"I haven't finished talking to me monkeys!"*

The impetus behind this post comes from hearing Ronnie James Dio on the radio earlier today. Listen to the Goldfinger song and you’ll know what the hell it is I’m talking about.

The Duran Duran Tribute Album came out in 1997 – actually we’re exactly two months short of its 10-year anniversary (Oct. 7, 1997). Surprisingly, I don’t remember a lot of hoopla surrounding its release. I was still living in California and could pick up X-treme Radio out of Las Vegas. They were big on the so-called Third Wave of ska: Reel Big Fish, Goldfinger, Buck-O-Nine, etc. As a fan of – Second Wave? I don’t know what the 2 Tone era would be called – I got into a lot of the ska-punk stuff, too. If I remember correctly, X-treme Radio probably played a couple of tracks from this disk.

The tribute to Duran Duran is pretty much filled with ska-punk bands covering Duran Duran songs. On paper, that sounds like the worst idea ever, but in reality, it’s a fun album. One reviewer on Amazon wrote, “If you are a serious, die hard Duran Duranie, you probably won't like this (or any other tribute album dedicated to Duran Duran). However, for the rest of us, this has a bunch of creative interpretations of these great songs.”

Also, just for fun, since I’m posting Duran Duran covers, I’ve included Hole’s quick rendition of “Hungry Like the Wolf.” This comes from a 1995 recording at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. It’s not on this track, but somewhere Courtney Love refers to Duran Duran as “the most punk band ever.” I'm assuming she was kidding....

Rio.mp3 Goldfinger
Girls on Film.mp3 Wesley Willis Fiasco
Hungry Like the Wolf (live).mp3 Hole

*credited to Simon LeBon

Labels: covers, punk, rock, ska-punk

posted by aikin @ 9:26 PM