Rushonrock Red Hot Track Of The Week: Andy Taylor

Song

Man’s A Wolf To Man

Artist

Andy Taylor

Andy Taylor backstory

When Andy Taylor answered the call to become Duran Duran’s lead guitarist in 1980 his unlikely path towards pop stardom was set.

For five years the rocker at heart added the steel to the new romantic band’s commercial swagger.

And Taylor introduced funk and soul to his diverse repertoire after founding supergroup The Power Station in New York in 1984.

It wasn’t until 1987’s powerful solo effort Thunder, that the six-stringer returned to his rock roots.

That gritty collab with Sex Pistols’ Steve Jones featured singles I Might Lie and Don’t Let Me Die Young.

Taylor produced the debut album by blues rock upstarts Thunder in 1990.

And after working with The Almighty and Gun he found himself front and centre of a new Brit rock revolution.

A noughties return with Duran Duran reminded the masses of Taylor’s rare talent.

But a return to solo work and production beckoned for the Tynemouth-born star.

Single Love Or Liberation — featuring Reef’s Gary Stringer — was released in 2019 to coincide with a rare show at London’s 100 Club.

And Man’s A Wolf To Man is the lead single from Taylor’s first solo album in more than 30 years.

Earlier this month the 61-year-old was forced to miss Duran Duran’s induction into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame after revealing he’d suffered a setback in his battle against stage four prostate cancer.

In Andy Taylor’s own words:

“A musician’s life is about bringing people together — a politician’s life is to divide us.

“The song divides itself between hope and fear: the hope that we can live peacefully as one shaded by the fear that we’re rolling in a very destructive direction.

“I wrote this song five years ago — I wanted to find a way to describe what I was witnessing

“I saw the rapid polarisation of society, into tribal war, which we’ve accepted as the new norm.

“It’s reached a point that when one encounters another as ‘not one of their own kind’, it’s become acceptable to say and do terrible things to each other.

“It’s purely because you believe or have been told that the other person ‘is not of your own kind’.

“That is when a Man’s A Wolf To Man.”

The verdict on Man’s A Wolf To Man

There’s no escaping the added poignancy underpinning an emotionally powerful tune released just days before Taylor opened up on his four-year cancer battle.

But a song five years in the making predates the diagnosis revealed by former Duran Duran band mate Simon Le Bon at the 2022 Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame induction ceremony.

And that’s what makes the lyrical thrust of an anthem for the ages all the more remarkable.

Taylor is no Nostradamus and yet the sharp-thinking Geordie appears to have predicted one of the most turbulent political and socio-economic periods in global history.

And the words at the heart of this thinking man’s rock song are complemented by killer fretwork and a seriously affecting vocal.

Taylor might have made a brief reappearance three years ago on the Gary Stringer-fronted Love Or Liberation.

But if Man’s A Wolf To Man heralds his true return to the rock and roll fray then these are exciting times for fans of the multi-talented musician and producer.

The Bowie-esque bursts of retro melody are burnished with broad strokes of modern-day mixing wizardry to create a feast for the senses.

And it’s clear Taylor has rediscovered his voice — and his passion for über-production — just in time to remind the masses of his enduring value to an industry in flux.

Man’s A Wolf To Man.

But Andy Taylor’s THE man.