Wednesday, November 7, 2012

On DVD: Hall & Oates: Our Kind of Soul (2005)

I happened to snap this one up at a discount store the other day, just for kicks.

Daryl Hall & John Oates have been playing together for nearly 40 years, but it's been about 20 or so since the last time they were in the Top 40. Pop radio just doesn't want them anymore. It's kind of like how in television, advertisers want the younger generations. Same applies in radio, which is why they relentlessly play the newer stars into the ground to the point where some folks can't stand them anymore.

Hall & Oates, though, have stood the test of time. "Our Kind of Soul", a concert tribute to the sounds they grew up with, and some that played as they were just starting out, was recorded in the Bahamas in 2004, and the DVD was released about a year later. The club setting isn't exactly the huge stadiums the duo played in the glory years of the 70's & 80's, but because they now record for an independent label, rather than RCA or its now sister label, Arista (Hall recorded some solo work for Columbia in the 80's), for whom they had hits like "Sara Smile", "One on One", "I Can't Go For That", "Maneater", and so on. Some of those classics are here, but as bonus material not on the main portion of the disc. Go figure. The body of the concert includes covers of classic Motown (The Four Tops' "Standing in the Shadows of Love" leads off), Barry White, and the 5 Stairsteps, whom Hall & Oates toured with early in their careers.

The more intimate club setting serves and suits them well. MTV Archives uploaded their cover of the 5 Stairsteps' "Ooh Child", more recently covered by Donnie McClurkin & Kirk Franklin.



Rating: A.

2 comments:

magicdog said...

I love H&O! Theirs was the first rock concert I'd ever attended!

Their music holds up fairly well and they do deserve more airplay other than 80s music stations.

hobbyfan said...

Blame it on today's record company suits, who think that listeners only want what is NOW and not yesterday. Not entirely true, as you & I both know.

Look at Michael McDonald, for example. Since leaving the Doobie Brothers, he's kept his solo career going, confined mostly to the AC charts, by doing Motown covers because he knows the audience that will listen. Same with Rod Stewart.