The Vinyl Dialogues Blog

Stories behind memorable albums of the 1970s as told by the artists

Tag: Hall & Oates

Search for elusive vinyl ends with a deflating ‘Conrad’ moment

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On February 22, 2015

In The Vinyl Dialogues Book

One of the enjoyable aspects of starting a vinyl collection well into adulthood is the thrill of the hunt. That is, as long as some jamoke named Conrad doesn’t mess up the experience.

I like to go to the various used records stores in my part of the world – suburban Philadelphia – and spend some time rummaging through the endless discount bins for certain albums. Usually, I’m looking for an album that I’m writing about, either one that appeared in The Vinyl Dialogues or one that’s going to be featured in The Vinyl Dialogues Volume II.

It’s a relaxing way to kill and hour or two on the weekend, if one has the patience – as well as a good back and legs – to stand there and sift through album after album looking for that buried treasure.

On my most recent excursion, I was searching for the 1973 … Read more

Daryl Hall bursts into new year with online concert, deep album cuts

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On January 1, 2015

In The Vinyl Dialogues Book

We know what we’re going to get at a Hall & Oates concert. All those classic and timeless hits, the ones that sound as good today as they did in the 1970s and 1980s.

There are no complaints with that. What we don’t usually hear from Hall & Oates, though, are lesser hits or deep album cuts from the vast catalog of their careers.

For that, one has to attend a solo show by either of the Rock and Roll Hall of Famers.

John Oates will tell his audiences up front that if you want to hear the greatest hits of Hall & Oates, then you should go to a Hall & Oates show.

The thing is, if you go to a solo Oates show, you appreciate the stuff that’s strictly Oates because you don’t get to hear it as much in concert. The real treats are the deep album … Read more

Hall & Oates frighteningly good at opening of new ‘Daryl’s House’

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On November 1, 2014

In The Vinyl Dialogues Book

It was billed as “Hall-oween and Oates,” but thankfully, there was no soul version of “Monster Mash.”

That was never going to happen anyway. Daryl Hall and John Oates would never have a conversation about covering that song in one of their shows, even on Halloween. To do so would severely compromise the integrity of their H&OHQ – Hall & Oates Hipness Quotient.

No, this fright night performance on Oct. 31, 2014, was about something completely different. It christened the new “Daryl’s House” – a renovated music venue and restaurant – that used to be known as the Town Crier in Pawling, N.Y.

It’s the next step in the evolution of “Live From Daryl’s House,” an internet and cable show that Hall has hosted since 2007. Episodes for the show, which airs on the cable channel Palladia, will be filmed there without an audience, but at all other times, the … Read more

You can go home again: John Oates shines solo at ST94

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On September 26, 2014

In The Vinyl Dialogues Book

John Oates is comfortable coming home to Pennsylvania, especially when he performs solo gigs at the Sellersville Theater 1894.

As he is fond of saying when performing there, the theater holds a special place in his heart. It was where Oates, as a newly licensed driver in the mid-1960s, took a young lady from nearby Silverdale borough on his first car date to the venue to see a movie.

The locals will tell you that the intimate movie-theater-turned-concert venue has been the site of a lot of memorable moments ever since that Oates date.

And on Thursday night, Sept. 25, John Oates created another of those memories for himself. Six songs into his set, his drummer and bass player exited, leaving just Oates and his guitar on stage.

“I want to dedicate a song to my mom,” he said.

The Oates family is from North Wales, PA, in Montgomery County, … Read more

If you’re going to cover Hall & Oates on their home turf, know all the words to ‘Sara Smile’

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On August 31, 2014

In The Vinyl Dialogues Book

If you’re going to be a cover band that plays in Montgomery County, PA, and you’re going to include a Hall & Oates song in your set list, then at the very least you ought to know all the words to the song.

See, Montgomery County – north and west of Philadelphia – is the sweet spot for Hall & Oates. John was raised in North Wales, PA, and Daryl grew up near Pottstown, PA, just 15 or so miles further west. Both are in Montgomery County.

It’s the home turf if ever there was a home turf for the Rock and Roll Hall of Famers.

When I moved to Pennsylvania in 2000, I lived in Royersford, PA, a little closer to the Hall family homestead than the Oates territory. In fact, my house was only a few miles from the final resting place of the “abandoned luncheonette,” the one … Read more

Daryl Hall, Amos Lee and Mutlu: ‘I’m in a Philly Mood’

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On June 26, 2014

In The Vinyl Dialogues Book

There are a lot of cool things about living in Philly, especially for a guy who spent the first 40 years of his life in and around the cornfields of Illinois and Iowa.

Cheesesteaks (yes, they’re that good), Phillies baseball, cheesesteaks, the Liberty Bell, cheesesteaks, Independence Hall, cheesesteaks, the Jersey Shore right next door and . . . cheesesteaks (Wiz, witout: Philly people will know what that means.)

But the coolest of the cool for me is the music scene here, specifically the Philly sound, also known as Philly soul. And for me that means Hall & Oates, The O’Jays, The Stylistics, Lou Rawls and the next generation that includes Amos Lee and Mutlu.

If you’re a Hall & Oates or Amos Lee fan, you likely know Mutlu. He’s the next generation of Philly singer-songwriters and he’s collaborated with both Hall & Oates and toured extensively with Lee providing backup … Read more

Hall & Oates leave them wanting more at the Borgata

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On June 22, 2014

In The Vinyl Dialogues Book

You know that old adage, “Always leave them wanting more?” I’m pretty sure that just about everyone in the sold-out Borgata ballroom in Atlantic City Friday night, June 20, 2014, would have been happy to sit there for a few more hours and listen to Hall & Oates.

The recently inducted Rock and Roll Hall of Famers performed a tight, 90-minute set, that included two encores, and certainly left me wanting more.

The thing that strikes me about Daryl and John at this stage of their careers is that they genuinely seem to still be enjoying what they do. And, no breaking news here: they’re very good at it.

Of course, all the hits were there:

“Maneater” – No. 1 from the “H2O” album (1982).
“Out of Touch” – No. 1 from “Big Bam Boom” (1984).
“Do It For Love” – No. 114 (and should have been higher) from “Do … Read more

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