#simon le bon

Here, have John Taylor’s smile✨

Ordinary World
Performed by Duran Duran
Written by Simon Le Bon, John Taylor, James Bates and Warren Cuccurullo

By the end of the 80′s, Duran Duran was little more than a flamed out husk of its “Fab Five” days.  They were desperately clinging to the remnants of fame they once held as Princess Di’s favorite band.  I Don’t Want Your Love seemed a bit prophetic, as they surely weren’t getting it.  The small projects of the band, like their greatest hits compilation were drowned out by the likes of the upcoming Alice in Chains, Jane’s Addiction, and thoroughly squashed by the grunge movement.

The self titled album released in ‘92 was was nicknamed The Wedding Album to distinguish it from their earlier work, and featured photos of band members’ parents getting married on the cover.  Months before the full album was released, Ordinary World began getting airplay, with the more rabid fans pushing for more.  The album wasn’t scheduled to be released until after the new year, but fan demand pushed it all the way up to December.

And aren’t we glad they did?  I mean, we didn’t get a full revival of the mania that was the first round of Duran Duran, but we got this beautiful ballad (and a few other songs), reminding us how much we loved Simon’s voice, and the rest of the band’s synthpop sound.

Simon himself penned the lyrics in tribute to his late childhood friend David Miles.  It was actually the middle song of a trilogy beginning with 1989′s Do You Believe in Shame? and finishing with 1997′s Out of My Mind.

The lyrics themselves tell about a person’s loneliness and pain of missing someone that had been a part of their life for a long period of time.  Obviously, the loss of a friend is what it’s meant to convey, but it could just as easily be a long term relationship that failed. Or even a lost parent, as I associated it when I lost my mother six years ago.

There’s a new sting in my world, as I’ve not only gone through divorce (still ongoing), but I also moved away from 28 years of life history, to a brand new town where the only people I knew were my sister and her family.  I often miss the life that I recognize, but I’m the one that’s gone away.

Lyrics:

Came in from a rainy Thursday on the avenue
Thought I heard you talking softly.
I turned on the lights, the TV and the radio
Still I can’t escape the ghost of you

What has happened to it all?
Crazy, some’d say,
Where is the life that I recognize?
Gone away

But I won’t cry for yesterday, there’s an ordinary world,
Somehow I have to find.
And as I try to make my way, to the ordinary world
I will learn to survive.

Passion or coincidence once prompted you to say
“Pride will tear us both apart”
Well now pride’s gone out the window cross the rooftops, run away,
Left me in the vacuum of my heart.

What is happening to me?
Crazy, some’d say,
Where is my friend when I need you most?
Gone away

But I won’t cry for yesterday, there’s an ordinary world,
Somehow I have to find.
And as I try to make my way, to the ordinary world
I will learn to survive.

Papers in the roadside tell of suffering and greed
Feared today, forgot tomorrow
Ooh, here besides the news of holy war and holy need
Ours is just a little sorrowed talk

(Just blown away)

And I don’t
But I won’t cry for yesterday, there’s an ordinary world,
Somehow I have to find.
And as I try to make my way, to the ordinary world
I will learn to survive.

Every world, is my world (I will learn to survive)
Any world, is my world (I will learn to survive)
Any world, is my world
Every world is my world