Hall & Oates - Abandoned Luncheonette

Released - November 1973

Genre - Soft Rock

Producer - Arif Mardin

Selected Personnel - Daryl Hall (Vocals/Piano/Keyboards/Mandolin); John Oates (Vocals/Guitar); Christopher Bond (Mellotron/Keyboards); Steve Gelfand (Bass); Hugh McCracken (Guitar); Bernard Purdie (Drums); Joe Farrell (Oboe/Saxophone); Rick Marotta (Drums/Percussion); Richard Tee (Piano); Arif Mardin (Bass)

Standout Track - She's Gone

Hall & Oates are another long-gestating obsession of mine, one that started many years ago but took a long time to blossom into proper fan-boy devotion. I imagine that like a lot of people my age, I first became familiar with them through their inclusion in the undeniably brilliant soundtrack to GTA Vice City, which featured their 1984 hit "Out Of Touch," which I immediately loved. I got hold of a Greatest Hits compilation not long after and, for whatever reason, made do with that for a couple of years. It's weird which artists grab you immediately and make you obsess over them the minute you hear them, and which ones entertain you enough to enjoy a Best Of but take a while to really hook you in, but it was a good couple of years before I started making an effort to listen to their albums. Even then, I maintained my focus around the albums that featured their biggest hit singles - 1976's Bigger Than Both Of Us, which had "Rich Girl," 1980's Voices ("You Make My Dreams"), 1981's Private Eyes ("I Can't Go For That (No Can Do)"), and 1982's H2O ("Maneater.") Despite loving more or less everything I heard of theirs, it wasn't until this year that I delved further back into their records on learning that they were touring the UK. I went to see them back in July and it was honestly one of the best gigs I've been to, prompting further listens to their early stuff since then. (I went with a friend in costume as Daryl Hall, with her in costume as John Oates, prompting one woman to exclaim "I've seen Hall & Oates ten times and I've never seen such big fans as you guys!" without realising that this statement actually outed her as a much bigger fan than either of us).

My musical tastes tend to divide between artists I find really fascinating, imaginative, daring and unusual, and those who I just find irresistibly catchy and feelgood. Those two criteria tend to be the barometers I use to gauge good music, and Hall & Oates, for all that they may lack much sense of musical daring or innovation, are prime leaders in the latter camp, capable of writing upbeat, feelgood and downright catchy tunes better than so many other similar artists. While that feelgood catchiness is still strongly evident on their second album Abandoned Luncheonette, it also showcases a duo very different from the one familiar from their big early 80s hits. Overseen by the legendary producer Arif Mardin, veteran of such classic soul records as Dusty Springfield's Dusty In Memphis, it shows them largely carving out a sultry, blue-eyed soul sound for themselves rather than the more synth-based pop rock of their 80s work. More strikingly, this is one of the few albums in their output that genuinely feels like the work of an equal duo. Although there were other albums in the 70s that gave John Oates a fair amount to do, from 1974's War Babies, where producer Todd Rundgren essentially relegated him to a session musician, it was increasingly evident that Daryl Hall was the chief songwriter, vocalist and musician of the duo, with Oates's contribtutions increasingly sparse. But on Abandoned Luncheonette, Oates contributes a number of the best songs and a number of lead vocal parts. It's undeniable that Hall is the stronger vocalist of the two, but Oates's songwriting here is, if anything, better than Hall's and proves that he's a more than capable musician in his own right, something that the later Hall & Oates records make less obvious.

The big hit of the record was "She's Gone," the first truly notable song of the duo's career. Though it wasn't immediately a hit, a series of popular cover versions over the following years gave greater exposure to the song and Hall has retroactively referred to it as the song that first took them out of Philadelphia and gave them a wider audience. It still stands up as one of their finest songs, a slow, sultry ballad that builds in intensity with strings and horns to a rousing final chorus. "When The Morning Comes" and "Las Vegas Turnaround (The Stewardess Song)" are two other gloriously uplifting songs, both defined by a bright, ringing guitar tone, and album closer "Everytime I Look At You" is a lengthy, funk-styled number that goes from a boisterous guitar riff to a more triumphant, horn-driven chorus and proves just how musically diverse the duo were capable of being even at this early stage of their career. There's also a brilliant rock violin solo on the catchy "Lady Rain" that's worth singling out as something that wouldn't sound out of place on an early Roxy Music album.

While I love the mainstream pop of their later work, there's something nice about the uncynical authenticity of Abandoned Luncheonette that's in contrast to the sense on their later records that they're now making music that they know will sell in large quantities. Here, there's a far stronger sense, in the lush arrangements and soul stylings, that they're making the music they want to make. It's a sweet, catchy and committed little record, one that might not be as full of dancefloor pop classics as we might now expect of a Hall & Oates album, but one that, in its songwriting and arrangements, proves to be one of the very best of their career. The album, like Whole Oats before it, wasn't a huge seller ("She's Gone" wouldn't become a big hit until it was re-released in 1976), and this prompted a major change of direction for their next record, one which risked alienating their existing fans but again proves just how diverse and daring the duo was in their early years.

Track Listing:

1. When The Morning Comes (Daryl Hall)

2. Had I Known You Better Then (John Oates)

3. Las Vegas Turnaround (The Stewardess Song) (John Oates)

4. She's Gone (Daryl Hall & John Oates)

5. I'm Just A Kid (Don't Make Me Feel Like A Man) (John Oates)

6. Abandoned Luncheonette (Daryl Hall)

7. Lady Rain (Daryl Hall & John Oates)

8. Laughing Boy (Daryl Hall)

9. Everytime I Look At You (Daryl Hall)