The Chauffeur

"The Chauffeur" is a Duran Duran song from their second album Rio.

About the song
The song was written by Simon Le Bon as poetry, several years before Rio was even begun.

Music video
"The Chauffeur" is one of two non-single tracks on Rio to have its own music video. None of the band appear in the video at all. It is a moody black-and-white piece inspired in part by the film, The Night Porter, and the photography of Helmut Newton. Two women dress themselves carefully in lingerie and drive through the streets of London towards a rendezvous with each other in an abandoned multi-storey car park. The instrumental end piece of the song was accompanied by a topless Perri Lister performing a sensuous dance[1][2] — clearly an homage to Charlotte Rampling's topless "Dance of the Seven Veils" in The Night Porter.

The video featured on the Greatest DVD compilation, ahead of "My Own Way", which was a single.

Song versions

 * "The Chauffeur" – 5:22
 * "The Chauffeur (Blue Silver)" – 3:48

The "Blue Silver" version of the song is an acoustic demo that appeared several times as a B-side.

Lyrics
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

And the sun drips down bedding heavy behind The front of your dress all shadowy lined And the droning engine throbs in time with your beating heart

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

And the sun drips down bedding heavy behind The front of your dress all shadowy lined And the droning engine throbs in time with your beating heart And the sun drips down bedding heavy behind The front of your dress all shadowy lined And the droning engine throbs in time with your beating heart

Sing blue silver

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 word to stiffen brooding lies And I'll only watch you leave me further behind

And the sun drips down bedding heavy behind The front of your dress all shadowy lined And the droning engine throbs in time with your beating heart And the sun drips down bedding heavy behind The front of your dress all shadowy lined The droning engine throbs in time with your beating heart

Sing blue silver Sing, sing blue silver...