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23 HALL & OATES & HOAGIES
John Oates.
Daryl Hall.
be the first one to tell you that it’s so personal a song to me. That occurred a lot. John’s contribution is important, but he’s not as remotely prolific as I am. The lion’s share of the songs is mine.” That said, Hall will stick to songwriting, not book writing like Oates. “John found his voice as an author [and] made it about him—with me in there, of course—and handled a lot of touchy subjects in the business world in a diplomatic fashion. He wrote in a very John sort of way. I couldn’t do a book like that. We’d get in trouble. I just blurt out things.” Hall loves what Tears For Fears, their touring partners, have done forever. “They’re classic songwriters with timeless songs,” he says. Hall admits that they both got caught up in the glossy televisual era of MTV’s 1980s reign without any love for the music video revolution. “That period of time was useful for us and took us to another level, but I wasn’t a fan of marrying images to sound. Sound usually loses that competition. That’s the magic of something like Daryl’s House where there’s no distraction. You’re seeing me, but it’s purely musical and direct.” The next best thing to seeing Hall and/or Oates at Daryl’s House on television is seeing them in the flesh—and HoagieNation is as fleshy (and lunch meaty) as they come. HoagieNation came into play when Hall & Oates were planning a summer tour with Tears for Fears. He says, “They came up as we slowed down,” around the same time Mayor Jim Kenney
wanted a musical event to call his own. “The mayor initiated the concert,” says Oates, knowing that Kenney is a big fan. “He was looking for a signature event, brought it up to Live Nation and they brought it up to us.” Hall continues, saying that it was he who named the festival HoagieNation. “I’m happy about sponsoring a festival in Philly. I think it’s hoagies that bind us together as Philadelphians—a love of cold meat and Amoroso’s rolls. I could have said CheesesteakNation, but hoagies just say so much more, as it is that mix of elements. It’s true. Look at me and Lebanon baloney.” Both Hall and Oates have shown their Philly pride in the past, most recently by naming Upper Darby native Todd Rundgren as the next deserving local in the Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame, just as they were three years ago. “As young men we were, of course, friendly wth Gamble & Huff and could have tied our futures to theirs and that would have been amazing, but we wanted to make a name for ourselves,” says Oates. “We wanted to branch out and make a sound of our own. But our roots, everything we do, is pure Philly.” Hall finishes up by saying he gets pissed off when critics treat Philly as inferior to other music cities. “And it does still happen,” he says. “The inferiority complex is pervasive. Is it the accent? Is it Rocky? Who knows? I remember critics in the ’80s being dismissive of Philly. Screw ’em. Our musical heritage is to be respected and lionized.” n
Hall & Oates, circa 1970 [Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images]
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