Emily Dickinson...Langston Hughes...Walt Whitman...Keats, Blake, Virgil, Shakespeare... have nothing on Daryl Hall and John Oates. Sure, the old masters could write, but could they sing as well? It is one thing to study a poem, to analyze it, and theorize about context and alliterations...but to feel it, like these real men do, that's poetry.
High and dry, out of the rain
It's so easy to hurt others when you can't feel pain
And don't you know that a love can't grow
Cause there's too much to give
Cause you'd rather live for the thrill of it all, oh
You're a rich girl (rich girl), and you've gone too far
Cause you know it don't matter anyway (rich girl)
You can rely on the old man's money
You can rely on the old man's money
It's a bitch girl (rich girl), and it's gone too far
Cause you know it don't matter anyway (rich girl)
Say money, but it won't get you too far
Say money, but it won't get you too far, get you too far
-From Bigger than Both of Us, Hall & Oates (1976)
*Note the Sunglassed Saxophonist Solo amidst the Sensual Smoke
Easy ready willing overtime
When does it stop, where do you dare me to draw the line
You got the body now you want my soul
Don't even think about it say No Go
Now I'll do anything you want me to
I'll do almost anything that you want me to
But I Can't Go For That
No Can Do
I can't go for being twice as nice
I can't go for just repeating the some old lines
Use the body now you want my soul
Oo forget about it say No Go
Yeah I'll do anything you want me to
I'll do almost anything that you want me to
But I Can't Go For That
No Can Do
-From Private Eyes (1981)
*Watch Martika perform Possession Obsession on Kids Incorporated here
You know there's something you need
Right here and now
To fill the space inside of yourself
Money love or power
When you want to have the number one first run anyone
Youre crazy til you own them
You ought to know better than that
The more that you buy the less you get back
Its a case of possession obsession
Gimme gimme
The compulsion to count the percentage of time
Spent between two lovers
Can turn an hour into a crime
And all the good times suffer
Though you know it's only jealousy
You can't help but be
Haunted by your passion
Don't you know it's a matter of fact
The more that you take the less you give back
Just a taste of possession obsession
Brings a case of possession obsession
Gimme gimme
-From Big Bam Boom (1984)
*Performing on the British television series OGWT
Think I'll spend eternity in the city
Let the carbon and monoxide choke my thoughts away
And pretty bodies help dissolve the memories
They can never be what she once was to me (was to me)
She's gone (she's gone) oh, I, oh, I, I better learn how to face it
She's gone (she's gone) oh, I, oh, I, I'd pay the devil to replace her
She's gone (she's gone) oh, I, what went wrong
-From Abandoned Luncheonette (1976)
And lastly, HDV would like to honor to this most rock and soulful performance, live at the Apollo, of their original song, Everytime You Go Away (1985):
If you just can't get enough, click here and here and here and here !
