Monday, November 17, 2008
THE BOYS IN THE HALL
I know I have written about this before. Blogging is the essence of repetition.
I am a severe Hall and Oates fan.
I have a lot of the discs. I don't play them very often. It is more that I have them, if you get my meaning.
I stay in touch with the oeuvre by watching Darryl Hall on his website:
which is a wonderful compendium of small concerts by Hall and his road group, now 13 in total. A year's worth of great music.
Of course, I am only getting half an ouevre here as Oates is not present except for the first one but the group does HO standards as well as new works by Hall and there are guest stars who are in the same mood as the HO history.
Yesterday, the 13th session had a great guest star. Wow! Oates. And they missed no opportunity to show the guys interacting. Fan stuff. Stories.
And they played almost all non HO material. They did a really great version of the OJ's hit "Back Stabbers" with a few OJ anecdotes.
The highlight, though, is the duo's cover of the Memphis doo-wop obscurity, "I Want Someone," by The Mad Lads.
"It's the song that first brought John and I together as teenagers to form a group," says Daryl. "We shared a love for the tune, which, in my mind, is true American folk music."
"It was a favorite of Daryl and mine," adds John. "We saw The Mad Lads perform the song at the Uptown Theater in Philadelphia. I remember it because they wore yellow suits with white gloves. When Daryl and I met, and began to learn a little bit about each other, we discovered we both loved it. We've never played it live before. This will be a first."
It is all quite wonderful. I had seen the first 6 sessions but skipped ahead for this one.
You don't have to be a Hall and Oates or Daryl Hall fan to enjoy these tapes. They are musically very satisfying and the expertise is supreme.
They have charts but they riff off them. You can see the interplay.
And the video is very dense. I watch it on full screen which is not very satisfying with most videos off the net.
Sound up.
Try it you will like it.
No. They are not gay but they could be they are that close to one another. Like married folks.
Watch the interplay when they are working.
They still work together. There is a new live album from the LA Troubadour, 35 years after their first and only appearance there.
How many duos are still together after all these years, still writing and performing new stuff. They each have their own separate careers too. Maybe that is the secret.
Labels: rock
