Chords for Duran Duran & Nile Rodgers Reminisce on "The Reflex" - Extended Version
Tempo:
124.1 bpm
Chords used:
Eb
Db
Ab
Gb
Tuning:Standard Tuning (EADGBE)Capo:+0fret
Start Jamming...
We started recording in a mobile truck in the south of France at a chateau and those
sessions produced some things but certainly not the reflex.
From there we decided we weren't
quite happy with it but there was a tendency to want to be somewhere where it was warmer
than England and it was also too chaotic for us to be in England at that time.
So we de-camped
to Montserrat which was really quite lovely, giant iguanas.
The version that appears on the album was written in Montserrat where we were working
with Alex Sadkin and it was a confluence of a lot of influences that we had at the time.
We were listening to a lot of Chic, particularly Tony Thompson's drum break at the start of
I'm Coming Out and just a lot of music that was around at the time and I think it's a
great lyric, it's a very paranoid lyric, we're always trying to figure out what it's about.
I like that about it.
The main thing I remember about recording that record was that John and I were listening
a lot to the Diana Ross album, Diana, and there were a great couple of grooves on that
record, one was I'm Coming Out and the other one was Upside Down.
So that was a really
big influence on the groove of that record and of course it was produced by Nile Rodgers
and Bernard Edwards and drums were played by Tony Thompson so the whole thing was influenced
very much by Nile and the Chic Corporation.
The Reflex came about, we had a bit of a backing track already and I think it was a bit of
a mix.
I had a new synthesiser, it was before I got the Fairlight synthesiser, it was one
of the very early sampling keyboards and so it had real string sounds in it which was
complete novelty to me because I'd just had string synthesizers before but the Emulator
2 had real string sounds and a lot of other things, motorcycles, oboes, everything and
they had these discs that were about this big, floppy discs for those of you who remember
them.
So I used to insert these discs and wow it's great we've got an orchestra now
and I came up with the keyboard line on the chorus, the string line and then another line
that went the other way on a different synthesiser and it was a very odd sounding thing but somehow
between that and Andy's guitar riff we built this unusual sounding track and Simon came
up with a truly unique melody over it.
From Montserrat we moved on to Australia.
And we did a TV show in Melbourne called Countdown.
Countdown is hosted by a wonderful Australian
and an Australian institution by the name of Molly Meldrum.
He loved Duran Duran and
he threw a party for us at his house, his Egyptianised house in Melbourne and all kinds
of people came to this party, it was really weird, all the freaks came and all the fashionable
people, it was a really top fashionable party in Melbourne and he played this song and we
said what the hell is that and it was In Excess and the song was Original Sin.
It was the
first time that Duran Duran had heard In Excess and we made him play it again and again and
again and by the time we'd heard it four times we just knew it and we knew we loved it and
we particularly loved the production on it and the production on it was Nile Rodgers
production and when we came back to the UK that's what we set our hearts on so we made
contact with Nile Rodgers and said do you want to work with Duran Duran and he said
yes sure.
And we sent him the Reflex and as I'd just got my emulator sampler and I'd just
taken delivery of the Fairlight monster keyboard in Australia where it was manufactured, Nile
had just got a sampler too.
So we were all playing with bits of things and what can we
do with loops of this and what can you do with a real sound and what if you take a bit
of vocal and you go
We had all these great parts but as you will hear if you compare
the album version and the version that was put out finally as a single they're quite
radically different in arrangement and that's because we knew there was something very special
about the Reflex but even in our process of trying to finish it to the finest quality
we knew there was more in it.
I still haven't answered what it's about, well I'll come to
that later.
And I can't even remember how we ended up with the word the Reflex but it's
one of those lyrics where we always get asked [Eb]
what's the [Db] song about?
[Ab] [Eb] [Gb]
sessions produced some things but certainly not the reflex.
From there we decided we weren't
quite happy with it but there was a tendency to want to be somewhere where it was warmer
than England and it was also too chaotic for us to be in England at that time.
So we de-camped
to Montserrat which was really quite lovely, giant iguanas.
The version that appears on the album was written in Montserrat where we were working
with Alex Sadkin and it was a confluence of a lot of influences that we had at the time.
We were listening to a lot of Chic, particularly Tony Thompson's drum break at the start of
I'm Coming Out and just a lot of music that was around at the time and I think it's a
great lyric, it's a very paranoid lyric, we're always trying to figure out what it's about.
I like that about it.
The main thing I remember about recording that record was that John and I were listening
a lot to the Diana Ross album, Diana, and there were a great couple of grooves on that
record, one was I'm Coming Out and the other one was Upside Down.
So that was a really
big influence on the groove of that record and of course it was produced by Nile Rodgers
and Bernard Edwards and drums were played by Tony Thompson so the whole thing was influenced
very much by Nile and the Chic Corporation.
The Reflex came about, we had a bit of a backing track already and I think it was a bit of
a mix.
I had a new synthesiser, it was before I got the Fairlight synthesiser, it was one
of the very early sampling keyboards and so it had real string sounds in it which was
complete novelty to me because I'd just had string synthesizers before but the Emulator
2 had real string sounds and a lot of other things, motorcycles, oboes, everything and
they had these discs that were about this big, floppy discs for those of you who remember
them.
So I used to insert these discs and wow it's great we've got an orchestra now
and I came up with the keyboard line on the chorus, the string line and then another line
that went the other way on a different synthesiser and it was a very odd sounding thing but somehow
between that and Andy's guitar riff we built this unusual sounding track and Simon came
up with a truly unique melody over it.
From Montserrat we moved on to Australia.
And we did a TV show in Melbourne called Countdown.
Countdown is hosted by a wonderful Australian
and an Australian institution by the name of Molly Meldrum.
He loved Duran Duran and
he threw a party for us at his house, his Egyptianised house in Melbourne and all kinds
of people came to this party, it was really weird, all the freaks came and all the fashionable
people, it was a really top fashionable party in Melbourne and he played this song and we
said what the hell is that and it was In Excess and the song was Original Sin.
It was the
first time that Duran Duran had heard In Excess and we made him play it again and again and
again and by the time we'd heard it four times we just knew it and we knew we loved it and
we particularly loved the production on it and the production on it was Nile Rodgers
production and when we came back to the UK that's what we set our hearts on so we made
contact with Nile Rodgers and said do you want to work with Duran Duran and he said
yes sure.
And we sent him the Reflex and as I'd just got my emulator sampler and I'd just
taken delivery of the Fairlight monster keyboard in Australia where it was manufactured, Nile
had just got a sampler too.
So we were all playing with bits of things and what can we
do with loops of this and what can you do with a real sound and what if you take a bit
of vocal and you go
We had all these great parts but as you will hear if you compare
the album version and the version that was put out finally as a single they're quite
radically different in arrangement and that's because we knew there was something very special
about the Reflex but even in our process of trying to finish it to the finest quality
we knew there was more in it.
I still haven't answered what it's about, well I'll come to
that later.
And I can't even remember how we ended up with the word the Reflex but it's
one of those lyrics where we always get asked [Eb]
what's the [Db] song about?
[Ab] [Eb] [Gb]
Key:
Eb
Db
Ab
Gb
Eb
Db
Ab
Gb
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ We started recording in a mobile truck in the south of France at a chateau _ _ and those
sessions _ _ _ produced some things but certainly not the reflex.
_ From there we decided we weren't
quite happy with it but _ there was a tendency to want to be somewhere where it was warmer
than England and it was also too chaotic for us to be in England at that time.
So we de-camped
to Montserrat which was really quite lovely, _ giant iguanas.
The version that appears on the album was written in Montserrat where we were working
with Alex Sadkin and it was a confluence of a lot of influences that we had at the time.
We were listening to a lot of Chic, particularly Tony Thompson's drum break at the start of
I'm Coming Out and _ just a lot of music that was around at the time and I think it's a
great lyric, it's a very _ _ paranoid lyric, we're always trying to figure out what it's about.
I like that about it.
The main thing I remember about recording that record was that John and I were listening
a lot to the Diana Ross album, Diana, _ and there were a great couple of grooves on that
record, one was I'm Coming Out and the other one was Upside Down.
So that was a really
big influence on the groove of that record and of course it was produced by Nile Rodgers
and Bernard Edwards and drums were played by Tony Thompson so the whole thing was influenced
very much by Nile and the Chic Corporation.
The Reflex came about, _ _ we had a bit of a backing track already _ _ and I think it was a bit of
a mix.
I had a new synthesiser, it was before I got the Fairlight synthesiser, it was one
of the very early sampling keyboards _ and so it had real string sounds in it which was
complete novelty to me because I'd just had string synthesizers before but the Emulator
2 had real string sounds and a lot of other things, motorcycles, _ _ oboes, everything and
they had these discs that were about this big, floppy discs for those of you who remember
them.
_ So I used to insert these discs and wow it's great we've got an orchestra now
_ and I came up with the keyboard line on the chorus, the string line and then another line
that went the other way on a different synthesiser and it was a very odd sounding thing _ but somehow
between that and Andy's guitar riff we built this _ _ unusual sounding track and Simon came
up with _ a truly unique melody over it.
From Montserrat we _ moved on to Australia.
_ And we did a TV show in Melbourne called Countdown.
_ Countdown is hosted by a wonderful Australian
and an Australian institution by the name of Molly Meldrum.
He loved Duran Duran and
he threw a party for us at his house, his _ Egyptianised house in Melbourne and all kinds
of people came to this party, it was really weird, all the freaks came and all the fashionable
people, it was a really top fashionable party in Melbourne and he played this song and we
_ said what the hell is that and it was In Excess and the song was Original Sin.
It was the
first time that Duran Duran had heard In Excess and we made him play it again and again and
again and by the time we'd heard it four times we just knew it and we knew we loved it and
we particularly loved the production on it and the production on it was Nile Rodgers
production and when we came back to the UK that's what we set our hearts on so we made
contact with Nile Rodgers and said do you want to work with Duran Duran and he said
yes sure.
And we sent him _ the Reflex and as I'd just got my emulator sampler and I'd just
taken delivery of the Fairlight monster keyboard in _ Australia where it was manufactured, _ _ Nile
had just got a sampler too.
So we were all playing with bits of things and what can we
do with loops of this and what can you do with a real sound and what if you take a bit
of vocal and you _ _ _ go_
_ _ We _ had all these great parts but as you will hear if you compare
the album version and the version that was put out finally as a single they're quite
radically different in arrangement and that's because we knew there was something very special
about the Reflex but even in our process of trying to finish it to the finest quality
_ we knew there was more in it.
I still haven't answered what it's about, well I'll come to
that later.
And I can't even remember how we ended up with the word the Reflex _ but _ it's
one of those lyrics where we always get asked [Eb] _
what's the [Db] song about?
_ _ [Ab] _ _ _ _ [Eb] _ _ _ _ _ _ [Gb] _
_ _ We started recording in a mobile truck in the south of France at a chateau _ _ and those
sessions _ _ _ produced some things but certainly not the reflex.
_ From there we decided we weren't
quite happy with it but _ there was a tendency to want to be somewhere where it was warmer
than England and it was also too chaotic for us to be in England at that time.
So we de-camped
to Montserrat which was really quite lovely, _ giant iguanas.
The version that appears on the album was written in Montserrat where we were working
with Alex Sadkin and it was a confluence of a lot of influences that we had at the time.
We were listening to a lot of Chic, particularly Tony Thompson's drum break at the start of
I'm Coming Out and _ just a lot of music that was around at the time and I think it's a
great lyric, it's a very _ _ paranoid lyric, we're always trying to figure out what it's about.
I like that about it.
The main thing I remember about recording that record was that John and I were listening
a lot to the Diana Ross album, Diana, _ and there were a great couple of grooves on that
record, one was I'm Coming Out and the other one was Upside Down.
So that was a really
big influence on the groove of that record and of course it was produced by Nile Rodgers
and Bernard Edwards and drums were played by Tony Thompson so the whole thing was influenced
very much by Nile and the Chic Corporation.
The Reflex came about, _ _ we had a bit of a backing track already _ _ and I think it was a bit of
a mix.
I had a new synthesiser, it was before I got the Fairlight synthesiser, it was one
of the very early sampling keyboards _ and so it had real string sounds in it which was
complete novelty to me because I'd just had string synthesizers before but the Emulator
2 had real string sounds and a lot of other things, motorcycles, _ _ oboes, everything and
they had these discs that were about this big, floppy discs for those of you who remember
them.
_ So I used to insert these discs and wow it's great we've got an orchestra now
_ and I came up with the keyboard line on the chorus, the string line and then another line
that went the other way on a different synthesiser and it was a very odd sounding thing _ but somehow
between that and Andy's guitar riff we built this _ _ unusual sounding track and Simon came
up with _ a truly unique melody over it.
From Montserrat we _ moved on to Australia.
_ And we did a TV show in Melbourne called Countdown.
_ Countdown is hosted by a wonderful Australian
and an Australian institution by the name of Molly Meldrum.
He loved Duran Duran and
he threw a party for us at his house, his _ Egyptianised house in Melbourne and all kinds
of people came to this party, it was really weird, all the freaks came and all the fashionable
people, it was a really top fashionable party in Melbourne and he played this song and we
_ said what the hell is that and it was In Excess and the song was Original Sin.
It was the
first time that Duran Duran had heard In Excess and we made him play it again and again and
again and by the time we'd heard it four times we just knew it and we knew we loved it and
we particularly loved the production on it and the production on it was Nile Rodgers
production and when we came back to the UK that's what we set our hearts on so we made
contact with Nile Rodgers and said do you want to work with Duran Duran and he said
yes sure.
And we sent him _ the Reflex and as I'd just got my emulator sampler and I'd just
taken delivery of the Fairlight monster keyboard in _ Australia where it was manufactured, _ _ Nile
had just got a sampler too.
So we were all playing with bits of things and what can we
do with loops of this and what can you do with a real sound and what if you take a bit
of vocal and you _ _ _ go_
_ _ We _ had all these great parts but as you will hear if you compare
the album version and the version that was put out finally as a single they're quite
radically different in arrangement and that's because we knew there was something very special
about the Reflex but even in our process of trying to finish it to the finest quality
_ we knew there was more in it.
I still haven't answered what it's about, well I'll come to
that later.
And I can't even remember how we ended up with the word the Reflex _ but _ it's
one of those lyrics where we always get asked [Eb] _
what's the [Db] song about?
_ _ [Ab] _ _ _ _ [Eb] _ _ _ _ _ _ [Gb] _