16 Duran Duran “New Moon On Monday”

Seven and the Ragged Tiger by Duran Duran was the first album I ever bought. I have no idea how old I was, but I was young. I was at an age where I didn’t even know what music or musicians I liked out side of some family records like Abba and The Muppet Movie soundtrack. Somehow, I had some money or a gift certificate for a record store that was a located in a small strip mall where there was a High’s convenience mart that had a Donkey Kong arcade cabinet. 

The whole family went with me, and there I was having the money, choice, and no idea what I should be getting. I must have been around 8, so my older brother was roughly 13/14, and so he talked me into buying the new Duran Duran album. Turns out it was on sale or I had more money than we thought, so I could get another record. Rio was also purchased at my brother’s request. 

Seven and the Ragged Tiger wasn’t a hard sell for me, just look at that cover: an explorer’s map, an evocative title, and a picture of the band in the center. I was in, and I definitely preferred it to the Rio album. 

There are many Duran Duran stories growing up, including a time they were banned from the house for having videos with topless women, not that I’d ever seen them as we never had cable and they weren’t shown on MTV anyway. That ban didn’t last very long, but the Prince albums my brother owned stayed well hidden. I met Simon Le Bon and John Taylor once, and got them to sign a flyer for the first gig my high school rock band, Native Jack, was going to play. The show didn’t end up happening, but John in particular was very, very kind to a nervous kid looking for his approval. 

At some point my brother convinced me to give him the albums in exchange for being able to play with his Obi-Wan action figure, which I somehow agreed? It didn’t take very long for me to wise up that this was a crap deal, so I took the records back and hid them. 

Oh, I hid them. 

For the next several years, my brother would periodically ransack my room looking for where I hid these records. Finally, the day he was moving out he came to me and said, “Ok, enough. Where in the hell did you hide those albums. I’ve been looking for years.” I took him over to my room, showed him my large Duran Duran poster, and peeled off on side to reveal the albums tapped to the wall. I let him keep the Rio album, but Seven and the Ragged Tiger stayed with me.  

I chose “New Moon on Monday” for the track as it has a few things gong for it. First, I remember adoring the video that had Simon LeBon waving a giant flag around. “Next time la luna” starts the build up to the chorus, and I would use the phrase La Luna when I wrote one of the best received songs form my band, Sankari, “Train Song.” This song almost made it onto an indie pop compilation but missed the deadline due to the mail being late. It also got me a job offer as a song writer which I declined to stay playing with my band, specifically my drummer who had been with me for a while. If I’d have known then what would have went down there, I’d have taken the gig.