Hall & Oates Appreciation Day: “Maneater”
To celebrate Hall & Oates’ election to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Philly Mag writers are sharing their memories and thoughts about the Philly duo.
I was never aware of a time when Hall & Oates weren’t an “embarrassing 80s thing“; I was not yet two years old when the group’s last top-10 album was released. To me Hall & Oates was always ’80s dad-rock — and, even then, ’80s dad-rock that even my dad was too cool for.
“You did it, Philly!” reports Philly.com, and I admit I am a little excited. Our online votes put the duo into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame — though we don’t know how much online votes counted for, so, maybe not. Either way, this is a time for celebration, and what better Hall & Oates song to pay tribute to than “Maneater.” A song that’s about 22 percent sax solo — “With this sax in here, these guys probably had a lot of trouble with maneaters,” per reports this ’80s sax solo database — I first encountered the track on MTV’s 1999 “25 Lame” special, where it ranked as the sixth lamest video of all time. (No. 1 was Don Johnson’s “Heartbeat.”)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzg5jaxgO5A
As a stipulation of the countdown, the video couldn’t be shown on MTV anymore. That’s a shame. In addition to the catchy tune, this video is a fantastic glance of what white people in their 30s looked like in the 1980s. Also, yeah, the song and video are kind of sexist. With the sexism and the sax solo, it’s everything I know about the ’80s distilled into one four-minute music video. It is an incredible cultural relic Hall & Oates can be proud of.
