Customer Reviews

Bigger Than Both Of Us

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

On Daryl & John's early RCA releases, they made it a point to put the hits on side one and the experimental songs on side two. You'll hear plenty of both with songs like "Do What You Want, Be What You Are" which is a classic, and their first number one song "Rich Girl". Other songs that deserved hit status are "Kerry" and "London, Luck & Love". Best from the 'experimental' side include "You'll Never Learn" and "Room To Breathe".

Daryl wasn't too happy with the production (which they took care of when they started producing themselves) and you can see what he means if you play "Room To Breathe" from this and from "Live Time".

It's a fine rock album overall and has one of the best album covers you'll ever see.

(4.5 Stars)

This is criminally out of print..criminal because there's a lot more to be found on here than the pop hit "Rich Girl".

Oates pens two of H&O's prettiest hooks on the ELO-ish "Back Together Again", as well as "Crazy Eyes". He also turns in another fantastic song with the mysterious "You'll Never Learn". Oates was definetely on his A-Game here.

And Daryl's tunes are as good as you'd expect from him. The aforementioned "Rich Girl" is a great pop/soul number with an instantly catchy chorus. He's hauntingly beautiful on the minor-key ballad "Do What You Want, Be What You Are" (which may have been a minor hit, I'm not sure), and he even rocks it out on the stomping, guitar-driven "Room To Breathe" (which has some great bluesey riffs).

There's more, though. "Kerry" is a fantastic mid-tempo pop/rocker; brooding, but really catchy at the same time. He also works some mandolin into the uptempo "London Luck and Love", which has some cool droning guitar effects throughout..

And "Falling" alone justifies paying $20 for an out of print CD. It starts off quiet (electric piano + voice), and dynamically reaches a memorable guitar solo at the end. They diddle around with a synthesizer for the lengthy outro (which probably sounded super futuristic and spacey at the time, though a bit dated now). But the actual song is phenomenal, with chord changes and lush production that would make their buddy Todd Rundgren smile with glee..

(As a somewhat useless factoid, there's a title track to this album..only it's one of those "Houses of the Holy" situations where the band finished the album before the song, so you have to buy their next album, "Beauty on a Back Street" to find it)

Not sure why this hasn't been remastered. It's one of my favorite Hall & Oates albums, and there's really no filler to be found.

**** and a half stars, rich girl (which began the road to fame for H&O), the romantic ballad "Do what you wanna do, be what you are", "back together again" was a minor hit, and the sleeer hit the great "room to Breath", Awesome rocker!, "kerry" and "falling" are nice and innocent songs, but don't flow with the rest of the album.a Nice starting place for hall and oates fans!

A solid album from Hall & Oates that produced the #1 hit "Rich Girl," Bigger Than Both Of Us features the soul-infused rock of the 1970's and the duo's signature harmonies, as exemplified on the first track -- "Back Together Again." The lyrics of the song recall the 60's soul scene; it was fun and nostalgic when it was recorded and is even more so now that the music evokes our memories of the 70's as well. "Rich Girl," "Do What You Want, Be What You Are," and "Falling" are the highlights of this 1976 release, but the album plays well from beginning to end and even the lesser tracks are enjoyable. If you're a fan of Hall's vocals, you'll want the album just for "Do What You Want"; the slow, easy, laid-back sensuality of the music is masterfully blended with his technically demanding yet silky-smooth delivery that alternately matches and contrasts with the mood of the song. If you like Hall & Oates or are a fan of 70's music, you'll find that Bigger Than Both Of Us has much to offer.

When Daryl Hall and John Oates did Bigger Than Both of Us, they once more fashoned a true Masterpice, and although Abandoned Lunchonette was a failure, that album was a very poorly overlooked Masterpiece, with this one being accepted and successful.
Rich Girl is a song that not only was the Duo's first mass Hit, but it was also a song that showed how Daryl was such a great songwriter, to create something at the spir of a moment. He wrote the song as a protest to the attitude of a former Boyfriend of Daryl's dear Girlfriend and co songwriter with John Oates, who was Miss Sara Allen; of which this guy was a spoiled brat who demanded that everything be his way, so Daryl did a song about his attitude, but instaid of saying " Rich Guy, Now Your Going to Far" and then " Its a Bitch" and Bitch Guy, he said Girl in all those phraises.
Back Together Again was both Daryl and John's look at the reunion of Frankie Vale and the 4 Seasons, of whom they admired alongside the Idols of MOTOWN. Do What You Want, Be What You Are is an amazing ballad of deep feeling, as well as it being a song of acception for various feelings at the time of sorts. The song was defenitly accepted by many Gays in America and Britain as well as Continental Europe, for so many points in the song reflect on one accepting one's self, as well as others accepting that person's image.
Crazy Eyes is a Love song that begins with a beautiful Guitar intro in acoustic form, while You'll Never Learn is another love ballad but different as it has no acustic Guitar in the full force that Crazy Eyes has; in which John Oates sang those two songs.
London-Luck and Love is a song that is dedicated to London as a city, where I believe that it was influenced by some Tour that they must have had previously, which included a few British Gigs.
All that is this album I enjoy, and the album cover is amazing as it has the two guys in a futuristic Jetsons like Apartment. John is using a Home Computer as Daryl is writing down his lyrics, while John also has his Fender Strat, in which one must remember that this album was made in 1976, and Private Home Computers were only being developed at the time, and there was no such thing as Apple or Dell and Microsoft at the time. It is also to mention that the Apartments outside of the window are Amps and the balconies and gardens are Amp dials, when the Amp sound Gadges are the windows.
I recomend this one 100 per cent

This, their 2nd RCA album and the follow up to the "Silver" album, has many things going for it. First of all, the breakthrough mainstream hit "Rich Girl" which you can still find among many best of the 70's compilation albums that are out there and secondly, the main personnel that were involved with their previous effort were still involved here. The great Chris Bond guitar work and the good jazz-drumming that made the "Silver" album such a classic is still present here albeit not as well done here but still noteworthy.

The not so good points though is that here is where we start discovering the H&O bad habit of intermingling great tracks with the odd, weak clanger tracks. Where there were no weak tracks on the "Silver" album where every track is a soul classic, "Room to Breathe" should really have been left out as it really stinks up the place. Otherwise, the other tracks are real gems especially the great "Do What You Want, Be What You Are", "Back Together Again", "Kerry" and "You'll Never Learn".

This version has been brilliantly remastered and the mini-lp sleeve is a work of art which also includes all the lyrics in English and Japanese. Highly recommended for all H&O lovers out there and this is THE version of the album to get.

This album spawned three Top 40 hits. BACK TOGETHER AGAIN sounds great. DO WHAT YOU WANT,BE WHAT YOU ARE is another great-sounding "blue-eyed soul" track. RICH GIRL was the only #1 hit. The other songs are great.

This is where Blue-eyed soul started. If you love the Philly sound of the 70's, Gamble & Huff, The Delphonics and the O-Jay's then give this album a shot. It's all of that great music -- filtered through the Philly suburbs. Probably Hall & Oates best album. Worth it, simply for the lyric, "Do you believe in hot cars, leather bars and movie stars. Is that what's real"

Now here's one that Momma used to slip onto the turntable now and again back in the day.

The point was to hear "Do what you want, be what you are" and it's all in the title, people.

It's timeless, this track, and continues to inspire today. It is my hope that folks will pick up on it and experience the vibe of this one tune in particular. Very, very beautiful. Moving. Think of it as Spirit caressing you in the form of a blues vamp. It takes you IN and BEYOND if you let it.

Let it.

This is the absolute height of Hall and Oates. The had dozens of hits but this album is a classic from start to finish. This is one of those album that you can just listen to over and over again. A must have in any collection......