duran duran - planet earth
â—‹â—‹â—‹ Recorded Red Bus Studios, London December 1980, writer Duran Duran & producer Colin Thurston
"Planet Earth" is the debut single by the pop/rock band Duran Duran, released on 2 February 1981. The song later appeared on the band's eponymous debut album Duran Duran, released in June, 1981.
The music video for the song was directed by future film director Russell Mulcahy, who would go on to direct a dozen more for the group.
Fairly primitive by the band's later standards, the video features the band (dressed in frilly, floppy New Romantic fashions) playing the song on a white stage tricked out with special effects to look like a platform made of ice or crystal. Interspersed with the performance are shots of the band members alongside the four elements. The video focused closely on the band's faces. The instrumental middle section features friends of the band from the Rum Runner nightclub dancing in their outlandish outfits. At the end of the video, singer Simon Le Bon leaps from the stage, caught in a freeze frame shot above an apparently bottomless abyss.
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"Planet Earth" begins with a slow synthesised sweep backed with electronic rhythm, but the real rhythm section of throbbing bass and crisp drums soon kick in. Muted guitar carries the up-and-down melodic hook of the song as the singer joins in.
The song was the first to explicitly acknowledge the fledgling New Romantic fashion movement, with the line "Like some New Romantic looking for the TV sound".
Length: 225
Rating: 4.80 (1733 ratings)
Tags: duran planet earth 1980 rock london colin thurston russell mulcahy pop
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