Whether you liked it or not, in 1982 the British pop world was in thrall to the New Romantics. Perhaps the musicians were just too pretty to ignore, and the prettiest of all were undoubtedly Duran Duran, an outfit who combined their love of American disco with punk and the fledgling synth-pop scene.
In terms of musicianship and songwriting the members of Duran were frighteningly evolved for their age. Prominent among them was bassist John Taylor, who laid down some incredibly catchy basslines alongside the two other unrelated Taylors, Andy (guitar) and Roger (drums), as well as keyboard player Nick Rhodes and singer Simon Le Bon.
For four years, they produced a stream of chart-busting hits, made revolutionary music videos, and sold out world tours. The band's name itself became an icon of '80s success.
In a new podcast interview with Dingwall Guitars, bassist John Taylor offered a closer look at the group's breakthrough single, the title track from 1982's Rio, which was also the inspiration behind his recent signature model.
“That song has been such a signature for me, and the idea of celebrating it with a signature bass seemed like a fun idea,” said Taylor. “I had a signature bass about 15 years ago, but I knew this was going to be different. That was very much an entry-level instrument. I knew this was going to be a premium piece of kit.”
Specs of the Rio Dream Bass include an onboard preamp designed and configured in collaboration with Rupert Neve Designs, whose studio consoles have long represented the pinnacle of high-end audio engineering.
“I’ve always wanted to work with Neve,” Sheldon Dingwall told the podcast. “Unbeknown to me, the Rio album was recorded on a Neve console, and so John already had a long association with them. This was our opportunity to collaborate, and they absolutely nailed the tone.”
Looking back at Rio, and the funky, staccato fingerstyle that Taylor used stood proudly out of the mix – which was just as well, as his bass part was a huge part of the song's appeal.
“On our first couple of records my bass playing was quite up-front,” said Taylor. “All the playing was up-front, actually, because we were these five kids who really wanted to make an impression on the world.”
After a four-measure intro, the chord progression begins, outlined by Nick Rhodes's arpeggiated keyboards and Andy Taylor's guitar stabs; notice how the bass repeats the Em riff under the C chord, and how the C# arpeggios add colour to the somewhat standard A chord in bar 7.
In the chorus the bass lays back, letting the catchy vocal line take over. Taylor doesn't disappear, though – his staccato chromatic notes punctuate the endings of phrases, and the Mixolydian fills under the D chords add a touch of attitude.
The song's bridge is all bass again: the chromatics return, this time forming the backbone of the barline-crossing rhythmic motif. The feel picks up halfway through the bridge, and Taylor's line appropriately busies up again; check out the way he moves from using 7ths and 5ths under the C#m and F#m to a full A arpeggio (with the 6th for flavor). He neatly drops out just before cutting loose the big slide that leads back into the verse.
The combination of Taylor's tastefully busy syncopation, and a tight performance immediately draws the ear to this bassline. That's probably why Rio turned thousands of non-musicians into bassists almost overnight.
“There’s not a bad note on Rio,” said Taylor. “Everything just came together for the five of us in Duran Duran, but I could say the same for the studio engineer, the producer, the graphic designer.
“Everything around that project was as good as you could have wanted it to be. That album just felt super-iconic.”
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