Ella and I do not often review greatest hits albums,
but for this amazing collection from the career of the J. Geils Band we
are going to make an exception. 5 stars are hard enough to get, but a
greatest hits collection with 5 stars only happens once in a blue moon.
Ten Years After got a 5 star review for their collection Essential, but
that was it.
So what’s the fuss about ‘Houseparty’? Well,
let’s just say that if you don’t find yourself jumping up and down
to every track that’s on this 38 song, 2 disc set then you have just
got no rock ‘n’ roll in your soul. This was the sort of music that
is played constantly at the famous Tahitian Queen Rock ‘n’ Roll
Happy Hour, and why do people go to Tahitian Queen Happy Hour? It’s to
have a good time, and this is music to have a good time to.
History tells us that the year 1967 was all incense,
peppermints, kaftans, beads, lots of vegetables, paisley shirts, people
finishing sentences with the word man, and being so laid back they fell
over themselves. But those lazy, hazy, crazy, daze of way off also
produced one of the world’s wildest, finest, all-time great,
hard-driven rhythm and blues show bands that were ever put on this
planet to entertain.
For the next 15 years and 14 albums and what must
have been a million gigs, the J. Geils Band, in the words of their front
man Peter Wolf, “Felt obligated to give 100% of ourselves to our
audience. We were a bunch of guys who had the passion and wanted to
share it”. Where else do you get that commitment from a band? They
were together for those 15 years without one change in line-up - unheard
of in the unstable world of rock ‘n’ roll. When it came time to go
they just left at the top.
This collection, with it’s informative 52-page
booklet, has songs from all 14 albums, but is not in chronological
order, allowing the compiler to put all the great studio cuts from the
debut album in 1970 on the first disc, through to ‘Surrender’ from
their 1977 album ‘Monkey Island’. That includes the hit ‘Must Of
Got Love’ (no 12, 1974) and all the great covers such as Willie
Dixon’s ‘Dead Presidents’.
Then disc two kicks off with 10 tracks from the three
live albums that the J. Geils Band released in their career, Live - Full
House (1972), Live - Blow Your Face Out (1976), and Showtime (1982).
These songs really give you a feel of what it must have been like at a
full blown J. Geils Band concert. It’s all there.
‘Whammer Jammer’ gives Magic Dick a chance to
live up to his name on his harmonica solo number and most of the songs
give J. Geils’ a chance to run his furious guitar solos. All with the
rock solid support from the rhythm section of Danny Klein and Stephen Jo
Bladd, and the wall of sound that was put out by the keyboards of Seth
Justman (he was also producer and arranger for the band in the second
half of their career). Peter Wolf’s in-between song raps are left in
place, and his vocal performance on ‘First I Look At The Purse’
would leave anybody breathless.
If this was not enough, late in their lifespan the
band had a resurgence in popularity, which brought their music to a
whole new generation of fans with the release of the album ‘Freeze
Frame’. It reached the top of the album charts over Christmas 1981,
spending four weeks at number one and a total of 70 weeks in the charts.
The single from the album ‘Centrefold’ also hit
the number one spot, and the title track, when released as a single,
went top 5.
Don’t you just love a happy ending? When it was
time to go the boys packed their bags and exited stage left. I leave you
with the words of Peter Kay, always the J. Geils Band’s spokesperson,
a band named after the guitarist, not the vocalist with the shades.
“The J. Geils Band was a real American band - six
guys with a love of music. Really feeling blessed that we were able to
prevail and keep going. We were no frills, no tricks, just hard, sweaty
Rock ‘n’ Roll. And when we hit the stage it was Showtime!”
Bigger,
brighter and better could be suitable adjectives to describe one of the
most important books on sale in Pattaya and Rayong. This is the current
edition of the book Living in Pattaya and Rayong produced through
volunteer work from the ladies of the Pattaya International Ladies Club (PILC).
Mott’s CD review: The J. Geils Band -
The Anthology
Houseparty
