Hall and Oates are back, and the title of their new album, ”Ooh Yeah!”
says it all. After a three-year break that many fans feared might become permanent, the pre-eminent purveyors of blue-eyed soul have shot back up the charts with their first single, ”Everything Your Heart Desires,” and proved that absence does, indeed, make the heart grow fonder.
Currently playing their first dates since their highly acclaimed concert at Harlem`s Apollo Theatre back in May, 1985, and backed by a brand new band
(except for original member T-Bone Walker on bass), pop`s most successful duo ever is scheduled to appear at Poplar Creek Friday and at Alpine Valley in East Troy, Wis., next Sunday.
After the lengthy layoff, what can fans expect from Hall and Oates`
revamped stage act? Plenty of hits, would seem to be the answer. ”Yeah, we`re really concentrating on the music this time out,” reports Hall. ”The show`s nearly three hours long, so we`re really bombarding our audiences with all the old favorites as well as material from the new album.”
”There`s not even time for an opening act,” says Oates, ”which must mean we`re really hogging the limelight.” But then, with a string of hits, including ”Out of Touch,” ”Kiss On My List,” ”I Can`t Go For That (No Can Do),” ”She`s Gone” and ”Maneater,” that reads like a soundtrack for the
`80s, these guys can afford to hog the limelight with impunity.
Which, of course, brings up the question everyone wants answered. Why, when they were at the very height of both their commercial and critical success, did Hall and Oates decide to call it quits?
The obvious answer, that personal and artistic differences eventually became unbearable, just doesn`t seem to hold true here. In fact, sitting in their plush Los Angeles hotel suite, they both look happy and relaxed, and they talk respectfully of each other.
”The truth is, we never said, `That`s it, it`s over,` ” offers Hall, who is the more outgoing of the pair. ”I guess people felt that we had broken up, but it was very open-ended as far as we were concerned. It was more of a rest. If we`d felt the magic was gone when we got back together, yeah, we might have broken up permanently. But I don`t think either of us believed that`d happen.
”We`ve been together for almost 20 years now, and we needed a break,”
agrees Oates. ”I think we also felt it`d be hard to top everything we`d done, especially after the Apollo show.”
”Man, that was the zenith,” says Hall. ”It was coming round full circle. You know, I grew up listening to groups like The Temptations, and when I was 17, I got my first record contract playing in a talent show at the Uptown Theater in Philadelphia, and The Temptations were on the bill. So playing the Apollo was really a dream come true.
”We were real pleased with `Big Bam Boom,` and then to be sharing the same stage with my idols . . . well, we felt we`d completed a phase of our careers,” adds Hall, his eyes shining at the memory of that night like any fan`s. ”It was just a case of `What the hell are we going to do next?` ”
In any event, the singer decided to pursue another long-cherished dream in the shape of a second solo album (his first, with ex-King Crimson guitarist Robert Fripp, entitled ”Sacred Songs,” was released in 1980). Moving to London, Hall hooked up with Dave Stewart of the Eurythmics as producer, and in 1986 released ”Three Hearts In The Happy Ending Machine.”
Although a critical and personal success for Hall, the album failed to live up to its title commercially. But it did serve a purpose, says the singer. ”It made me realize the difference between a Daryl Hall record and a Hall and Oates record. It`s hard to put it into words, but it comes down to the sound of our separate voices and the way they blend together.”
Ironically, it was the lower-profile Oates who scored big commercially during the three-year sabbatical. After producing an album for a Canadian band, The Parachute Club, he moved to Australia to work on some songs with Icehouse singer Iva Davies. The result was a worldwide smash with ”Electric Blue,” a track which featured Oates` distinctive harmonies.
Despite much musical success, however, it appears that Oates` extra-curricular activities provided him with his biggest thrills during the duo`s hiatus.
”I learned to fly solo, which is something I`d been aiming toward for quite a while,” he says. ”I like to do stuff like that, to get totally away from the music business.”
By contrast, his partner admits to being ”much more one-sided. I like to read and hang around my house in the country, but I mainly like to just make music and listen to what`s happening and soak it all up. So by the time we decided to get back together and try writing something again, all those influences gradually surfaced.”`But there really wasn`t any game plan when we did start recording again,” insists Hall. ”It was all very spontaneous. We had just two specific ideas for songs. One was `Realove,` which we wrote for a Japanese artist, Keisuke Kuwata, and the other was `Downtown Life,` which we originally wrote for the `Beverly Hills Cop II` soundtrack. But when we heard that, we decided there was no way we were giving that song away.”
”Ooh Yeah!” already has been hailed by the music press as the pair`s most romantic and sexy record to date, an assessment that Hall agrees with enthusiastically.
”I spent a lot of time watching Channel J (the New York porno station)
and I guess it shows. Usually, I like to go home after being in the studio all day and read, but on these sessions, I got into just staring at all these escort ads they keep repeating, and listening to that Barry White sound. You know, I think by the end, he`d invaded my brain and my body. He`s in there somewhere, going, `Yeah baby, ooh, baby,` ” Hall says laughingly.
A year in the making, their new album not only reflects the primal grunts of a Berry White, but soars with the spirituality of a Marvin Gaye, another early influence. ”We always seem to work best when we go back to our roots,” comments Oates. ”In fact, every time we`ve tried to make any other kind of music, we`ve failed.”
”Our biggest problem is when we try to be white,” Hall points out.
”For a long time, we felt like freaks `cause we wanted to be part of the white rock `n` roll scene, but because all our records were most received on black radio, we had a tough time breaking in.
”That`s why it`s ridiculous when people accuse us of commercializing black music. We started on black radio and we`ve still never really been accepted by the white community. It`s still a mixed reaction.”
