Arif produced
this as well. I remember vividly getting the call: I was in a
rehearsal hall in New York rehearsing with Benny Mardones, who
I had just met. Arif somehow tracked me down and called the pay
phone there to get me to come down to the session. I remember
that I had to say no because we were still rehearsing. When we
finally finished, the phone miraculously rang again and it was
Arif, saying they were still there and asking if I could come
right down. They had been in the studio all night with their guitarist,
who I guess had sort of frozen up and wasn’t coming up with
anything useable.
The studio (Atlantic) was under armed guard because Hall &
Oates were signed to RCA at the time. What they were doing with
Arif was working on two unreleased cuts as bonus tracks for a
greatest hits package. RCA would’ve freaked out if they
ever found out – it was highly illegal, what they were doing.
So it was a tense scene.
I waltzed in with Andy’s road manager, Jon Rosbrook, who
had asked if he could pretend he was my roadie so he could eavesdrop
in the studio for me while I was playing.
Hall & Oates and Arif were all exhausted. I tried cracking
jokes but they were in no mood. I asked to hear the song and instead
they started the tape right in the middle where the solo needed
to be. I scrambled to absorb the changes, went in and plugged
my black Les Paul into a Fender Deluxe and starting playing. Gene
Paul was engineering (Les Paul’s son), and when they heard
what I was playing Daryl exclaimed (according to my spy, Jon)
, “That guitar sounds like the BEATLES!! That sounds amazing!!!”
The solo was done in a take or two. The song was called “I
Want To Know You For A Long Time”, great song.
We then went on to add a solo to the next song, “Uncanny”.
This was a bit more difficult because the song was between keys
and it was hard to get in tune. Also the solo was long and I had
to think in a very broad sense. But we finally got it.
Hall & Oates went on to ask me to join their band and, being
young and dumb and committed to my producing career, I turned
them down – three times! As the song goes once again, “Regrets.
. .I’ve had a few.”
