{"id":769,"date":"2017-05-28T14:45:06","date_gmt":"2017-05-28T18:45:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/?p=769"},"modified":"2017-05-28T14:45:06","modified_gmt":"2017-05-28T18:45:06","slug":"hall-oates-first-hand-perspective-on-how-their-roles-evolved-within-the-band","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/hall-oates-first-hand-perspective-on-how-their-roles-evolved-within-the-band\/","title":{"rendered":"Hall & Oates: First-hand perspective on how their roles evolved within the band"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Daryl<\/a>

Daryl Hall and John Oates headlined the inaugural Hoagie Nation Festival May 27, 2017, in their hometown of Philadelphia.
(Photo by Mike Morsch)<\/p><\/div>\n

Seeing Daryl Hall and John Oates headline the inaugural Hoagie Nation Festival in Philly May 27 reminded me of a portion of the last interview I did with Oates. It was about how each of their roles in the band had evolved throughout their careers.<\/p>\n

There is a perspective out there – one with which I vehemently disagree – that Oates is some sort of second banana to Hall. There was even a short-lived television show called \u201cGarfunkel and Oates\u201d that is described as being about \u201ctwo famous rock-and-roll second bananas.\u201d (As an aside, Oates himself played a porn shop clerk in one episode and there was a hilarious off-color running joke on the show that referenced Oates\u2019 famous 1970s mustache.)<\/p>\n

In a dozen interviews over the past decade, I\u2019ve talked to Oates about almost everything Hall & Oates and everything solo Oates. He\u2019s what I\u2019d describe as the perfect interview subject: articulate, has a detailed recollection about songs and events, is a good storyteller, never dodges a question, polite, gracious, media savvy and a genuinely nice guy. He\u2019s the kind of guy you\u2019d want to hang with and just listen to him tell stories. I consider myself lucky to have had him share many of those stories with me and I\u2019ve included them in three volumes of The Vinyl Dialogues. (He\u2019s also got a book out titled \u201cChange of Seasons\u201d which includes many more of those great stories.)<\/p>\n

\"(Photo<\/a>

(Photo by Mike Morsch)<\/p><\/div>\n

But the one subject I\u2019d never broached with Oates – because I wasn\u2019t quite sure how he felt about it and didn\u2019t want to offend – was this \u201csecond banana\u201d hooey. How did that perspective happen? Did it bother him?<\/p>\n

In one interview I had with Daryl Hall, he had briefly mentioned that when the band started to hit really big in the early 1980s, \u201cour roles within the band changed.\u201d He didn\u2019t elaborate and I didn\u2019t pursue any further line of questioning. But in my interviews with both Hall and Oates, neither has shown anything but the utmost respect for the other.<\/p>\n

So during my last interview with Oates, I felt comfortable enough – thanks in large part to him seemingly being comfortable with me and my questions over the years – to ask him about how his role in the band had evolved and if any of the second banana perspective had bothered him.<\/p>\n

The short answer: It doesn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

What is comes down to was that many of the duo\u2019s commercially successful songs – \u201cSara Smile,\u201d \u201cRich Girl,\u201d \u201cWait for Me,\u201d \u201cKiss on My List,\u201d \u201cYou Make My Dreams,\u201d \u201cPrivate Eyes,\u201d \u201cManeater,\u201d \u201cOne on One\u201d – all feature Hall on the lead vocals.<\/p>\n

\"John<\/a>

John Oates and Charlie DeChant.
(Photo by Mike Morsch)<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cIt happened naturally,\u201d said Oates. \u201cIn the very beginning, it was a much more equitable thing between Daryl and I in terms of who was singing lead. There were a few singles in the early days that were released with me singing lead that never caught on.\u201d (If you want a couple of examples of H&O songs that should have been bigger hits with Oates singing lead, look no further than the \u201cAbandoned Luncheonette\u201d album and the Oates-penned songs \u201cHad I Known You Better Then\u201d and \u201cLas Vegas Turnaround,\u201d the latter of which they still play in many of their live shows to this day, although it wasn\u2019t included Saturday night in the Hoagie Nation Festival setlist.)<\/p>\n

It\u2019s all about lack of ego, according to Oates.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt that point, if I was ruled by ego, I might have said, \u2018OK, I don\u2019t want to be involved in something like this\u2019 and I would have left,\u201d said Oates. \u201cBut I always accepted that Daryl was such an exceptional singer and such a unique talent that it didn\u2019t really surprise me, to be honest with you, when his voice cut the way it cut through the radio. It has a quality. It\u2019s a natural gift that he happens to have that I evidently don\u2019t. So be it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Oates said that he then became more involved in some of what he called \u201cthings that aren\u2019t so flashy and glamorous that people don\u2019t see\u201d with the band. Things like the studio production, onstage lighting, sound staging and some of the other technical aspects of putting on live shows.<\/p>\n

\"(Photo<\/a>

(Photo by Mike Morsch)<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cI always viewed a partnership as a partnership. In any partnership, I don\u2019t care if it\u2019s marriage or a work partnership, you have to compromise on a lot of levels. So I\u2019ve just accepted that. It was OK with me,\u201d said Oates. \u201cTo be honest, I don\u2019t need that in my life, that reaffirmation from the public. That doesn\u2019t matter that much to me. So I guess in a way, it was really lucky that Daryl found me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Just to provide context, that last line was said by Oates with tongue firmly planted in cheek and with a chuckle.<\/p>\n

But there isn\u2019t any question – at least in my mind – that even though both Hall and Oates have pursued their solo projects over the past several years, they still like performing together. And that was evident at the Hoagie Nation Festival in their hometown.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the thing about Daryl and I that people really don\u2019t understand or realize – that we are very unique people. We\u2019ve grown up together from the time we were 18 years old. We\u2019ve accepted each other\u2019s idiosyncrasies, neuroses, good points and bad points. We don\u2019t air dirty laundry and we learned how to deal with each other and how to make it work so that each of us feels satisfied and wants to continue doing it. It\u2019s a very complex and subtle thing that is almost impossible to describe,\u201d said Oates.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe point is, we\u2019ve really been sensitive to each other. We kind of inherently know what each person needs to keep this thing going and that\u2019s why we\u2019re still together.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Seeing Daryl Hall and John Oates headline the inaugural Hoagie Nation Festival in Philly May 27 reminded me of a portion of the last interview I did with Oates. It was about how each of their roles in the band had evolved throughout their careers. There is a perspective out there – one with which […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":104,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[70,112,122,137],"class_list":["post-769","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tvdbook","tag-daryl-hall","tag-hall-oates","tag-hoagie-nation-festival","tag-john-oates"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/769"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/104"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=769"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/769\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=769"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=769"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=769"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}