WEBVTT - Daryl Hall Invites Alec In 0:00:06.960 --> 0:00:10.200 I'm Alec Baldwin and you're listening to Here's the thing. 0:00:12.000 --> 0:00:15.040 If you grew up in the seventies and eighties, you 0:00:15.120 --> 0:00:19.480 know how huge Darryl Hall is. If you grew up 0:00:19.480 --> 0:00:22.880 in the two thousands, you probably know too. But if 0:00:22.920 --> 0:00:26.720 you grew up in between, fall to your knees, Millennials. 0:00:27.080 --> 0:00:40.040 Darryl Hall as a god of R and B. With 0:00:40.159 --> 0:00:43.880 partner John Oates, Hall and Oates is the biggest selling 0:00:44.040 --> 0:00:49.519 vocal duo in history. They have seven platinum albums and 0:00:49.680 --> 0:00:54.400 another six gold ones. They made the Billboard Hot one 0:00:54.440 --> 0:00:58.640 hundred thirty four times with mega hits turned prom nite 0:00:58.680 --> 0:01:02.600 standards like men, rich girl, you make my dreams come 0:01:02.600 --> 0:01:12.120 true and I can't go for that. But by the 0:01:12.160 --> 0:01:15.199 early nineties, Hall and Oates have become a little passe, 0:01:16.080 --> 0:01:19.880 too smooth, too perfect. People said their time in the 0:01:19.959 --> 0:01:23.800 wilderness was blissfully short, thanks to a new generation of 0:01:23.959 --> 0:01:28.360 artists inspired by their sound, who sampled or covered Hall 0:01:28.400 --> 0:01:42.199 and Oates classics like Two Live Crew, De La Soul. 0:01:42.319 --> 0:01:44.280 I can't have none of that, Dolla, what to say? 0:01:44.400 --> 0:01:56.520 Mate and the Bird and the Bee. Yeah, anything to 0:01:59.160 --> 0:02:02.680 Paul and Oates, Ace and the Pop Cannon was now secure, 0:02:03.280 --> 0:02:06.240 and Hall has a sort of second career on television. 0:02:06.560 --> 0:02:11.400 In fact, he's recently had two successful TV shows. Legendary 0:02:11.520 --> 0:02:15.760 Roger Darryl Hall takes on his next project, restoring this 0:02:16.000 --> 0:02:21.880 eighteenth century farmhouse. Darryl's Restoration Overhaul on the d I 0:02:22.120 --> 0:02:25.680 Y Network is about his passion for saving historic hones. 0:02:26.320 --> 0:02:29.800 The other show is called Live from Darryl's House, where 0:02:29.919 --> 0:02:33.560 big name musicians join him for jam sessions. It started 0:02:33.600 --> 0:02:36.320 out as a web series and eventually got picked up 0:02:36.560 --> 0:02:41.440 on MTV. Do that So, yeah, the intro you want 0:02:41.440 --> 0:02:45.120 to start with just drumas like started with like that, 0:02:47.000 --> 0:02:53.280 Jake Jake to, and then we're in would You Play 0:02:53.320 --> 0:02:57.520 the Ball? The Darryl's House of the title these days 0:02:58.000 --> 0:03:01.360 is his restaurant and music. Then you in Pauling, New York, 0:03:01.800 --> 0:03:05.120 about seventy miles north and a world away from Manhattan. 0:03:06.040 --> 0:03:08.720 That's where he invited me to sit down and talk. 0:03:10.160 --> 0:03:15.919 So learning about your early years, one of the things 0:03:15.960 --> 0:03:17.720 that strikes me is that you know, before you go 0:03:17.800 --> 0:03:22.680 to study music, you're on the streets of Philadelphia singing groups. Correct, Yeah, 0:03:22.680 --> 0:03:26.400 that's right. How did that happen? Well, it actually was 0:03:26.440 --> 0:03:30.000 simultaneous with me moving to Philadelphia. I grew up in Pottstown, 0:03:30.040 --> 0:03:33.560 which is a about forty miles northwest of Philadelphia, and uh, 0:03:33.720 --> 0:03:36.640 it had its own kind of small town street scene there. 0:03:37.120 --> 0:03:40.680 So I started a really young age doing doing you know, 0:03:40.840 --> 0:03:45.160 like busking, more like the doop, you know, the street 0:03:45.160 --> 0:03:49.000 corn music. There was no instruments involved, acapella and all that, 0:03:49.720 --> 0:03:54.560 and uh, it was always very racially integrated, you know, 0:03:54.800 --> 0:03:57.000 is that whole thing. And uh then when I went 0:03:57.000 --> 0:04:00.200 to Philly, I had already been involved in that off 0:04:00.600 --> 0:04:03.320 and there was this place called Mitton Hall where all 0:04:03.360 --> 0:04:05.440 everybody hung out. It was like the place where the 0:04:05.440 --> 0:04:08.160 whole temple of University went and people used to stand 0:04:08.160 --> 0:04:10.440 in the corners and sing. It was that's that kind 0:04:10.440 --> 0:04:12.400 of stuff was still going on. So I just walked 0:04:12.440 --> 0:04:14.720 up one day and started singing along with these strangers. 0:04:15.080 --> 0:04:18.719 And that's how I got into Philadelphia and started But 0:04:18.760 --> 0:04:20.960 at a time when in my mind when I think 0:04:20.960 --> 0:04:24.000 about Philadelphia, then I think about a lot of racial 0:04:24.040 --> 0:04:28.120 difficulties and move and you know, historically, not not for you, 0:04:28.520 --> 0:04:30.200 I'm saying, the city has always had a kind of 0:04:30.200 --> 0:04:33.359 a racial stratification. It seems like what was it about 0:04:33.440 --> 0:04:37.480 you that these people welcomed you with open arms? I 0:04:37.640 --> 0:04:40.920 just sing. I grew up in a very racially integrated environment, 0:04:41.080 --> 0:04:43.480 you know. And in Pottstown there's a big black community, 0:04:43.680 --> 0:04:47.080 and my my parents best friends lived right in the 0:04:47.120 --> 0:04:50.440 middle of the black neighborhood. So I as as a kid, 0:04:50.600 --> 0:04:53.320 I'm talking like a kid kid. For the summer, I 0:04:53.320 --> 0:04:56.360 would be over there and and all my waking hours, 0:04:56.440 --> 0:04:59.479 really I would be hanging out with white and black 0:04:59.560 --> 0:05:02.160 kids to other So the music that I grew up 0:05:02.200 --> 0:05:05.640 with was that, you know, R and B and soul music. Uh. 0:05:05.680 --> 0:05:08.320 It was really my baby food, you know, and it 0:05:08.440 --> 0:05:10.240 just went that way off things. My dad was he 0:05:10.400 --> 0:05:12.560 musically and he was in a vocal group. Sang he 0:05:12.680 --> 0:05:17.160 sang like gospel vocal group and uh he uh. I 0:05:17.240 --> 0:05:20.200 learned a lot about harmony from him. And uh my 0:05:20.200 --> 0:05:23.200 mother was a musician. She uh did other cons music, 0:05:23.200 --> 0:05:25.760 you know, she like musicals and she was in a band. 0:05:25.960 --> 0:05:27.920 So it was very musical environment. Let me just put 0:05:28.000 --> 0:05:30.360 these cards on the table, which is you are one 0:05:30.360 --> 0:05:32.800 of the ten greatest male vocalists in all of history 0:05:32.800 --> 0:05:35.359 of rock and roll. I mean you are, and what 0:05:35.520 --> 0:05:38.280 kills me is like how you've stayed because a lot 0:05:38.320 --> 0:05:40.240 of these guys have to drop it a key, and 0:05:40.560 --> 0:05:43.080 we interview a lot of my you know, you name it, 0:05:43.160 --> 0:05:46.400 and only you and Bano pretty much sound the same 0:05:46.520 --> 0:05:49.520 now almost. First of all, I do on stage, I 0:05:49.520 --> 0:05:52.320 do drop it a half a key now, I do, so, 0:05:52.400 --> 0:05:54.680 I admit it. But but you know what, that's that's 0:05:54.720 --> 0:05:57.159 cool too. It gives me more room to play around 0:05:57.200 --> 0:06:01.120 up top. Um. But you know, my voice has changed 0:06:01.160 --> 0:06:03.320 a lot over the years. You listen to those records 0:06:03.360 --> 0:06:05.560 that I made, you know, the Rich Girl and all 0:06:05.600 --> 0:06:08.320 those kind of songs, I'm like a little boy compared 0:06:08.360 --> 0:06:10.640 to the way I sing now I have. I sort 0:06:10.680 --> 0:06:12.120 of have the voice now I always wanted to have. 0:06:12.400 --> 0:06:17.960 It's that bigger, you know, and um yeah, so but 0:06:18.120 --> 0:06:21.080 I so, I like how my voice has evolved. And 0:06:21.120 --> 0:06:23.040 I haven't lost any of the stuff that I had. 0:06:23.080 --> 0:06:26.559 I just it's just sort of got bigger and wider. 0:06:26.560 --> 0:06:29.039 Where did you start singing? When did singing? My mother was, 0:06:29.080 --> 0:06:30.680 as I said, she was in a band, but she 0:06:30.760 --> 0:06:33.440 was also a vocal teacher and things like that, and 0:06:33.560 --> 0:06:36.720 she encouraged yeah, and she it was sort of always there, 0:06:37.080 --> 0:06:38.840 and she taught me how to sing? Did they both 0:06:38.839 --> 0:06:42.680 play instruments? Yeah, my mother played piano and uh. Um, 0:06:42.880 --> 0:06:47.480 I started taking piano lessons around five, and uh took 0:06:47.640 --> 0:06:50.320 lessons all the way through and then I, unfortunately was 0:06:50.960 --> 0:06:53.080 got into was I would say, I got into I 0:06:53.120 --> 0:06:55.760 was forced forced to play the trombone for a while, 0:06:56.760 --> 0:06:59.640 but uh, that didn't last long. But no, it's it. 0:07:00.000 --> 0:07:02.080 I've been playing piano since five, and then I started 0:07:02.080 --> 0:07:04.719 playing guitar and self taught. You took yourself on the guitar. 0:07:04.839 --> 0:07:06.200 How old were you when you picked up the guitar 0:07:06.200 --> 0:07:10.440 for the first maybe late teens, early twenties. And when 0:07:10.440 --> 0:07:13.880 you go then you go to Temple to study music? Why, well, 0:07:14.640 --> 0:07:16.440 at first I was going to go. I didn't think 0:07:16.480 --> 0:07:19.120 there was any money in uh, in music at all. 0:07:19.160 --> 0:07:21.600 It didn't even occur to me. Uh and to have 0:07:21.680 --> 0:07:23.480 a career in music, so I was gonna be I was. 0:07:23.680 --> 0:07:27.280 I wanted to be a psychiatrist. Why because I was 0:07:27.320 --> 0:07:30.200 really interested in the life of the mind, and I 0:07:30.240 --> 0:07:32.280 was up against these I didn't realize and might and 0:07:32.360 --> 0:07:33.600 I have to tell you that you had to be 0:07:33.680 --> 0:07:36.080 a doctor to do all these thing in a medical degree. 0:07:36.720 --> 0:07:38.880 I quit that one too, and then I was up 0:07:38.880 --> 0:07:42.080 against all these kids that were like premed and I 0:07:42.200 --> 0:07:44.920 failed miserably. It was just horrible. This is not for me. 0:07:44.960 --> 0:07:46.360 I had the same problem. I was like, I had 0:07:46.400 --> 0:07:48.120 to have to study chemistry just I just want to 0:07:48.160 --> 0:07:51.320 talk to people. Yeah. Man. What happened was I did 0:07:51.320 --> 0:07:53.080 that for a year and then I switched to the 0:07:53.080 --> 0:07:55.920 Temple Music School and they you know, they let me 0:07:55.960 --> 0:07:58.640 in and you finished, you graduate and I finished, well, 0:07:58.800 --> 0:08:01.640 I I quit. I quit five weeks before I graduation 0:08:02.200 --> 0:08:04.960 because I was a student teacher and I was up, 0:08:05.200 --> 0:08:07.280 you know, early in the morning all day doing all 0:08:07.280 --> 0:08:10.600 that stuff. And then I had a bar gig, playing 0:08:10.720 --> 0:08:13.120 playing music in a bar band at night until two 0:08:13.120 --> 0:08:15.119 o'clock in the morning. So I didn't work out so well. 0:08:15.280 --> 0:08:17.040 And the teacher said, you know, you have to choose 0:08:17.080 --> 0:08:18.960 one or the other. And I thought to myself, do 0:08:19.000 --> 0:08:20.720 I want to be a music teacher or do I 0:08:20.760 --> 0:08:23.120 want to be a musician for real? And there was 0:08:23.160 --> 0:08:25.280 no choice in my head. So I said, okay, see 0:08:25.280 --> 0:08:30.640 you later play when you uh leave Temple, when you leave, 0:08:30.680 --> 0:08:34.840 when you finished school, what happens after that? During my 0:08:34.960 --> 0:08:37.840 time in Temple, as I said, the whole thing was 0:08:37.880 --> 0:08:40.000 sort of simultaneous. I was going to music school, but 0:08:40.040 --> 0:08:43.280 I was also hanging out with Tommy Bell and uh 0:08:43.480 --> 0:08:45.400 who was that? For people who don't know, Tommy Bell 0:08:45.640 --> 0:08:50.760 was was the the producer and writer behind oh a 0:08:50.880 --> 0:08:55.080 great number of the Philadelphia sound, the Stylistics and the 0:08:55.120 --> 0:08:59.920 Delphonics and people like that. Um, he was very, very 0:09:00.000 --> 0:09:02.560 influential in the sound of Philadelphia. And he sort of 0:09:02.559 --> 0:09:05.040 took me under his wing. He was not that much 0:09:05.040 --> 0:09:07.360 older than me, but but I would just sit around 0:09:07.400 --> 0:09:09.240 and listen to him, right and he was an amazing 0:09:09.280 --> 0:09:13.160 writer and uh so I was friendly with him. And 0:09:13.200 --> 0:09:16.560 then I also I had a band that sort of 0:09:16.600 --> 0:09:18.280 came out of that thing I was talking about in 0:09:18.679 --> 0:09:21.559 in Mitton all. And we called ourselves the temp Tones 0:09:21.600 --> 0:09:23.880 because we were a temple university. Everybody thought it was 0:09:23.920 --> 0:09:25.560 the Temptation, but it was because we were a temple 0:09:25.840 --> 0:09:28.360 and uh. We did a talent show at the Uptown Theater, 0:09:28.440 --> 0:09:31.840 which was not that far from the university from the campus, 0:09:32.440 --> 0:09:34.200 and it was on what they used to call the 0:09:34.240 --> 0:09:37.560 Chipland Circuit, and you know, every soul group on earth 0:09:37.920 --> 0:09:40.760 came to the Uptown It was like the Apollo and uh. 0:09:40.800 --> 0:09:43.560 I used to hang out there and uh, just like 0:09:43.600 --> 0:09:46.440 the Apollo, the had talent shows and we won the 0:09:46.480 --> 0:09:49.520 talent show and James Brown band was the house band 0:09:49.720 --> 0:09:51.920 backing us up. That was I was like eighteen years old. 0:09:51.960 --> 0:09:54.400 I'm singing O Baby Baby with James Brown's band at 0:09:54.400 --> 0:09:57.480 back of the and we won the talent show and 0:09:57.480 --> 0:09:59.680 the prize was you got to record a record with 0:09:59.720 --> 0:10:04.079 gam One Huff, the songwriters songwriter producers who Gamble and 0:10:04.160 --> 0:10:07.400 Huff and Tommy Bell basically created what the world knows 0:10:07.640 --> 0:10:10.280 as the sound of Philadelphia. I did a record with 0:10:10.320 --> 0:10:13.880 Gamble and Huff and it came out and went on 0:10:13.920 --> 0:10:16.360 the charts and w D A S and Philadelphia the 0:10:16.480 --> 0:10:18.960 R and B station. And I was doing all this 0:10:19.000 --> 0:10:21.600 while I was going to school, and so I became 0:10:22.080 --> 0:10:25.240 part of that whole scene. That's the I started hanging 0:10:25.280 --> 0:10:28.120 out at Sigma Sound and with studio musicians, and I 0:10:28.520 --> 0:10:30.240 wanted to be a studio musician, you know, I want 0:10:30.240 --> 0:10:32.480 to learn things from them. So that's what I was 0:10:32.520 --> 0:10:35.600 doing during my student years. And and in the meantime, 0:10:35.679 --> 0:10:41.040 I met this guy John Oates who was in Temple University. Yeah, 0:10:41.080 --> 0:10:44.640 we we we were from He's from about fifteen miles 0:10:44.640 --> 0:10:49.520 from me and North Wales, Pennsylvania, just northwest of northwest 0:10:49.520 --> 0:10:54.520 of Philadelphia. So um uh we were both promoting our 0:10:54.600 --> 0:10:57.040 singles because he had he managed to get a single 0:10:57.080 --> 0:11:00.800 too on Kenny Gamble's label. He had a group called 0:11:00.800 --> 0:11:03.640 the Masters, and we were both promoting our single at 0:11:03.679 --> 0:11:08.680 this place called the Adelphi Ballroom and uh, before either 0:11:08.720 --> 0:11:11.800 one of us went on, uh, it was a gang 0:11:11.840 --> 0:11:14.839 fight broke out. This whole thing went down typical Philadelphia 0:11:15.160 --> 0:11:17.440 and it was on it was on the second floor, 0:11:17.800 --> 0:11:20.800 and you know, people started whipping chains out, and you know, 0:11:20.880 --> 0:11:23.960 the whole you know, typical, Like I said, typical, all 0:11:24.000 --> 0:11:26.680 too typical of Philadelphia at that time. And uh, we 0:11:26.760 --> 0:11:29.800 said okay, time to leave timely. So I didn't even 0:11:29.800 --> 0:11:31.560 know the guy, and we both wound up in this 0:11:31.600 --> 0:11:34.920 little elevator going downstairs. I said, okay, we just dodged 0:11:34.960 --> 0:11:37.280 that bullet. And I was looking at and said, hey, 0:11:37.559 --> 0:11:40.480 so who are you? You know? And I found out 0:11:40.559 --> 0:11:42.960 right then that he was also at Temple. I said, 0:11:43.000 --> 0:11:46.079 oh man, okay, you know because I figured Kindred Spirits 0:11:46.120 --> 0:11:49.679 here and we sort of got to know each other 0:11:49.760 --> 0:11:54.920 that way. Uh, and um then I needed I don't 0:11:55.400 --> 0:11:56.960 this is a little vague in my mind, but I 0:11:57.000 --> 0:11:59.920 needed a roommate because I was I wanted to having 0:11:59.920 --> 0:12:03.960 a apartment Philly, and he volunteered. So we we got 0:12:04.000 --> 0:12:07.200 this kid moving together. Yeah, we we moved in and 0:12:07.200 --> 0:12:09.920 we started sharing apartments. And we did that on and 0:12:09.960 --> 0:12:12.680 off through school without any idea that we were gonna 0:12:12.679 --> 0:12:15.320 work together. We were there was no plan, you know, 0:12:15.679 --> 0:12:18.640 we just he was your roommate, my roommate, you know, 0:12:19.080 --> 0:12:22.560 it was doing partner or anything. And uh so, after 0:12:22.760 --> 0:12:25.640 after school was over, I became a full time studio 0:12:25.760 --> 0:12:28.959 musician at Sigma for the whole sound of Philadelphia people. 0:12:29.320 --> 0:12:31.680 And John went to Europe for a little while, came back, 0:12:31.760 --> 0:12:34.120 had no place to live, and moved in again with 0:12:34.160 --> 0:12:36.679 me and my new I guess she was my wife 0:12:36.679 --> 0:12:41.760 at the time. And uh we we renovated this eighteenth 0:12:41.760 --> 0:12:44.480 century house right in the center of Philadelphia, lived in 0:12:44.559 --> 0:12:46.680 it for a while, and that's when we at the 0:12:46.720 --> 0:12:49.520 beginning of that bug for you as well. Yeah, we're 0:12:49.520 --> 0:12:52.640 gonna talk about that. Yeah, and uh we decided, okay, 0:12:52.760 --> 0:12:55.520 we were in close proximity, so we just started playing 0:12:55.559 --> 0:12:57.720 together and said, well, maybe we should try doing something. 0:12:57.840 --> 0:13:00.360 Let's share a stage let's Uh, you play your songs, 0:13:00.400 --> 0:13:02.640 I'll play my songs and we'll do them together. When 0:13:02.679 --> 0:13:04.920 does songwriting begin for you? When do you decide you 0:13:05.000 --> 0:13:09.480 want to write songs around? I think I wrote a 0:13:09.480 --> 0:13:12.280 song when I was about fourteen, and I thought, Okay, 0:13:12.280 --> 0:13:15.720 maybe I can write a song. And I do remember 0:13:15.720 --> 0:13:17.440 the name of it was called I Broke my Own Heart? 0:13:17.960 --> 0:13:20.640 Was that a weird title? No? I like it? Actually, 0:13:21.840 --> 0:13:24.680 haven't we all done that? Yes? But at fourteen? What 0:13:24.760 --> 0:13:28.800 did I know? Yeah? A little advanced? That was your 0:13:28.800 --> 0:13:30.440 first song? That was the first song, I Broke my 0:13:30.480 --> 0:13:32.600 Own Heart? And when did you write your first song 0:13:32.640 --> 0:13:36.240 that you recorded? Uh? That was the song girl I 0:13:36.280 --> 0:13:38.520 Love You with the tempt telling him and that was 0:13:39.000 --> 0:13:41.080 I don't know how well was I nineteen? I guess 0:13:41.160 --> 0:13:44.400 the recording countrict you got from winning the past? So 0:13:44.480 --> 0:13:46.760 when do you and he start to How do you 0:13:46.840 --> 0:13:51.880 and he fused to become what you become? We didn't 0:13:54.120 --> 0:13:57.720 we started. It's hard to describe. We were just trying 0:13:57.760 --> 0:13:59.720 to write. We tried to write songs together, but it 0:13:59.760 --> 0:14:01.760 was more asleep. He would write songs that I would 0:14:01.760 --> 0:14:04.400 write songs and we and we do them on stage together, 0:14:04.720 --> 0:14:08.840 and we played at this place called um World Control Headquarters, 0:14:08.960 --> 0:14:12.440 which was held about a hundred people, and we became 0:14:12.480 --> 0:14:15.240 sort of a fixture there. There was another guy. You 0:14:15.240 --> 0:14:17.280 could do anything you wanted there. I would sit there 0:14:17.280 --> 0:14:20.160 with my world. It's her piano and Mike mandolin and 0:14:20.240 --> 0:14:22.560 John would play acoustic guitar and we would just tell 0:14:22.600 --> 0:14:25.440 stories and play songs. It was it was sort of 0:14:25.480 --> 0:14:27.760 in that folky tradition, but it wasn't folk music. It 0:14:27.840 --> 0:14:31.800 was something else. And uh, we did that, and we 0:14:31.880 --> 0:14:35.240 got we started getting a following doing it. And I 0:14:35.280 --> 0:14:37.840 remember one of the first things that happened was it 0:14:37.920 --> 0:14:40.640 was all kids, right because we were we were kids. 0:14:41.160 --> 0:14:43.760 But then these older people started coming when I thought 0:14:43.760 --> 0:14:46.720 were older people like forty fifty, you know, and I'm 0:14:47.480 --> 0:14:50.920 and I remember and this is late sixties, and uh, 0:14:51.240 --> 0:14:53.800 I remember saying to John, you know, this is really strange. 0:14:54.520 --> 0:14:57.800 Older people like our music too, not just people our 0:14:57.840 --> 0:15:01.440 own age, that maybe we're doing something different. Because I 0:15:01.440 --> 0:15:04.440 actually said that to him, I'll never forget it. And now, 0:15:04.680 --> 0:15:07.520 of course it's the reverse. Younger kids like what I 0:15:07.560 --> 0:15:10.440 do and the older people have lived with it, right, 0:15:10.720 --> 0:15:16.200 So it's always been multi generational and multicultural something that people, well, 0:15:16.280 --> 0:15:18.800 I don't know whatever it is, it's I think some 0:15:18.880 --> 0:15:23.040 of your songs are pretty good. Well say that people like, 0:15:23.080 --> 0:15:26.680 what's good the multi generation that happens, Yeah, I guess 0:15:26.680 --> 0:15:31.160 it does for sure. I'm assuming that, Um, you meet 0:15:31.240 --> 0:15:33.960 someone who's a producer, like as your dessert, a producer 0:15:34.040 --> 0:15:35.560 that comes into your life, that takes you to the 0:15:35.600 --> 0:15:37.720 next level, that helps you make the sound, that becomes 0:15:37.720 --> 0:15:42.520 your sound. Yeah, who's that? A Reef Morten, the producer 0:15:42.600 --> 0:15:46.000 arranger behind A Wretha Franklin and you name it, Donny Hathaway, 0:15:46.080 --> 0:15:50.160 Aretha Franklin, uh oh man, on and on and on 0:15:50.200 --> 0:15:54.440 and on. I can't even tell you his his Atlantic 0:15:54.720 --> 0:15:59.600 lar and he found you where. Well that's another long story, 0:16:00.080 --> 0:16:03.320 but we have time. I'll try and and and truncated. 0:16:03.520 --> 0:16:07.320 But we were locked in this messed up relationship with 0:16:07.360 --> 0:16:10.800 a songwriter producer guy in Philadelphia. We were trying to 0:16:10.800 --> 0:16:13.880 get an album deal and he was failing us miserably. 0:16:14.560 --> 0:16:17.480 And uh he was involved with Chapel Music in New 0:16:17.560 --> 0:16:20.760 York through his catalog. And we went up to New 0:16:20.840 --> 0:16:23.800 York one time and met this young kid who was 0:16:23.960 --> 0:16:28.200 only twenty named Tommy Mantola. Two years younger than us, 0:16:28.600 --> 0:16:32.040 and and and he said, hey, well he's this guy 0:16:32.080 --> 0:16:33.920 is not doing anything for you. Let me do something 0:16:33.960 --> 0:16:38.080 for you. He's twenty years old, right, and uh why 0:16:38.720 --> 0:16:40.960 So he had connections because he had an office the 0:16:41.000 --> 0:16:44.000 size of this table in Chapel Music. But he did 0:16:44.040 --> 0:16:46.520 have a contacts. So he sent us out to California 0:16:46.880 --> 0:16:49.880 to have a chapel rep take us around two various 0:16:49.920 --> 0:16:52.920 people in California and we sort of were playing for 0:16:52.960 --> 0:16:55.880 and went shiitting basically, and uh, we found this guy, 0:16:55.880 --> 0:16:58.720 Earl McGrath, who was a really great guy and was 0:16:59.760 --> 0:17:03.320 in who's sort of developing new talent, and he wanted 0:17:03.360 --> 0:17:06.520 to sign us immediately, which was great. And then he 0:17:06.640 --> 0:17:09.840 was connected with Ahmedary again and all those people in Atlantic, 0:17:10.240 --> 0:17:14.919 and he sent us back to Atlantic and we auditioned 0:17:14.920 --> 0:17:17.879 for Ahmed. And I sat there at a piano and 0:17:18.320 --> 0:17:23.640 half the keys were stuck. They wouldn't work, so well, 0:17:24.040 --> 0:17:25.760 you know, it was this was like my big, my 0:17:25.760 --> 0:17:29.240 big day. I'm in front of Atlantic Records. I couldn't play. Yeah, 0:17:29.280 --> 0:17:32.320 I think I had the flute glasses on the piano. 0:17:33.480 --> 0:17:36.639 So I played badly and we sang a couple of 0:17:36.640 --> 0:17:39.679 songs and uh, I thought, okay, we blew that completely. 0:17:39.920 --> 0:17:42.320 Two days later I found out that they had called 0:17:42.440 --> 0:17:46.160 Errold said Earl, we want these guys. They're not gonna 0:17:46.200 --> 0:17:47.760 be on your label. They're gonna be on our label. 0:17:47.760 --> 0:17:51.359 And and they signed us to Atlantic Records. So then 0:17:51.400 --> 0:17:54.400 we were off to a start of some sort. We 0:17:54.400 --> 0:17:57.760 were immediately thrust into I mean I completely was thrust 0:17:57.760 --> 0:18:02.760 into a different group of musicians, all those Atlantic studio musicians, uh, 0:18:02.800 --> 0:18:06.280 everybody from Dr John to uh pretty you know, Ralph 0:18:06.400 --> 0:18:10.160 McDonald to you name it. That that that whole New 0:18:10.240 --> 0:18:14.120 York R and B scene, And they were all unbelievable musicians. 0:18:14.760 --> 0:18:17.720 And they're the guys that played on our first records, 0:18:18.520 --> 0:18:20.760 especially on the abandoned lunch Net record. I mean, that's 0:18:21.040 --> 0:18:23.760 the musicianship when that record is unbelievable. So I was 0:18:24.359 --> 0:18:27.080 in that world, in that scene. I mean A Wreatha 0:18:27.160 --> 0:18:29.800 was wandering in and out and Bob Dylan was wandering 0:18:29.800 --> 0:18:31.879 in and out. I mean we're just like, what's going on. 0:18:32.000 --> 0:18:33.840 It's a big machinery, you know, I mean it's it's 0:18:33.880 --> 0:18:37.040 it's Atlantic Records. Back when people were buying records, they 0:18:37.200 --> 0:18:39.720 choose you if they believe in you, and they get 0:18:39.720 --> 0:18:42.320 their marketing behind you. It's kind of hard to fail, 0:18:42.400 --> 0:18:46.440 correct if you have some talent. Well, it wasn't quite 0:18:46.480 --> 0:18:50.000 like that, not in those days. It was. It was 0:18:50.040 --> 0:18:54.000 still a lot freer and looser. And I remember I'm 0:18:54.160 --> 0:18:56.600 saying to me and John, he said, just just make 0:18:57.080 --> 0:18:58.879 just make music. We'll figure out how to sell it. 0:18:59.280 --> 0:19:01.520 That's what he said. And uh, he said, don't worry 0:19:01.520 --> 0:19:03.280 about hits or don't worry about it. You know that. 0:19:03.280 --> 0:19:06.600 That's he said. Don't worry about it. Literally said that, 0:19:06.720 --> 0:19:08.600 don't worry about hits, marriage just do you just do 0:19:08.640 --> 0:19:10.320 what you'll make it a hits, do what you do. 0:19:10.400 --> 0:19:12.359 But they didn't. That was the thing. We were a 0:19:12.359 --> 0:19:15.040 little strange for the world at that time. We're I 0:19:15.080 --> 0:19:16.560 won't say we're ahead of our time. We were out 0:19:16.560 --> 0:19:20.520 of our time, but so we I don't know what 0:19:20.520 --> 0:19:22.280 what what was? First of all, we were doing a 0:19:22.400 --> 0:19:25.280 hybrid of Philadelphia soul and other kinds of R and 0:19:25.280 --> 0:19:27.960 B and mixed with this other eclectic kind of thing 0:19:28.040 --> 0:19:30.280 that John brought in, you know, like country music and 0:19:30.320 --> 0:19:32.920 all kinds of other stuff, singer songwriter kind of things, 0:19:33.160 --> 0:19:36.200 and dance music, you name it. It was hybrid eised 0:19:36.280 --> 0:19:40.000 and and and also in those days, they had no 0:19:40.080 --> 0:19:44.000 idea how to label us because we were popular on 0:19:44.200 --> 0:19:48.680 black radio, not even known on white radio. And the 0:19:48.680 --> 0:19:52.680 whole idea of musical integration was not ready for the world. 0:19:52.760 --> 0:19:55.359 I mean we were, we were pioneers in that. And 0:19:55.359 --> 0:19:58.239 when did the first hits come. It wasn't until nine 0:19:58.840 --> 0:20:00.800 five when we actually went to our see A Records. 0:20:01.119 --> 0:20:05.359 We left Atlantic and went towards uh m hmm. I 0:20:05.359 --> 0:20:07.040 think it's an extent you can say. I don't know. 0:20:07.080 --> 0:20:09.639 I mean it was business. I mean, I think it 0:20:09.680 --> 0:20:13.119 was mutual. I think that we felt that they didn't. 0:20:13.640 --> 0:20:15.399 I don't know. I don't know what what we felt. 0:20:15.440 --> 0:20:16.919 That a lot of it has to do with what 0:20:17.000 --> 0:20:21.600 how Tommy Mattola felt, you know. But they I think 0:20:21.640 --> 0:20:23.719 that they were saying, Okay, well we don't know if 0:20:23.720 --> 0:20:26.199 we can sell you guys. And they tried, and then 0:20:26.240 --> 0:20:30.040 they tried and then uh yeah, And so we went 0:20:30.080 --> 0:20:31.960 to our c A and immediately they did know how 0:20:31.960 --> 0:21:00.280 to sell us. Dissatisfied last time I asked him, I 0:21:00.480 --> 0:21:28.400 really got excuse that play. You're listening to my interview 0:21:28.440 --> 0:21:33.400 with Darryl Hall of Hall and Oats. Another musical hero 0:21:33.600 --> 0:21:36.399 of mine is David Crosby. When he came by the 0:21:36.400 --> 0:21:39.919 studio last year, he told me about how hard living 0:21:40.000 --> 0:21:43.440 influenced his music and landed him in the Texas State 0:21:43.520 --> 0:21:48.240 penn There he went through heroin withdrawal as his fellow 0:21:48.320 --> 0:21:53.639 convicts looked on. Full Ranger went all away from like 0:21:53.960 --> 0:21:57.199 music man to uh hey, rock star, how are you 0:21:57.200 --> 0:22:00.200 doing now? Hey vern? Look over here? Rock Star going 0:22:00.280 --> 0:22:04.199 up again? Was Texas. Yeah, they didn't even have a 0:22:04.400 --> 0:22:07.320 meetings in prison and nothing. You had no help at all, 0:22:07.400 --> 0:22:11.399 and you crawled out of there. Was bitter. It was bitter, 0:22:12.000 --> 0:22:16.720 but I woke up. My full interview with David Crosby 0:22:16.880 --> 0:22:20.120 is in our archives that Here's the Thing, dot Org. 0:22:20.640 --> 0:22:59.720 I'll return with Darryl Hall after the break. So, m, 0:23:02.480 --> 0:23:05.399 this is Alec Baldwin, and you were listening to Here's 0:23:05.440 --> 0:23:10.480 the Thing when we left. Darryl Hall's a story it 0:23:10.600 --> 0:23:14.840 was and Hall and Oates were with a major label 0:23:15.119 --> 0:23:17.679 but had no big hits to show for it, so 0:23:17.760 --> 0:23:21.560 they left Atlantic for our c A. The die was cast, 0:23:21.880 --> 0:23:24.000 and then we put out Sarah's Smile on Black radio 0:23:24.520 --> 0:23:27.040 and it became a top five R and B record 0:23:27.800 --> 0:23:30.880 in all the black stations in America, and then then 0:23:30.920 --> 0:23:38.080 the white stations started playing it afterward, Baby with the Womans, 0:23:38.119 --> 0:23:47.920 I can feel you watching in the night Hallollo with me. 0:23:51.119 --> 0:24:01.720