| January 30, 2018 | |||||||||
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Lyrics: People say I’m crazy, just a fool I always dug the color your hair Take it easy…on yourself
Rich girls, they run after me I always dug the color your hair Take it easy…on yourself Take it easy…on yourself Take it easy…on yourself Use this link to purchase the single: Use this link to purchase Thunder:
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With today’s song following so closely on the heels of The Power Station’s Get It On (Bang a Gong), you might be sensing a theme developing late this January. The truth is that the founder of Dances of Bass Radio is an incurable lover of power chords, and during the mid-1980s, Duran Duran guitarist Andy Taylor was laying down some of the heaviest power chords in town…just not with Duran Duran. While Simon Le Bon et al. were pumping out dancey new wave pop, guitarist Andy Taylor clearly wanted to be a rock star.  First, Taylor teamed with brother and fellow Duran Duraner John Taylor, debonair rocker Robert Palmer, and members of funk legends Chic to form The Power Station, which dropped three funk rock–infused hits in 1985—Get It On (Bang a Gong), Some Like It Hot, and Communication. Taylor then leveraged his newfound fame outside Duran Duran to take his act on the road as a solo artist. Taylor first scored a massive hit with today’s track, Take It Easy, which was the theme song to American Anthem, a corny 1980s movie about a mullet-sporting football player turned gymnast. The movie was awful, but the actors were pretty and sufficiently hair sprayed. The only thing crunchier than the Aqua Netted coifs were the crunchy guitar riffs in the theme song. Not known for missing out on stylish mullets, the producers of Miami Vice were quick to latch onto Taylor’s sick guitar licks and hockey hair and featured Taylor’s When the Rain Comes Down on its Miami Vice II soundtrack. In 1987, Taylor released Thunder, which was far better than the world treated it (and featured former Sex Pistols’ guitarist Steve Jones). For several years, Thunder was one of my most played cassettes, and believe it or not, I remember the day my copy got eaten by the tape deck in my 1979 Camaro Rally Sport. I cried a lot, especially when I learned that the cassette had been taken out of print and I couldn’t get a replacement. (Remember, kiddies, this was about 1989, and we didn’t have the Internet or eBay. When our favorite cassettes died, we took it like men and just cried in our wine coolers.) Thankfully, in 2010, Thunder was reissued, and after approximately 21 years apart, my dearly departed and I were reunited. I considered reviving my mullet but came to my senses when Mrs. Dances with Bass gave me the look. You know the one. Duran Duran’s original lineup split in 1986, with Andy Taylor desiring to pursue his hard rock underpinnings and drummer Roger Taylor suffering from exhaustion. Andy Taylor would go on to do a lot of work in the producer’s chair and would reunite with Duran Duran during the early to mid-2000s before a more acrimonious split. Taylor published an autobiography, Wild Boy: My Life in Duran Duran, in 2008, and continues working as a music producer. He also founded RockAffairs.com, which allows unsigned artists to promote their bands and sell digital music and other merch while keeping 100 percent of the profits. Video: Here is the official video for Take It Easy, complete with a cheesy scene from the movie, American Anthem:
And because Andy Taylor was something of a personal hero at the time, here is the video for one of the least-known rockers from the 1980s—When the Rain Comes Down—which appeared on the Miami Vice II soundtrack. This song should have been a hit.
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