J. Geils C/D

Better version

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCINR2Nlep8

Wish there were some vintage clips out there...

I've started pulling out my old Geils LPs (as in, pre-Sanctuary) in the past month or so -- Monkey Island and Nightmares (And Other Tales From the Vinyl Jungle) so far. Liked them both, but I gotta say, not as much as I expected to -- maybe I just wish the band kicked harder or something? Still a little confused about why Monkey Island is (or at least used to be) considered their early classic. Guess just because it seems kind of dark, with the title track (which I suppose is supposed to sound reggae maybe?) and "Wreckage" and all. Liked that one more overall, I guess, for the overriding mood, though Nightmares has "Detroit Shakedown" and "Must Of Got Lost" (more replayable without the interminable live monologue intro mentioned above tbh) and the Shorty Long/Pigmeat Markham update "Funky Judge" and the I guess Screamin' Jay Hawkins update "Nightmares," which is mainly Wolf doing his old-school race-music DJ rap thing on Halloween. Maybe somebody should compile all his old "raps" on one record; give or take Steve Tyler (another Bostonian, wonder why) seems he was more ready than any other classic rock guys when hip-hop came along. Don't know if he ever did anything about it, though; "Flamethrower" maybe, and wasn't Lights Out supposed to be sort of hip-hoppy? Haven't heard it in decades. Pretty sure "Oo-Ee-Diddley-Bop!", one of the singles, was a sort of rap thing, albeit basically based on an Army marching cadence.

Dave Marsh on Lights Out, 1985: "On a few of these tracks, Wolf and collaborator Michael Jonzun come closer to merging hard rock and the new street music than anything this side of 'Rock Box' itself."

No idea whether he's exaggerating; I remember thinking the LP sounded pretty compromised back then, though I'm not sure how much I actually listened to it. Still, he's with the Jonzun Crew guy, so who knows?

Parke Puterbaugh: "Teaming up with Jonzun has allowed Wolf to bridge the gap between the good-time, juke-joint rock and soul of the '50s and '60s (where his own roots lie) with the street-smart inner-city techno-funk of the present."

Christgau said current Ashford & Simpson and Chaka Khan albums actually had funkier electro-beats, but he liked the Motown-like ballads anyway, and gave the album a B+. Guess now I'll buy it if I see a copy for $1.

I've started pulling out my old Geils LPs (as in, pre-Sanctuary) in the past month or so -- Monkey Island and Nightmares (And Other Tales From the Vinyl Jungle) so far. Liked them both, but I gotta say, not as much as I expected to -- maybe I just wish the band kicked harder or something?

You're missing the better pieces.

First three albums, s/t, The Morning After and Live -- Full House, the latter of which is the hardest most high energy thing in the catalog. On the first album and for the live one, they turned "Serves You Right to Suffer" into a metal dirge.

Nightmares was pretty iffy, House Party has its moment, mostly for the title cut.

Blow Your Face Out is one from the early period that you still see a lot in stores. It was a double live that was good, but not quite the wallop of Full House.

I was a big J. Geils fan. Even covered "Floyd's Hotel," which was from The Morning After on my blog late last year. You can Google it.

Picked up a couple LPs relevant to this thread in the past month from dollar bins, and finally got around to listening to them this week.

J. Geils Band Showtime! -- "historic live album" (the cover says) from 1982. Post-Love Stinks/Freeze Frame, I'm thinking they were basically a studio band by this point, just a lot slicker than in the '70s, and it shows -- way more horns than guitars even in previously fairly heavy-ish songs, my ears tell me, and only in non-hit "Stoop Down #39" (from Nightmares) and maybe the closing cover of "Land Of A Thousand Dances" (which goes into a sort of James Brown vamp) do you hear much musicianly interplay or possible spontaneity going on. Still, the slickness doesn't bother me much; selection makes for a very playable album. "Love Rap" at the end of Side One is 5:14 of Peter Wolf standup comedy jive-talk about Adam and Eve, embarrassingly minstrel-like in its attempts at blackness; he works in Rapudah the Beyoodah stuff, No Anchovies stuff, lame Cheech & Chong style pot jokes about getting the munchies, etc. Odd thing is how Side One ends with the word "love," and then "Love Stinks" on Side Two starts with the word "stinks" -- weird that they split it up like that.

Lights Out, Wolf solo LP from '84 -- yeah, not nearly as loaded with Michael Jonzun electrofreakazoid beats as often claimed (by people other than Christgau) at the time: Only "Mars Need Women" (how many bands have done songs with that title? There's even one on the new Rob Zombie album!) and maybe "Oo-ee-diddley-bop!" come anywhere near Jonzun Crew levels, though closer "Billy Big Time" is the biggest funky surprise -- a sequel to Electrifyin' Mojo hit "Flamethrower," sounds like, possibly with a decent rebel story attached. The rest is mainly reasonably crafty Prince-age crossover pop, ballads (not as Motowny as Xgau suggested, but still nice) and more upbeat trifles like the title-track hit and "Crazy" (sort of Wolf's version of Billy Joel's "You May Be Right" in that he keeps telling some girl how crazy he is but you never buy it at all.) He also covers Billie Holiday's suicidal show blues "Gloomy Sunday," for some reason; maybe he was inspired by the Lydia Lunch version from a few years before. Still, overall, another real good example of how spirited so much mainstream pop sounded in '84.

Need to pull out the black self-titled one from 1970 next, I promise.

Never gave half a thought to JGB until someone gave me a copy of Full House Live. Sweet Georgia Brown! Who'da thunk the best bar band in the world would get a chance to lay down a slab o' glory at the top of their game like that? It's one of those things that's so unexpectedly wicked-awesome that I don't actually even want to hear anything else by them lest it break the spell.

Put on the self-titled debut during muted pre-Obama-interview pre-game festivities, and yeah, George is right -- it pretty much kicks the butt of every other Geils (and Wolf) album I've pulled out this year. Just a real solid album, and never much winds up seeming stodgy or sluggish no matter how bar-band blues it gets. Six covers out of 11 tracks (assuming Jukejoint Jimmy, who wrote "Cruisin' For A Love," is not connected with the band), but I think my favorite cut might be an original -- namely "Hard Drivin' Man," which is some truly hard drivin' music actually. (Also pretty sure it used to get played on rock stations in Detroit.) After that, I'd probably pick "Homework" (from Otis Rush) or the hilarious "First I Look At The Purse" (from Smokey Robinson), though there's lots to choose from. Album really gives you a better idea why the band was named after their guitar player in the first place, though I love those funky tribal-glam Burundi drums in the closing Albert Collins instrumental, "Sno Cone." Band looks really bad ass on the LP cover, too -- Wolf's picture actually makes me wonder whether Steve Tyler might have learned a pose or two from him in Boston.

Third studio album, Bloodshot, from 1973 -- their only top 10 Billboard album before Freeze-Frame, strangely enough (even Love Stinks only got to #18) -- turns out to be consistently at least fair but almost never great. Only great great great cut would be probably the closer "Give In To Me," not so much for its shorter Top 30 single version (still probably their best reggae ever) but for the multidirectional rhythm workout it turns in to in the six-and-a-half- minute mix that closes the album -- Magic Dick harp solo into fluid almost proto-disco funk into a sort Mardi Gras parade drum thing, all really seamless. After that I'd take side-openers "(Ain't Nothin' But A) House Party" and maybe "Southside Shuffle," but I think I could take or leave the rest. "Don't Try To Hide It" at the end of Side One seems to be trying to do some kind of second-line New Orleans funeral wake rhythm, too, but comes out pretty weak -- its groove winds up sounding like a diet version of Melanie's "Brand New Key," of all things. And they clearly tried to hide all the filler in the middle of both sides.

Oops, "Give IT To Me," not "Give In..." (Geils were nice guys!)

I HAD "BLOODSHOT" ON 8 TRACK STOP ARE YOU ALL JEALOUS OF ME OR WHAT STOP

Ha ha, I got both the new Peter Wolf (on Verve -- too "mature" for my tastes I'm pretty sure) and Peter Wolf Crier (on Jagjaguwar -- nope, never heard of them before) CDs in the mail today. What a coincidence!

So I've pretty much decided (albeit with maybe more research pending) that Sanctuary from 1978 is my favorite album by them. The debut and Freeze-Frame (two very different records obviously) come close, but this one somehow splits the diference between what's great about those two -- Geils's toughest, meatiest, most sinewy no-nonsense blues-rock sound since their first couple, but they're already figuring out the smart ingratiating pop-craft skills that'd get them into the Top 10 in the early '80s. Everything credited to Wolf et.al.; no cover versions (though "I Don't Hang Around Much Anymore," one of two cuts in the middle of side two that I'd call merely good but not quite great, comes close), and probably as consistent an album as they ever made. Heavy, but not so much guitar-heavy, funky but rarely fast and never frivolous -- guess the sound is just dense, and there are plenty of minor keys or something, but the songwriting is so good (best: #32 pop hit "One Last Kiss," sax-crazed dance-rocker "Wild Man," AOR hit at least in Detroit "Just Can't Stop Me," very menacing title track) that the darkness and even dirgeness never get dull (like I think they did on the previous Monkey Island from '77 to an extent.) A lot of it seems to be a breakup record (when exactly was Wolf with Faye Dunaway? No idea, probably not near this, but it'd be cool if she'd just dumped him), and I dunno what Wolf's religious upbringing was but Boston's got plenty of Catholics, and the "Sanctuary"/"Teresa" pairing at the end of Side One is total Catholic Rock (look at the titles --"Teresa" is basically a prayer, pleading for help from the Saint, complete with high-mass piano.) Played the thing back to back with Darkness At The Edge Of Town yesterday -- another depressive, bar-band blues-rock LP by a catechism-obsessed upper East Coaster from the same year -- and maybe Bruce had higher high points but Geils still won the contest easy, with way less let-up and fewer dead spots.

Also, here is my Rhapsody review of the new Peter Wolf album (which I don't recommend, but does have at least a couple songs worth hearing):

http://www.rhapsody.com/peter-wolf/midnight-souvenirs#albumreview

Ha! Looks like Dunaway and Wolf were married 1974 - 1979, which means their marriage was winding down when Sanctuary came out. Just saying.

Oh yeah, opener "I Could Hurt You" (about how Wolf won't hurt her or seek revenge, even though he could, but he still wants out) is another great song; "One Last Kiss" (related theme) comes next.

Xgau calls them a "Jewish R&B band from Boston," fwiw; I assume that applies at least to Wolf. (Gives B+'s to the debut, Monkey Island, and Freeze-Frame; no A-'s. Sanctuary gets a B-):

http://robertchristgau.com/get_artist.php?name=j.+geils+band

With Monkey Island they were just calling themselves Geils. Seemed to be an attempt to break with the past as they were floundering. The hits a couple years later changed that. Had Monkey Island and don't recall enjoying it very much. Memory says it was brooding and 'mature,' but not in good ways.

The stuff I see in stores now mostly, besides greatest hits packs, is Blow Your Face Out, the second live album that served as a collection of the high points of their first four or five studio albums, except with more stage rap and not as tough a sound as Full House.

The only album I know have past Full House is Hot Line from '75, only for "Love-itis."

I even had Bloodshot on original red vinyl, that's how big a fan I was. However, once you got past "House Party[/i], the opener, it was a pretty duff record including their highest charting single to that point, "Give It To Me."

Interesting that -- how many bands can you say this about? -- their most blatantly pop album, Freeze-Frame, is also probably their most blatantly experimental album. (Well, besides Monkey Island maybe, but I still haven't figured out what experiments they were conducting on that one.) Anyway, I'm mainly thinking of three non-hit tracks that nobody ever talks about -- "Rage In A Cage," "Insane, Insane Again," and "River Blindness" -- where it sounds like they were listening to, maybe, the Contortions or James "Blood" Ulmer or harmelodic-era Ornette Coleman or the Gang Of Four. Frequently frantic funk-via-free-jazz stuff, in other words, yet given a rock push that usually helps to keep it catchy. Also love the album-closer, "Piss On The Wall," which sounds like '60s frat rock (those post-doo-wop bah-buh-buh-bah parts) sung in an ironic snotty '70s punk voice. No doubt that the new wave move was intentional, either; that's clear from the LP cover alone. And of course there's also "Centerfold," "Freeze Frame" (kinda weirdly angled itself), "Angel In Blue" (one of their most moving ballads) and especially "Flamethrower" -- the last their best rhythmic experiment ever, which is why it got played so much on funk stations (well, at least WGPR in Detroit, Electrifyin' Mojo's show) when this came out. Can't think of many other early '80s rock tracks that had a better idea of where black pop was heading: "Voices Inside My Head" by the Police, maybe? Either way, "Flamethrower" is way up there. So actually, I might prefer this to Sanctuary after all, even if their hard-rock tendencies were mostly left behind in the '70s.

"Rage In A Cage" would make a good metal song.

"Rage in the Cage" was one of those tracks that really blew my mind - I was 12 when it came out and I was all pumped up about "Freeze Frame" and "Centerfold. Sandwiching "Rage" right between those two right at the front of the album was a really messed up--and AWESOME--move. In retrospect it's probably one of the things that shifted me away from wholeheartedly loving everything that appeared on Top 40 radio and towards looking for some of the things on the margins.

Classic, mostly. I feel a bit foolish here, but I'm sorta all about the early J. Geils records & didn't care too much for the like of Freeze Frame. Not BAD, mind you, just not as raw & swingin' as earlier discs. I feel that these folks put out two of the best live records in da rawk canon: Full House and the under-rated Blow Your Face Out! steamroller, which has a riveting version of "Chimes" among other gems.

Include me. Uninteresting stuff after deciding to pack away the iron-fisted R&B and hard charging boogie post 1976.

Gave Monkey Island ('77) another listen; still stumped why '70s critics considered it their high point, when really it was just their most pretentious record. Only actual "reggae" I noticed (with stabs at dub and instrumental ska, never really pulled off), was in the intro of the nine-minute title track, which from there turns into an even less realized answer to Springsteen's "Jungleland" or something. (Guessing the "island" is more likely Manhattan than, say, Martha's Vineyard, but it's not like Wolf says anything about it either way, except you get stuck there; also, too bad the title chorus begs the racism question.) "Wreckage," another long dark mood track with an almost-metal guitar climax ending the album, is better but still pretty vague; to me, these seem more like unfinished versions of Geils' just as dark but way meatier and less half-baked stuff on Sanctuary a year later. Same goes for "Somebody," a sort of paranoid one about being chased or followed. Opening cut "Surrender" starts out as the kind of post-Santana percussion-rock experiment that got Barrabas and Babe Ruth tracks into discos; backup vocal (either Luther Vandross or one of three women named in the liner notes) could even pass for Babe Ruth's Jenny Haan, but it's still not a real great song. "I Do" is the radio hit (#24 pop) and really, the most memorable thing on the album. "I'm Not Rough" is a pretty decent Louis Armstrong cover. And there's a couple ballads.

My favorite is 'The Morning After,' which seems to be the most roundly ignored on this thread. Besides being enormously enjoyable throughout, it has a great album cover.

Freeze-Frame was the first album I purchased with my own money.

― J (Jay), Tuesday, August 8, 2006 9:54 AM (4 years ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Hadn't realized how much of the rest of Love Stinks (outside the obvious instant classic title cut, which I only ever owned as a 45 until I picked up the LP for $1 a couple weeks ago) got rock radio airplay, but listening to it, I'm almost positive I remember hearing four other tracks (so, in total, 5 out of 9) on the radio in Detroit at the time: "Just Can't Wait" (#78 pop single, sorta Carsy new wave move); "Come Back" (#32 pop hit -- technically higher than the title track's #38 oddly enough -- with a great stretched-out rhythm break at least in the 5:09 LP version, not sure if the 45 was shorter or not); "Night Time" (bluesy bar band cover of 1966 hit by quasi garage band the Strangeloves of "I Want Candy" fame); "Till The Walls Come Down" (which I would've guessed had come off one of Geils' late '70s albums -- sounds less slick than most of the rest of what's here.) (Actually, I could be wrong about "Night Time"'s airplay -- never hit me before that George Thorogood covered it in 1980 too; maybe his version got played instead? Or maybe even both did, the same year??) Anyway, these are all catchy enough, and add up a pretty good LP -- sort of a transition between Sanctuary and Freeze-Frame, though not as good as either of those. Plus "Takin' You Down" and "Tryin' Not To Think About It" have moderately heavy guitar bits -- riff in the latter reminds me a little of "Buick MacKane" by T. Rex, though the song wanders otherwise. Which leaves "Desire" (a mess of a ballad which Christgau pretty accurately called "endless at 3:35"), and the spoken-word sorta old-time radio serial parody "No Anchovies Please," which I'd remembered as being really short, but actually lasts a pointless and punchline-free 2:39. Album made Dave Marsh's Top 10 that year (above Second Edition and London Calling) regardless.

Had actually forgotten that The Morning After from '71 was on my shelf until Fruitless and Pansy Free mentioned above. Will say this -- it sounds really consistent. But maybe the reason nobody's mentioned it here much is because nothing much really seems great on it. Pretty sure "I Don't Need You No More", "Looking For A Love" (Bobby Womack/Valentinos soul cover and Geils' first top 40 single, though just barely), and "Wammer Jammer" (which must be the most popular harmonica instrumental in rock'n'roll history, unless there's something obvious I'm not thinking of) used to get played on the radio in Detroit; possibly one or both of the interchangeable ballads (one a Don Covay cover apparently), too. Am proud of myself for thinking "So Sharp" on Side One sounded a lot like "Funky Broadway" before noticing the cover says it's "in memory of 'Dyke' Arlester Christian," who wrote it. "Floyd's Hotel" is an okay Wolf jive rap, and the band stretches out somewhat in the side closers "Gotta Have Your Love" and "It Aint' What You Do (It's How You Do It)" -- okay, maybe that last one is great, I dunno, but you have to sit through the whole album to get there. And albumwide the guitars never seem to get beefed up like they did on the debut. Do agree that the LP cover totally kicks butt, though.

Chuck, love the reviews -- if I had time, I'd love to do a counterpoint, tho I think we're in agreement for the most part, esp. insofar as believing Sanctuary and Freeze Frame are the high points (tho I enjoy Monkey Island more, I think).

Re. Freeze Frame, recently, I was trying to figure out how they had changed direction so drastically, but upon further review it's pretty clear Seth Justman was behind it -- he became increasingly influential in the band around the time of Monkey Island and starts taking control with Love Stinks. And if you read interviews with them, the band always thought of him as some kind of whiz kid. By the time you get to Freeze Frame, Justman's writing almost everything by himself -- I never realized but Wolf isn't even credited on "Centerfold"!

But that record holds up mightily -- and yes, it's really strange and experimental. I said upthread that Magic Dick is a secret weapon for the band -- you'd imagine that most bands that evolve away from blues to new wave would have pretty much stuck the harmonica player in the back, but on Freeze Frame, he's the guy honking out virtually all of the riffs: Centerfold, Flamethrower, Rage in the Cage, River Blindness. Again, this has to be a credit to Justman, who somehow makes it all work.

The thing I can't figure out is how all the other guys went along with it -- Wolf definitely made the record work for his persona, though I imagine it wasn't easy reconciling the Woofa Goofa with lyrics like "Correlations Disintegrations/Cessation - of life expectancy." But the rest of the guys are, like, blues dudes -- if the influences are The Contortions and the like, I can't imagine anyone but Justman listening to them.

I now own every single one of their releases on LP (even the Wolfless one), and I still swear by 'Monkey Island' (if not 'Full House', where the early band just smokes so hard, but I hate voting for live albums...)

I don't think Magic Dick's on "Centerfold" ?? "Flamethrower" for sure, tho..

The opening riff is Magic Dick and something else -- guitar? Organ? I can't remember w/o hearing. But harmonica is definitely a big part of it...

hmm .. ok, that might be MD echoing the riff on the intro (my tinnitus is sadly too bad to tell these days), but I don't hear him throughout the track ... BTW apparently, J. Geils is doing once-a-year reunion shows in Detroit and Boston (the two cities where they were most popular.) I totally slept on the announcement of the Detroit show this summmer -- at Pine Knob -- or I totally would driven back for it. Apparently in Boston, they were as openers for Aerosmith at Fenway Park (a Boston legends showcase), online reviews indicate that Aerosmith totally sucked, as to be expected

Rob Sheffield wrote a somewhat amusing review of the Boston show from RS. He noted that he had to wait in the beer line behind four or five Magic Dick impersonators.

I'm listening to a radio rip of their set from the closing of Fillmore East in 1971 (chosen to be there by headliners The Allman Brothers), and it makes me long for a complete "Live" Full House release; it was about 6 months before the album was recorded, and all the songs from Full House except for "Looking For A Love" make an appearance. Lacking a bit of the power of the record but still an amazing show.

I remember rumors of a Rhino Handmade edition of "Live" Full House making the rounds last year. Supposedly it was going to be the complete shows from both dates that make up the album. I hope that it does happen because damn it, I want more live J. Geils Band from their peak.

I have a sneaking suspicion that this band is far more awesome than they're given credit for. True/false?

Very true.

Had this stuck in my head this weekend, not having heard it in decades.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=289lzL6Eit8

that's a pretty cool song... but wow, it seems even less like the blues stuff they apparently were famous for before their breakout singles.

I've never heard that one, kinda Devo-esque. Seth Justman was really J. Geils Band's new-wave guy, wasn't he?

Is Magic Dick featured on any of their most famous songs?

(and by that, I mean "Centerfold", "Freeze Frame", "Love Stinks", etc)

"River Blindness" remains one of the strangest songs ever recorded by a top 40 band.

"River Blindness" remains one of the strangest songs ever recorded by a top 40 band.

What about "No Anchovies Please"? That's among the weirdest songs I've ever heard, and yet it was the B-side to "Love Stinks."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-SgGHlZXQc&noredirect=1

Is Magic Dick featured on any of their most famous songs?

The riff on Centerfold is harmonica and guitar. I actually think Justman folded him into their pop material in a really clever way usually.

"River Blindness" remains one of the strangest songs ever recorded by a top 40 band.

Totally agree. As an 8 y/o, the lyrics to that song totally weirded me out.

Yeah I bought that LP when I was 12 and that song did my head in.

Wow! "Freeze Frame" is a fantastic album. Why isn't this a classic?

the only dud is "Rage in a Cage"

I was with you until you called "Rage in a Cage" a dud. It's the best song on the record.

yeah wtf? harmonica riff is all-time

I've wanted to hear a metal cover for nearly 30 years. That riff would translate beautifully.

is it me, or is this album very Oingo Boingo (except good)?

30+ years later, I can still sing 85% of the lyrics to their songs (including the really oddball ones on Freeze Frame)

Yeah this bit from “Insane Insane Again” just popped into my head, as it does about once a week: open fire, shell shock, knee jerk, lock step, shrink wrap, clap trap, mind bend, echo send, chicken coop, drug soup, nerve food, solitude, back track, meat rack, cardiac yakety yak