SEATTLE — Here’s a shocker: Daryl Hall, embodiment of Blue-Eyed Soul, does nothing to sound as smooth as he does.
No
special tea cut with a combful of honey, no scales in the dressing
room. Just a mother who was a vocal teacher and taught him “to sing the
right way.”
“Sing from the diaphragm,” Hall said
recently, repeating his mother’s mantra. “A throat will wear out, but a
diaphragm never will.”
She was right; Hall is 64.
“She’s Gone,” his first single with his longtime musical partner, John
Oates, was released 35 years ago.
In fact,
Hall&Oates are almost as busy as they were in the ‘80s, when they
had a dozen Top 10 singles, including their six No. 1 Billboard hits:
“Rich Girl,” “Kiss on My List,” “Private Eyes,” “I Can’t Go for That (No
Can Do),” “Maneater” and “Out of Touch.” They also had four platinum
albums, two of which went double-platinum.
Those
kind of numbers mean staying power and music that becomes something
shared and passed down — something Hall can see from the stage.
“We
have crossed over intergenerationally, both individually and as
Hall&Oates,” he said. “Not everybody can pull that off, and I think
everybody wants to do that.
“It helps that we have a lot of songs to draw from.”
They pulled them all together last year for a boxed set, “Do What You Want, Be What You Are.”
“There were a lot of songs that I put on that series that I forgot about,” Hall said.
Their
show is based on that set, he said: “We’re pulling from all eras.
Anything that I like to do, we do. Sometimes, if I don’t play a song for
a while, we’ll play it.”
Back when they started,
Hall&Oates were mistaken for an R&B duo until they crossed over
to the mainstream, thanks to Lou Rawls’ and Tavares’ covers of “She’s
Gone.”
Hall has been so busy, he struggled to say what kind of music he’s been listening to.
“Right now I am just finishing mixing my record (called “Laughing Down Crying”),” he said. “I’m listening to Daryl Hall.”
His
Web-based show “Live at Daryl’s House” is a hit not just with fans — it
won a Webby Award for Best Variety Series — but with artists, who
badger him for an invite.
“People call me, absolutely,” he said. “People have gotten in touch with me, and they have ended up being on the show.”
If
he had a choice, though? Living or dead? “Dead’s easier than living,”
he said of choosing guests. “I would like Marvin Gaye to drop down from
the sky.”
Wouldn’t we all?
Amazing that, after all these years, he still sounds so good.
“I don’t really strain my voice,” Hall said. “As long as I look good, everything’s fine.”
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©2011 The Seattle Times
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