daryl hall - sacred songs

i found much of it too soft (& proper 'MOR' i guess) - and i haven't listened to it for >10 yrs - but as far as i can recall i liked 5 successive tracks:
'something in 4-4 time' - moves along like a nice pop song but with an unexpectedly odd/angular/simple gtr 'solo'
'babs & babs' - which has this nice carnivalesque plod & 70's elton john rock ballad feel to it, but is then rendered glorious and bizarre by a frippertronic soundscape sweeping in for a bit in the middle...
'urban landscape' - just glacial-cool fripp, one of my favourite tracks from 'exposure'
'nycny' - punchy and just slightly manic (not as rough/manic as the pre bush-in-ghosts tapelooped vocal version on 'exposure') and with a majestic, shimmering, swarm of notes glittering away during an all too short break in the middle
'the farther away i am' - no verse/chorus song structure, more like a beautiful lullaby, sounds like just a fender rhodes + frippertronics under the vocal...all tender and loving

the last 4 tracks i can hardly bear to listen to, though

allmusic shows that the 2 hall-vocalled tracks from 'exposure' have been appended to the original album:
'you burn me up i'm a cigarette' is great, 50's rock'n'roll curling with weirdness at the edges and with another great middle-section - drums pounding away, 'inverted' gtr solo (just some feedback/tapeloop soundhum) & a vocal sample (prob of some guru fripp was into)
'north star' though - bleh

i was intrigued by the late 70's cross-connections between bowie-fripp-eno-gabriel-hammill, some ex-prog/art-rock crossover possibilities that were touched upon but unfortunately never happened: hammill does some singing & a half on 'exposure', and was doing great solo work at the time (future now, ph7, black box) - i wish he had worked with fripp more, or eno (!)...the prospect of gabriel-bowie-hammill collaborating in some way...even some of gabriel's usual squad (especially larry fast) working with hammill or bowie....

sigh

this sounds so amazing. i have to search it out.

please describe the other two albums in the trilogy.

As I wrote in (shameless plug alert) Stylus's Non-Definitive Guide to the Lost Album, Fripp planned a three-album "MOR trilogy" to include Hall’s Sacred Songs and Peter Gabriel’s second record, with his own Exposure rounding out the trilogy, all of which he would produce, co-write and contribute to.

The idea, as Fripp described it to Allan Jones of Melody Maker, was thus: “What I was trying to do in the original trilogy was to investigate the 'pop song' as a means of expression. I think it's an incredibly good way of putting forward ideas. I think it's a supreme discipline to know that you have three to four minutes to get together all your lost emotions and find words of one syllable or less to put forward all you ideas. It's a discipline of form that I don't think is cheap or shoddy.”

What Happened was this: “It terrified the record company,” Fripp told Jones. “Terrified them. Their official description of the record was 'strange.' They simply refused to release it. The record scared off the company and his manager” (one Tommy Mottola, now head of Sony Music). Further, Fripp was prevented from using Hall on any more than 2 cuts on Exposure, requiring him to bring in Van der Graaf Generator’s Peter Hammill and Specials singer Terry Hall to re-record many of Darryl Hall’s vocals on the album (Fripp: “[Hammill] came into the studio dressed in a rather svelte and smooth fashion, took off his nice cloths and got into a smelly dressing-gown, poured himself liberal dose from the bottle of cognac he'd brought with him, and went in there and started delivering the goods.”) Only Gabriel’s record was spared the label-hell the other records fell into.

In any event, it's a really great album — totally unique.

and Specials singer Terry Hall to re-record many of Darryl Hall’s vocals

whaaaat - are you sure about this ? i can't recall him being credited or singing on this album - it was a long way away from what he was doing at the time!

i dug 'sacred songs' out again since that post above - i was a bit too dismissive of some of the other tracks: 'don't leave me alone with her' has this enjoyably shouty interlocking call'n'response aspect to hall's vocal...'why was it so easy' has an all-too-short beautiful bit nr the middle - the song stops but for an ascending note sequence on chimey gtr, reminiscent of the start of 'Burst' by Magazine...and even 'without tears', in spite of histrionic proto-whitneyisms in places, and some horrible scatty-hippywords-insertion stuff, it has this beautiful frippertronic section...

I don't have it in front of me, but as I recall, Terry Hall is thanked on the album — I'm not sure I knew who he was before seeing his name in the credits. I think perhaps that he was in the group of people Fripp thanks who participated but didn't end up on the final record. I could be wrong, though...

i just got my copy on used vinyl for 5$ and there was also a used cd copy at the same store for 7.99$

i finally listened to it for the first time and every time it started to make me think, uh, this is just a Darryl Hall whiteboysoul record, it would get freaky. either hard rock or weirdo experimental stuff. very good record.

It makes me wonder what a modern-day example might be...John Mayer with Steven Wilson (Porcupine Tree), perhaps?

'In September, while already in the process of mastering the record, Fripp was confronted with contractual problems that prevented Hall from appearing on Exposure in such a prominent role. Hall would be allowed to sing on only two tracks, and this meant that much of Exposure would have to be re-made. Fripp recalls, "I was thoroughly demoralized and depressed. My life was completely knocked askew."

'Fripp responded to the crisis by calling up his old friend Peter Hammill, who agreed to fly to New York and sing for Exposure; Hammill appears on "You Burn Me Up I'm a Cigarette," "Disengage," and "Chicago."'

But I'll admit: it sounds like Hall singing "Cigarette".

Daryl Hall *is* the singer on 'You Burn Me Up I'm A Cigarette' and 'North Star'

Hammill sings on 'Disengage', 'Chicago', and 'I May Not Have Had Enough Of Me But I've Had Enough Of You'
(on this last he alternates with a female vocalist i can't recall the name of - i think she also sings 'Mary')

(and of course Peter Gabriel sings on 'Here comes The Flood' and 'Exposure')

...and just to add to the fun/confusion: I reckon the *music* for 'NYCNY' on 'sacred songs' is actually derived/based on 'I May Not Have Had Enough Of Me But I've Had Enough Of You' from Exposure, not on 'NY3' (which btw i think has a pre-Bush-of-Ghosts type vocal-loops-as-instrument-phrases feel to it)...and the positioning of NYCNY on 'sacred songs',bursting in at the end of 'Urban Landscape', even copies the sequencing of the related tracks on Exposure...

arrghg i've really got to let this go...

Well, on his own album Gabriel sings "Exposure" — on Fripp's record it's the Roche sister. But at any rate, yeah, it's confusing. Good point on "NYCNY" — I'll have to check that out sometime...

(sorry for going off topic a little)

Fripp played guitar on a Hall & Oates album!

That's right.

Fripp plays guitar on the song "Don't Blame It On Love' from 1978's "Along The Red Ledge."

One of H&O's rockier albums.

And David Foster produced that H&O album!

Imagine: Fripp playing on a Hall and Oates album produced by David Foster!

Weird but cool.

BTW -- I have that Fripp/Exposure reissue -- it's wonderful.

Two discs and one of the discs has every Daryl Hall vocal track that was originally taken off the orginal release.

sw

I'm not questioning my very existence or anything, but that is interesting. I really want to hear the re-ish of Exposure, however...

YES

first disc = original vinyl mix
second disc = fripp's 80's CD mix + three Hall vocals

buying on sight

except for the different vocal tracks, i can't tell any difference b/w the first CD and the later version.

In the scrapbook that accompanies 'The Great Deceiver', Fripp says,
"I view the King Crimson repertoire as ongoing and available: not a sacrosanct body of work but available, organic, and malleable."

This would explain the various overdubs and edits to appear on re-releases.

I consider myself a fan of both Fripp and Darryl so I will seek this album out. Sounds righteous.

I wish Peter Hammill had replaced the rest of Hall's vocals as well, these earlier versions are as painful as it gets

an outsized ego works for catchy pop, I like some H&O songs when I have to hear them, but when Hall "freaks out" on an art metal record, you get comedy.
we are talking Shatner.

the five songs that revert to Hall's vocals on disc two: "Disengage", "Chicago", "NY3", "Mary", "Exposure".

I'm not much for lyrics, but listening to Sacred Songs tonight after several months (inspired by Daryl Hall's Pitchfork interview) I'm struck by how, for once, Hall chose to create actual scenarios, like on the title track, "Why Was It So Easy" and "Babs and Babs." It's no surprise that Fripp and Hall's voice are up to them.

What's also not often said: Hall-as-keyboardist is particularly fine. Love the barrelhouse Elton John-esque stuff on the tile track and the alone-with-synth-and-Fender-Rhodes melancholy of "The Farther Away I Am."

i don't really like this

Out.

"Babs & Babs"!

gay cred songs, apparently

very good record.

-- JaXoN (JasonD), Wednesday, August 11, 2004 4:25 PM

whahappen

Not one of its songs is as great as 1986's "Dreamtime," though.

I have played this album at least twice a day for the last week (when I discovered it). Those vocal parts on "...4/4 Time" blow me away.

What's the chances.....

Dug this out last night after an age. I'd played Aladdin Sane and had to take it off because it was annoying me, but Darryl hit that spot perfick.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0578oOh8NHg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUkpMwyYlDk

What is the short spacey one on this? "Far as I am from you" or something? Totally haunting, very evocative of loneliness

"The Farther Away I Am"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hR1tksYYeJ8

Isn't there a weird amount of autotune on the vox in 1st vid? Apart from that p great recording

Love this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZzPABfIloI

Love that, like from a parallel universe.

With some Minus the Bear guys.

whoa

This album is amazing.

Finally found a copy of this in the wild last weekend -- I had read about it before, but I didn't expect that I'd love it so much.

I think this record has finally given me a proper appreciation for Fripp. He takes a fairly meat-and-potatoes rock song like "Survive" and just drizzles these sublime harmonics all over it, and it totally elevates the material.

It's too bad it didn't work out -- I'm now convinced that Hall & Fripp would've been way more interesting than Hall & Oates, but apparently RCA just wasn't havin it.