My mother was a fool for the tabloids, and, especially after that bi-monthly trip to the grocery store, it seemed our house was littered with the scattered remains of the National Equirer, the Globe, and even the occasional Weekly World News (though it must be said that Mom was far more interested in the ins and outs of the personal lives of her favorite soap stars than she was with that shadowy face they’d found on the surface of Mars). And being the on-the-porcelain reader I was (and still am, to James’s eternal frustration), naturally I read a lot of these tabloids myself.
What can I say? They were handy.
But, I rarely read any of the articles per se (unless, of course, there was something about Rick Springfield). I was most interested in tracking down one of those RCA Music Club ads. You know the ones:
SIX ALBUMS FOR ONE PENNY!
And there would be a whole page (or even two or three if I was really lucky) of assorted album titles listed in no particular order, and with utter disregard for genre classifications in little colored rectangles, made to look like album spines, with catalog numbers underneath:
…and then occasionally, there would be a tiny half-inch reproduction of an album cover. And I loved that. And as a result, my bathroom visits (in a house with five kids and only one bathroom) were often extended well beyond the completion of my bathroom business.
(It should be said that only once did I ever go so far as to actually order anything).
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BLONDIE – EAT TO THE BEAT (Chrysalis)
899872
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KENNY ROGERS – GIDEON (United Artists)
621254
----------------------------------------------
ELECTRIC LIGHT ORCHESTRA – DISCOVERY (Jet)
545609
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DAN HARTMAN – INSTANT REPLAY (Blue Sky)
673984
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PINK FLOYD – THE WALL (Columbia)
761111 / 761134
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Anyone looking for proof that Hall & Oates were one of the most versatile and challenging groups to ever hit Top 40 radio need only look to their string of turn-of-the-80s albums, starting with Along the Red Ledge (1978) and ending with Big Bam Boom (1984). Over half a dozen albums, Hall & Oates, along with their ace live band including G.E. Smith on guitar and T-Bone Wolk on bass, proved themselves to be one of those rarest of birds: a band that spent as much time and energy listening to music as they did making it.
Hall & Oates fairly devoured music – all kinds of it - and when they arrived at the studio, they were fearless about incorporating what they’d heard into their blue-eyed folk/pop/soul template to come up with something that was simultaneously derivative and uniquely Hall & Oates. And nowhere is their musical voraciousness more evident than on their brilliant 1979 album X-Static.
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THE BUGGLES – THE AGE OF PLASTIC (Island)
908760
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SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER – ORIGINAL MOTION PICTURE SOUNDTRACK (RSO)
512003 / 511890
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BILLY JOEL – THE STRANGER (Columbia)
807331
----------------------------------------------
CAPTAIN & TENNILLE – COME IN FROM THE RAIN (A&M)
566559
----------------------------------------------
YES – DRAMA (Atlantic)
878357
----------------------------------------------
Neither a commercial nor critical success, generating mixed reviews at the time (though the record has developed something of a cult following) and only one Top 40 single (“Wait for Me” which topped out at #18 on Billboard), X-Static is, nevertheless, one of the most joyous records I own. A buzzy, electrified alloy of grand adult pop, soaring blue-eyed soul, and silvery slick new-wavisms, the record is a clean and compact sonic summation of everything 1979.
There’s a little bit of everything here, from the glammy bari-sax accents of “Woman Comes And Goes”, a double-entendre-laden song about a woman who’s only using Daryl Hall for sex (“Oh, the woman comes and goes”) and how generally okay Daryl Hall is with that (“I like it! I love it! I like it! I love it!”); to the record’s second single, “Who Said the World Was Fair” (which charted to #110 on the “Bubbling Under” list), a straightforward disco song about – ahem – the energy crisis.
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DAVID BOWIE – SCARY MONSTERS (RCA)
703492
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STEVE MILLER BAND – FLY LIKE AN EAGLE (Capitol)
843221
----------------------------------------------
KISS – DESTROYER (Casablanca)
555903
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THE TOURISTS – SUBTERRANEAN BASEMENT (Epic)
513008
----------------------------------------------
SUPERTRAMP – EVEN IN THE QUIETEST MOMENTS (A&M)
894675
----------------------------------------------
GRAHAM PARKER – SQUEEZING OUT SPARKS (Arista)
687559
----------------------------------------------
There’s artsy Devo-style new wave (“Portable Radio”), electronic sound noodling (“Hallofon”), and even a dash of white boy reggae in “Number One”. Just like the ad says, it’s a whole bunch of records for the price of one, and if it’s not as focused or coherent as later albums like Voices (1980) or H20 (1982) would be, it sounds like the most fun the band has ever had in the studio.
And leave it to Mr. Oates – always the duo’s quirkier half - to come up with a couple of the album’s funniest numbers. Album closer “IntraVino” is a giddy ode to Oates’ compulsion to imbibe of the grape, and “Bebop/Drop” is frantically zigzagging rocker about a guy who can’t keep up with a girlfriend who never leaves the dance floor. “You just want to be-bop, be-bop, be-bop, be-bop, I just wanna drop!”
James can relate.
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ELTON JOHN – HERE AND THERE (MCA)
522698 / 522691
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AIR SUPPLY – LOVE AND OTHER BRUISES (Columbia)
900782
----------------------------------------------
VILLAGE PEOPLE – GO WEST (Casablanca)
804804
----------------------------------------------
TOTO – HYDRA (Columbia)
837112
----------------------------------------------
CAMEO – WE ALL KNOW WHO WE ARE (Casablanca)
751970
----------------------------------------------
BARRY MANILOW – EVEN NOW (Arista)
747256
----------------------------------------------
Producer David Foster, who would become better known as the man behind a million Eighties Homecoming slowdances, layers all of these songs with tightly interlocking harmony lines, neon light synthesizer kinetics, mathematically precise chunks of guitar and bass, and shiny, trebly sound throughout – the sonic equivalent of padding into the bathroom in the middle of the night, and turning on all the lights.
And it’s probably a testament to both band and producer that this record doesn’t sound much like anything else David Foster has helmed. (Indeed, it was David Foster who hinted to the band that they really didn’t need a producer – and for pretty much the rest of their career, Hall & Oates have self-produced.)
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CHUCK MANGIONE – FEELS SO GOOD (A&M)
908544
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THE REZILLOS – CAN’T STAND… (Sire)
798647
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OHIO PLAYERS – EVERYBODY UP (Arista)
786548
----------------------------------------------
LITTLE RIVER BAND – MONSOON (Capitol)
688543
----------------------------------------------
PABLO CRUISE – PART OF THE GAME (A&M)
901113
----------------------------------------------
CHICAGO – CHICAGO 13 (Columbia)
599743
----------------------------------------------
Buddha Records’ fabulous 2002 re-issue of X-Static completely restores the wonderful album art, and comes complete with re-printed lyrics, period photos, an essay on the making of the album with feedback from Hall & Oates themselves, and a couple of nifty bonus tracks: “Time’s Up (Alone Tonight)”, and gloriously goofy “No Brain, No Pain”, which has a hilariously sarcastic voice-over narration in its bridge, and should have been the theme song for at least one of the “Revenge of the Nerds” movies.
X-Static is neither Hall & Oates’ best album, nor their most successful, but it’s damn near essential if only for that rare sense of anything-goes frivolity which infuses every last one of its 46 or so minutes. Certainly a must-have for fans of the band, but also for fans of daring and fun pop music.
- - - - -
BECAUSE YOU NEED TO KNOW:
“X-Static” by Daryl Hall & John Oates
Buddha Records
Orig. Released 1979
Remastered re-issue 2002
Produced by David Foster
46 min.
SONGS: Woman Comes and Goes - Wait for Me - Portable Radio – All You Want Is Heaven - Who Said the World Was Fair? - Running from Paradise – Number One – Bebop/Drop – Hallofon – IntraVino – BONUS: Time’s Up (Alone Tonight) – No Brain, No Pain
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