Rio, by Duran Duran.
True: A babysitter got me into Duran Duran when I was, like, seven years old. Maybe six. Teenagers seemed cool then.
True: She had pictures of Simon and John and Andy and Nick and Roger up on her wall, cut out from Tiger Beat and Sixteen… so I started making mom buy magazines in line at the grocery store, and, yes, I had pictures of the Fab Five up on my walls by age eight or so.
True: My first major childhood haircut change from parted on the side to embracing the curls (on top anyway) was modeled (in my mind) on Roger Taylor’s hair. (Duran Duran drummer Roger Taylor, obvi, not Queen Roger Taylor.)
True: This song loomed so large in my psyche that at eight years old, at summer camp, I countered a friend’s bold lies about his “girlfriend” with lies of my own, about my girlfriend, who was older, and named Rio, and had a job, as a dancer, on the beach. I learned a lot about lying that summer.
True: I ate up any and all scandal regarding the Duran Duran music video for Girls on Film, and I feel like I might’ve spent a lot of time watching MTV hoping they would show it?
True: I will sing this song anytime, anywhere, and have done it at karaoke at least once. Maybe just the one time? It was pretty good.
True: I have a copy of this on vinyl, but not, like, the one from when I was a kid, which must’ve been a cassette tape at that point, and I’m sure I absolutely destroyed that thing in a walkman by the time I was 10.
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OK, this was fun. Obviously used some drum loops, but didn’t loop anything else. Paid special attention to some of the “beat drops out here” bits, and even added the little arpeggiated synth in the pre-chorus chord, which was, have I mentioned, fun!
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