Though they came of age in the singer-songwriter 1970s, Hall and Oates found their biggest successes in the video-obsessed decade that followed. Suddenly, the visuals came to mean more than the music itself — something that was particularly galling for a duo who had worked so hard to take control of their own destiny.
That meant insisting on using their own band in time for 1978’s Along the Red Ledge, and producing themselves beginning with 1980’s Voices. MTV, however, changed everything. Suddenly, Hall and Oates were at the mercy of videographers. It all became obvious how wrong things had suddenly gone during the filming for 1984’s “Out of Touch,” Hall and Oates’ final of six No. 1 singles.
“It’s a song about interpersonal relationships, and stress and all of these other things,” Daryl Hall tells VH-1, “and it’s being depicted visually by John Oates doing cartwheels around the room and me running around in a dog suit, busting out of 40-foot drums. It’s a circus. It distracts from any of the subtlety — not even the subtlety, the meaning of the song. [Laughs ruefully.] We became puppets to the visual world, and it was really, really frustrating.”
At one point, it was 3 in the morning, and Hall and Oates were trapped in a giant bass drum, doing yet another take. Unsurprisingly, it isn’t a period they look back on fondly.
“I hated rock videos,” Daryl Hall says. “John and I took over our music; we got rid of all the deadwood, right? Now, the next thing I know, I’m hanging out with some director, stuffing his fucking face with cocaine, keeping me up all night running around like a hamster on a wheel. I’m trying to be real, and this is the image that’s getting thrown out there — antithetical to what we are trying to do. This is how people are perceiving us. Not a good thing.”
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I’m a 55 year old who grew up at the dawn of the MTV age. Thankfully, I never grew to like the thing, and would listen to the music but rarely watch the videos. I’m sure there are some good ones, but for me, music will always be about……wait for it….. Music ; )
I’ve also seen Hall and Oats several times in the past three years. That’s the best music video of all !
I was 10 when this song came out and I knew what the message was. And to a 10 year old the video was golden.
You can’t have it any other way. The video never made sense. Welcome to the 80’s.
I’m the biggest Hall & Oates fan I know of. Come from Philly and been to so many shows since the 70’s. And I still look forward to new things to see on LFDH and John’s shows wherever they appear. But, I’m a little dismayed at this story because … I learned the most important lesson about life and success from really smart people. It’s this: Losers seek to blame others for their regrettable experiences, while winners take PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY for their every station in life … at all times. Can’t simply take credit for what you reflect upon fondly, then blame others for the other. Come on, guys, be better than that.
So what you mean is that when the record company tells you “go do this, the way that guy tells you”, and that you’re CONTRACTUALLY OBLIGATED to do what the record label guy tells you to do – as if it’s your “JOB” or something…
I’m sorry, reality is a bit different than you might imagine, especially in the 80s, when outside of labels, you could always hang out on street corners selling millions of albums… right?
I’m sympathetic but I loved Hall and Oates at the time and loved the wacky videos (okay, okay, but not Adult Education… that was terrible). But if Hall and Oates had taken control of their destiny before videos, why couldn’t they retain it. What svengali-like powers did the cocaine snorting director have over the duo. Were they powerless to resist him and just say no…
Videos basically replaced singles as the chief promotional vehicle. It was so bad that some acts that had hit their stride in the late 70s essentially got left behind because the lead singer wasn’t photogenic.
Unless you were Van Halen. And then you made your OWN videos.
Video killed the radio star.
It pretty much just killed MUSIC altogether.
I was part of the demographic group MTV was targeting when it first came out, and now that I look back, most of those music videos WERE dumb and cheesy. Almost embarrassing to admit that we watched them over and over again! At the time, everybody was running around proclaiming that videos were so artistic, etc., but really, it was only a handful of videos in the ’80’s that were actually any good.
While the studio version of Out Of Touch is a decent 80s pop song, I really like the rearrangement they did in later years. There are a lot of good songs written in the 1980s ruined by gated drums and synthesizers mixed way too prominently.
No, man. Out of Touch IS a synthesizer song. it’s not a folk song. I hate the acoustic versions.
Every artist is his own worst critic. I get where he’s coming from . And for Daryl, this particular video — being their biggest and most heavily produced one — is probably a symbol of the whole video phenomenon. However, I ‘d say it’s actually the best of their ’80s videos. I mean … look at No Can Do, Private Eyes, Family Man, Adult Education …. ok? Nuff said.
And while the song lyric is serious stuff about relationships, it’s arrangement sot of belies that, it’s so bouncy and danceable, with its little chimey keyboard riff and all.
Also, let’s not forget, they chose to segue into this song from “Dance On Your Knees,” which is anything but sober and serious.
So, the video fits. I remember enjoying it thoroughly whenever it aired on MTV.
Then again, I was all of 10 years old at the time.