| "Violence of Summer (Love's Taking Over)" |
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| Single by Duran Duran | ||||
| from the album Liberty | ||||
| B-side | "Throb" | |||
| Released | 23 July 1990 | |||
| Format | 12" And CD Single | |||
| Recorded | Olympic Studios, London, 1989 | |||
| Genre | Rock, New Wave | |||
| Length | 3:30 | |||
| Label | EMI - DD 14 | |||
| Writer(s) | Duran Duran | |||
| Producer | Duran Duran with Chris Kimsey | |||
| Duran Duran singles chronology | ||||
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"Violence of Summer (Love's Taking Over)" is the 21st single by Duran Duran, and the first single from the 1990 Liberty album.
Having finished the 1980s with the Decade singles compilation, Duran Duran found the 1990s a new challenge, in which success would initially elude them. The lack of success for "Violence of Summer" would shadow the band for the next few years, until 1993's "Ordinary World" brought them a new lease of life.
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"Violence of Summer" is a bright, simple rock song, with ringing piano-like chords over a slick bass underpinning. Lyrically, the song plays with familiar Duran themes: of fleeting romance in the face of sexual politics, and mars-meets-venus peculiarities between the genders. Le Bon continues to set these preoccupations into more realist scenarios, challenging himself to leave behind the opaque mysticism of the band's first three albums.
Also worth noting lyrically, is this tracks return to the U.S.-inspired lyrics of Notorious: "going South where her mother writes", and "breaking heads in the sugar shack" (which references the cover art of Marvin Gaye's I Want You.)
It was released 23 July 1990 in the UK, and 11 August in the US.
The end of the 1980s marked a profound change in Duran Duran's video fortunes. MTV's interest had shifted to younger bands, and their format was changing in any case. VH1 was friendlier, but was more interested in the band's classic videos than in their current products. Duran Duran found it increasingly difficult to get a new video played where the public could see it.
The video for "Violence of Summer" was filmed in Paris by the young directing duo Big TV! (more conventionally known as Andy Delaney and Monty Whitebloom). The band, with paler skin and shorter hair than before, plays energetically on a set constructed to look like a bumper-car rig (mirroring the amusement park theme of the album sleeve), while models (including Tess Daly) in platinum blonde wigs hang about outside looking seductive. Newly muscular guitarist Warren Cuccurullo is almost unrecognizable to fans who were accustomed to his formerly waif-like appearance.
This was the first Duran Duran single that EMI really promoted with a mixture of formats. Across two 12" singles, a 7" single, cassette and CD single, seven versions of "Violence of Summer" were released, as well as a limited edition poster.
The b-side, "Throb" is an ambient instrumental remix of Liberty album track "My Antarctica". The use of a remixed album track would repeat with the inclusion of "Water Babies", a remix of "All Along the Water" on the "Serious" single.
The single didn't do well on the charts, even with its myriad of mixes and release formats, which foreshadowed the lukewarm reception the Liberty album would receive upon its release the following month.
Due to its lack of chart success, "Violence of Summer" has failed to appear on the compilation Greatest.
Apart from the single, "Violence of Summer" has also appeared on:
Albums:
Duran Duran are:
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