20 Years in 28 Days: A Marriage in Music
Day #9: Hall & Oates—“Maneater”
by Mark Anthony Neal
When I first saw “Peaches” that 1st day of school in September of 1982, she gave me a look as cold as any that I had ever witnessed. Years later I would see that look from her, more than a few times, a reminder of what happens when you get on the woman’s wrong-side; relieved these days that that look is often reserved for our rambunctious daughters. With the exception of the revelation that a former girlfriend had been threatening her, I am no more clearer in 2011 than I was in 1982 over what had happened over that summer. The only thing I knew is that it was done.
With my head still in that pop-top-40 mindset that got me through high-school, Hall and Oates “Maneater,” seemed apropos (“the beauty is there, but a beast is in her heart”). I had been a fan of Hall & Oates for sometime initially because of blue-eyed Soul classics like “She’s Gone” and “Sarah Smile,” but really got turned on to then (via FP’s sister) with the release of “Rich Girl.” The group was on a commercial run in the early 1980s with tracks like “Kiss in On My List,” “You Make My Dreams,” “Private Eyes,” and their Black cross-over hit, “I Can’t Go for That,” which topped the “Hot Soul Singles” and Pop charts in January of 1982. “Maneater,” which would have been on an iPod playlist with Toni Basil’s “Oh Mickey,” Donald Fagen’s “I.G.Y.,” The Police’s “Spirits in a Material World,” Diana Ross’s “Muscles” and Michael Jackson and Paul McCartney’s “The Girl is Mine” that fall, was the lead single from their 1982 album H2O and the biggest hit of their career.
With graduation looming in the spring, I put my head down and moved on. Things were softer when we re-connected late in the spring of 1983, shortly before I graduated. All the things I love about my wife now, were evident in her natural beauty then. As far as I knew, this was the closing of the chapter in what was always going to be sweet teen-aged romance. Little did I know, there would be a sequel.
