Monday, March 15, 2010

Old School Mondays:: R.I.P. T-Bone Wolk Edition

Who is Tom "T-Bone" Wolk, you ask? Well he was mostly widely known as being a longtime member of Hall & Oates' backing band, but he was a busy musician who worked with a number of other artists, both in-studio, and in live settings. Unfortunately, T-Bone passed away a few weeks ago due to a heart attack, which was crushing news for both Hall and Oates, and really anyone who, like myself, had come to know T-Bone by watching Live From Darryl's House.

Our love for the H&O here at the hill has been well-documented (by us), but how can even we tie in the passing of their bass player to old school hip hop? Well, it's rather simple, as the link is right in T-Bone's own bio:

"For those of you don't know, T-Bone Wolk is that guy with "the hat" who, among other activities, has been playing bass guitar with Daryl Hall and John Oates since 1981. He originally got the gig after playing bass on the first gold rap record, "These Are The Breaks", by Kurtis Blow in early 1981."

There you have it, a sad bit of awesomeness, but awesomeness all the same. I don't think we've ever posted The Breaks before, and so even though it is a somber occasion, it still seems like a perfect time to put it up. So here it is, along with a couple other jams from Kurtis' first album: Rappin' Blow (Part 2) which is essentially The Breaks part 2, which I don't think I've ever heard before, and Blow's Message-esque Hard Times. Enjoy, and R.I.P. T-Bone.