. Now that foray as Arcadia is fine music….
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Deserat – If you think about it long enough, “Secret Oktober” seems like a demo for the Arcadia project, albeit without the array of guest artist firepower!
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I think ‘Secret Oktober’ is probably their finest b-side. It’s certainly too good to have just been the flip side to ‘Union…’
I didn’t discover it until about 89/90 when I finally bought the 12”, until then I tended to just get albums before I realised what I was missing out upon with single b-sides (of a lot of artists)
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mod3red – Welcome to the comments! It’s never too late to get swept up into the world of non-LP B-sides!
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This single was so poor I really hated it when it arrived, I never bothered to get the Album or any Album of them afterwards, also there where some singular songs which still showed some of the original spirit (The Wild Boys, A View To A Kill) they lost me cemented with the equally poor New Moon On Monday.
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slur – All of the singles from SATRT were poor… and there were precious few deep cuts to come to our rescue! “The Reflex” was worst of all with Nile Rogers actually emphasizing that oh so annoying vocal hook! And maybe part of what made this album so turgid was Mr. Rhodes getting mired down in Fairlight issues. Issues which were the undoing of many a band in the day.
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Thank you! The Reflex was crap (though a perfect bathroom break song if seeing them live) & I jumped off the DD train & rejoined at the same points as you.
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uofsc93 – Nice to know that “The Reflex” has a purpose!
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> All of the singles from SATRT were poor…
For decades, I’ve been saying that if tweaked and beefed up mixes of “Of Crime and Passion”, “I Take the Dice” and “Shadows on your Side” had been the singles, we’d be judging this record a lot less harshly today. Take those three, add “Tiger Tiger” and “Seventh Stranger” and you’ve got the makings of a pretty good record… padded out with “filler” like the three tunes that were bafflingly selected as singles in reality.
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JT – Ah, beefed up mixes of those three, which I can’t even remember. I’ll have to revisit to to comment further. Meanwhile I consider “Seventh Stranger” the only good tune on the album in its original form by my reckoning. The fussiness of SATRT seemed to point to where Arcadia ended up going, but with much better songs in the can! As well as a million dollar budget where you can hear every cent. The year that DD blew up left little to no time to gestate material, and that was perhaps the fatal flaw exposed for that album. Perhaps we can agree that they were promoting the hell out of “Rio” and hit the brick wall when push came to shove for the follow up. Not forgetting that they also recorded “Is There Something I should Know” as well as reactivated the 1st album with it added for America during that interim! Maybe it’s a small miracle that SATRT wasn’t even worse?
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I was in my last year of high school and liked Duran Duran as much as Weird Al. This one became The Onion on the Steak, a companion to Billy Joel’s Upchuck Now, both odes to cafeteria food.
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Tim – I knew there was a reason why I liked the cut of your jib so much! Like many commenters here we would have gravitated into the same pack in high school under different circumstances… and if I were two years younger.
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I don’t remember my lyrics much to Onion on the Steak but I bet I could reiterate Upchuck Now off the top of my head.
Dr. Demento, Weird Al, thanks for being a friend.
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Tim – I’m a Dementite from waaay back.
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So glad you wrote about the magic gem “Secret Oktober”. When it came out as the b-side to “Union of the Snake” it hit the radio stations in Detroit and instantly became my favorite Duran Duran song (a very crowded category). It came out weeks before the Seven and the Ragged Tiger album, so even though it was a b-side the radio stations were playing it for us fans.
Secret Oktober is a perfect execution of atmosphere. The fixed drum rhythms against those moody, exotic synths whispering like echoes of a foreign land. And Simon’s lyrics take you on a trip into your misty imagination. It’s a short, experimental song, but it’s a tour de force. For me that became the musical blueprint of the kind of band I desparately wanted to form. I had heady ideas of an outfit that was just synth, drums, vocals, and bass guitar (because I was a bassist). Ironically, my first band was instead the complete opposite; a very garagey Bauhaus and Cure cover band. Not a synth in sight because no one we knew had of those magical machines. But plenty of “Bela Lugosi” and “Kick in the “Eye”!
I’ve got to differ with the group here on Seven and the Ragged Tiger, which did not let me down. For me it was the perfect third album. Duran Duran did not let me down until Liberty. And yeah, after that they started the cycle of albums of varying quality. Great ones interspersed with some shocking clunkers. Well, even Bowie put out some clunkers (the slump between the magical Let’s Dance album and return to form with Tin Machine was a long, cold one).
But god, I still love Duran Duran and the fact that they’re still together and a relevant musical force all these decades later is right as rain.
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hi mr monk,
dissenting opinion here.
for me, union of the snake was also considered peak duran duran.
the video was classic exotic imagery. the instruments, vocals,
at atmosphere all work well together.
and on a historical note. this was the very first 12 inch i have ever bought.
with my own allowance, i bought it as soon as it came out, and this,
along with the dekadance EP by inxs, is what started my journey of
buying several thousand 12 inches to this day. i am still buying duran
items as we speak, and only recently got the UK 12 inch version (now i
have 3 copies) of this single, along with 7 inch, and the netherlands pressing
with the free flexi, and of course the US 7 and 12 too.
i think the remix is fantastic, started with the ghostly acappella,
and the various breakdowns of the instruments. loved the shimmering
keyboards, and the bass which is a classic. i played this single so many
times, it might be my most played 12 inch, up there with simple minds,
abc, new order and tears for fears.
the b-side however, was a letdown, short, and devoid of what most
duran songs are. it was repetitive, monotonic and lacked their usual trademarks.
the howling of the chorus really sunk it for me, which was quite annoying.
i rarely played it, if ever, and even now, hardly remember it.
anyhow, its great to look back at union of the snake, and the album to me is
their 3rd best. it was very good, but not great. i played it quite often,
and enjoyed most of the songs on it, even the original reflex, before
it remixed to its stuttering conclusion. the big disappointment was
new moon on monday 12 inch, which basically threw in an instrumental
intro. the videos were very creative and iconic though.
to me, this would be their last great album, as i gave up on them
going in different directions after that, and power station and
arcadia which had some good singles, but not the staying power
or the sound that interested me either.
with all that said i will be seeing duran duran in concert soon, and while
none of the late 80’s or beyond songs will be of interest. i look forward
to them playing the earlier hits, which is what drew me to them in
the first place.
later
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ne gative 1
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hi mr monk,
as you probably know by now. danse macabre is the new single from them for the halloween project album. with returning members warren cuccurilo, and andy taylor on the album too.
there are several variations and releases of the album coming, and also a bluray atomos mix exclusive to superdeluxedition.
but you’ll be happy to know that they are redoing secret oktober 31st – as a new version. so you might eventually want to check it out.
Nightboat
Black Moonlight *
Love Voudou
Bury A Friend (Billie Eilish cover)
Supernature (Cerrone cover)
Danse Macabre *
Secret Oktober 31st
Ghost Town (Specials cover)
Paint It Black (Rolling Stones cover)
Super Lonely Freak (Duran/Rick James mash-up)
Spellbound (Siouxsie & the Banshees cover)
Psycho Killer (Talking Heads cover)
Confession in the Afterlife *
*original songs
later
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ne gative 1
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negative1ne – Actually, this was news to me as I spent all of last night diagnosing why my hot water heater was giving scalding hot 150 degree output at its hottest setting. I think the top thermostat is at fault. So Duran Duran are having another “cover album,” for the most part. I’m worried. This never works out well for them. I still haven’t heard the last album, which got a fairly good consensus of opinion. All in due time, I guess.
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hi mr monk,
i have no doubt this will be thank you 2. but hey, can it do even more damage to their reputation at this point. they really dont have anything to lose.
i dont hate the band, because i still buy their albums, and singles. but i’m not necessarily a fan of it. but i will give it their due to listen to it first, before relegating it to the ‘pop’ trash heap of history.
later
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n egative 1
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negative1ne – At least this will be the zany album to sport both of their main guitarists. I really liked Cucurullo’s contributions.
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hi mr monk,
many of these songs were already played in a one off halloween concert from 2022 in las vegas:
Night Boat
Hungry Like the Wolf
Invisible
Paint It Black (The Rolling Stones cover)
Union of the Snake
Love Voodoo (First since 2017)
Ghost Town (The Specials cover)
Secret Oktober (First since 2011)
Lonely in Your Nightmare / Super Freak
Supernature (Cerrone cover)
Planet Earth (With band intros)
Shadows on Your Side (First since 2011)
Friends of Mine
Careless Memories
Spellbound (Siouxsie and the Banshees cover)
Encore:
A View to a Kill
Psycho Killer (Talking Heads cover)
The Wild Boys
you can find these on ewwwtube,
and the setlist from setlist . fm
later
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ne gative 1
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Really enjoying the new seasonally themed album.
There’s a reworking of Secret Oktober on it that is quite nice and a lot of covers and retreads of their own music.
How will your mileage on it run?
It the thought of DD covering Psycho Killer or Ghost Town fills you with dread you probably want to stay away. If you think of DD covering these and think, well this could be fun, you’ll probably find it to be fun. I am enjoying what I listened to today while waiting to pick up my son from school before we saw the FNAF movie.
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Tim – What is FNAF? And the notion of DuranDuran covering anything fills me with dread.
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The Psycho Killer cover is… not bad? I like it well enough. the Ghost Town cover is just sacrilegious imho. I’ll have to dive in deeper later
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I’m loving the album start to end. It’s FUN.
FNAF – Five Nights at Freddies, a movie that came out based on a videogame my son likes. He’s been counting down the days to this for a year. I read bad things, went in with low expectations and was pleasantly surprised. The audience cheered and clapped when the credits rolled, haven’t seen that in a theater in a long time.
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Tim – Sometimes the audience makes a film. I’ve never had so much fun in a theater as we did with “Little Miss Sunshine,” and a lot of that wasn’t just Alan Arkin. The audience response was also a factor.
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The Ghost Town cover sounds to me like something I may have heard at a county fair when I was growing up. Not as sinister as the Specials version, more playful.
The Supernature cover…..I can’t say I like it more than Erasure’s take on it but TBH it’s probably going to get listened to more than theirs.
Guess we shouldn’t tell PPM they make a medley out of Save a Prayer and Super Freak. That’s gonna go down a freaking storm live.
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