defend the indefensible: Hall and Oates

CNN interviews H&O. Ignore the terrible lede.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJZoPIJM6gI

So who's getting the box set? The AMG Review makes it sound pretty great, with live stuff from all different eras and, smartly, 3 discs of peak vs. 1 of post-peak.

Holy shit the way the bass and muted guitar go all spy-thriller starting at about 2:15 into 'Family Man'!

I adore that song.

they were on NPR last weekend (i think all things considered?) being interviewed and playing a few songs acoustic, which sounded pretty swank

Bcuz of the new box set I guess?

Also, the opening music of 'Can't Go Far That' represents some kind of perfect studio fairyland for me-- the calmly clucking muted guitar with quiet synth-pad response, then the little synth arabesque and the tinny-filtered voice-- MAJIKK

Great 12" mix:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cv1ujZ93l2w

I don't have that!

Not too fond of the dance mix of 'Adult Education'-- prefer the radio version.

Those reissues from a few years ago = A+

Yes those are on eMusic now which is where I have been cherry-picking tracks. Unfortunately ended up with the wrong mix of 'Adult Ed'. So far I've gotten only the familiar tracks.

If I get one album in full should it be Private Eyes or H2O?

PRIVATE EYES

NO GET BOTH

Both really, but H20 is some kind of peak of early eighties mainstream pop experimentalism.

Yeah I'm leaning H20 at the mo.

I'd say there's a case to be made for Voices as well. More of an upbeat rock vibe with a bit of New Wave energy vs. the slightly more R&B direction of the next two - though they always straddled several camps - the music is already as polished and pop-radio friendly as it would get on their more popular albums.

I managed to get both H2O and Private Eyes with my remaining eMu credits by skipping the Oates-sung tracks (sorry Oates). "Crime Pays" is awesome!

Will probably get Voices next month. Am on big FM-rock kick at moment.

The fourth disc of this box set has post-1988 stuff, and, boy, talk about their muse taking flight. The hair isn't even excusable. Plus, their squishy mid seventies white R&B period is too heavily represented. However, I'd never head the Abandoned Luncheonette material. Matos is right: it's got a proto-Belle & Sebastian vibe: sunny, witty folk-pop.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHYE4D8n3Ts&feature=related

One of my personal faves of H&O.

best thing on the internet ever:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7TI-AJi2O8

indefensible? i don't get it. seriously, maybe the best pop/rock song ever:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tJoIaXZ0rw&feature=related

I refuse to watch any more of that movie than I've already seen. But yeah... great song.

that film put me off both hall and oates and briefly, living.

this song achieves an impossible level of happiness

it's weird, i never heard that song a lot in the past or thought of it as one of their signature hits, but in the past two years it's picked up some kind of zeitgeist appearing in so much different stuff (that Days of Summer movie and the keyboard cat clip upthread, Step Brothers, episodes of Glee and The Office, etc.).

The Bird & The Bee's new H&O covers album is nothing special but very listenable, hard to mess up those songs and they don't.

I can't recall hearing any Hall & Oates on the radio at all since the early 90's, aside from the 3 or 4 big 70's hits (Sara Smile, Rich Girl, She's Gone..)

re: zeitgeist, everyone watched that Shorewood high school clip linked above Daniel's post right?

i didn't, sound's off on the computer -- same song?

yep

that film put me off both hall and oates and briefly, living.

ha! why? in total, i've seen that scene and maybe four others from the movie.

i like the lead actor (dancing guy).

oates kinda looks like lionel richie

Abandoned Luncheonette has long been a guilty pleasure of mine.... especially "When the Morning Comes" and "I'm Just a Kid"

"My face ain't gettin' any younger" is one of my favorite lines

I like the clapping in "private eyes," also the part where he goes really high like "EEYYYYYYEEEES!"

No such thing as "guilty" when it comes to loving H&O.

"one on one" = one of the few songs i could listen on a loop

whole private eyes lp is fire

The four-album streak from '80 to '84 is unimpeachable.

just looked at the back of Big Bam Boom while listening the other day and learned Arthur Baker mixed it (or parts anyway). These guys knew what was up.

"When the Morning Comes" is such a perfect song.

Abandoned Luncheonette has long been a guilty pleasure of mine

i recently discovered this disc. i have no guilt about loving it. in fact, i think it's a good gateway for people who don't normally like h&o to give them another try, since the sound and vibe is pretty far removed from some of their slicker, glossier, more played-out 80s albums.

For the record, the gorgeous "Las Vegas Turnaround" and "Had I Know You Better Then" are John Oates compositions.

These guys are so great because you can find all their albums for a buck each, they have tons of them, and every one of them that I've dug through (so far) has at least a pretty-good ratio of memorable, well-performed songs to aimless duds. I've been finally chewing on Voices lately and, god, I just can't stop listening to "Diddy Doo Wop" in the same way that I couldn't stop listening to "Head Above Water" when I got Private Eyes. Great great great stuff.

"Gotta Lotta Nerve (Perfect, Perfect)"! "Big Kids"!

How Daryl Hall Became Cool Again; Or, How Glossy Magazines Started Paying Attention Again.

don't worry, we thought he was cool before everyone else did

Hall and Oates were always dope.

The end of the Hall & Oates era came in a hotel bathroom in 1990 in Tokyo, where they had just performed at a Yoko Ono–sponsored concert commemorating the death of John Lennon. There, in a sad, reflective moment, John Oates said good-bye—to the mustache.

“It really was a kind of spiritual moment for me,” Oates says, laughing. “The mustache represented a me I no longer was. I shaved it off and never looked back.” The next day, he and Hall were waiting at the Tokyo airport for a flight back to the States when Miles Davis appeared. “He came up to me with those red eyes of his,” says Oates. “He got like three inches from my face and kinda drew his finger across his own upper lip, as if he was shaving, and he said to me [in a deep, raspy voice], ‘Now the lovin’s gonna be better.’ ”

oh my god at miles davis

There was a period where people cut down Hall and Oates as if they were Air Supply, but how long ago was that? "Maneater" was street just like "Beat It" and "Billie Jean". And they were put a song with the word "bitch" in it on the radio!

According to Daryl Hall, when Jackson was recording “We Are the World”, Jackson approached him and admitted to lifting the bass line for "Billie Jean" from a Hall and Oates song, apparently referring to "I Can't Go For That (No Can Do)". Hall says that he told Jackson that he had stolen the bass line as well.