by Tom O’Connor
J. Geils died yesterday, apparently pitching over dead in his Groton, Massachusetts home, at the age of 71. I hadn’t thought much about him or the band he named after himself in a long while, but as always with these things, the passing triggers memory even in an old punk rocker like myself who remembers figuratively (and in some cases literally,) throwing records by bands like his on the bonfire of youthful scorn, especially when someone a few decades younger, who claims to be a music expert, says, “J. Geils Band? Never heard of ‘em.”
As a kid growing up semi-feral in semi-rural Western Massachusetts in the late ’70s, what I knew about rock music could fit in a single paragraph and on a single FM radio station. Before MTV, before cable even, all kids like me had were WHCN-FM (out of Hartford CT) and my friends’ older siblings’ record collections. As far as I knew, “music” meant hard rocking old school AOR (when it stood for “Album-oriented Rock”) like the Stones, Beatles (of course), Hendrix, the Who, AC/DC, Ted Nugent, Black Sabbath, Lynyrd Skynyrd etc. all the usual suspects. Because I was growing up in Massachusetts, there were two other bands featured heavily: Aerosmith and The J. Geils Band.
Everyone knows Aerosmith but J. Geils flamed out for the usual early ‘80s reasons–an unexpected major hit exploded their popularity and pulled the band into a mainstream/crowd-pleasing sound, leaving behind their original loose-elbowed, R&B/Blues/Rock & Roll Party vibe and the fans who loved it. Of course mega-success inflamed the tensions that had built up between the “dynamic” personalities in the band over the years. Also I’m sure all the cocaine didn’t help.
Geils was the guitarist and band leader, who developed a reputation as the guy having the least fun being a Rock Star–too busy sweating over business and being a legendarily cheap bastard with anyone he did business with (including band members.) Frontman and epic party lizard, Peter Wolf, more than made up for J. Geils’ taciturn disposition. Wolf is the guy David Lee Roth wishes he was, seriously. Crucial to the band’s sound was their harmonica player who, for a time, was generally recognized as one of the best in the world (until John Popper came along.) Go ahead and Google, “Whammer Jammer,” I’ll wait…and since this was the ’70s, a decade not known for subtlety, his name was, of course, Magic Dick.
That major hit I mentioned earlier was a song called, “Centerfold” from the album Freeze Frame. Arguably their worst song, from that typical album every band puts out to “broaden their audience” while losing their long-time fans (I’m looking at you, ZZ Top.) Opinions vary on this, of course, but they’re wrong. It was all downhill after Freeze Frame. Before that album they had the makings of a perennial, long-haul, All-American band, like a dirty Boston version of Bruce & the E Street Band. Instead they cashed in, cashed out and imploded. Shit happens.
Want to know what The J. Geils Band was supposed to sound like? Skip Freeze Frame and pretty much everything that came afterward. Like all of the best bands, the cliché, “You have to see them live” is especially true with JGB, so start with the live albums. First, Full House from 1972. Listening, you’ll discover this wasn’t a mellow “groovy” early 70’s combo. This was a band with some swagger and some undeniable balls. Follow Full House with 1975’s Blow Your Face Out. There you’ll hear a band that knows what they’re doing and knows they’re powerful enough to turn goat piss into gasoline. Finally, cue up Sanctuary from 1978, one of their last studio albums before Freeze Frame, and one of my personal favorites. The 1980 album, Love Stinks, was ok, but give me Sanctuary any day. In it you’ll hear a party band starting to deal with some of the pain and weirdness of the real world. These aren’t all happy songs, but they’re honest and worth more than one listen.
As I type this, I’m listening to some J. Geils for probably the first time since 1981, and I’ll admit it feels a little odd. 1981 was the year I heard my first Ramones song, and then IMMEDIATELY abandoned “normal” music and polite society, but that is another story altogether. Now that I’m older and less exhausting for so many reasons, I’m better at being able to recall, without malice, all that “first music” that moved me before Punk Rock set my brain on fire, and J. Geils was a part of that.
I welcome your comments. Please post below.
It’s sad news about J. Geils. Your story brought back memories of the old days. I saw J. Geils at Dillon Stadium in Hartford around ’72. My memories could be jumbled by age and substances ingested back in the day but they were opening at a concert I went to there and they really caught my attention. I think the Kinks and the Doors(minus Jim Morrison) were the other bands or it could have been Edgar Winter and his band White Trash( with Rick Derringer on lead guitar). I saw many concerts there :) just a piece of crap football stadium with wooden bleachers. The J. Geils band more than held up on their own and Peter Wolf was a great frontman/singer for the band. I really enjoy their early stuff. The mention of WHCN is a memory trigger!! Late sixties early seventies it was a DJ driven station along with WPLR out of New Haven. Classic early FM radio before corporate AOR took over. I learned of Yes, Buddy Guy, Muddy Waters, Moody Blues, the mighty Zep, Savoy Brown, John Mayall, …on and on they played stuff you just didn’t hear on AM radio that all of us back in the day usually listened to. It was REAL music. Thanks for the memory trip!
J Geils was my first concert, post Vietnam tour, and probably my all time favorite concert. None of us knew much about them and all assumed Peter Wolf to be J Geils. Near the end of the night Peter introduced each member and when he shouted out, “J Geils!!!” the spotlight flashed on an obscure figure, sitting on stool, almost behind the curtain. He flipped out a brief wave and back into isolation. Taught me a good lesson on modesty. You don’t have to hotdog the limelight just because you can.
I’m a huge fan of The J. Geils Band, especially pre Freeze Frame / Centerfold J. Geils. I think they’re responsible for turning on a lot of people to the Blues, that otherwise would not have been. It’s because of The Geils band that I started to explore John Lee Hooker more.
The passing of J. Geils their guitarist is made even more sad by the fact that he and the rest of the band were tangled up in a lawsuit against each other regarding the use of the band’s name.
I saw them twice, once a headliner at the Garden, during their Freeze Frame frenzy… George Thorogood and the Bo-Deans warmed them up. Lastly I saw them, again at the Garden, but as a warm up for Bob Seger, just a year or two ago…both were cooking’ shows, but I would have love to see them in their small club days when they were on the way up.
Growing up in Southbury Ct. listening to WPLR out of New Haven god I loved JGiels saw them whenever I could at NH Colosseum those shows blew my mind! The energy the fun the stench of brown Mexican dirt weed! I was a fan of Yes ELP Frank Zappa all the bands you mentioned and then some Blues greats James Cotton the beginning of Southern rock Marshal Tucker Band Pure Prarie League but Magic Dick Peter Wolf and the rest of the band never failed to deliver the goods I saw Peter Frampton at Staples High School in Westport Ct for 3.50$ in 1975 I was in 6 th grade my buddy CJ and I went my Dad bought the tickets J.Giels band played there as well they weren’t on my radar then I wished I had seen that show! I will miss them and have missed them Rock n Roll is not the same anymore but that’s another story.