I'm seated
offstage beside Sara Allen, a Lauren Bacall-style beauty. Sara is Daryl's
constant companion ("Sara Smile") and occasional co-lyricist. "Actually,
'Rich Girl' is a rich boy, someone I knew in Chicago," she says. "Daryl
loves to write songs about my old boyfriends."
The next
week, Randy and I grab the Metroliner south to Baltimore for an outdoor
college date. "What about Daryl and John's new album?" I ask, as we whiz
past Washington, D.C. "You'll have to ask Daryl and John,"
Randy cagily replies.
The
Maryland show is a classy summation of H&O output, with intricate material
from the ignored War Babies (Atlantic) balancing the slick
restatements of Philly Soul that have won them recent AM success. After the
gig, the guys clean up at a nearby motel and gather in the gravel parking
lot. An assistant road manager named Valentine hands out paychecks,
discreetly folded.
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It's
Friday, thank god. A furtive character in nipple-tight tank-top and extreme
rooster-cut solicits Daryl as he boards the tour bus. In blue jeans and
black leather civvies, Hall shrugs off the lavender come-on. Gone is the
prissy onstage swish. Stretched out on a bunk in the back of the bus—Havana
stogie in one hand, Heinekin in the
other—Daryl projects the essence of high-living hetero.
So what
about A Beauty on a Back Street (RGA)?
"Well, we
don't have any R&B on the new album," smiles the strawberry blond rock
star. "The music is much more linear, much looser. It's a raw record, basic
rhythm tracks, very little overdubbing." The tour bus lurches off toward the
highway like an uncertain young brontosaurus. "It's real legitimate-sounding
rock & roll."
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Daryl Hall and John Oates
German Website
