Friday 6 March 2009

The CDHN countdown of the 25 best tracks of all time. This week number 18.


Notorious, Duran Duran, 1986

Words fail to describe the sheer talent of our heroes from Birmingham. So instead of stating the obvious – that they are one of the most brilliant bands ever to appear on planet earth – I will offer some tidbits of information that you might NOT know. For example that there is a link between Frank Zappa and Duran Duran and that his (apparently genuine) name is Warren Cuccurullo. If this name rings a bell, it might be because he is namedropped in Zappa’s classic ‘Catholic girls’. After playing guitar for Zappa for more than 10 years, Cuccurullo became a member of Duran Duran in 1989. While his period as a member was not their commercially (nor artistically) most fruitful, he did pen their 1993 smash ‘Ordinary world’. W.C. left the group in 2001 to devote himself to publishing pornographic material of himself on his own web site as well as manufacturing his very own dildo, ‘Rock Rod’. Following a life threatening illness in 2003, he had a spiritual awakening (how unpredictable) and removed all adult material from his site. W.C. is proud to be one of those nuts who think that 9/11 was orchestrated by the American government themselves, and as though this wasn’t enough, he belongs to that most despicable category of creatues; Yes, he is a VEGAN.

In other words, things have gone somewhat downhill with W.C., but in the glorious year of 1986 (before becoming an official member of the band), he played guitar on one of the classiest tracks of the 80s, ‘Notorious’. To hear white guys sound as funky as this is a rare experience, to put it mildly. (Even if they probably had more than a little help from producer genius and former Chic-member Nile Rodgers.) Enjoy!

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