Song of the Week – NYCNY, Daryl Hall & You Burn Me Up I’m A Cigarette, Robert Fripp

IGNORED OBSCURED RESTORED

I was watching an episode of Live from Daryl’s House that had Minus the Bear as his guests. To my surprise, they played a version of “NYCNY” from Hall’s Sacred Songs solo album. That got me thinking about my favorite songs on two pretty obscure albums that remain forever intertwined.

Sacred Songs
is an interesting album and considered a hidden classic by its fans. It was recorded with Robert Fripp’s help (guitars and production) in 1977, but RCA withheld its release until 1980. At that time, Hall wanted to branch out from the blue eyed soul he was making with partner John Oates, and Fripp, on hiatus from King Crimson, was about to start work on his Exposure solo album.

“NYCNY” is a very cool song that was written in collaboration by Hall (lyrics) and Fripp (music). An alternate version showed up on Exposure in 1979 under the title “I May Not Have Had Enough of Me but I’ve Had Enough of You” but with different lyrics by that version’s co-writer, Joanna Walton.

When work was completed on Sacred Songs – it only took three weeks – Hall returned the favor and agreed to help out Fripp with Exposure. My favorite song on Exposure is “You Burn Me Up I’m a Cigarette” which was also co-written by Hall and Fripp and features a Hall vocal.

Recorded in New York in 1978, you can definitely hear the influence of the local punk scene that was on the rise at that time.

Although Hall and Fripp seemed like a very counter intuitive pairing when they began work together, you must admit that the music they made still sounds pretty good some 35 years later.

Enjoy… until next week.