Booty on a Black Street

Rip It Up, Issue 7, 1 December 1977, Page 10

Booty on a Black Street

Francis Stark.

Beauty on a Back Street Daryl Hall & John Oates RCA In many ways, Hall and Oates have taken on the mantle which slipped from the rickety shoulders of Todd Rundgren after Something/Anything . Blue-eyed soul is a rather meaningless term, but it expresses what both acts have in common an application of black music's fire to the technology of pop-rock. But even a dose of Rundgren won’t prepare you for just how complex Hall and Oates' music has become. Beauty on a Back Street is firmly based on strong melodies and the best rhythm playing you're ever going to get from white boys, but aside from the positively infectious opener “Don't Change" there’s nothing on here to woo the casual listener. Beauty on a Back Street needs constant replaying and pretty much undivided attention for quite a while before it pays off, but at least if offers quite a divident. It may be necessary to forgive the occasional excess where they stray too far into the mystical ("Winged Bull”) and cutesy, neo-Sparksism ("Bad Habits" and “Infections"), but in the main, they display a remarkably deft touch for pure pop sensibil-

ity at its most intelligent. In "Bigger than Both of Us", aside from a literate lyric: Think of me as another page in your life A curious way for you to pass the time Just another memory when you're middle-aged There's someone for the girl with everything there is also an arrangement which demonstrates just how much dynamic force you can generate at little more than ballad pace, and uniformly impeccable playing (although things might have been even better if producer, synthesiser-player, back-up vocalist, major-domo and lead guitarist, Christopher Bond had left his fuzz box at home). I don’t really know how many people buy Hall and Oates records around this neighbourhood, but I suppose it’s none too That really is a shame because, working from the same basic premises that underlie much top-40 music, Hall and Oates produce records which leave for dead all but a hatful of rivals. It’s music for the feet all right, but also for the ears, and what's left of what’s between them.