| "We started out
with two specific ideas," continues Hall. "We wrote Realove as a promotion for a
Japanese artist, Keisuke Kuwata. Then we were asked to write a song for the Beverly Hills
Cop II soundtrack. We wrote Downtown Life, but after we heard it we said, "There's no
way we're giving that one away." Everything Your
Heart Desires may be the song that's rocketed Hall and Oates back into the charts, but,
according to them, it's Downtown Life which captures the album's essence. It's about
living in the Big Apple, something they've done for most of their recording careers, and
about a New Yorker's love/hate relationship with the city. The song's second verse even
has a reference to Lou Reed and his recent desertion to New Jersey.
"Yeah, Lou Reed used to walk his dog in front of my
home," remembers Hall. "Now he's moved to New Jersey and the yuppies have taken
over. We just took little observations and stuck them together." |
 Co-produced with group bassist
Tom 'T-Bone' Wolk, Ooh Yeah has received almost universal praise from media normally prone
to ripping this duo apart. Some of the major mags base gone so far as to call it their
best work to date. "It's a very romantic
album, a late night album, one that reflects everything that's good and positive about
personal relationships." explains Hall. "Throughout the recording process, I
would go home, late at night, and be so zonked I wouldn't even read, which is rare for me.
Instead, I would turn on Channel J, which is the porno station, and I'd stare at the
escort ads and listen to Barry White go round and round in this dream consciousness. I
think some of that sensuousness is captured." |
Daryl Hall and John Oates
German Website
