The War on War Babies

Shedding light on one of the most underrated albums ever

Daryl Hall and John Oates, I believe, are one of the most underrated duos in the history of music. For a band that experimented with so many different genres, produced an array of ear-gasmic melodies, and just gave the world a bunch of fun tunes, they’re criminally underestimated.

While their heyday was in the 70s and 80s, their talent is often overlooked today.

Luckily, a writer friend and editor of this publication, Pierce McIntyre, is a fan of them, which should give you enough assurance of the quality of their music. This was meant to be a response to the Debut Album prompt by Pierce, but it’s also slightly drifting from it, so it may not be a part of it after all.

While War Babies isn’t the band’s first album (third), it’s still one that has been so neglected that it might as well be considered their first.

When you ask a person whether they know Hall and Oates, the songs they usually reference are Maneater, Out of Touch, or You Make My Dreams Come True which have all been chart-topping hits. While they’re brilliant songs, they’re all songs that went mainstream and earned the band so much recognition that they hid their initial songs beneath their newer pile, which is very common for most artists.

Released in 1974, War Babies is an arrangement of experimental, psychedelic rock songs that focus on a person’s journey through a war-torn world as seen in War Baby Son of Zorro, but also deals with the life of a musician who’s been at work for so long that he can barely remember his own music, as seen in Can’t Stop the Music.

On a whole, the album is a reaction against the practice of war and evil, as noted by its eerie and sad-sounding harmonies. But it also encompasses the memory of the artists’ childhoods in the 50s, which was defined by its post-WW2 recovering atmosphere. Listening to it will leave you feeling as though you’re tripping through another world — or dimension, really.

One of my favorite tracks on there is Beanie G. and the Rose Tattoo which is distinguished by its funky, instrumental tune and best showcases the 70s side of Hall and Oates that tends to be overtaken by their work in the 80s.

War Babies was an album that lost the band the approval of their label, Atlantic Records, who dropped them following the inability of the album to produce any hit songs, even though it was a Billboard charting album.

This was the first album of their that featured another well-known artist, Todd Rundgren and his band Utopia, who were criticized by Hall and Oates’ manager Tommy Mottola for the album’s “artistic and commercial failure.”

It’s funny how some of the best hidden gems of an artist tend to be re-discovered after a really long time. Perhaps it gets easier to notice the preciousness of an album’s production after comparing it to their other, more prominent works.

Sometimes, when digging up the songs that aren’t usually associated with a band, typically possessing an insignificant amount of views on YouTube, you happen to stumble upon treasure that has been left unattended, making you appreciate that you’re one of the few who get to witness its greatness unfold. Oftentimes, being one of those lucky few is like savoring a sweet treat that tastes better the more time you spend devouring it.

Thank you so much for reading.

Here I’ve linked the album playlist of War Babies, which I really, really recommend listening to. :)