It's probably a fair bet that when the death of J. Geils was announced earlier this week, the mental picture that most people had in their minds was that of Peter Wolf. As the singer for the band that carried Geils' name, Wolf was by far the most visible member of the group, with the great harmonica player Magic Dick probably being second (if not him, than Seth Justman, keyboardist and co-songwriter with Wolf of the band's biggest hits).
Although they had been around since the late 1960s and held close to legendary status in certain parts of the country throughout the 70s, the band didn't really strike gold until the early 1980s, with the album and song "Love Stinks" and then the monster hit, and multi-platinum, "Centerfold." Not long after that Peter Wolf decided to leave the group, and not long after that, the band called it quits.
"Freeze-Frame" and "Centerfold" were both great songs, no doubt - and one of my favorite musical memories was the night in Deutsch Hall at UC Berkeley when a Cal Bear football player, fueled by a few too many beers (and who knows what else) decided it would be fun to do a crazy, naked dance to "Centerfold" to celebrate the end of finals week. His performance ended with about 8 of us chasing him down the hallway, to make sure he didn't follow through on his threat to repeat the performance over in the girls' only dorm.
For me, the band hit its artistic peak with "Geils" in 1977, and "Sanctuary" the following year. For this post I chose the latter, which I prefer slightly because of "One Last Kiss," a song I still consider to be one of the best of that decade. Produced by old pro Joe Wissert (who also manned the boards for Boz Scaggs' "Silk Degrees"), the album is a remarkably consistent example of what the band did best - hard rock, tinged with a touch of R&B and soul, and frequently featuring the unique harmonica solos of the Magic Man. No flashy guitar solos, just some hard-driving, well crafted, for lack of a better term, "classic rock."
R.I.P., J. Geils.
Although they had been around since the late 1960s and held close to legendary status in certain parts of the country throughout the 70s, the band didn't really strike gold until the early 1980s, with the album and song "Love Stinks" and then the monster hit, and multi-platinum, "Centerfold." Not long after that Peter Wolf decided to leave the group, and not long after that, the band called it quits.
"Freeze-Frame" and "Centerfold" were both great songs, no doubt - and one of my favorite musical memories was the night in Deutsch Hall at UC Berkeley when a Cal Bear football player, fueled by a few too many beers (and who knows what else) decided it would be fun to do a crazy, naked dance to "Centerfold" to celebrate the end of finals week. His performance ended with about 8 of us chasing him down the hallway, to make sure he didn't follow through on his threat to repeat the performance over in the girls' only dorm.
For me, the band hit its artistic peak with "Geils" in 1977, and "Sanctuary" the following year. For this post I chose the latter, which I prefer slightly because of "One Last Kiss," a song I still consider to be one of the best of that decade. Produced by old pro Joe Wissert (who also manned the boards for Boz Scaggs' "Silk Degrees"), the album is a remarkably consistent example of what the band did best - hard rock, tinged with a touch of R&B and soul, and frequently featuring the unique harmonica solos of the Magic Man. No flashy guitar solos, just some hard-driving, well crafted, for lack of a better term, "classic rock."
R.I.P., J. Geils.
