It’s why they seem genuinely happy to carry on
touring together, despite living separate lives off stage.
They don’t need the money. As Daryl puts it: “Friends
sometimes say, ‘Why don’t you slow down? Ever
considered retiring?’ They miss the point – the good
part is, it’s fun. I’m devoted to music because it’s fun, it’s
sustained me. I’ve fallen out of love with a lot of things
and a lot of people, but music is a constant.”
That devotion to music means they’ll enjoy blasting
out the hits at next month’s UK tour, even though
having to choose a coherent setlist from 18 albums is a
nightmare. “There are songs we can’t not play,” admits
Daryl. “We’re restricted to some degree by people’s
expectations. We’ve tried to drop some hits before, and
we got fl ack from it.” He adopts an angry fan’s voice.
’You didn’t play Private Eyes!’ No, you have to play
than his bandmate, but audibly starts to relax about
halfway through our half hour. It’s Daryl who admits he’s
surprised at how timeless the songs he and John wrote
are. “I often think, ‘How did I manage to write those
good songs? I was a jackass!’” he laughs. “In my 20s
and 30s, I was a joke – but that guy wrote those good
songs. And those songs still have meaning to me now.”
Daryl’s father was a singer and his mother a vocal
coach, so he was already steeped in music when he
met John at Temple University in Philadelphia. “I was
born in New York,” recalls John. “My father made
airplane parts, and when I was four his fi rm moved
to Philadelphia. We were the only ones in our family
to ever leave New York. It was a radical choice, and
I don’t know what I’d have done with my life if they
hadn’t done it. I’d have never met Daryl.” Not that their
fi rst music together was inspirational. John continues:
“The fi rst song we wrote together was so bad, we
looked at each other and said, ‘We shouldn’t do this.
Let’s just hang out.’ It was really bad. Daryl was coming
from soul, I was folkier, and our voices didn’t blend at
all. It took a while...”SUPPORTING BOWIE
It wasn’t until 1972, fi ve years after meeting, that debut
album Whole Oats was released. Even then, their styles
hadn’t fully gelled. John recommends the song Lilly
(Are You Happy), where “we started to understand the
strengths between our vocal ranges”, but it took a huge
step before Daryl Hall and John Oates really became
Daryl Hall & John Oates: promoting Whole Oats, they
supported David Bowie on the Ziggy Stardust tour.
John says: “We went out with our little mandolin and
electric piano and seeing Bowie’s show, we thought,
‘Uh-oh... So this is where the bar is set.’ At the time,
David wasn’t a superstar, but when he came to America
his management wanted him to be perceived as one.
So David acted like a superstar. He wouldn’t speak to
anyone, and we weren’t even allowed backstage!
And to his credit, it worked. His performances wereHALL & OATES
those songs.” John emphasises it
doesn’t feel like a chore. “We’re
lucky, because our songs still sound
good. I never dread going on stage
thinking, ‘Oh God, I’ve got to play
Maneater again.’”
That devotion to music is why John
is in the King’s Cross offi ce of their
tour promoters Kilimanjaro.
Later that day, he’s interviewed
on stage as part of AmericanaFest
UK to promote his recent blues
covers solo album Arkansas in
which Oates “has a chance to go
back and rediscover the music
I made before I met Daryl.”
AIRPLANE PARTS
Before he met Daryl, John was
a journalism student, which
may explain why he’s a great
interviewee: he speaks honestly and
eloquently about his and Daryl’s
success, but knows when to deliver
a pithy one-liner, too.
Daryl talks by phone from his
home on the border of New York
and Connecticut, where he’s lived
since 1979. He’s more guarded
PAUL YOUNG’S EVERY TIME YOU GO AWAY IS ONE OF THE
FEW HALL & OATES COVERS TO HIT THE POP CHARTS...UNDER THE COVERS
For a duo with so many huge hits, there are surprisingly
few covers of Daryl Hall & John Oates songs. The most
well-known is Paul Young’s take on Every Time You Go
Away from 1980’s Voices album, which Paul took to No.4
fi ve years later.
“Paul did a great job,” says Daryl. “My songs aren’t
necessarily easy to cover, and actually I’m fi ne with
people just using pieces of our songs in sampling them.
It’s more interesting to me when people take our music for
inspiration and use it for something new.”
John has his own theory as to the lack of covers, saying: “There’s obviously
something going on, where we’re successful but people don’t want to copy it.
You can count cover versions of us on one hand. No one can sing the way Daryl
sings, the superimposition of his vocal melody is unique. The choice of notes we
impose on chord changes doesn’t sit comfortably with a lot of people either.
That’s my crackpot theory anyway! Daryl’s voice is so emblematic of the records that
you know straight away it’s a Hall & Oates song.”
Neither are keen on writing for other musicians either. “Every time I’ve tried it, it’s
fallen fl at,” admits John. “I’ve given up now. Nashville, where I live, is all about a
songwriting community with other people. But I write for myself now, and if I like it,
it’s good enough.” Daryl is more straightforward, saying: “If I’ve got to the stage
where it’s a complete song, I’ll keep it, thanks. My songs are too personal.”Hall (enjoying
a nice strum on
a guitar) and
Oates (enjoying
a nice cup
of hot coffee)© Michael Putland/Getty Images