plorentz's Full Review: Private Eyes [Remaster] by Hall & Oates/Daryl Hall...
To fully comprehend the full extent of my pre-adolescent dorkiness, we need to go back to a place called Red’s Roller Rink in Kenosha, Wisconsin. The year is 1981, it’s a Wednesday night – any one of many Wednesday nights – and the place is filled with teens and pre-teens and eight-year-olds like me doing the limbo, and the shoot the duck. You’ll find me up at the DJ booth, pestering that poor soul to play more Andy Gibb or Leo Sayer; or out on the rink, singing (probably loudly) along with all the songs (I knew all the words) skating by myself even in the “duet” and “triplet” songs, wearing a pair of brown corduroys, and a white t-shirt with baby-blue sleeves bearing a glossy, glittery iron-on of a roller skate and the words “High Roller”, obliviously supplying my gathered peers with a thousand sotto voce (and not so sotto voce) punchlines.
My roller-skating skill was never in question: I had no roller-skating skill. I loved to do it, and I could do it without falling (too often), but we mustn’t kid ourselves. I never figured out exactly how to shoot the duck. And when they called for the “backwards” skate, there was no way I could go out on the rink. This, of course, was especially frustrating to me when they played a good song for the backwards skate, effectively sidelining this “high roller” when all I wanted to do was show off my moves.
Like when they played the song “Private Eyes” by Hall & Oates, and I’d.. um… perform the chorus:
“Pri-i-vate Eyes”
[CLAP!]
“They’re watching you”
[CLAP-CLAP!]
That was it – just three strategically placed handclaps and a lot of enthusiastic vocalizing. But man, I thought it was cool – I thought I was cool - and I often deluded myself that I was going to start some massive audience participation thing for that song. Like, one of those Wednesday nights, everyone on the rink would see me clapping and suddenly realize how cool it was, and start doing it themselves. To this day, I can’t hear this song without that image of myself in my head, and frankly, that alone makes Hall & Oates’ 1981 album Private Eyes a hard listen for me.
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But with the recent reissue of the album - which I’d always regarded as a mere marking of time between the group’s early 80s twin peaks, Voices (1980) and H20 (1982) - I feel compelled to re-evaluate it. Sure, it spawned a bunch of hits, not the least of which was the chart-topping title track, but I never got into this album as a whole the way I did (and still do) the albums that sandwich it.
First, let me say, Private Eyes is full of great songs. There’s nary a stinker in the bunch, but their quality is inconsistent, ranging from the merely good to the friggin’ mindblowing. Witness, for instance “I Can’t Go For That”, which famously dislodged Olivia Newton-John’s unstoppable “Physical” from the top of the pop charts, but more importantly achieved the kind of multi-format, multi-audience penetration presidential candidates dream of charting on adult-contemporary, urban, and rock radio, not to mention becoming a massive club hit, all in addition to its standard pop success, setting an almost impossible precedent for just about every other single they released throughout the 80s. Its distinctively minimal, processed percussion and understated synthesizer accents have been sampled by hip-hoppers, and especially by British blue-eyed soul act Simply Red, for last year’s single “Sunrise” this year, the electronic group Dirty Vegas included the song on its DJ mix CD The Trip.
And did I mention it’s just a really really damn good song – a slick, sexy, atmospheric electro-soul with one of Hall’s most gymnastic vocal performances, bouncing as he does, back and forth from lithe falsetto croons to a choppy, declarative chorus. “I Can’t Go For That” wasn’t just a commercial peak for Hall & Oates, it was a reminder of just how gawd-damned wonderful pop music could be.
Unsurprisingly, even the best of what “Private Eyes” has to offer – like the wonderfully jerky single “Did It In A Minute” - sounds pale in comparison.
“Looking for a Good Sign” is a meticulous recreation of the Motown sound, circa 1964, and Daryl Hall’s phrasing on the song comes almost too close to replicating Levi Stubb’s powerful mix of strength, persistence, and vulnerability; but the song never really rises above its imitative novelty status.
And while songs like “Head Above Water”, “Unguarded Minute” and “Friday Let Me Down” (all grouped uncomfortably together onto the inferior second side) have all the catchy hooks and ingratiating charm of the “Voices” album, they lack that album’s urgency, and feel like leftovers.
“Mano a Mano” has a great, rootsy guitar sound and a decent chorus; unfortunately, with his lyrics, John Oates drops his usual self-deflatingly goofy sense for humor in favor of clichéd, “Hands Across America”-style earnestness:
See a lot of people fighting for the left or the right
Fighting people see black or white
You’d like to go your way, sure I’d like to go mine
But we’re all in this together running out of time
Bulimics of the world, take note.
Ultimately, Private Eyes, feels like a commercially expedient mishmash, quickly written and recorded to keep up the momentum created by the surprising success of Voices, and in that respect, it succeeded handily. It’s certainly a worthwhile purchase especially in BMG Heritage’s new re-mastered edition, which adds the 12" remixes for the singles “Your Imagination” and “I Can’t Go For That”, along with Ken Sharp’s fine notes, re-printed lyrics, and lots of group photos. It may not be the gold standard Hall & Oates record, but the music of Private Eyes was just about the best radio (and Red’s Roller Rink) had to offer in the early 80s.
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“Private Eyes” by Daryl Hall & John Oates
Originally released by RCA Records, 1981
BMG Heritage reissue, 2004
Produced by Daryl Hall & John Oates
43 min.; with bonus tracks: 55 min.
SONGS: Private Eyes - Looking for a Good Sign - I Can’t Go For That (No Can Do) - Mano a Mano - Did It In a Minute - Head Above Water – Tell Me What You Want – Friday Let Me Down – Unguarded Minute - Your Imagination - Some Men /BONUS: Your Imagination (12" version) – I Can’t Go For That (No Can Do) (12" version)
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