defend the indefensible: Hall and Oates

.... and Stephen Duffy is a fantastic pop stylist.

― children, the infirm, and neophytes, Sunday, 31 March 2013 18:55 (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

srs lmao at commentary on "the scene"

i listened to "voices," "private eyes" and "h2o" yesterday while driving to the city, so thanks to everyone for inspiring that.

helluva streak -- one of the most underrated of streaks if you toss in Big Bam Boom.

hadn't heard "I Can't Go For That" for a long time, & when it came on the airplane radio station last week I was startled by the dryness of the beat; hadn't ever really "gotten" why H&O charted on R&B radio before

and it was a demo!

Daryl Hall sketched out the basic song one evening at a music studio in New York City in 1981 after a recording session for the Private Eyes album. Hall began to play a bass line on a Korg organ, and sound engineer Neil Kernon recorded the result. Hall then came up with a guitar riff, which he and Oates worked on together. The next day, Hall and Sara Allen worked on the lyrics.[1]

suspecterrain has inspired me to, at long last, create the followup to POLLin' My Head Above Water: "Private Eyes" by Hall & Oates . Pop fans, I give you: How Does It POLL To Be Back: "Voices" by Hall & Oates !

oooh

yeah!

more on "I Can't Go For That"

“Remember the old Roland CompuRhythm box?” he asks. “I turned to the Rock and Roll 1 preset, sat down at a Korg organ that happened to be lying there and started to play this bass line that was coming to me. It's the old recording studio story: The engineer heard what I was doing and turned on the tape machine. Good thing, because I'm the kind of person who will come up with an idea and forget it. The chords came together in about 10 minutes, and then I heard a guitar riff, which I asked John, who was sitting in the booth, to play.”

“I remember that moment clearly,” says Oates. When we spoke, the relaxed and affable Oates had just dropped his 9-year-old son off at his math tutor and had plenty of time to talk on the cell phone before the lesson ended. Oates and his wife live in the mountains outside of Aspen, Colo., and homeschool their child. “The old Compurhythm had four presets: Rock 1, Rock 2, cha cha/samba and some other stupid beat. We both had them in our houses, and one was sitting in the studio.

“We cut everything live back then, but sometimes used the Roland box to come up with a tempo,” Oates continues. “Anyway, Daryl came up with this great bass line, using whatever sound happened to be on the organ, and Neil miked it and the drum machine.

“Daryl came up with the ‘B’ section chords, and then I plugged my 1958 Strat directly into the board, which was either an early SSL or a Trident. We were beginning to experiment with digital samplers — the Fairlight and Synclavier in particular — but were still recording analog. At any rate, Daryl sang a guitar part idea, I started to experiment with a muting thing and the part evolved on the spot.”

Did they think about adding another guitar part? “No, never!” Oates says. “When we play ‘I Can't Go for That’ in concert, I usually play some shimmery parts, but there was a leanness to the '80s sound that we were into. The Cars and other groups had that straight, simple eighth-note feel, and it was an influence on us; it was one of the cool things about '80s music. The '70s were Rococo, but punk and new wave flavored the '80s, and we responded to those styles.”

thx for the new dn suspect, er... rain

Excellent if overenthusiastic recounting by the late T-Bone Wolk of the Rock and Soul Part 1 sessions to record "Say It Isn't So" and "Adult Education." Reminded me of how integral Hall's eighth-note piano chords were to, say, "Kiss on My List" and "Private Eyes" and "One on One."

That's a good read, thanks.

"Say It Isn't So" is my favorite song recorded for a comp btw

Tough call between that and "Slip Slidin' Away," for me.

"Say It Isn't So" is a marvelous karaoke number too.

"do i do" for me

do you sell the chocolate kisses part

balls sells but who's buying

"Mary Jane's Last Dance" is cool but ultimately I would also go with "Say It Isn't So"

It's basically ""Hot Fun in the Summertime," "All That Money Wants" and "Say It Isn't So."

no sorry i meant 'do i do' is my fave greatest hits addition, i've never had luck w/ hall & oates at karaoke, following hall's thread in 'say it isn't so' required more pathos than i had that night and i'd rather not speak about what happened when i did 'one on one'.

mookieproof otm - i've had more luck w/ megadeth

haha really? Hall is no good at pledging his troth. Part of what makes SIIS so easy to sing is channeling contempt.

Actually, I agree with balls - "Say It Isn't So" is tough to sing! It's like Rumpelstiltskin, he melody kind of evaporates on you if you're not Daryl Hall.

as for new songs on compilations, i think we are all forgetting something very important here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7twIF8PWic

or not

you guys know me, contempt ain't my bag.

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-lmHIbp9FyCg/Tf3TPuFiMFI/AAAAAAAAAKM/W7LOzSZJ-Dk/s1600/Ringo%2BStarr%2Bpeace_love.jpg

I'll tell you what's difficult: "One on One," as I learned in December. As embarrassing a pratfall as "Open Your Heart."

My worst karaoke snafu was doing Cameo's "Candy" and the given lyrics were only Larry's adlibs, not the main melody. Other than that, I just sometimes forget I can't pull off anything written for a high tenor. No MJ or Stevie for me. :(

Alfred, what is that making-of-No-Can-Do paragraph taken from? That's awesome. The muted guitar at the beginning of that song is one of my all-time favorite 80s guitar moments...

http://mixonline.com/mag/audio_hall_oates_cant/

http://abcnews.go.com/US/arrest-made-oates-bites-halls-face/story?id=17947753#.UXClghxDGd0

(your Maneater joke here...)

jesus. it's stories like these that make me feel grateful none of my neighbors are, currently, biting my face.

This is terrible:

Arrest Made After Oates Bites Hall's Face

D'oh... nevermind

THAT FUCKING PHOTO

NIGHTMARES. NIGHTMAAARRRRRES.

he's got a Gacy look about him too which doesn't help

ugggh

maneater

doh

flagged u for that fyi

:)

Hall & Oates should have been special celebrity guests on an episode of Miami Vice.

omigod this thread in the last third. I forgot!

I agree with your assessment, and maybe i should have chosen a more positive message from which to stake a flag.

This the my last day on ILM. This poll reveals just how much shitiness in musical taste permeates this fine upper-crust of musical pros. And it's not just these judgments; in 10 years of reading and posting, only a handful of meaningful discussions have helped me discover new music and reveal new understandings. You experts are just as unsophisticated the pablum devouring public, and my early respect for many contributors to this site has been beaten down under the girth of far too much asshole flesh. Good fucking riddance.

― suspecterrain, Thursday, May 2, 2013 9:07 AM (3 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Personally, i view music as art, not product. Art, no matter how much critical consensus it garners, is still subjective to the individual participating with it.

― suspecterrain, Saturday, March 30, 2013 2:54 PM (4 months ago)

my early respect for many contributors to this site has been beaten down under the girth of far too much asshole flesh

^^^ passable board description, fumbles at the end though

i don't think "girth" means what he thinks it means

http://24.media.tumblr.com/10b91a493d33d87f5901763c5857f46e/tumblr_mrhbuhTyHb1qjbe0to1_500.jpg

is that Bob Mould Jr. behind Oates?