The Reflex by Duran Duran

Album: Seven And The Ragged Tiger (1983)

Charted: 1 1

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One of the more mysterious Duran Duran songs, "The Reflex" seems to have a very deep concept. We know The Reflex is a lonely child and a door to finding treasure in the dark, but why can't you bruise it? And why is Simon Le Bon dancing on the valentine?

Le Bon, the lead singer and lyricist for the group, won't reveal the meaning and sometimes gets aggravated when asked. "It's a kind of childish song," he told Absolute Radio. "There have been times when I've felt a little tired of it, but that's also to do with the fact that people always ask me what the song's about, and I never tell people what songs are about."

"It's a really interesting lyric," bass player John Taylor added. "You wouldn't hear a lyric like that today. The early '80s was really great for profoundly weird, paranoid pop lyrics."
"The Reflex" is a very early and effective use of sampling, which is how they created the "re-re-re-re-flex" sound.

The original version of the song appears as the first track of their third album, Seven And The Ragged Tiger, and doesn't contain the samples. This version runs 5:29 and wasn't deemed suitable for a single.

After the album was released in November 1983, the band heard the INXS song "Original Sin" and became smitten with Nile Rodgers' production. The commissioned him to do a remix of "The Reflex," and working with Duran Duran synth guru Nick Rhodes, developed the famous version of the song (cut to 4:26) that was released as a single and used in the video. Sampling was so new, when he sent his remix to the band, they weren't sure what they were hearing. "We weren't sure if he was scratching," Simon Le Bon said. "Then we figured out he was repeating certain tracks but within the mix, not the whole track. It was quite innovative."
The Nile Rodgers remix was released as the third single from the Seven And The Ragged Tiger album, following "Union Of The Snake" and "New Moon on Monday." It went to #1 in America in June 1984, seven months after the album was released.

It was the first Duran Duran song to top the US chart, and their second to do so in the UK, where "Is There Something I Should Know?" went to #1 the previous year.
Instead of staying on brand by shooting in an exotic locale, the music video was shot at a Duran Duran concert. Directed by Russell Mulcahy, it's a concert footage with a twist, using the giant screen above the stage to insert the kind of random images (silhouettes with chains) that were hallmarks of early MTV. There's also a digital effect to look like water coming out of the screen and dousing the audience. It looks crude today but was pretty advanced for 1984.
The band were asked in an interview with Q magazine (February 2008) whether they were sending themselves up when they recorded the Seven And The Ragged Tiger album, which was recorded at great expense over a period of several months in a French chateau and on the island of Montserrat. Bass player John Taylor replied: "I think so. I hated the procrastination of that album. It was approached like an old-school Dutch painting. Hours spent perfecting a cymbal sound. There was a lot of sitting around and I felt like a caged animal. I was drinking and looking for a way out really." Singer Simon Le Bon added: "The title was supposed to be about us seven (the five band members, plus their two managers) in this fairy tale, with the ragged tiger who was "fate" or "luck." I don't think anyone got it."
Duran Duran were living the high life around this time; they were video stars in America and top sellers in their native UK, where the Seven And The Ragged Tiger album went to #1. Their subsequent tour was sponsored by Coke, which was somewhat ironic because cocaine was a big part of it. In his memoir, John Taylor recalls anxiously waiting for the shows to end so he could get high.
This features in the British 2015 rom-com movie Man Up. It plays during a memorable scene where actress Lake Bell performs an enthusiastic dance routine to the tune. It also shows up in the 2003 movie American Wedding.
Duran Duran performed "The Reflex" in their Live Aid set along with "Save a Prayer," "Union Of The Snake" and "A View to a Kill." After Live Aid, the band split into two side projects, with John and Andy Taylor forming Power Station (with Nile Rodgers' Chic bandmate Bernard Edwards), and Simon Le Bon, Nick Rhodes and Roger Taylor teaming up for Arcadia.

Comments: 25

Padraig from Nowhere In ParticularThis was the first of a trilogy of songs that catapulted Duran Duran straight to the Top of the World. With hindsight, it is the best of the three songs. And the most misunderstood.

Because what makes The Reflex so memorable is that, in the original album version, it was already a song written and performed by five white guys from England that was deeply rooted in American funk and R&B. Try sing Rick James's Super Freak while listening to The Reflex and vice versa - it is embarrassingly easy, because it is essentially the same tune. Those R&B roots were then amplified when Nile Rodgers was invited to do the remix that would go on to be published as the Single version of the song. The result is that other than, say, Sussidio by Phil Collins or I want your Sex by George Michael, this is not white guys from England aiming to sound like Prince. It is a fully blown powerhouse R&D record that just happens to be performed by Duran Duran as an absolute barnstormer of a pop song. And this is what the music press and the listening public, blindfolded by the boy band image, completely failed to understand.

The other two songs in the trilogy, The Wild Boys (also produced by Nile Rodgers) and the A View to a Kill Bond theme, are slick recordings that have the band at the peak of their synth-pop-rock abilities, but do not fit in the Pantheon of all-time great songs. The Reflex, on the other hand, does.
Countravioli from Fort Worth, TxThe song is using imagery from Alice in Wonderland/Alice through the Looking Glass to describe being in a strange bizarre world. The Reflex is short for reflection. The lonely child in the park is Alice. Buy time don’t lose it is the White Rabbit. Leaves you answers with a question mark is the Cheshire Cat. Dancing on a Valentine is a reference to the hearts. Hiding all the cards references deck of cards Alice interacts with.
Rob Adams from North GeorgiaThat's it? "The early '80s was really great for profoundly weird, paranoid pop lyrics." I don't think John Taylor has a clue.
Papeandomusica from Cascavel, Pr - BrasilObviously it's about betrayal and revenge and the risk of falling in love during it.

You've gone too far this time
And I'm Dancing Up on Valentine's Day Card
I tell you that someone has been joking
With my chances on the danger line
I'll cross that bridge when I find it
Another day

crossing the bridge is about breaking someone's trust

So why don't you use it?
try not to hurt him
Buy time, don't waste it would be the questions inside the head about whether it would be right or wrong

Isn't that bizarre?
Every little thing the reflection does
Leaves you a question mark as an answer

I'm on a ride and I wanna get out
But they won't slow down the merry-go-round
I sold the radio and TV set
I don't want to be around when it blows up

So why don't you use it?
try not to hurt him
Buy time, don't waste it

So why don't you use it?
try not to hurt him
Buy time, don't waste it

The reflection is an only child
What's waiting in the parking lot
The reflection is the door to find yourself
the hidden treasure
And to take care of the lucky clovers
Isn't that bizarre?
Every little thing the reflection does
Leaves you a question mark as an answer

So why don't you use it?
try not to hurt him
Buy time, don't waste it

So why don't you use it?
try not to hurt him
Buy time, don't waste it

The reflection is an only child
What's waiting in the parking lot
The reflection is the door to find yourself
the hidden treasure
And to take care of the lucky clovers
Isn't that bizarre?
Every little thing the reflection does
Leaves you a question mark as an answer

The reflection - what a game!
And he's hiding all the cards
The reflection is in charge of finding
the hidden treasure
And to take care of the lucky clovers
Isn't that bizarre?
Every little thing the reflection does
Leaves you a question mark as an answer

would be doubt and the sense of being torn between pleasure and guilt

including feelings of revolt and revenge, desire and euphoria, guilt and doubt are very present
Grimtraveller {lower Case 'g' !} from North West LondonWhy do people bother to try to tell us what the song is about when its lyric writer is on record as saying he never tells people what it's about ?
It's a great song, leave it at that.
Susan from Illinois This is one of the best songs from the 80’s. I never tried to analyze Duran Duran lyrics. They take stream-of-consciousness to a completely different level!
Pooh From Mn from MnSam from KY nailed it! Great job!!!
AnonymousI remember listening and watching a documentary on Duran Duran and it’s about erections
Seventhmist from 7th HeavenLike its creators, I also had no idea what this song meant.
Thea from CaliforniaThe Reflex is about card gambling addiction. The Reflex itself is the excited rush a gambler feels. The rest of the lyrics, that some seem to think are nonsense, are the consequences of a gambling addiction; abandoned child, stealing at night, selling your possessions, superstition for luck, dumbfounded when they don't win "answered with a question mark". "Four leaf clover" - Clubs, "Valentine" - Hearts. ....and lots more.
Barry from Sauquoit, NyOn this day in 1984 {June 16th} a video of Duran Duran's "The Reflex" was aired on the Dick Clark ABC-TV Saturday-afternoon program, 'American Bandstand'...
At the time "The Reflex" was at position #2 on Billboard's Hot Top 100 chart, the following week it would peak at #1 {for 2 weeks} and it spent twenty one weeks on the Top 100...
As noted above, it also reached #1 in the United Kingdom, and in Belgium, Ireland, and the Netherlands...
Between 1982 and 2004 the British band had twenty one records on the Hot Top 100 chart, eleven made the Top 10 with two* reaching #1, besides the above "The Reflex", their other #1 record was "A View To A Kill", for two weeks on July 7th, 1985...
* They just missed having two more #1 records when both "The Wild Boys" {1984} and "Notorious" {1987} peaked at #2 on the Hot Top 100 chart...
Esskayess from Dallas, Txdick, are you saying that sometimes songwriters don't know what they're writing about? I'd hate to hear some examples.
Mandy from London, United Kingdomthis song is about Nick Rhodes, just as My Own Way is about John Taylor. As a lyricist you just can't help writing about the people close to you.
Dick from Washington, DcAt some point, even if the songwriter tells you what a song is about (if he knows), it's not interesting.
Don from Benton, ArThe song has to be a drug rant. The description above says the song was written over a couple bottles of wine but wine doesn't put someone on a trip like that. The only other option is that Simon had a break from reality. Hope he's feeling better now!
Layla from Vancouver, BcI can't remember where I read this but the article quoted Simon calling 'The Reflex' a song about forgetting your lyrics while performing/
Blil from Kansas City, KsWhen I saw them in Atlanta in 1984 (just before this song was released as a single), Simon introduced this song by holding up a little stuffed animal tiger and saying "This song is about a little friend of ours...."
Dale from Henderson, KyThe song seems to be about oral sex.."The reflex"
or the "Gag Reflex" of a woman perhaps?
Sam from Wilmore, KyThe lyrics seem to have something to do with drugs--"why dontcha use it?" if a syringe is used, "try not to bruise it," and if you have wasted time using it, you need to "buy time (and) don't lose it." Particularly the third verse, he's on a ride ("high" ride), want to get off but he can't slow down (want to stop but can't?) so he needs to sell his Renoir and TV--to do what? to buy drugs? Hopelessly(?) maybe, he doesn't want to "be around when this gets out" (or when it loses it's effect?). Other hints--there is waiting in the park to find treasure in the dark, and what the reflex does leaves a question.
Mike from Santa Barbara, CaThe video to this song caused a minor uproar, and those who have seen it know why.
Kevin from Tampa, Fli guess if it is about erections, it would give a definate meaning to "high tide is no time for deciding if i should find a helping hand"
Patrick from Portland, Or"The Reflex" has at least two levels of meaning. (1) It's about unwanted adolescent erections. (2) It's about a challenging process of psychic, spiritual, magickal, occult awakening that every soul eventually undergoes -- one frequently misunderstood and mistaken for psychopathology.
Dean from Potomac Falls, VaIf you read the chorus carefully, you might conclude that The Reflex is Simon LeBon's ode to the penis/male libido. It's clever. I grin every time I here it.
Emily from Abingdon, VaSong lyrics are pointless but one must admit there is a significant amount of musicality there.
Kendall from Thomasville, Gayeah the lyrics don't really make sense to me either

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