»New Moon on Monday« by Duran Duran

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 In 1984, the song »New Moon on Monday« was released by the British music group Duran Duran. This was deep in the 80’s, when men and women artistically draped their hair and wore gear that makes you chuckle looking at them from today’s perspective. The ambitious music video tells the plot of an underground rebel group called »La Luna«, who fight against a military regime, and who call upon the power of the Moon to help them. Back then, this was shot in the French village Noyers with great efforts during winter temperatures.

Those were the days where many music video producers felt challenged to shoot videos with feature movie character, in the wake of Michael Jackson‘s pioneering music video »Thriller« (1983). Often they were unsuccessful, just like »New Moon on Monday«, to the extent that members of the band feel that this was an embarrassing ‘faux pas’ to this day.

The connection to the Moon is made primarily through the title and the lyrics. The fact that the new moon takes place on a Monday, is apparently tied to the link between the words »Moon« and »Monday«, which is attributed to the goddess Luna. Apart from that, the lyrics of the song remain poetic and enigmatic, matching the romantic standards of the band.

There are different versions of the video.

Here you can see the waxing moon crescent (2:54 min), which is deceptive astronomically speaking, because the time of the new moon would have passed already. On the cover of the single of this song, a waning moon crescent was depicted, at least this points towards the nearing event of the new moon.

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Later, the heroes are flying a kite at night, which receives energy from the moon crescent and passes them on to Earth in form of lighting (3:20 min), which is later repeated during the scene with the firework display (4:23 min) when celebrating the liberation.

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There is also a long version of this video and different variations. Among other things, a large full moon can be seen there, standing like a stage set behind a staircase, on which Simon Le Bon lies while he sings. The name of the underground rebel group »LA LUNA«, is also visible on a monitor.

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This song is an 80’s song with all it entails. Fans of this decade  will get their fill, for others it might appear a little strange. It’s definitely an amusing piece of contemporary history.

On 31.10.2016 is the new moon in the western part of the Earth (Australia, New Zealand, Asia). We would like to wish you a wonderful »New Moon on Monday« and a dark happy Halloween!

1 Comment

  1. jackie | 24 February 2017

    very cool thanks for putting this altogether.

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