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lemonade kid
Old Love
USA
9873 Posts |
 Posted - 30/01/2016 : 14:47:33
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I may hate ÒI CanÕt Go For That (No Can Do),Ó but I still sing along every time it comes on the car radio. But I prefer a Hall & Oates I can simply love, like cigarettes or my cat or the Killdozer promo glossy that hangs above as I write this. And thatÕs what I get with Abandoned Luncheonette, a beloved ship of an LP IÕll never abandon. IÕll go to the bottom with the sucker, singing ÒSheÕs GoneÓ until it sounds like Òglug glug slug.Ó
And thatÕs all she wrote. Within a few short years Hall & Oates would ascend to the stratosphere, rule the pop charts like Evil Insect Overlords, and order the mass executions of their enemies. But they would never sound this funky and downright warm again, nor would they ever write songs I love as much as ÒSheÕs Gone,Ó ÒAbandoned Luncheonette,Ó and ÒEverytime I Look at You.Ó
--BY MICHAEL H. LITTLE | FEBRUARY 11, 2014(see the full & entertaining review below)
We all may have had enough of Hall & Oates decades ago from way too many radio plays of their 80's slick hits, but if you have never explored their three lesser known Atlantic albums, you have a treat in store, Abandoned Luncheonette, especially; a complete 180¼ from their treacle laden pop earworms that can send us to bedlam. -lk
Their best reviewed complete LP (Five stars all round) and their second, 1973's "Abandoned Luncheonette" by Hall and Oates is a much less commercial effort, and the brilliant session play & production is always present. Some really nice long deep-cuts too.
Such a pleasure still. Folk & rock blended into blue eyed Philly soul and doo-wop. So nice. Believe me, I wouldn't subject you to Hall & Oates of the 80's (I might be kicked off the forum), so trust me on this...Abandoned Luncheonette is well worth a listen...and many listens later, after the umpteenth time...still a great pleasure filled album with ear-worms that I actually love in my head!
One of my favorite long cuts...Lady Rain
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CuARxcqowfE
Everytime I look At You
...hard rocking psych sound. Some fine wah-wah guitar riffs, ending with the guitars, horns and strings raining down.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFOph5_vlcE
And a few very nice live cuts from Daryl's House
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBN2noYyoY0
"Abandoned Luncheonette" (Full Album)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhY5JD0Gvpk
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So much music, so little time. |
Edited by - lemonade kid on 01/02/2016 15:04:18 |
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lemonade kid
Old Love
USA
9873 Posts |
Posted - 30/01/2016 : 15:04:30
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Graded on a Curve:
Hall & Oates,
Abandoned Luncheonette
BY MICHAEL H. LITTLE | FEBRUARY 11, 2014
©thevinyldistrict 2014
Hall & Oates: You either love them or you hate them. Or, as in my case, you love them AND you hate them. The blue-eyed Philly soul and pop superstars scored some 3,400 Billboard Top 100 hits during the late seventies and early eighties, including such unavoidable classics as ÒManeater,Ó ÒOut of Touch,Ó and ÒKiss on My List,Ó which played continually on every car radio and in every mall, bar, elevator, LotharioÕs bedroom, police station holding cell (I heard ÒRich GirlÓ in one once), and psychiatric facility in the land.
I loathed Hall & Oates because their largely soulless soul songs (you canÕt be a machine and have a soul) were the epitome of slick studio perfection, but even more so because said songs were so monstrously catchy that even if you hated them you still found yourself singing along with pleasure every time you heard one. I experienced much self-loathing over this. Hated myself like lime spandex.
But before there was Hall & Oates, the inhuman hit-making machine, there was Hall & Oates, the soft rock, soul, and folk duo who recorded three albums (Whole Oats, Abandoned Luncheonette, and War Babies) for Atlantic Records between 1972 and 1974. None of them fared well commercially, and Hall & Oates could have ended up a footnote to history had they not been lucky enough to sign with RCA.
Most casual Hall & OatesÕ fans have never heard the Atlantic-era records, and thatÕs too bad, because 1973Õs Abandoned Luncheonette in particular is a real rocking-horse winner.
What else can I say about Hall & Oates? The ever-humble Daryl Hall, who has recorded experimental LPs on the side with the likes of Robert Fripp, once said of his partnership with John Oates, ÒIÕm 90% and heÕs 10%, and thatÕs the way it is.Ó Woah. To be fair to Hall, it did seem at times that OatesÕ only role was as band mustache. But thatÕs misleading. OatesÕ vocals and guitar playing were indispensable, and he wrote some wonderful songs. As for Abandoned Luncheonette, its list of studio musicians goes on and on, and includes a guy on Howling guitar, whatever that is. I get the idea they had to bring it to the studio in a cage, and keep it on a sturdy leash at all times.
Hall & OatesÕ megahits have a cold, glistening, metallic sheen; they sound like the cover of 1975Õs Daryl Hall and John Oates, on which the duo have been air-brushed into a silvery glam inhumanity (and Daryl looks like a reaaallly hot girl.) Such is not the case with Abandoned LuncheonetteÕs very soulful ÒSheÕs Gone,Ó which went nowhere when the LP was released but hit the Top Ten in 1976 upon being re-released following the success of covers by Lou Rawls and Tavares, who duded themselves up in frightful matching track outfits and gave us the ghastly ÒMore Than a Woman.Ó
ÒSheÕs GoneÓ has a very warm sound, from its opening organ to the duoÕs shared vocals on the great chorus (ÒSheÕs go-wa-wa-wa-on!Ó) to HallÕs thrilling cry of ÒNow I can see/Love taking her toll on me!Ó Joe Farrell plays a great tenor sax solo, then the boys sing some more before the song reaches its tremendous climax, with Hall & OatesÕ swapping cries of ÒSheÕs goneÓ as the song fades out. Hall himself has said ÒSheÕs GoneÓ is the best song the duo ever wrote together, and I wholeheartedly agree.
OatesÕ ÒIÕm Just a Kid (DonÕt Make Me Feel Like a Man)Ó is proof that heÕs more than just a life-support unit for his lady tickler; a quiet but very addictive acoustic number about cradle-robbing, it has Hall kicking ass on vocals, from his ÒFool around with me/Come on/Mess around with meÓ to the laugh he throws in before saying, ÒListen girl/IÕm just playinÕ.Ó The song really lively ups itself during the final chorus, with the drums and keyboards kicking in and Hall crooning, ÒIÕm just a kid donÕt make me feel like a manÓ (and OatesÕ echoing in falsetto, ÒIÕm not a manÓ) before Hall closes things down saying, like a Philly punk, ÒIÕm just a kid.Ó
Oates also wrote ÒHad I Known You Better Then,Ó a very sweet acoustic number with some wonderful vocals that melt like butter in your ears (unpleasant metaphor, that) on the chorus, some nice organ, and lots of fancy vocal interplay between the duo throughout. These guys obviously spent their teen years in Philadelphia doing nothing but listening to their soul faves, as you can tell from the way HallÕs voice leaps out of the mix to sing, ÒHad I known you/Had I known you better thenÓ while Oates sings, ÒBetterÉ then.Ó ItÕs a hole in one, as is the very smooth ÒLas Vegas Turnaround (The Stewardess Song),Ó which has a faintly Steely Dan vibe and pays homage to the same Sara later immortalized in ÒSara Smile.Ó The tune has an appropriately lounge feel for a tune about Sin City, with the boys singing in tandem about the Ògambling foolsÓ flying to the ÒHoly Land Las VegasÓ before a sax solo comes along and the boys sing, ÒSara please!Ó over and over while somebody sings ÒLas Vegas turnaround.Ó
HallÕs ÒWhen The Morning ComesÓ opens with acoustic guitars and a mellotron (I think), and is appropriately sunny. The drums keep it moving, while Hall and Oates throw in lots of Òoooooohs.Ó But itÕs that wonderful mellotron that makes the song, cutting in and out before soloing to take the tune, which is stunningly beautiful, to its end. Meanwhile, HallÕs downbeat ÒLaughing BoyÓÑthe only song on the LP I dislikeÑis mostly Hall and a piano. His vocals are top-notch, but unfortunately the lugubrious melody does nothing for me. There is a nice flugelhorn solo, but as Lemmy (I picked his name out of a hat) once said, a nice flugelhorn solo does not a great rock song make.
ÒLady RainÓ has a very sweet melody and opens with some cool mandolin and strummed acoustic guitar. ItÕs funky, too, especially when the drums come in and Hall sings, ÒLady Rain, lay your sobbinÕ hair down on my shoulder/Lady Rain, do your cloudy eyes see me much older?Ó Then one very funky guitar enters via stage left, and HÕOates swap lines until some acoustic guitar leads into one freaky electric violin solo. Then the duo return to sing, ÒHas it all been going down in vain, yeahÓ over and over as the electric violinist plays some really far-out sh*t until the song stops abruptly, like it hit a wall.
HallÕs ÒAbandoned LuncheonetteÓ is a great song, very bouncy and friendly, with Hall singing, ÒThey sat in an abandoned luncheonette/SippinÕ imaginary cola/And drawing faces in the tabletop dust.Ó He goes on singing until a sax and piano come in and the songÕs tectonic plates suddenly shift and Eureka! Suddenly youÕre listening to a deliriously beautiful chorus with Hall singing, ÒDay to day, to day to day/Then they were old, their lives wasted away.Ó Then comes a sax solo and the second verse, after which that giant and wonderful shift occurs again and a very large ÒHumanity ChorusÓ (as itÕs listed in the credits) joins H. & O. in singing ÒDay to dayÓ and ÒMonth to monthÓ until the fadeout.
HallÕs brilliant ÒEverytime I Look at YouÓ opens with a funky wah guitar and an equally cool rhythm guitar, and it sounds like something off BowieÕs Station to Station. And the vocals are superfunky too, as are the swells of horns that come in and out. Then thereÕs one very cool guitar solo, joined by some horns which proceed to go ape, and what follows is a long instrumental passage that is deliriously lovely until Hall & Oates sing, orgiastically, ÒBaby itÕs goodbye/Baby itÕs goodbye girlÓ and scream and wail as the song speeds up and you think itÕs the end. When from out of nowhere a banjo and mandolin come in and hoe the mutha down until the song fades out. It doesnÕt sound like it should work but it does, spectacularly.
And thatÕs all she wrote. Within a few short years Hall & Oates would ascend to the stratosphere, rule the pop charts like Evil Insect Overlords, and order the mass executions of their enemies. But they would never sound this funky and downright warm again, nor would they ever write songs I love as much as ÒSheÕs Gone,Ó ÒAbandoned Luncheonette,Ó and ÒEverytime I Look at You.Ó
I may hate ÒI CanÕt Go For That (No Can Do),Ó but I still sing along every time it comes on the car radio. But I prefer a Hall & Oates I can simply love, like cigarettes or my cat or the Killdozer promo glossy that hangs above as I write this. And thatÕs what I get with Abandoned Luncheonette, a beloved ship of an LP IÕll never abandon. IÕll go to the bottom with the sucker, singing ÒSheÕs GoneÓ until it sounds like Òglug glug glug.Ó
GRADED ON A CURVE:
A-
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So much music, so little time. |
Edited by - lemonade kid on 01/02/2016 15:02:13 |
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Joe Morris
Old Love
3491 Posts |
Posted - 30/01/2016 : 19:28:51
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my favorite album on Atlantic is War Babies (produced by Todd Rundgren, natch!) but Las Vegas Turnaround (off this, Abandoned Luncheonette) is pretty amazing
the title track from AL was on the most recent 2CD/1DVD released by Hall and Oates, and is well worth checking out! |
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lemonade kid
Old Love
USA
9873 Posts |
Posted - 01/02/2016 : 15:03:39
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Nothing after War Babies holds my interest whatsoever....
And thatÕs all she wrote. Within a few short years Hall & Oates would ascend to the stratosphere, rule the pop charts like Evil Insect Overlords, and order the mass executions of their enemies. But they would never sound this funky and downright warm again, nor would they ever write songs I love as much as ÒSheÕs Gone,Ó ÒAbandoned Luncheonette,Ó and ÒEverytime I Look at You.Ó
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So much music, so little time. |
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Abandoned Luncheonette-five star brilliance
