Sacred Songs
Sacred Songs is American singer/songwriter Daryl Hall's first solo album. It was produced by guitarist Robert Fripp, who also played on the album. The album was recorded in 1977 but Hall's label, RCA Records, did not release it for three years. According to Nick Tosches, who wrote Dangerous Dances, the authorized biography of Hall & Oates, "RCA refused to release Sacred Songs on the grounds that it wasn't commercial" (p 85). When finally released, the album sold well, but ultimately did not yield a hit single. Recording Background In the early 1970s, Hall had formed Hall & Oates, a partnership with guitarist/songwriter John Oates. They had produced several hit pop singles, but Hall had grown to feel artistically limited and in 1977 was much more concerned with expressing his own outlook on life and music than with making more hit songs. Fripp had dissolved his group King Crimson in 1974, and after a sabbatical, returned to music with session work and other guest appearances. According to the notes for the 1999 CD reissue of Sacred Songs, and to Eric Tamm's book-length study of Fripp's music, Hall and Fripp first met in 1974. Already familiar with one another's work, the duo felt an instant rapport, and planned to work together. In 1977, Hall and Fripp reconnected while Hall was writing songs for his solo debut; Hall drafted Fripp as producer and guitarist. Hall wrote all the songs, except "Urban Landscape", (a 'Frippertronics' solo), and "NYCNY" for which Fripp wrote the music and Hall the lyrics, and which appeared also on Fripp's Exposure (1979) only with different lyrics as "I May Not Have Had Enough of Me but I've Had Enough of You". Sacred Songs was recorded in a span of three weeks, with most of the songs initially recorded with Hall singing and playing piano alongside Fripp's guitar work, followed by overdubs by Hall & Oates' regular touring band. Hall insisted on working with his own band rather than with the Los Angeles session musicians who had played on Bigger Than Both of Us (1976), the previous fifth Hall & Oates album. Although the session players were uniformly excellent musicians, Hall felt their performances were hampered by a disconnectedness from the songs. The album was originally intended to be part of a loose trilogy of sorts with Peter Gabriel's 1978 second album and Fripp's Exposure (1979), all of which Fripp produced. Besides Hall and Fripp, the backing band for the album consisted of bassist Kenny Passarelli, drummer Roger Pope, and guitarist Caleb Quaye, all of whom were then part of the second iteration of the Elton John Band, which had started recording and touring with John beginning in 1975. RCA shelves the album Though still relatively pop-oriented, Sacred Songs was very different from Hall & Oates, and RCA feared the album might be unsuccessful and alienate Hall's mainstream fans. So the company shelved the record, and release was postponed indefinitely. Outraged, Hall and Fripp passed tapes of Sacred Songs to music