say it isn't so.......the Rock 'n Soul Part 1 POLL

You Make Dreams Come True

My

"Kiss on my List" = endless spiralling angel choirs ascending to heaven

OTM

Incidentally, I never realized what a lousy comp that is: There are 7-8 absent Top 30 tracks, two of which ("Did it in a Minute", "Family Man") also made top ten. Definitely shoulda been a double album - which woulda made for a more comprehensive poll. (And I'm not blaming you, Rev!)

(...not unless you compiled the album yourself as an employee of RCA back in '83.)

I don't think Rev was born yet in 1983 lol kidz

"Adult Education"

These are some of the best songs ever written, and Myonga OTM about how unsatisfying the collection is.

"Say It Isn't So" today.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=TODt2sKEBgE

It's also one of those weird compilations that came out while the group was still at the top of their hit-making game - so by predating Big Bam Boom there was never even the possibility of skimming off the singles from that. Agreed, it should have been a double. OTOH, its frustrating incompleteness is a good impetus to check out their albums, which so far in my quest have been really satisfying so who knows.

As for OPO, completely impossible. I have it down to:

"Say It Isn't So" - 4:17
"She's Gone" - 3:24
"Rich Girl" - 2:23
"Kiss on My List" - 3:48
"You Make My Dreams" - 3:10

"Rich Girl" and "Say It Isn't So" are virtuoistic triumphs of technique, pure performative joy injected into relatively threadbare compositions. "She's Gone" is the most emotionally convincing and probably the toughest to sing well. "Kiss On My List" is just lovely all around, and the most head-sticky since I was a wee tot. And "You Make My Dreams" is the most perfectly-tuned production of them...and it blatantly was the template for the Duck Tales theme song. It probably makes me the happiest too. Fuck!

god, "It's A Laugh" isn't even on the comp!

According to Daryl Hall, "I Can't Go For That (No Can Do)" helped inspire the song "Billie Jean". "Michael Jackson once said directly to me that he hoped I didn't mind that he copied that groove (from "I Can't Go For That"). That's okay; it's something we all do. Eddie Van Halen told me that he copied the synth part from "Kiss on My List" and used it in "Jump". I don't have a problem with that at all."[2]

So maybe he was okay with the Duck Tales thing too. That's cool.

''She's Gone" is the most emotionally convincing. . . .

Not sure about this. One On One is sincere and convincing. Still, both great songs, neither of which gets my vote as of today. For right now, it's Rich Girl (or You Make My Dreams Come True; this is hard).

Yeah, it's a very strange compilation -- still, it had its uses; I was twelve when it came out had been a fan of their stuff from the Voices singles onward. By including a few of the older singles -- plus a calendar poster with the covers of all the albums they'd already released! -- I realized they had a lot more stuff out there.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

In the abscense of "Everytime You Go Away", "Maneater" is the obvious pick here.

the Hall & Oates comps (as many as they are varied) seem to uniformly shy away from the album version of "She's Gone"..."Rich Girl" is the pick here, but it is also woefully short...

Sara Smile, obviously

yeah, i picked sara smile too cuz it's the best on that list. she's gone would be second. sara smile is perfect. if you are into perfect pop songs. rich girl is pretty perfect too.

Am I the only person who actually thinks this is the definitive Hall & Oates album? (Which isn't to say it has everything I like by them on it -- I'm an Along the Red Ledge fan -- but it's still the most playable album you can buy by them. I've got that two-disc Ultimate comp; it's fine, but way more than I'd ever want in one sitting.)

I'm also stumped by people who prefer merely okay and (I always thought) emotionally empty '80s trifles like "You Make My Dreams" and "Kiss On My List" and "Private Eyes" to "She's Gone" (which I'm voting for) or "Sara Smile." That just seems bizarre to me. ("I Can't Go For That" or "Maneater" or "One On One," which strike me as way less generic, might make more sense.) I dunno, maybe it's an age thing.

Exactly Scott and xhuxh, I always thought Sara Smile had this well-deserved rep as just one of the most perfect pop songs. If anything, She's Gone is the only other rival

I can't see how "You Make My Dreams" is less "emotionally empty" than "It's A Laugh" or "Alley Katz." I mean, Daryl Hall is an asshole; the slithier his tricks, the more convincing he sounds.

Why is he an asshole exactly? Personally? If that's your criteria alot of great music is out...

Uh, no. In his songs he comes off like a blonde slickster who doesn't mind playing the game if the girl doesn't make too many demands; once the rich girl starts questionining his motives, he says leave me alone, I'm a family man, like it just occurred to him.

I like him when he's slimy (in "Rich Girl," say.) Part of what I mean when I say "You Make My Dreams" and "Kiss On My List" and "Private Eyes" are emotionally vacant is that they don't seem slimy enough. They don't seem....anything, really. To me, anyway. Well, they seem catchy. But catchy comes easy to these guys; they're capable of a lot more than that. (But obviously lots of people here hear stuff in those songs that I don't, which is fine.)

By the way, I didn't just mean Ultimate had too much for one sitting -- it has lots of songs (at least a quarter of it) that I have no interest in listening to in any sitting. Including so much stuff makes the album worse.

I do wish Rock 'N Soul had "Out of Touch," though (which I think came out just a few months later.)

"Out of Touch" epitomizes their late-period (middle? who cares?) approach to a T. Most Hall lyrics are exculpatory lectures.

Daryl Hall is Michael Douglas in Fatal Attraction.

"Private Eyes" doesn't need anything more than those claps - one of the least empty moments in a song ever, they're like the heart-attack snares in Green Velvet's "Flash" or something. I prefer "When The Morning Comes" to "Sara Smile" in the perfect-pop-songs category.

TS: Nina Simone's "Rich Girl" vs Aretha Franklin's "What A Fool Believes"

Wow, Alfred, you remind me of what was once said of Henry James...he chewed more than he bit off!

It's weird -- all the talk about lyrics reemphasizes to me how I tend almost always to listen past them. For me this is a 'perfect' compilation as xhuxk describes in part due to nostalgia -- I grew up with it, I am very familiar with it. But all the talk about Hall's lyrical tricks and modes, while intellectually understandable, just don't actually resonate with me, I'd have to take time I don't want to take to sit down with them so thoroughly. To me the differences between the 'emotionally empty' period and the earlier songs xhuxk contrasts them with isn't a matter of lyrics but of arrangement and budget, and I love both (relative) extremes. Again, though, it's a very personal take I have, all the more weird (or not?) because it's so impersonal, judging the songs strictly on a basis of aural pleasure and connection.

Exactly, there's some music like this I guess where it would never occur to me to even listen consciously to the lyrics, but whatever, m'Lord!

Found not guilty. Oh wait that came out wrong.

released on his own recognizance

I hope it's clear that I love H&O!

As for the emphasis on lyrics, it's pretty clear that they support the arrangements and vocals, not the other way around. Hall's voice, while flexible and capable of colors beyond what other white guys were capable of at the time, has a grainy, slightly hollow timbre. Put at the service of their New Wave/soul/power pop amalgram of the post-1980 period, it couldn't present itself as anything but the expression of a guy who wants to sell his emptiness as a virtue, and who tells his women that they ain't shit unless they know they're being used. It's not even subtext! It's right there in "Private Eyes," "One On One," "Your Imagination," "Open All Night," "I Can't Go For That," among others.

The apotheosis is Hall's solo "Dreamtime," which is $15 million's worth of sitars, backwards guitar, and multitracked vocals desperate to convince the "you" that you're living in fantasy land unless you're slipping off your bra when he tells you to.

OK, that's kind of interesting

And that second one's kinda funny

Ultimate... has lots of songs (at least a quarter of it) that I have no interest in listening to in any sitting.

Actually, I gave it too much credit here -- I see a small handful of songs on it I care about that aren't on Rock N Soul: "It's a Laugh," "Everytime You Go Away," "Out Of Touch," a couple more. But they could have limited the collection to one disc, easy.

don't be liking the butchered version of she's gone on here.

(No can do)

first four and "can't go for that" are all pretty great, but I feel like one on one is going to get shafted here, so I'ma throw it a little love.

I'll come back and read this thread sometime, but I wanted to say that I voted for "Maneater" (in case that gets folks up in arms that way you'll know who to blame)

'sara smile' for sure

TS: Nina Simone's "Rich Girl" vs Aretha Franklin's "What A Fool Believes"

Two disastrous tastes that taste disastrous together.

PS: I voted for "Maneater," but given the option, would have voted for "Abandoned Luncheonette."

I better see some votes for "Adult Education" from you bitches.

Well you could always see the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s22ufU-67iM

And read the comments.

You're frisky today!

on the video for "Adult Education":

Looking at all the sexual imagery, this whole thing has to do with fertility and mating. The older man represents conservatism, traditional values, marriage and so forth. We looked at a web article that indicated that Daryl Hall struggled with some of the conservative norms of society. At the end of the video, the old guy is nowhere to be seen. He's been done away with, and the old ways of governing sexuality have now been swept away

More:

While I was in high school 84-88....Mr.Hall was on tour & taught Adult Education w/a girl here in MN and got her knocked-up!

You're frisky today!

Friday, coffee, not much actual work to do.

x-post okay that MN comment.

I saw them on that 84 tour as well. I was not taught Adult Education. I think I'm glad. I did, however, see G. E. Smith pull off this guitar solo on a pillar that rose up from the stage.

Hall and Oates and The Temple of Doom

Boy if Hall had ripped Oates's flaming heart out...

Actually xhuxk will appreciate this detail -- opening band for that tour? Xavion, who I think has only ever been written about by xhuxk since that tour. They were pretty great, I remember!

hahaha waht?!
She's Gone vid

Flight of the Concords antecedent?

I think we need to run a separate video poll of the same songs here.

cd version adds Family Man (which would be my 3rd favorite here)and, uh, You've lost that Loving Feeling

when I saw H & O in '84, Marshall Crenshaw opened up...now there's a line-up!

Amazed and highly intrigued at Alfred's comments here. Not sure I really think there's truth in them, but I suppose it's food for thought. They always just seemed like love songs to me, like so many others. It's weird to try to see this big picture from them and draw conclusions.

Also amazed to learn of the Billie Jean and Van Halen "Jump" connections...

I hear them as sex songs, or dispatches from the sex wars.

A retrospective by its very nature forces a listener to create a narrative, n'est-ce pas?

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

The Adult Education guitar solo is the balls.

Damnit I forgot to vote. I think I just couldn't decide between "I Can't Go For That", "She's Gone" and "One on One".

I really liked Adult Education when it came out and bought the single. Played it again during my recent Hall & Oates extravaganza and it left me scratching my head.