Do What You Want, Be What You Are: The Music of Daryl Hall & John Oates
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Liner Note Author: Ken Sharp. Photographers: Lynn Goldsmith; Ken Regan; David Gahr; Chris Walter; Neal Preston; Laura Levine; John Rockwood; Larry Williams . It's telling that DO WHAT YOU WANT TO BE WHAT YOU ARE, Sony/Legacy's comprehensive, career-spanning Daryl Hall and John ...MoreLiner Note Author: Ken Sharp. Photographers: Lynn Goldsmith; Ken Regan; David Gahr; Chris Walter; Neal Preston; Laura Levine; John Rockwood; Larry Williams . It's telling that DO WHAT YOU WANT TO BE WHAT YOU ARE, Sony/Legacy's comprehensive, career-spanning Daryl Hall and John Oates box set, takes its title from a moderately successful mid-'70s single from the duo, written and recorded just as the group was hitting their creative stride. The slow Philly groove of "Do What You Want Be Who You Are" may have hearkened back to the duo's soul roots, side-stepping some of the outr pop experiments they had done just two years earlier on War Babies, but Hall & Oates took the title's sentiment to heart, blurring boundaries between rock, pop, and soul in a way that wasn't always easy to appreciate at the peak of their popularity in the '80s. During that decade, Hall & Oates were omnipresent, seemingly dominating every radio format and MTV, racking up so many hits that it was easy to overlook how "Private Eyes" wore bright, angular New Wave threads, or how "I Can't Go for That (No Can Do)" pulsated on electronic rhythms, not to mention the duo's earliest folk-rock records. DO WHAT YOU WANT TO BE brings all this into perspective, rounding up all the group's big hits and sharply selected album tracks, enhancing the canon with several rarities ranging from early singles (Hall as a member of the Temptones, Oates as one of the Masters) to a host of live cuts from throughout the years. Many of the live tracks are mildly revelatory--particularly the lengthy stretch of WAR BABIES... view more