First, thank you for reading my previous entries in this series. I truly hope it has given you a new appreciation for Duran Duran, 80’s music, and pop music in general. If I did my job, you have had a glimpse of what the band has to offer beyond “Hungry Like the Wolf” and “The Reflex”.

Today we’ll step back to 1983, the year the album Seven and the Ragged Tiger was released. This song did not appear on the album, but was a B-side to one of its singles.

The song was written and recorded in one marathon session, as they were up against the deadline for the release of the single “Union of the Snake”, and needed a B-side. Frontman Simon Lebon says the song is about “escaping on yer birthday”. As with many songs on Seven and the Ragged Tiger, it illustrates the struggle of the loss of any kind of normal life when fame comes calling.

After having pointed out John Taylor’s magnificent bass playing in previous installments, it may come as a surprise that my favorite song has no bass. And no drums (it does have some percussion, however). And no guitar. The marathon session I mentioned above was just Lebon and keyboardist Nick Rhodes. Here Rhodes uses the calliope-like sounds we’ve heard in other songs. Combined with Lebon’s soaring vocals, it makes a pop masterpiece. The deep under-voice you hear, almost speaking Johnny Cash-like, is also Lebon.

For me, the song represents a more general sense of, and need for, isolation. It evokes an incredibly strong visual in me. Lonely, cold, cloudy, windswept. It’s almost as if I am at this specific, wholly imaginary, place whenever I hear it. Very few songs have triggered these kinds of strong visuals in me. I loved this song from the moment I heard it.

I present to you…”Secret Oktober”

Wise on a birthday party
In a world full of surprising fireworks
And sudden silence
Lies on a stranger’s bed
The new day breaks like a speeding train or an old friend
Ever expected, but never knocking
Holding your own in a battered car
All night parties, cocktail bars, and smile
When the butterfly escapes the killing jar

Sure eyes awake before the dancing is over
Wise or naked in secret Oktober

Freefall on a windy morning shore
Nothing but a fading track of footsteps
Could prove that you’d ever been there
Spoken on a cotton cloud
Like the sound of gunshot taken by the wind
And lost in distant thunder
Racing on a shining plain
Tomorrow you’ll be content to watch
As the lightning plays along the wires and you’ll wonder

Sure eyes awake before the dancing is over
Wise or naked in secret Oktober
Sure eyes awake before the dancing is over
Wise or naked in secret Oktober