It's a laugh (1979) - Hall & Oates

Along the Red Ledge

Category:

Music

Tags:

• It's
• Laugh
• Daryl
• Hall
• John
• Oates
• Along
• the
• Red
• Ledge

[mtoasty100]

@Ken5244 I don't think the quality of the songs changed at all after X-Static. I think what you're hearing is H&O's finally taking their records' production into their own hands.

H&O were always trying out new sounds - look at the vast sonic differences between, say, Abandoned Luncheonette, War Babies, and the Silver Album. They lost their magic somewhere in the 90s, but it definitely continued long after X-static.

[chthonic19]

That's easy, dude - H&O coined a very apt term themselves, back in the day: "rock & soul."

And not to make this a weird racial thing, but since you pointed out that you're white: I'm black and yeah, "I Can't Go For That" is one of the best, classic R&B songs of the 80s. That shit is archetypal.

[EvilKarateClown]

It's a Laugh is a good album cut, but it lacks the increasingly-desperate, laugh-so-I-don't-cry emotion of this performance. The music and Hall's voice start off even-keeled, as the narrator plays it cool. By the end of the song, Hall's shouting vocals with G.E. Smith's crying guitar sounds like a nervous breakdown. Totally awesome. I only wish the record was this good, a problem with almost all of H&O's 70s music. They should have just recorded the albums live.

[310tkrlove]

何故か日本ではあまり人気のない曲ですが、アルバム参加ミュージ­シャンも含めてベストテイクと、個人的には思うのですがねぇ～～­♪

[jik4446462]

The Agora Ballroom in Cleveland.

[Ken5244]

@chthonic19

Okay, "rock & soul." I'm fine with that. But I'm also fine with "blue-eyed soul" because I know it was meant to be descriptive, not insulting. For Daryl to get his knickers in a twist over it and call it "racist" ... well, I just think he's overreacting.

BTW, there's a famous black opera singer named Kathleen Battle. She's world renowned. When I say, "black opera singer," it's to convey that a black opera singer is unusual, not that she's somehow inauthentic. See what I mean? :-)

[Ken5244]

@chthonic19

Of course I'm reading everything you write. Question: If you were an A&R guy for their record company back in the 70s, and you wanted a term to describe them and their style of melding soul/R&B influences into rock, what non-offensive term would you have used?

In your answer, keep in mind that 99.9% of people would associate the term "soul music" with black artists.

As for "I Can't Go for That" being soul music ... if that's soul music, then I'm Isaac Hayes. ;-) (I'm white.)

[chthonic19]

@Ken5244 Of course it depends on the situation! And whether or not these things depend on the situation is completely beside the point. Are you even completely reading what I write? hahahaha

And by the way, lots of stuff that Hall did in the 80s - "I Can't Go For That", etc. - stands with some of the finest soul music of the period, in my opinion.

[SunnyDays951]

The boys at their Best.