Talking to Girls About Duran Duran: One Young Man's Quest for True Love and a Cooler Haircut
1 journaler for this copy...
9 stars: Super, couldn't put it down
-----------
From the back cover: Growing up in the 80s, you were surrounded by mysteries. These were the years of MTV and John Hughes movies, the era of big dreams and bigger shoulder pads. Like any teenage geek, Rob Sheffield spent the decade searching for true love and maybe a cooler haircut. This book is his tale of stumbling into adulthodd with a killer soundtrack. Inept flirtations. Dumb crushes.Deplorable fashion choices. Girls, every last one of whom was madly in love with the bassist from Duran Duran. ... As a confused teenager stranded in the suburbs, mowing lawns, and playing video games, Rob had a lot to learn about women, love, music and himself. But he was sure his radio had all the answers, whether he was driving an ice cream truck through Boston to "Purple rain" , slam dancing to the Replacements, or pondering the implications of Madonna lyrics. From Bowie to Bobby Brown, from hair metal to hip hop, he loved them all. Talking to Girls about Duran Duran is a journey through the pop culture of an American adolescence that will remind you of your first crush, first car, and first kiss. But it's not just a book about music. this is a book about moments in time, and the way we obsess over them through the years. Every song is a snapshot of a moment that helps form the rest of your life. Whenever you grew up, and whatever your teenage obsessions, this book brings those moments to life.
--------------
What a wonderfully fun and entertaining book. I read it at a time I needed a laugh and a light read, and this certainly provided it. While I couldn't relate to many of Sheffield's experiences, I certainly related to the music. It also reminded me of something I didn't understand until I was in my 40s--- how much of our communication styles and ability to relate to the opposite sex can be influenced by whether we had siblings of the opposite sex that we learned to relate with. Sheffield talks with much affection of his older sisters, and how he learned to talk to girls, by talking with them about Duran Duran.
Quotes can describe this book much better than I can, so here's some portions which resonated and gave me joy:
I've been obsessed with how girls talk about Duran Duran. I'm pretty sure Duran Duran would cease to exist if girls ever stopped talking about them. Except they never do.
A "girl's artist" ... commands a certain loyalty that never really goes away. An adult woman might have a slightly mocking, slightly ironic relationship to her teenage Duran loving self, and yet she can still feel that love in a non-ironic way. And when adult women talk about them, they turn into those girls again.
[David Bowie] created a night world of new romantics and modern lovers, populated by all the bizarre creatures he sang about. He was a kindly presence, a cracked pastor for all of us moonage daydream believers, pretty things and hot tramps, queen bitches and slinky vagabonds, people from bad homes, night crawlers and pinups and young dudes and scary monsters. They moved in numbers and they plotted in corners. And you could join them just by listening. The "B" section of the local record store is where you'd find them. I started to spend many afternoons loitering around the "B's"
[Ashes to Ashes video]-- Bowie is a sad clown on the beach, apparently agitated by a little sand in his tights, walking under a bloodred sky with a bunch of goth priests and priestesses. He strolls the beach with an old lady who looked remarkably like my grandmothers. He also walks in front of a bulldozer, which I guessed must symbolize harvesting the crops of awesome.
[E.T.] It was basically a movie about a sad Muppet who thought he was David Bowie.
If you have a song about nuclear war, you are new wave. If you sing about gay sex and nuclear war, you are Frankie Goes to Hollywood. If you are a hot German chick and you sing about nuclear war, you are Nena. If you sing about starting a nuclear war via making out, you are Orchestral Manouevres in the Dark. If you sing about nuclear war and girlfriends who don't exist, you are scoring some serious new wave points. (WHy are you trying so hard, anyway? You must be OMD again!) If you start to sing the word "ass" but change your mind and substitute a drum solo, you are Huey Lewis, which is as far from new wave as you can get.
If I'm not mistaken, the all-time- standard in the "location, location, location" wars was set by Journey in "Separate Ways', the one where they went to a lumberyard. Steve Perry sang about his broken heart while clambering over a stack of two by fours. Journey walked around the lumberyard feeling sad about their lady love, who (naturally) was right there in the lumberyard feeling sad about their lady love, who (naturally) was right there in the lumberyard, strutting around in her leather miniskirt. How exactly did this girl end up there? Was she looking for her friends? Did they play a prank on her?
It's part of being a fan--sometimes its a lonely thing to devote your heart to a song, especially when it's a song that literally nobody can stand, from an idiotic group with an idiotic name and idiotic haircuts. Everybody's got something like this in their life. whether its a song nobody likes or a celebrity crush everybody else finds hideous or a team that always loses.
It's hard to remember there even was a time before Johnny Depp was around to toast the loins of the nation, but there was. And it was a cold, cold place. [Girl] loved to talk about how Johnny Depp was going to change the world. He was a new ideal of manhood, the dawn of a new golden era.
I watched the Live Earth broadcast in 2007 just to see them save the planet. Simon Le Bon told the crowd "Just coming here is not enough to get what's got to be done.... but.... if we all sing.... we might just make a stand, right here!" And what song did Simon choose to save the planet? "Girls on Film". That is why he is Simon, and that is why we love him. "Girls on Film" Famous for a video with sexy models attacking sumo wrestlers.
-----------
From the back cover: Growing up in the 80s, you were surrounded by mysteries. These were the years of MTV and John Hughes movies, the era of big dreams and bigger shoulder pads. Like any teenage geek, Rob Sheffield spent the decade searching for true love and maybe a cooler haircut. This book is his tale of stumbling into adulthodd with a killer soundtrack. Inept flirtations. Dumb crushes.Deplorable fashion choices. Girls, every last one of whom was madly in love with the bassist from Duran Duran. ... As a confused teenager stranded in the suburbs, mowing lawns, and playing video games, Rob had a lot to learn about women, love, music and himself. But he was sure his radio had all the answers, whether he was driving an ice cream truck through Boston to "Purple rain" , slam dancing to the Replacements, or pondering the implications of Madonna lyrics. From Bowie to Bobby Brown, from hair metal to hip hop, he loved them all. Talking to Girls about Duran Duran is a journey through the pop culture of an American adolescence that will remind you of your first crush, first car, and first kiss. But it's not just a book about music. this is a book about moments in time, and the way we obsess over them through the years. Every song is a snapshot of a moment that helps form the rest of your life. Whenever you grew up, and whatever your teenage obsessions, this book brings those moments to life.
--------------
What a wonderfully fun and entertaining book. I read it at a time I needed a laugh and a light read, and this certainly provided it. While I couldn't relate to many of Sheffield's experiences, I certainly related to the music. It also reminded me of something I didn't understand until I was in my 40s--- how much of our communication styles and ability to relate to the opposite sex can be influenced by whether we had siblings of the opposite sex that we learned to relate with. Sheffield talks with much affection of his older sisters, and how he learned to talk to girls, by talking with them about Duran Duran.
Quotes can describe this book much better than I can, so here's some portions which resonated and gave me joy:
I've been obsessed with how girls talk about Duran Duran. I'm pretty sure Duran Duran would cease to exist if girls ever stopped talking about them. Except they never do.
A "girl's artist" ... commands a certain loyalty that never really goes away. An adult woman might have a slightly mocking, slightly ironic relationship to her teenage Duran loving self, and yet she can still feel that love in a non-ironic way. And when adult women talk about them, they turn into those girls again.
[David Bowie] created a night world of new romantics and modern lovers, populated by all the bizarre creatures he sang about. He was a kindly presence, a cracked pastor for all of us moonage daydream believers, pretty things and hot tramps, queen bitches and slinky vagabonds, people from bad homes, night crawlers and pinups and young dudes and scary monsters. They moved in numbers and they plotted in corners. And you could join them just by listening. The "B" section of the local record store is where you'd find them. I started to spend many afternoons loitering around the "B's"
[Ashes to Ashes video]-- Bowie is a sad clown on the beach, apparently agitated by a little sand in his tights, walking under a bloodred sky with a bunch of goth priests and priestesses. He strolls the beach with an old lady who looked remarkably like my grandmothers. He also walks in front of a bulldozer, which I guessed must symbolize harvesting the crops of awesome.
[E.T.] It was basically a movie about a sad Muppet who thought he was David Bowie.
If you have a song about nuclear war, you are new wave. If you sing about gay sex and nuclear war, you are Frankie Goes to Hollywood. If you are a hot German chick and you sing about nuclear war, you are Nena. If you sing about starting a nuclear war via making out, you are Orchestral Manouevres in the Dark. If you sing about nuclear war and girlfriends who don't exist, you are scoring some serious new wave points. (WHy are you trying so hard, anyway? You must be OMD again!) If you start to sing the word "ass" but change your mind and substitute a drum solo, you are Huey Lewis, which is as far from new wave as you can get.
If I'm not mistaken, the all-time- standard in the "location, location, location" wars was set by Journey in "Separate Ways', the one where they went to a lumberyard. Steve Perry sang about his broken heart while clambering over a stack of two by fours. Journey walked around the lumberyard feeling sad about their lady love, who (naturally) was right there in the lumberyard feeling sad about their lady love, who (naturally) was right there in the lumberyard, strutting around in her leather miniskirt. How exactly did this girl end up there? Was she looking for her friends? Did they play a prank on her?
It's part of being a fan--sometimes its a lonely thing to devote your heart to a song, especially when it's a song that literally nobody can stand, from an idiotic group with an idiotic name and idiotic haircuts. Everybody's got something like this in their life. whether its a song nobody likes or a celebrity crush everybody else finds hideous or a team that always loses.
It's hard to remember there even was a time before Johnny Depp was around to toast the loins of the nation, but there was. And it was a cold, cold place. [Girl] loved to talk about how Johnny Depp was going to change the world. He was a new ideal of manhood, the dawn of a new golden era.
I watched the Live Earth broadcast in 2007 just to see them save the planet. Simon Le Bon told the crowd "Just coming here is not enough to get what's got to be done.... but.... if we all sing.... we might just make a stand, right here!" And what song did Simon choose to save the planet? "Girls on Film". That is why he is Simon, and that is why we love him. "Girls on Film" Famous for a video with sexy models attacking sumo wrestlers.
