Admiral Television?

Martykl ...sounds like your not giving up on this.

I don't know for a fact, but I'm pretty sure the leads are all Todd R.

I'll write more later when I've got a real keyboard in front of me, but let me just note that "Marquee Moon," Television's first record, post-dates "War Babies" by some three years. The band Television may not have even existed when Admiral Television was playing with Hall and Oates.

I love this question. Thus, my third post (though one has yet to appear). When I suggested last night that it might have been Rick Derringer, I based that on two things: thoughts about who was moving in what circles back in the day, who would actually have had occasion to know someone involved in the making of "War Babies," and also, as I wrote, why someone would employ a pseudonym. (For legal, contractual reasons, most likely.)
Since then, I've listened to "War Babies" -- perhaps not Hall and Oates' greatest album, but better than I'd remembered -- and just now played "Show Biz Kids," a Steely Dan tune that features Rick Derringer on slide guitar.
I'm now beginning to think that my oddball theory may have had some merit. For those who own both records, give it a try and see what I mean.
Thanks for the question.
-- Howard

Hodu:

I'm pretty sure that Television was gigging around NYC as early as 1973 (a year before War Babies), even though their first record came out, IIRC, a few years later. That might make the Television reference even more plausible, that band was very hip "vapor" at the time. Everyone in town knew of them, almost no one had actually heard their music.

As to all the leads sounding like Todd, I didn't hear that - not that it's ever possible to confidently make such a determination by ear.

But....

In particular there's one lead early in the record (might be Rose Tatoo, I'll double check) that's all way up on the finger board and pretty abstract. It just didn't sound like Todd to me. Of course, you could be 100% right - but that is, in part, what prompted the question. Todd's a great player and I love listening to his leads, but this record sounded (to me, anyway) like someone else (maybe Admiral Television, whoever that might be) contributed some very quirky lead work.

Marty