“Hungry Like the Wolf” by Duran Duran, from the album Rio.
First Week of August, 1982
They were one of the biggest bands of the decade, even penning the theme to a Bond film (although it was Roger Moore’s last and a rather poor Bond film, as far as Bond films go), but for me, Duran Duran’s breakthrough came with the release of 1982’s Rio and the heavy airplay of “Hungry Like the Wolf.” The song is silly, mainly because of their insistence in pounding us (no pun intended) with such obviously sexual suggestive metaphor (“Mouth is alive/ Juices like wine”? O.K., we get it) and all the rhyming they force themselves to do (“Straddle the line/ in discord and rhyme?” What the hell does that even mean? And am I crazy or does that not really even rhyme?). But all the silliness notwithstanding, the song is bloody catchy. When the song comes on my iPod during the day, I’m singing the damn thing for a week. And it’s got an easy, repetitive chorus that even the least talented among us could sputter out after a few too many.
Best moment: The heavy breathing and whispers. (@ 2:16)
—G.W.
"Get out of my face before I come down on you like Don Quixote on a windmill."
"You, my friend, have just made a choice even more flawed and inevitably tragic than King Lear’s."
"Everywhere you turn, I’m gonna haunt your ass like Cathy to Heathcliff."
2. Brandishing Inappropriate Accessories . . .
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