![]() Then there are the furious rages and arguments. He let them dress him, he didn’t have much say in creation or production of the albums, and every so often he’d contribute a musical line or song, but that was almost it.Īlmost. In fact, the boring structure and the lack of creative musical detail seems to imply that Andy showed up, recorded his guitar sections, and then left to do more coke. Oh, but we get plenty of the drinking, the drug-taking, the nympho groupies, the fabulous famous people, etc. In Andy’s telling, the music doesn’t just take a backseat to the lifestyle, the music gets shoved in the dark and dirty trunk and forgotten like an old map. What’s also expected, but much less welcome, is how every chapter ends like a Behind the Music special – that tired, old “but on the horizon, trouble was brewing” structure. It was interesting to hear Andy’s particular bent on it, though. The rags to riches start is good, but it’s also expected. It certainly lacks personality and color, and it doesn’t delve deeply at all into the development of the band’s unique sound, the specifics of how Duran Duran songs are created, or the invention of their iconic band image. Many sections feel like journalistic accountings and facts anyone could get off of the internet. Much of the book sounds as if it were ghost written. There are a lot of problems with the book, not the least of which is that the book is shallow on new facts and insights, the narrative is extremely dull, and Andy personally lacks quite a bit of self-reflection and perspective. The sections about Duran Duran mostly concerns their start, their meteoric rise to fame as the “Fab Five,” their drug and alcohol abuse, their spin-off projects, and Andy’s departure (along with agoraphobic drummer Roger Taylor). Wild Boy is Andy’s account of his life both inside and outside the band. They are my Sugar Smacks, my ridiculous obsession that I intend to make no excuses for. I still love them, to this day, even after the bad albums and cocaine lifestyle and even though (and this is where my Duran friends will flame me) there are so many other bands today making more relevant music than Duran Duran. I was born in rural Iowa, and after years of being surrounded by corn and dirt and rednecks, this upscale band with their slick sound and obscure poetic lyric and glamorous lifestyle and great clothes and models in body paint sailing on yachts seems like Nirvana. Now, right here, I have to admit, Duran Duran is my junkie addiction they are the music soundtrack to my adolescence. He rejoined the band for a reunion in 2001 and a new album, Astronaut, and then in 2006 he parted ways again. He left in 1985, soon after a disastrous show at Live Aid. Andy was there from near the beginning of the band through its heyday of the albums Rio (“Hungry Like the Wolf,” “Save a Prayer,” and the tile track), through Seven and the Ragged Tiger (“The Reflex,” “ New Moon on Monday”), into their live album (with the single “Wild Boys”) and their James Bond theme “A View to a Kill”. ![]() Given the total lack of perspective or responsibility in this his own chance to set the record straight, it’s no surprise Andy Taylor and Duran Duran parted ways…twice.įor those of you not in the know (and I assume that is most of you) Andy Taylor is the original guitarist for Duran Duran, a band that has sold 80 million albums and created some of the most iconic music of the 80s and early 90s. Moving from hilarious to harrowing at the turn of a page, Wild Boy is a must-read for anyone who lived through the 1980s, or who cares about music. Packed with more than twenty-five years worth of rock 'n' roll anecdotes, Andy tells of his time in the band The Power Station, and explains why Duran Duran reformed with its original line-up in 2003.īut Wild Boy is also a moving story on a human level, as Andy describes how the pressures of fame took a terrible personal toll on him and his family. He reveals the truth about the allegations of drug abuse and wild hedonism that dogged Duran Duran. He captures the glamour and excitement of the band's epic video shoots and the opulence of their world tours. With searing honesty, he charts every moment of Duran Duran's roller-coaster rise from their early days as club musicians through to international superstardom. Now Andy shares the story of what went wrong. Then, at the very height of their achievement in 1985, Duran Duran imploded. The band rose to conquer the globe with a string of unforgettable hits such as "Rio," "Hungry Like the Wolf," and "The Reflex." With Simon Le Bon as their frontman, they were the defining pop act of the 1980s, but Andy Taylor, the enigmatic lead guitarist, is widely acknowledged to have been their musical driving force. Wild Boy is the explosive first inside account of the rise and fall of Duran Duran.
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