The band members all initially refused to do the scene where an elephant sprays water from its trunk onto one of them due to its homoerotic overtones they finally settled on John Taylor since he was the band's pin-up boy. He accidentally swallowed some, and had to be hospitalized during the band's subsequent Australian tour due to a tropical virus he contracted at that time. While perched on a branch over a lagoon and miming playing his guitar, an intoxicated Andy Taylor fell into the water. "It was funny as hell, but quite hairy for a moment," says Rhodes. It turned out to be the elephant's mating call, which led the elephant carrying Roger Taylor to charge downhill and attempt to mount the female. One of the crew had recorded it, and found it funny enough to play back.
ĭuring the filming of the scene where the band members were riding elephants, a female elephant made a strange sound. Along the way they were struck by the poverty they witnessed.
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The driver who met them in a flatbed lorry informed them it would be several hours' driving time to Kandy in the centre of the country, where the band were lodged. Taylor reassured him they would be in their hotel soon and could relax. When they arrived in Colombo, it was very hot, and Rhodes was uncomfortable in his clothing. They had almost no time after that was done to change clothes before catching their flight, and Rhodes wore the same leather jacket and trousers he had been wearing against the London chill. Simon Le Bon and Roger and John Taylor went ahead to the location while Andy Taylor and Nick Rhodes were in London finishing mixes for the Rio album and B sides. The shoot was a difficult but memorable experience for the band. Scenes were filmed atop the ancient rock fortress of Sigiriya, among the ruins of a Buddhist temple at Polonnaruwa and the island's southern coastline, with Simon Le Bon appearing in Speedos. The video was filmed by director Russell Mulcahy among the jungles, beaches, and temples of Sri Lanka in April 1982.
He wrote: "The music maintains the stormily romantic quality of the lyric by combining meditative verses with an aching chorus that swells and ebbs in a way that perfectly captures the song's heartbreak." Music video Guarisco described the song in a retrospective review, as being "a lilting epic". It opens with an arpeggiated delay-treated synthesizer riff which plays in the background throughout the song.ĪllMusic journalist Donald A. The verses of the song are in D minor, while the chorus is in B minor. According to Le Bon, the chorus of the song was based on Gordon Lightfoot's folk song "If You Could Read My Mind". Le Bon has described the lyrics as "realistic, and not romantic". The lyrics are about a chance meeting between two people that turns into a one-night stand. Simon Le Bon wrote the lyrics to the song while the band was on tour. The song began with Andy Taylor and Nick Rhodes picking out chords together, and was then built around the sequencer track.