Daryl Hall - ‘60s soul session work, the right shoes and a barge trip with Bob Dylan

We like to think of Daryl Hall as a kindred spirit, his home-recorded Live At Daryl’s House series with its magnificent roster of guests now racking up 90 episodes. He’s about to tour in May and talks to us here from his house in the Bahamas – straw hat, roosters crowing! – looking back at the first gigs he ever saw and played and other delights such as … 

 

… travelling with his mother’s Broadway dance band when he was three.

 

… seeing the Temptations, Smokey Robinson, Patti LaBelle and the Bluetones in the Uptown Theater, Philadelphia, in the early ‘60s.

 

… Three Men In A Boat: a barge trip through London with Dave Stewart and Bob Dylan.

 

… “My teenage rule: I will only wear dark green or black and needlepoint shoes. I had balls in those days!”

 

… why Hall & Oates is “in the past” - “He initiated the split and neither of us want to resolve it”.

 

… songs he always plays - Sara Smile, I Can't Go for That (No Can Do) – and why you’ll never hear She’s Gone again.

 

… making his first records on a four-track in Virtue Studios, Philadelphia, and recording with MFSB. “I still like to keep it lean and mean.”

 

… playing session piano with the Delfonics and making a single with Chubby Checker.

 

… his first cheque for songwriting - $15.

 

… “I brought rock and roll to my High School!”

 

… the success of Live At Daryl’s House and the episodes with Todd Rundgren, Smokey Robinson and Glenn Tilbrook.  

 

… his sideline in restoring 18th Century houses.

 

Live From Daryl’s House here: https://livefromdarylshouse.com/

 

Daryl Hall tour dates and tickets here: https://hallandoates.com/tour/

 

Buy/stream the ‘D’ album here: https://ingrv.es/DarylHallD

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Mark Ellen and David Hepworth have been talking about and writing about music together and individually for a collective eighty years in magazines like Smash Hits, Mojo and The Word and on radio and TV programmes like "Rock On", "Whistle Test" and VH-1.

Over thirteen years ago, when working on the late magazine The Word, they began producing podcasts. Some listeners have been kind enough to say these have been very special to them. When the magazine folded in 2012 they kept the spirit of those podcasts alive in regular Word In Your Ear evenings in which they spoke to musicians and authors in front of an audience. 

Over these years they've produced hundreds of hours of material. As of the Current Unpleasantness of 2020, they've produced yet hundreds of hours more with a little help from guests kind enough to digitally show them around their attics such as Danny Baker, Andy Partridge, Sir Tim Rice and Mark Lewisohn. For the full span of the Word In Your Ear world, visit wiyelondon.com.

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