It all starts here

I’ve been a music fan as far back as I can remember. Some of my oldest memories are of me freaking out over this Nashville Strings LP that my parents bought who-knows-when. I loved ABBA (still kinda do) but again, they were a carry-over from grooving to their Greatest Hits 8-track in the back seat of the family Delta 88. Improbably, I got into Styx when a childhood friend and I stumbled across a copy of his brother’s Paradise Theater record.

The first time I’d found a “sound” for me was when I heard Hungry Like the Wolf by Duran Duran, probably on CHUM radio in Toronto, probably at age 11. Hearing it only occasionally on the air wasn’t enough – I had to have the 7” single. And so here it is – ground zero of my current record collection. Been with me 37 years and counting.

Processed with Focos

Everything about the tune clicked for me:

• Killer T. Rex riff (before I knew who Marc Bolan was)
• Nonstop kaleidoscopic synth sounds
• Chic-lite bassline (before I knew who Bernard Edwards was)
• Do do do do do do do do do do do do

To my delight when I bought it, in addition to the AM-friendly 4:11 version of the song on side A, it also had the generous 5:15 night version on the B-side. For those uninitiated in the ways of Duran, night versions are longer, more danceable versions of their singles.

Like all of Duran Duran’s night versions, the one for Hungry Like the Wolf has an extended instrumental intro. Leaving the vocals out of the mix for the first half of the song helped me hear how the layers of guitars, bass, drums and sequencers all percolated and interplayed to drive the narrative of the vocal melody on top. It invited me to listen again, and again, and again and again. It was an education.

The catalogue number of the single is B5195 on the Harvest label, which dates the pressing to 1982, but it’s likely I bought it in early 1983. It’s also likely I got it at Sam the Record Man back when that used to be a thing – a great, glorious thing. Today I gave that 45 a spin for the first time in probably over a quarter-century, and it may be corny to say, but it sounds super-warm. The bass is so rich compared to pressings you hear being made nowadays. It also goes without saying that my current setup beats the pants off of the little pre-teen Sears stereo I used to use. Granted, the record’s got a few minor crackles, but I still consider it near-mint. Nobody could ever accuse me of abusing vinyl, even as a kid.

The song is still meaningful to me all these years later. Buying that single marked a moment when music became my “thing,” and kick-started a semi-healthy fetish for vinyl.