John Hall: He's still having fun, and he's still the one
by Seth Rogovoy

(WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass., Aug. 5, 1999) -- Rock stars have figured out various ways of handling the inevitable. Some go the Jimi Hendrix or Kurt Cobain route and leave behind a young, good-looking corpse. Others prefer, Mick Jagger-style, to refuse to acknowledge their mortality and allow themselves to become the very caricature of their once youthful, rebellious selves.

The Billy Joels and Paul McCartneys of the world try to act their age by dabbling in classical music, while the Ray Davies and Pete Townshends get literate on us and exchange their erstwhile guitar-smashing antics for readings at Borders. And then there's Cher and David Bowie, the champions of continuously calculated reinvention.

For John Hall, founder and leader of the '70s pop-rock group Orleans, the transition to middle age has taken him on a different path altogether. While the long-time resident of Saugerties, N.Y., just over the Woodstock line, has continued to make music in the two decades that have passed since his band's heyday, his proudest achievements have been more of the everyday, grassroots kind.

Next to best-selling songwriter, recording artist, and celebrity spokesman for the anti-nuclear power movement, Hall's resume includes two terms as president of the local school board, county legislator, teacher, local environmental activist, and part-time ski instructor.

"Being a rock 'n' roll star is not really what I want to do, or what I've been striving for," said Hall in a recent phone interview. "I've been striving to have a life that includes a lot of the things that everybody wants in their lives: a family, time to spend with them, work that's challenging and fulfilling and hopefully makes you a good living, and the opportunity to contribute to the community."

In between his hectic schedule filled with efforts to make the world a safer, healthier, happier place in which to live, Hall still finds time to make recordings and perform. He has a brand-new solo album, "Love Doesn't Ask," which he is releasing on his own label, Siren Songs (http://www.sirensongs.com). And he is scheduled to give a concert this Saturday night, Aug. 7, at 8, at the Center Theatre on Kemble Street in Lenox (637-1800).

"Playing music is my love, and also my job," said Hall, "but I don't do it so I can wind up a glorified cartoon character. The reason I do it is I want to have the opportunity to continue expressing myself.

"I've got my own recording studio and my own little record company, so I no longer have anybody telling me what I can and can't do. Not that it was ever that bad, but I did have instances of people telling me, 'This single needs to be three minutes long,' and, 'This song's too political or too blatantly message-y,' or, 'This thing needs a drum machine on it.'

"The fashions in the music industry come and go , and whenever you're working for one of the big corporations, there's pressure to try to conform with them."

For a brief time in the mid-'70s, the fashion was for Hall's style of soft, slick, melodic pop-rock. His group Orleans, founded in 1972, had a couple of huge pop hits a few years later, including "Dance With Me" and "Still the One," and several other songs that were FM radio staples, including "Let There Be Music," "Give One Heart," and the MUSE (Musicians United for Safe Energy) anthem, "Power."

While slickness of one sort or another always rules the pop charts, if anything Hall's music has gone in the opposite direction over the years, favoring more rootsy, acoustic textures, as evinced on "Love Doesn't Ask."

"We're trying to make music that springs from a melody, a lyric, and a grooving rhythm section," he said. "All these songs have acoustic rhythm and electric lead on top of them. They all come from a singer-songwriter place, in that the song is really the determining factor, not the arrangement.

"Some people in popular music will make a record that's based around the drum machine or synth parts or samples or some kind of an effect. We basically feel that if you can sit and play a song on the guitar…if it works with that, it works, and the other stuff is added around that. It's a pretty simple, rootsy way of approaching it."

For this Saturday's concert, Hall will be joined by drummer Peter O'Brien, bassist Gary Solomon, and multi-instrumentalist Marianne Osiel on guitar, oboe and vocals. "I'll be doing some solo acoustic stuff as well," said Hall. "It'll be a lot of stuff off the new album, a few things off of 'Recovered' [his 1998 album featuring unplugged remakes of his old hits], and a couple of things off of the Orleans records, and maybe something new."

As he lives in the general vicinity of the real Woodstock, still a haven for musicians and refugees from the '60s, Hall's thoughts about the recent, violence-plagued "Woodstock '99" festival, held hundreds of miles away in Rome, N.Y., seem particularly relevant.

"I don't want to sound like an old guy, but when you have Metallica, Rage Against the Machine, Limp Bizkit and Insane Clown Posse performing, you shouldn't be surprised if people turn violent," he said.

"Not only the lyrics but the musical setting influences emotions - that's why people buy music and listen to it and make it and go out to dance to it and all that stuff. But it does have an effect on your state of mind and on the degree of peace or agitation.

"Rock 'n' roll has always had an edge to it - it's always been a vehicle for protest and rebellion….It's just harder to rebel, because when Mick Jagger or The Who are the establishment - the people who used to destroy their instruments are now the old guard of rock 'n' roll - then a lot of the young bands have to do even more outrageous things, push the limits further, to feel like they're rebelling.

"I guess at some point you've got to question when it's rebellion for rebellion's sake, as opposed to rebellion to carry a message that's valuable. That's where a lot of people get off with 'Woodstock,' where some people feel it is besmirching the name and the memory of the first Woodstock festival."

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[This column originally appeared in the Berkshire Eagle on Aug. 5, 1999. Copyright Seth Rogovoy 1999. All rights reserved.]