
"Save A Prayer" (Single Version) - 5:24.The UK release of "Save A Prayer" was backed with a remix of " Hold Back the Rain". Scenes were filmed atop the rock fortress of Sigiriya, and among the ruins of a Buddhist temple at Polonnaruwa. The video was filmed by director Russell Mulcahy among the jungles, beaches, and temples of Sri Lanka in April 1982. I’m pretty sure the effect I used in the studio was aforesaid phaser. It sounds like a chorus pedal, which was de rigeur for every fretless bass sound at that time, and I use chorus today on that song. "Hello Ger, If I remember correctly, it was an Electro Harmonix phase shifter."Hi John, Can you tell me if you are using a fretless bass when recording "Save A Prayer" or, if not, what effects are you using on you bass. The result was a stylish mood-piece that became a number two hit in the UK and earned plenty of airplay on MTV with a glossy video that featured the band jet-setting around the atmospheric locale of Sri Lanka. Duran Duran's recording places an emphasis on Nick Rhodes' swirling, minimalist synth lines and Simon Le Bon's pained vocals as the rhythm section holds down a steady but subdued beat, with Andy Taylor adding a few searing bursts of electric guitar during the chorus. The lyrics revolve around a chance meeting between two people that flares into a love affair but ends all too soon: "Some people call it a one night stand/But we can call it paradise/Don't say a prayer for me now/Save it 'til the morning after." The music maintains the stormily romantic quality of the lyric by combining meditative verses with an aching chorus that swells and ebbs in a way that perfectly captures the song's heartbreak. One of the finest, perhaps the finest, was "Save a Prayer," a lilting epic from Rio that has a special place in the heart of every Duran Duran fanatic. but they were also capable of making lush ballads guaranteed to make their fan base swoon. Guarisco at All Music Guide said:ĭance-friendly items like "Rio" and "Hungry Like The Wolf" gave Duran Duran their chart breakthrough in the U.S. "Save A Prayer" begins with a somewhat eerie synthesizer riff, which plays in the background throughout the song.Īccording to Le Bon, the song's chorus structure is based on Gordon Lightfoot's "If You Could Read My Mind" and the lyrics as being contrary to the then-popular New Romantic movement by being "realistic, and not romantic" and "for seeing things as they really are." He sums up "Save A Prayer" as "It's definitely a freedom song but like a kinda nobody owns anybody kinda song."Ĭover art for the single was designed by Assorted iMages, which features a shadow being.ĭonald A. However, a special US single version was released in January 1985 and reached #16 on the Billboard Hot 100. It was not originally issued as a single in the United States, although the video was very popular on MTV. Video compilation.The song became Duran Duran's biggest hit to date (at the time) in the UK Singles Chart, reaching #2, held out of the top spot by Survivor's "Eye of the Tiger". * Long version ("Collector's Edition") – 75 minutes Initially only shown on Cinemax and MTV, released to the consumer market first with the 2010 reissue of Seven and the Ragged Tiger. Slightly different version of Arena film. Video EP featuring "Girls on Film" and "Hungry Like the Wolf" We Were So Turned On: A Tribute to David Bowie Instant Karma: The Amnesty International Campaign to Save Darfur (featuring Janelle Monáe and Nile Rodgers) " Violence of Summer (Love's Taking Over)" "-" denotes items that did not chart or were not released in that territory.ĭuran Duran (1983 Capitol Records edition) and Seven and the
