I was heavily dependent on my friends to recommend bands and concerts and they never, or rarely, let me down. I wasn’t living in the Boston area at the time, I was in NYC. The group signed to Atlantic Records in 1970. Geils Blues Band, later dropping the word “Blues.” The same year, former fan Seth Justman joined on keyboards and the band started to earn a sizable local following in the Boston area. In 1968, the band switched focus, starting to play electric guitar and bass and recruiting two fellow musicians from a local Boston band called The Hallucinations, drummer Stephen Bladd and Peter Wolf, who was the fast-talking former FM WBCN DJ.” (And the wooba gooba with the green teeth.) Funk) and harmonica player Richard Salwitz, (stage name Magic Dick.) I can do no better than to here quote Wikipedia: “The band started as an acoustic blues trio in the mid-1960s, with guitarist John Geils, bassist Danny Klein (Dr. I’m just saying these guys were not some pop confection dressed up for mass consumption.They were a blues/rock band and when say blues I mean Blooze, baby.

Maybe that amounts to the same thing, I don’t know. “My” Geils band was the stuff of the boozy, smoky beerhall, the kind of shithole where they’d just as soon throw you through a plate glass window as pour you a shot of Johnny Walker Red. But I am here to tell you this – that was not my J. I was happy for them because those were pretty big hits and it’s tough to have a career in music long-term without a few of those. In the early 80’s, with songs like “Love Stnks,” “Freeze Frame,” and “Centerfold,” the J.Geils Band were a staple of MTV.

John “Jay” Geils passed away of natural causes at his home in Groton, MA on April 11, 2017.

The j geils band whammer jammer