Understanding Hungry Like The Wolf

Some additional thoughts/corrections: 1) Typically, when talking about musicians, I refer to them by their full name the first time, then use their last name for the rest of the video. That's my preferred style guide on these sorts of things, but since three of the band members have the last name Taylor (despite, as far as I can tell, not being related?) I've chosen to refer to them by their first names instead to avoid confusion. 2) The very first bar of the bass part does have an extra note before where I started playing it. I chose to not mention that because it complicates the example without actually affecting my point, but I wanted to acknowledge it somewhere. 3) The synth stem also had the backing vocals, so I had to cut those out with Izotope, which is why parts of the chorus synth line sound a bit muted. That's where those vocals came in, and it couldn't fully reconstruct what the synth would sound like without them. 4) Technically I should've called the chorus D chord a non-functional secondary dominant because it doesn't resolve, but I am falling asleep merely typing this clarification so imagine how bored I'd be having to say those words out loud.

If I had a nickel for every time a mid-late 20th Century British rock band had a drummer named Roger Taylor, I would have two nickels, which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice.

The initial stabs, capturing the anxiety of the hunt, evoking snapping twigs in the forest to the ever vigilant wolf, is maybe your most generous interpretive stretch yet and I love it!

Great analysis, but I think Duran Duran put it more succinctly themselves: "it's discord and rhyme"

As somebody who rolled their eyes at Duran Duran back in the day, I have to occasionally remind myself that they weren't a boy band, they were an art-pop band and that makes a difference.

Liking Duran Duran as a young metalhead was embarrassing so usually kept secret, but The Reflex, Hungry..., and, Union of The Snake, New Moon on Monday are among my faves songs of the 80s.

A good reminder of how subjective music is: you say, as a 90's kid, that in rock circles the 70's were the Golden Age, the 90's were the "big revival," and in the 80's we lost our way. In the rock circles I know, where people were there for the all three decades, it was the 90's when the music died and everything started to go down hill precipitously after the first big flowering of Grunge. Grunge was the hand grenade thrown into the musical party that had lasted a decade. The 80's were for some of us the last full, great flowering of both rock and pop, and an amazing decade for many genes of popular music in the broad sense, really: pop, dance, rock, alternative/indie/college rock, hair metal, metal "proper," hardcore, crossover, goth, hip-hop, jazz, etc. Either way, glad to see you give the 80's, and Duran Duran in particular, some loving analysis. A very talented, iconic band of that era.

Thank you for defending 80's music. Everyone writes the era off for the shallowness of many mainstream acts. Artists like Paul Simon, Talking Heads, Depeche Mode, Roxy Music, XTC, Peter Gabriel and numerous others created some of their most interesting work during that decade. And many were represented on mainstream radio. I can't recall a more varied or eclectic period of popular music.

Been a Duranie for 25 years now...had a cover band in 2007-2009. Always thought this song was simple, despite being full of elements. But this analisys took it to another level for me. You just made me fall in love with this song again. ❤️

Early Gen X'er here and love that you covered this. In my opinion Duran Duran were absolutely betrayed by their good looks. Many wrote them off as just a "Pretty Boy Band" but this song and "Rio" should put that firmly to rest. I dabble in bass guitar and the bass line for "Rio" shows John Taylor can hang with the best. As a ballad "Save a Prayer" is still at the top of my list as well.

As a Duranie of 40 years (wow, time definitely flies for sure), I can safely say that Duran Duran is not just good, they're bloody amazing and still talented beyond their years. I truly appreciate this breakdown as I never really just how complex their songs are. The first time I head this track back in 1982, it blew my 7 yr old mind and still does today. What also amazes me is that they're still around today and still relevant. Proof that the best music is timeless.

Duran Duran is interesting in that they were one of the few bands to find a lot of success in both the 80s and 90s despite being a defining piece of the former. Sure they weren't as stratospheric in the 90s but they had several hits in the US and UK then, even getting another top 10 hit in the 2000s in the UK somehow. That's just how enduring they are.

Who knew that Duran Duran’s songwriting was so complex? This explanation was pretty eye-opening to me. The key change from a semi-vague E-major to a mostly unrelated C-major was something I’d never noticed before. Bizarre. Honestly, it’s kind of amazing that this song works, at all. But it’s definitely one of Duran Duran’s most recognizable tracks, so it did work, somehow.

The 80’s were great; talent, tech and production peaked and genres crossed. Everything from r&b, blues, country, power pop, metal, and more, were fair game on a radio station. I grew up listening to two radio stations and I don’t think I missed out on any type of music in the 80’s.

Duran Duran: Hey, here's a cool song we wrote for the reasons that we like it. 12tone, 40 years later: Here's 20 minutes of me putting way too much thought into a cool song from the 80s Duran Duran: Simon, did you think of any of that? No? Nick? You neither? John? Roger? Other guy named Taylor? You think of ANY of this? No?

I love these videos on classics because as a young person I don't really know most of these songs by name, so I just vibe with the videos until the moment when I realize "OH, THAT'S WHAT THIS SONG IS!"

Even though I'm a long term follower of your channel, it's crazy how you still amaze me by spending five whole riveting minutes on a tiny little bit of a guitar riff from a Duran Duran song (which is in itself already unexpected!), and still manage to fascinate me!! 😅 I guess this is why I love so much your work. 🥰👍

I love Duran Duran. I always thought they had interesting chord changes and modulations. They still do. Great stuff.

Almost fell out of my chair when you said no one thinks much of 80's music. Whats wrong with people!?!?!?!

Fascinating to me to hear you describe the 70's as the revival and the 80's as the period when it all went off; when i was growing up, it was the late 70's, most especially the disco period, that was talked about as the blemish on the face of music, while it was the hippy and art rock of the late 60's and early 70's that everyone hearkened back to. I think it just goes to show that what you love and what you revile often has less to do with objective quality and more to do with the ideas and aesthetics you want to associate yourself with. Similarly, in college i remember learning that the terms "middle ages" and "medieval" came from renaissance and post renaissance historians who wanted to associate themselves with rome, and just saw the medieval period as a dead space in between, while medieval historians were looking to associate themselves back to what they saw as biblical times, and...