Ep 42: Why the J. Geils Band Matters

More known as a party band than they were rock royalty, the J. Geils Band is still a rock band of the era that gets tossed aside, despite a decade of incendiary live shows and more hits than some may recall. One of my favorites. Played them loud.  Learned some history too. I seriously rocked the “Blow Your Face Out” live cassette in my $2,000 brown Buick Skylark back in 1986.

It’s really not just that the J. Geils Band is not in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. But they probably aren’t getting in. Yet the bridge they made – from the last 60s blues band era to the time of Seger, Springsteen, Petty, and U2 blowing up – was integral in rock and roll. Their live show.  The R&B fused with rock and roll. The way they hit the stage, took no prisoners, and then blew out of town. That matters.  That’s their legacy. That was their time. It was a band more than the perceived one-time splash of “Centerfold” and “Freeze Frame”.  The J. Geils Band were road dogs.  They were also a bunch of guys who reintroduced a whole lot of people to songs that were forgotten before they recaptured them.  And they had hits well before they were able to fuse the new wave with the old rock, and did it more seamlessly than lots of others who tried.

Take a bouncing ride on this podcast.  We dig into the reasons why this band from Boston, one in a long line of great rock and roll, from The Standells to Aerosmith to the Cars – made in that town, matters.