“Of Crime and Passion” Counter Melody

Hi Katy, I have a question about Of Crime and Passion that has been vexing me for some 30+ years now. I am hoping the band can chime in and clear this up for me.

There is a glorious counter melody being played during each of the pre-choruses, the parts where Simon sings “Clouds on the/Graze on the/Way down by the shoulder.” For the life of me I can’t tell if this line is being played on a guitar by Andy or if it’s Nick on a synthesizer. If it’s a guitar, it must be running through a few effects to give it this marvelous futuristic sound and if it’s a synthesizer, it seems to have some kind of organic guitar sound dialed in. Or maybe it’s Andy and Nick playing the line in unison. Can you or the band tell me what is making this sound? Thank you! Kevin Hilman

"Hi Kevin, That’s actually a tricky question because with many Duran Duran songs, we try to combine the sound of different instruments playing together to blur the edges so that it becomes unclear precisely what is happening musically. In this case, I don’t remember who played what but my guess is probably Fairlight, Roland Jupiter 8 and guitar with effects which forms the wall of sound. Nick”