The Chauffeur

“The Chauffeur” is without question my favorite song by Duran Duran. It is a series of paintings composed of melody and verse instead of canvas and oil. Lyrically it is an interesting mix – a chorus that is beautiful and evocative but straightforward with the image it paints, blended with other stanzas that are equally evocative but conversely more obtuse. It is these other stanza’s that tell an extremely compelling story.

Out on the tar plains, the glides are moving All looking for a new place to drive You sit beside me so newly charming Sweating dewdrops glisten freshing your side

Tar plains are roads, vast expanses of asphalt covered with tar. Glides are cars gliding on the road – a luxury car like a Rolls Royce glides over the road. People do not ride with the chauffer in the front when being driven somewhere. She is next to him in the back, and sweating because they have just made love in the car. She is “newly charming” because she seduced him, and this was unexpected. The “glides” may be looking for a new place to drive because the chauffer and his newly charming mistress are parked in a well-known but secluded spot. This opening stanza captures the moment after they have made love for the first time, the feeling of coming back to reality while still clinging to the warm glow – even her sweat is described affectionately as glistening dewdrops.

Way down the lane away, living for another day The aphids swarm up in the drifting haze Swim seagull in the sky towards that hollow western isle My envied lady holds you fast in her gaze

We are transported to a scene “down the lane” in their relationship. They both “live for another day” - for her when she can be free and happy, for him when they can be together openly. They long for a better future but a swarm of aphids are foreshadowing conflict in the “drifting haze” of the future. The seagull represents her freedom. She is a wealthy woman but feels trapped in an emotionally unfulfilling marriage. The western isle would be Ireland off the western coast of England, likely where she is from. The hollow western isle is her past – her past feels hollow to her and is a place she escaped from to a life of wealth, yet she feels trapped and unfulfilled. He desires her and yearns for her to feel the same for him – he envies the attention she gives the seagull.

And watching lovers part, I feel you smiling What glass splinters lie so deep in your mind To tear out from your eyes, with a thought to stiffen brooding lies And I'll only watch you leave me further behind

She is bitter. Seeing lovers separated makes her smile – if she can’t have love she doesn’t want them to either. The glass splinters are the painful events from her past that she buries deep in her subconscious. These things are what make her feel like she needs to stay in an unfulfilling marriage. The events are emotion charged and could provoke her to cry – for them to “tear out from her eyes”. Eyes are the windows to the soul and he wants to deepen the emotional connection between them – for her to expose herself and trust him with those parts of herself. Her thoughts are focused on remaining in control and having a convincing story, “stiffening the brooding lies” so her affair does not get exposed. He feels she is closed off to him and leaves him behind emotionally.

Sing blue silver

Blue silver is the engine of the Rolls Royce he drives her in. He implores the engine to sing, to keep their relationship going. The relationship is based on stolen moments spent together while he is driving her around.

There's more to this kind of camouflage More than just color and shape

He is pressing her to drop the camouflage. He wants to know her on a deeper level and she must trust him with the painful aspects of her past. He also wants to drop the camouflage so they don’t have to hide their relationship. The music rises and swells which represents the conflict and tension building between them.

Who's calling now, in the twilight's last gleaming

She comes to him unexpectedly in the evening. The melodies rise in a crescendo that becomes disjointed and chaotic as does the conflict between them. The music dissipates and we are left with the soft tinkling of shards of glass. Not the sound of glass shattering, but of broken bits of glass being dropped to the floor. She lets go of the pain of her past.

And they lived happily ever after – The End

She's sitting beside him, not riding in the back. Chauffeur is his role in her life, not his job.

"Sing Blue Silver" may be a similar reference to the "Droning engine". Rolls Royce had an entire "Silver" line of cars; Silver Spur, Silver Cloud, etc., and it may be possible that he's referring to the musical sound of the car, or its engine. For those of us who are automotive afficionados, the sounds of a finely tuned powerplant operating at high RPMs is, indeed, music.

The "glass splinters" passage clearly suggests deep emotional trauma, betrayed by her expressions, and progressive rejection of the singer/writer.

Or, it could all mean that Simon and the boys got together and said; "...hey, mates, this is going to sound bloody good - let's use it, even if it doesn't mean a thing...", which is what I've got my money on......

Either way, it's a very beautiful, elegant, and haunting song, which I would often play when I would take drives in the country with my college lover (who liked the song, even though she wasn't a Duran fan), in my '67 Corvette convertible.

Peace

This song has such elegance, don't you think? reminds me of America in the 1920s, with all these pretty young things throwing away money. Think it's the simplistic, sexy melody and the freshness of the words in the first verse that gives me that impression. Especially the line "so newly charming"....totally reminds me of the beautiful, vain women depicted in The Great Gatsby. Think I'm reading too much into it though!

Such a great song, so seductive!

This is maybe the best song of Duran Duran. I think it's a story about a chauffer in love with his passenger. He's sad because she will leave him after the trip is over.

This is why Simon wrote the line "Sing Blue Silver": as a child he read a book about timetravel, and in it said that allegedly, people who are coming back from a trip in time see blue silver. It adds to the song's supernatural element. Lovely.

Why don't they make songs like this anymore? All one has to hear is the piercing, crystalline line "Sing...Blue Silver...." and you know something beyond a normal cab ride is happening.

hell yeah now i know what the deftones were singing about when they covered it because they ROCK!!!

Is "Blue silver" a reference to a body of water, like an ocean or a river?

I think what they're saying in the end is

There's more to this kind of camouflage, more than just color and shape.

It's a line from some record on bugs or something. They say more but I can't understand it.