I always associate the playing flute on this song to The Master and Margarita novel by Bulgakov. The story is about the devil coming to visit Soviet Union,Margherita makes a “foolish deal “with Satan, she learns to fly and control her passions and become the hostess at his spring ball, she becomes his priestss and Simon curiosly uses the feminine when referring to the devil! Not to mention that another Simon’s favourite book is The Master and Margherita!
"Oh El Diablo won't you sell me back my soul"... In this song, and indeed others on the Arcadia LP, they allude to selling their souls to the devil [perhaps a metaphor for the music business]. At the time they ended Duran temporarily and split from their management and spoke of being controlled and constricted. They felt they had sold out / souled out. They continued this theme on the very next Duran LP [Notorious] the Notorious single itself has a cat-like devil creature playing a flute on their latest DD logo [red] which resembles the left / right hemisphere of the brain [the control of the mind they are alluding to and possibly dancing to someone or something else’s tune]. The lyrics to Notorious speak for themselves. Notorious meaning: infamous, well known for a bad deed or quality; the devil. But, in the song they admit "That's why I done it again". The devil is certainly a theme they continued to explore, again and again. Too many to mention but here are a few other examples: "Oh El Diablo won't you sell me back my soul" from El Diablo "With a promise dealer, understand all freedoms fade away" from The Promise "I was tempted by the devil in his deep blue swimming pool, until the devils make-up ran" from I Believe / All I Need to Know. And so on and so forth and then there's even 'Nick Rhode's album 'Devils'. 'Nick' continues some of these themes in his recent project Astronomia - The Fall of Saturn.
Going through you past glad you got to this. This is the one of those albums like Lion and The Cobra and Earth Sun Moon and The Damned Phantasmagoria where I love every aong. Perfect albums
Hi Matt, I enjoyed watching your reaction to this amazing song. You mentioned 'The Chauffeur' vibes, maybe because of the ocarina Simon plays in both songs.
one more song that demands a close reading rather than a comment. but a brilliant text. i think this line: while the promise burns a flame....tells us that this is a thematic continuation of the two songs before "the flame" and "the promise". and again, but even more opaque, our very existence is on the line. the first two lines: enter newborn players and gather weigh their innocence....and again it is as if our survival depends on promises dealers. musically, i have to admit the playful flute always reminds me of the mischievous puck by Shakespeare , but that is just my association. there is a sort of play here between the light and heavy.
My favourite song off the album by quite a way for me As you know Matt I love my techno / deep progressive house etc but I also love as I go to bed I put my headphones on and have the most amazing dreams while the music engulfs my brain I played El Diablo on repeat a few nights ago as I drifted off with my headphones on, wow just insane with headphones on as you drift off Also this track sits inside my top 50 DD tracks I always hold Arcadia ad DD but this song is so good
This track the arrangements and instruments are bloody awesome amazing and again Simon's vocals awesome amazing and el diablo is a Spanish devil 😈 Matt bloody awesome outstanding album bloody hell wow wow wow wow 🥰 I've been playing this album box set 2nd cd is blow minding it's unreal!!!! Glad ya liking Arcadia thx matt
The Election Day video was originally going to be directed by film director Ridley Scott but because of he was still working on the fairy tale fantasy "Legend" (starring Tom Cruise and Tim Curry) he had to decline. In that movie Tim Curry plays the Devil. It was first rumoured at the time that "El Diablo" which means "The Devil" was written for the movie Legend but Nick stated that it was already written before knowing of Ridley's film project. A fan made video with the movie edited to fit the song was created (it's on RUclips) which fuelled rumours it was intended for the film.
I knew this one would appeal to you. Bass guitar duties were performed by Mark Egan on this album. That last note you heard is the start of Lady Ice which you prob already know if you've reacted to it : )
Didn't do that reaction in this session but will definitely make sure to include the transition when I get around to "Lady Ice." Cheers, really appreciate you, Philip!
When I had SO RED THE ROSE on cassette tape and later on LP I thought of this last note of belonging to "Lady Ice" as well, but the CD (first released in '91) made a different cut between the tracks. It fits both ways and especially inbetween.
@@sebzematik Yeah you're spot on that it's part of track 8 on the original CD but it's supposed to be the 1st part of Lady Ice. I worked in a Recording Studio in the early 90's and the decks that the master CD's are cut on, have the ability to register zero space between tracks which is why it was done that way. Not all commercial CD players are as good at the transition unfortunately.
@@mattsnider2667 I also loved the entire album. And it wasn't until just a little bit later that I learned I was essentially listening to Duran Duran. And thus, a new fan was born. This particular track, is so involved. Listened to it so many times, analyzing it, what is the bassist doing? There is a bass cover posted here on the tube and it's worth checking out. It's so out of the ordinary!
I always associate the playing flute on this song to The Master and Margarita novel by Bulgakov. The story is about the devil coming to visit Soviet Union,Margherita makes a “foolish deal “with Satan, she learns to fly and control her passions and become the hostess at his spring ball, she becomes his priestss and Simon curiosly uses the feminine when referring to the devil! Not to mention that another Simon’s favourite book is The Master and Margherita!
❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
"Oh El Diablo won't you sell me back my soul"...
In this song, and indeed others on the Arcadia LP, they allude to selling their souls to the devil [perhaps a metaphor for the music business].
At the time they ended Duran temporarily and split from their management and spoke of being controlled and constricted. They felt they had sold out / souled out.
They continued this theme on the very next Duran LP [Notorious] the Notorious single itself has a cat-like devil creature playing a flute on their latest DD logo [red] which resembles the left / right hemisphere of the brain [the control of the mind they are alluding to and possibly dancing to someone or something else’s tune].
The lyrics to Notorious speak for themselves. Notorious meaning: infamous, well known for a bad deed or quality; the devil. But, in the song they admit "That's why I done it again".
The devil is certainly a theme they continued to explore, again and again. Too many to mention but here are a few other examples:
"Oh El Diablo won't you sell me back my soul" from El Diablo
"With a promise dealer, understand all freedoms fade away" from The Promise
"I was tempted by the devil in his deep blue swimming pool, until the devils make-up ran" from I Believe / All I Need to Know.
And so on and so forth and then there's even 'Nick Rhode's album 'Devils'.
'Nick' continues some of these themes in his recent project Astronomia - The Fall of Saturn.
So red the Rose is a superb masterpiece album for me is the greatest album that they have made
Arcadia for ever
I love the whole album 💗
Me too
Going through you past glad you got to this. This is the one of those albums like Lion and The Cobra and Earth Sun Moon and The Damned Phantasmagoria where I love every aong. Perfect albums
Hi Matt, I enjoyed watching your reaction to this amazing song. You mentioned 'The Chauffeur' vibes, maybe because of the ocarina Simon plays in both songs.
Ah-ha! So there was a direct sonic connection in that section! Cheers, appreciate that info!
I was about to say.. lol that's why you thought you heard it before, the ocarina is back! 😁👹
one more song that demands a close reading rather than a comment. but a brilliant text. i think this line: while the promise burns a flame....tells us that this is a thematic continuation of the two songs before "the flame" and "the promise". and again, but even more opaque, our very existence is on the line. the first two lines: enter newborn players and gather weigh their innocence....and again it is as if our survival depends on promises dealers.
musically, i have to admit the playful flute always reminds me of the mischievous puck by Shakespeare , but that is just my association. there is a sort of play here between the light and heavy.
My favourite song off the album by quite a way for me
As you know Matt I love my techno / deep progressive house etc but I also love as I go to bed I put my headphones on and have the most amazing dreams while the music engulfs my brain
I played El Diablo on repeat a few nights ago as I drifted off with my headphones on, wow just insane with headphones on as you drift off
Also this track sits inside my top 50 DD tracks I always hold Arcadia ad DD but this song is so good
This track the arrangements and instruments are bloody awesome amazing and again Simon's vocals awesome amazing and el diablo is a Spanish devil 😈 Matt bloody awesome outstanding album bloody hell wow wow wow wow 🥰 I've been playing this album box set 2nd cd is blow minding it's unreal!!!! Glad ya liking Arcadia thx matt
The Election Day video was originally going to be directed by film director Ridley Scott but because of he was still working on the fairy tale fantasy "Legend" (starring Tom Cruise and Tim Curry) he had to decline.
In that movie Tim Curry plays the Devil. It was first rumoured at the time that "El Diablo" which means "The Devil" was written for the movie Legend but Nick stated that it was already written before knowing of Ridley's film project.
A fan made video with the movie edited to fit the song was created (it's on RUclips) which fuelled rumours it was intended for the film.
This one really has a Seven & The Ragged Tiger feel to it.
Good call, I can hear that influence for sure.
Deep commentary
BTW that last scream/seagull like cry was actually the beginning of Lady Ice, the CD cut off wasn't edited to cut at the end of El Diablo properly.
Ahhh, someone mentioned that earlier but I didn't realize it was the cry itself. Thanks again!
@@mattsnider2667 so I suggest , when u react to Lady Ice, go to this last instrumental ending of El Diablo and let it flow into Lady Ice
@@izzyworld8068 You got it, will do! Thanks again, Izzy. You're a real hero of this channel. :)
Go a little further back. Simon Le Bon "Grey Lady Of The Sea"
I knew this one would appeal to you. Bass guitar duties were performed by Mark Egan on this album. That last note you heard is the start of Lady Ice which you prob already know if you've reacted to it : )
Didn't do that reaction in this session but will definitely make sure to include the transition when I get around to "Lady Ice." Cheers, really appreciate you, Philip!
When I had SO RED THE ROSE on cassette tape and later on LP I thought of this last note of belonging to "Lady Ice" as well, but the CD (first released in '91) made a different cut between the tracks. It fits both ways and especially inbetween.
@@sebzematik Yeah you're spot on that it's part of track 8 on the original CD but it's supposed to be the 1st part of Lady Ice. I worked in a Recording Studio in the early 90's and the decks that the master CD's are cut on, have the ability to register zero space between tracks which is why it was done that way. Not all commercial CD players are as good at the transition unfortunately.
@@mattsnider2667 I also loved the entire album. And it wasn't until just a little bit later that I learned I was essentially listening to Duran Duran. And thus, a new fan was born. This particular track, is so involved. Listened to it so many times, analyzing it, what is the bassist doing? There is a bass cover posted here on the tube and it's worth checking out. It's so out of the ordinary!