Daryl Hall talks with Dan Rather about how he met and became musical partners with John Oates, the two's early forays into the music business, his thoughts on the record industry, and more.
The Conversation
let's talk about your relationship with
John Oates where did you meet him how
did that come about the two of you got
together I met John I was promoting My
First Single I had a band I had a group
called the temp tones and we were
talking not because of the Temptations
because we were going to Temple
University and uh because everybody
thinks it's the Temptations so it was a
vocal group and we had a we had a single
that we were promoting around the
Philadelphia area and we were doing uh
one of those things where you'd go it
was it was a complete r b
crowd and everybody would lip sync their
song and John had a single and I didn't
know him at the time and he was also
there to promote his single so we were
waiting backstage and some fight broke
out or whatever and
the whole show just went to pieces and
it was canceled and
um we were in a we were on the second
floor and we went down in a lift
together in an elevator and I said hello
to John I said hey how you doing that
was it and I found out he was he was
also a freshman at Temple and uh so then
we we started talking and we realized of
course we like the same kind of music
and uh we started sharing Apartments
together because we were both our
parents lived out out of town and we
didn't want to be on campus so we became
sort of college roommates playing songs
together in and out of bands together uh
again working very much separately as
well and then after college was over is
when we decided to try writing songs
together and beat Daryl and John so you
graduated from college you did graduate
actually I did I I quit six weeks before
graduation
I know
it was one of those weird things I I was
a part of it I was a music Major and
part of the in those days uh part of the
requirement to get your degree was with
student teaching and doing all these
things and I was I was doing that I was
student teaching at a junior high school
and playing in a in a bar band at night
to try and make money and also because
that's what I did you know and my
supervisor got me in her room and she
said look you have to make your choice
you're either going to be a you're
either going to be a teacher or you're
going to be a live musician and you
can't do both because it's you know you
can't work till four o'clock in the
morning and then get up and teach kids
at eight o'clock it's your choice I said
okay you really want me to make that
choice and I walked out of the room and
that was it and that was the end of your
degree that was it now John did he
graduate he did graduate he was a
journalism major right so you graduate
and but you stay together uh you're
writing songs you're performing together
yep we were doing just around the
Philadelphia area where we we decided to
literally be just a songwriting Duo and
I had a man I picked up a mandolin I
don't know why but I did and and I had a
world through piano and John had his
acoustic guitar and we would just play
either songs we'd written separately or
together and just the two of us and we'd
play these little places coffee houses
and you know 75 seat places whatever now
your early albums weren't a success
certainly not by the standards of what
became your standard later on when and
how was the Breakthrough well it took us
time the first record we made uh with
Atlantic Records it was sort of all
these songs we had compiled uh you know
it was it was a grab bag of things that
we had been writing since we were
all through college and it was you know
it was all over the place so I
understand why that record didn't do
anything we didn't have any singles on
it or whatever and then we had a band of
luncheonette which was very successful
but it sort of had a funny Slow Burn
success we didn't have any big single
when the album was actually released
even though she's gone was on on the
vanilla Jeanette and people talk about
that album Still as being what they
consider one of our best albums but it
didn't have that obvious single or maybe
the world wasn't ready for us at the
time who knows why you know these things
are strange and it took a couple of
years
after that album was released to
re-release she's gone and have that song
be a hit hit song but uh it was a we
were allowed that you were allowed to
experiment and allowed to fail actually
in those days it was good it was a good
time to be creative because you could
you could do really what you felt and
you didn't have that pressure of oh man
no singles in that okay drop them that's
that's next bring the next band on you
know
a little more loose loose but you do
break through yeah and you begin to have
one hit album after another
hit singles all over the place you have
an enormous succession making a lot of
money
we were making money I don't know how
much we were keeping we were making it
correct that's where the question was
going
what happened to that money
you got me ask other people man
I don't love the music business you know
it's a funny thing about business you
love the music but nothing exactly I've
always had an adversarial relationship
with a music business
um
you know a lot of uh
strange things happen in the music
business I don't even call it a business
it's I mean I I hate to say this maybe I
shouldn't I don't know I mean music
business I I to me it's it's closer to
organized crime than it is to a business
because it's based on exploitation and
thievery
even at its best it is you know the the
artist is always the one that gets the
the the scraps and uh that's just the
way it's always been and
um
you don't really make the truth is I
found is you don't really make that much
money from the actual records you make
the money from playing live and that's
where my income has always you know
we've been live musicians for years and
years one reason you still do it that is
one reason I do it well I'm interested
in this I envisioned you and John each
getting checks for a million dollars
every other week or once a month or well
every three months if we did I didn't
see that million you know I mean a lot
of the money was
I don't know I it's it's hard it's
really hard for me to talk about this
because I don't want to I don't know but
it wasn't handled very well it was by by
other people and and I blame if I if I
had put any blame on anybody I put the
blame on John and I for not paying more
attention to things in those days now
we've changed considerably but um you
know we didn't know what we were doing