Oct 9, 2020

RhoDeo 2040 Grooves

Hello, that was one smart fly landing on the head of someone talking shit, seriously. Let's hope a month from now the US has somewhat normalized, that's to say if the Trumpists show to be bad losers some of these nutters might start a civil war, it's clear Trump wouldn't mind to see some bloodshed in his support, after all God is on his side considering his remarkble steroid comeback from corona. Let's face it this man is so full of shit not even corona can breaktrough...


Today's Artists had a partnership that produced some of the most unimaginably wonderful, melodic rock-pop and unabashed blue-eyed soul music it was the '70s and '80s fortune to experience. They may be thought of today as nerdy and radio-friendly, baby boomer, mullet head icons, but their strongly crafted songwriting talent, tight musicianship and Daryl's sweet and powerful vocals are a true listening joy.
.........N Joy

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 From their first hit in 1974 through their heyday in the '80s, Daryl Hall and John Oates' smooth, catchy take on Philly soul brought them enormous commercial success -- including six number one singles and six platinum albums. Hall & Oates' music was remarkably well constructed and produced; at their best, their songs were filled with strong hooks and melodies that adhered to soul traditions without being a slave to them, incorporating elements of new wave and hard rock.

Daryl Hall began performing professionally while he was a student at Temple University. In 1966, he recorded a single with Kenny Gamble and the Romeos; the group featured Gamble, Leon Huff, and Thom Bell, who would all become the architects of Philly soul. During this time, Hall frequently appeared on sessions for Gamble and Huff. In 1967, Hall met John Oates, a fellow Temple University student. Oates was leading his own soul band at the time. The two students realized they had similar tastes and began performing together in an array of R&B and doo wop groups. By 1968, the duo had parted ways, as Oates transferred schools and Hall formed the soft rock band Gulliver; the group released one album on Elektra in the late '60s before disbanding.


After Gulliver's breakup, Hall concentrated on session work again, appearing as a backup vocalist for the Stylistics, the Delfonics, and the Intruders, among others. Oates returned to Philadelphia in 1969, and he and Hall began writing folk-oriented songs and performing together. Eventually they came to the attention of Tommy Mottola, who quickly became their manager, securing the duo a contract with Atlantic Records. On their first records -- Whole Oates (1972), Abandoned Luncheonette (1973), War Babies (1974) -- the duo were establishing their sound, working with producers like Arif Mardin and Todd Rundgren and removing much of their folk influences. At the beginning of 1974, the duo relocated from Philadelphia to New York. During this period, they only managed one hit -- the number 60 "She's Gone" in the spring of 1974.

After they moved to RCA in 1975, the duo landed on its successful mixture of soul, pop, and rock, scoring a Top Ten single with "Sara Smile." The success of "Sara Smile" prompted the re-release of "She's Gone," which rocketed into the Top Ten as well. Released in the summer of 1976, Bigger than the Both of Us was only moderately successful upon its release. The record took off in early 1977, when "Rich Girl" became the duo's first number one single.


Although they had several minor hits between 1977 and 1980, the albums Hall & Oates released at the end of the decade were not as successful as their mid-'70s records. Nevertheless, they were more adventurous, incorporating more rock elements into their blue-eyed soul. The combination would finally pay off in late 1980, when the duo released the self-produced Voices, the album that marked the beginning of Hall & Oates' greatest commercial and artistic success. The first single from Voices, a cover of the Righteous Brothers' "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling," reached number 12, yet it was the second single, "Kiss on My List" that confirmed their commercial potential by becoming the duo's second number one single; its follow-up, "You Make My Dreams" hit number five. They quickly released Private Eyes in the summer of 1981; the record featured two number one hits, "Private Eyes" and "I Can't Go for That (No Can Do)," as well as the Top Ten hit "Did It in a Minute." "I Can't Go for That (No Can Do)" also spent a week at the top of the R&B charts -- a rare accomplishment for a white act. H20 followed in 1982 and it proved more successful than their two previous albums, selling over two million copies and launching their biggest hit single, "Maneater," as well as the Top Ten hits "One on One" and "Family Man." The following year, the duo released a greatest-hits compilation, Rock 'N Soul, Pt. 1, that featured two new Top Ten hits -- the number two "Say It Isn't So" and "Adult Education."


In April of 1984, the Recording Industry Association of America announced that Hall & Oates had surpassed the Everly Brothers as the most successful duo in rock history, earning a total of 19 gold and platinum awards. Released in October of 1984, Big Bam Boom expanded their number of gold and platinum awards, selling over two million copies and launching four Top 40 singles, including the number one "Out of Touch." Following their contract-fulfilling gold album Live at the Apollo with David Ruffin & Eddie Kendrick, Hall & Oates went on hiatus. After the lukewarm reception for Daryl Hall's 1986 solo album, Three Hearts in the Happy Ending Machine, the duo regrouped to release 1988's Ooh Yeah!, their first record for Arista. The first single, "Everything Your Heart Desires," went to number three and helped propel the album to platinum status.


However, none of the album's other singles broke the Top 20, indicating that their era of chart dominance had ended. Change of Season, released in 1990, confirmed that fact. Although the record went gold, it featured only one Top 40 hit -- the number 11 single "So Close." The duo mounted a comeback in 1997 with Marigold Sky, but it was only partially successful; far better was 2003's Do It for Love and the following year's soul covers record Our Kind of Soul.


The issuing of "greatest-hits" albums reached a fever pitch during the 2000s, with no fewer than 15 different collections seeing the light by 2008. Live records proliferated as well, with the A&E Live by Request release Live in Concert hitting stores in 2003, a reissue of their Ecstasy on the Edge 1979 concert (titled simply In Concert this time around) in 2006, and the Live at the Troubadour two-CD/one-DVD set in 2008. As far as proper studio albums go, the 2000s were lean, with only three releases -- the aforementioned Do It for Love and Our Kind of Soul, topped off by Home for Christmas in 2006. A career-spanning box set appeared in 2009, titled Do What You Want, Be What You Are: The Music of Daryl Hall and John Oates.


During the 2010s, the duo were very active, both together and separately. Several Hall & Oates tours were mounted, and they performed together on American Idol and The Voice. In 2011, Hall released his fifth solo album, Laughing Down Crying, on Verve Forecast, and that same year Oates released a blues tribute album titled Mississippi Mile. Three years later, Oates drafted contemporary pop stars including Ryan Tedder and Hot Chelle Rae for Good Road to Follow. Also in 2014, the duo were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.


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Prior to releasing their debut album Whole Oats, Daryl Hall and John Oates had sketched out some demos, originally released as the Past Times Behind collection (since reissued under a variety of titles). Those recordings found them earnest and tentative, in the throes of their folk-rock phase, and they led to Atlantic signing the duo, putting them under the tutelage of producer Arif Mardin, who had previously helmed records by the Rascals and Dusty Springfield's landmark Dusty in Memphis. Mardin helped open up the duo's sound, retaining the preciousness that marked their ballads but subtly layering sounds on the livelier numbers and encouraging these two veterans of Philly soul groups to play up their R&B influence. At its core, Whole Oats is still quite precious, often a little too delicate for its own good, but about half of the album works and works rather brilliantly. Two carryovers from Past Times Behind, "Fall in Philadelphia" and "Goodnight and Goodmorning," illustrate the skill of Mardin's production and how it highlights the duo's strengths. "Fall in Philadelphia" is given a soul makeover, with some funky guitar and horns plus a stylish vibraphone line, yet it retains the folky, melancholic undertow of the original, while "Goodnight and Goodmorning" is given an epic production, sailing along on its strings and achieving an understated beauty. In Mardin's hands, both turn into minor classics, and there are a few other songs that are equally as successful, most notably the opener "I'm Sorry" and the melancholy closer "Lilly (Are You Happy)," two terrific fusions of Hall & Oates' R&B roots, singer/songwriter aspirations, and Mardin's ear for modern pop/rock and soul. If the rest of the album was as strong as these four songs, Whole Oats would have been a crackerjack debut, but they're the highlights on what is essentially a promising debut. The first side has some nice moments -- the lightly skipping "All Our Love," Hall's quiet, introspective "Waterfall" -- but the second side gets stuck in a series of sleepy ballads that derails whatever momentum the album gained. Nevertheless, a little over of half of the record works, and four cuts are early classics, which is more than enough to make Whole Oats a strong debut.



<a href="https://multiup.org/261a81f60a2e3e61735dbe1b0d0b3a9b">  Daryl Hall & John Oates - Whole Oates </a>  (flac   207mb)

01 I'm Sorry 3:06
02 All Our Love 2:41
03 Georgie 2:42
04 Fall in Philadelphia 3:58
05 Waterwheel 3:52
06 Lazyman 3:15
07 Goodnight and Goodmorning 3:18
08 They Needed Each Other 3:59
09 Southeast City Window 2:31
10 Thank You For... 4:36
11 Lilly (Are You Happy) 4:10

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This was the second release by Daryl Hall and John Oates, and man, there's no way around it, Abandoned Luncheonette was the absolute pinnacle for their mixture of rock n’ roll along with rhythm and blues, which those of us from Philadelphia called rockin' soul, where for my tastes, this album was never to be equaled.  Contained within the grooves are the relentless harmonies of Motown, laced with all of the hooks required of any great pop song, yet the album manages to seduce you with magical little stories, which may or may not be true ... I know, because I’ve asked.

The high point for me was the song "Lady Rain," though if you see me tomorrow, it could just as easily be "Las Vega Turnaround."  "Lady Rain" has a very sweet melody that revolves within the song, and opens with some a very cool mandolin and strummed acoustic guitar.  The number is funky as well, especially when the drums flower in and Hall sings, “Lady Rain, lay your sobbin’ hair down on my shoulder / Lady Rain, do your cloudy eyes see me much older?” Then one very fine guitar enters from stage left, leaving Daryl and John to swap lines until a well considered acoustic guitar leans in and then gives way to an electric violin solo. The number is simply magical in all respects.



<a href="http://www.imagenetz.de/iJ2ax">Hall & Oates - Abandoned Luncheonette</a> (flac   219mb)

01 When the Morning Comes 3:14
02 Had I Known You Better Then 3:26
03 Las Vegas Turnaround (The Stewardess Song) 2:59
04 She's Gone 5:15
05 I'm Just a Kid (Don't Make Me Feel Like a Man) 3:20
06 Abandoned Luncheonette 3:58
07 Lady Rain 4:25
08 Laughing Boy 3:32
09 Everytime I Look at You 7:02

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War Babies was given a guiding hand by Todd Rundgren, at a time when everything Todd touched sounded just like Todd Rundgren, and while that may have given Hall & Oates some valued credentials, it certainly made for a confusing album.

If nothing else, War Babies is entirely one of the most intriguing and enigmatic albums of all time, when once the great sonic musical maestro stepped in, he nearly shoved Daryl and John out (though perhaps they willingly stepped aside), reassembling nearly all of the guitar work, taking over the responsibilities of lead guitar, and went so far as to bring in bandmates John Seigler and Jon Wilcox of Todd’s band Utopia to bring forth the unclear yet ever present aspects of psychic prog-rock pop with a bit of funk … though yes, the entire adventure is far closer to progressive rock.  War Babies had little or nothing to do with the wonderful Abandoned Luncheonette, nor could it even be considered a step into the future from that album.  War Babies was out of the box completely different, as if it had materialized from out of nowhere, from out of thin air, leaving listeners perplexed dazed and confused.

With War Babies sounding like a matinee version of Rundgren’s classic A Wizard A True Star, I fear I’m suggesting that this was a road Daryl Hall did not want to venture down, while nothing could be further from the truth, as the concept and production were wholeheartedly embraced by him, though not so much by John, who was still deeply rooted and devoted to their Philly soul sound.  A quick look at the tracking will confirm this, where seven of the ten songs that make up the album are credited to Hall alone.  There were many things to come out of the crazy War Babies sessions, though none more relevant and long lasting as the deconstruction and reconstruction of their harmonies, harmonies that had once been thought of as existing in two places, as say The Righteous Brother had done.  Yet here, John and Daryl managed to assemble that into three sections, one each for Daryl and John, and another for the two of them together, a feat that would define their sound for all time.

Defining as it may have been, War Babies bombed, and still today it’s seen as an anomaly of sorts that got them booted from Atlantic Records, leaving them to resurface on RCA with an eponymous album in 1975, a record that has been dubbed The Silver Album, featuring a cover with a metallic hue, and artwork right out of Ziggy Stardust, an androgynous daydream portrait of the pair created by Mick Jagger’s makeup artist, where the boys look totally glam, and simply too divine. As to the record itself, it’s divided into two sections, embracing absolutely nothing that’s commercially viable, pure art for art’s sake, a Jackson Pollack schizoid enigma of self-destruction that given the right environment and within the right atmosphere, can somehow manage to work.


*** The Fun Facts:  As to the album’s title, War Babies denotes a child born durning wartime, especially one fathered by a serviceman.  This would certainly include Daryl, who was born in 1946 at the tail end of WW2, with John arriving in 1948.  While the album’s artwork is very much in vogue with images of the cold war 1950’s, one could just as easily consider John and Daryl children of the Viet Nam war, as they both watched in horror as many of their friends were drafted into that conflict. As to the cover art by airbrush artist Peter Palombi, all of the images represent aspects of the late 1940’s and early 50’s, things Daryl and John would have been more than familiar with:
 


<a href="https://bayfiles.com/ZbXbF1dbpa/Hll_n_Ots_Wr_Bbs_zip"> Hall & Oates - War Babies</a>  (flac   277mb)

01 Can't Stop the Music (He Played It Much Too Long) 2:49
02 Is It a Star 4:45
03 Beanie G. and the Rose Tattoo 3:00
04 You're Much Too Soon 4:07
05 70's Scenario 3:57
06 War Baby Son of Zorro 4:00
07 I'm Watching You (A Mutant Romance) 4:22
08 Better Watch Your Back 4:14
09 Screaming Through December 6:31
10 Johnny Gore and the "C" Eaters 5:21

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Switching to RCA, Hall & Oates recorded a self-titled album that fulfilled their early promise as pop-savvy blue-eyed soul craftsmen. A few of the tracks fall flat -- including the reggae-tinged "Soldering" and the pompous "Ennui on the Mountain" -- but much of the album is lush and catchy, featuring ballads and midtempo numbers that are nearly as engaging as the duo's breakthrough single, "Sara Smile."



<a href="https://mir.cr/NC8SIUI2 ">  Daryl Hall n John Oates -  Daryl Hall n John Oates</a> (flac   267mb)

01 Camellia 2:48
02 Sara Smile 3:07
03 Alone Too Long 3:22
04 Out of Me, Out of You 3:29
05 Nothing at All 4:24
06 Gino (The Manager) 4:11
07 It Doesn't Matter Anymore 3:08
08 Ennui on the Mountain 3:15
09 Grounds for Separation 4:13
10 Soldering 3:24
Bonus
11 What's Important to Me (Demo) 3:46
12 Ice (Demo) 2:57


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4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Politically, you have no idea what you are talking about.

Anonymous said...

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Rho said...

Hello Anon, i wonder are you using XP like me, i'm using mozilla to post and to my surprse got to see the full link as i post it, the link to follow finds itself between the quotes, success

Anonymous said...

Now I got em! thanx again for everything