I run hot and cold on Mr Hall and Mr. Oates. If I never hear "Rich Girl" again, I think I'd be ok. Ditto with "She's Gone", though it's not nearly as painful as the previous mentioned song. Sure they have the plethora of hits with the MTV era in the early to mid-80s, most of them ok pop hits that one can take of leave. Or I can.
Then again, I really like "Maneater", "Las Vegas Turnaround", "Crime Pays", "Open All Night", and "Art of Heartbreak".
But if there were a select cut of their, I would still go back to 1976's disk, Bigger Than the Both of Us and this song, "Do What You Want, Be Who You Are". I always think it should be "be who you are", but whatever.
Hall was probably at the top of his game with songwriting and vocal performance around here. Critics and publicists always described Hall & Oates as "white Philly soul" and for the most part I never bought into that characterization. However, this might be as close as they come, and it's not bad at all.
I think I've mentioned here in the past that I ran into Daryl Hall on the streets of NYC eons ago and honestly, he could have passed for a woman. There is a video of a 1977 live version of this song out on YouTube (here) that I almost put up, but his hair and "outfit" (yes, in potentially inappropriate quotes) skeeved me out. I opted to go with this horribly generic video, but you're hear to listen to the music, right?
Anyway, how many "straight" men use the term "leather bars" in a song, let alone back in 1976? ...and yet, I believe he's still unmarried. Curious.
I have no desire to have the entire disk, but I did purchase the song from iTunes months ago. I'm still enjoying it in digital form.
3 comments:
You play with words
You play with love
You can twist it around,
baby That ain't enough
'Cos girl
I'm gonna know
If you're letting me in
Or letting me go
Don't lie
When you're hurting inside
'Cos you can't escape my
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One of my favorites from them...
Errr..did you just "out" Mr. Hall? NIce work, Blobby!
The boys are hot again!
Callin' Oates, the stupidly amazing Emergency Hall and Oates Helpline (719-26-OATES) supposedly has gotten over a million calls since it launched last year.
If you haven't called in yet, you must!
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