J. Geils Band

Along with early albums from Aerosmith and the E Street Band, J. Geils' 1970 debut established East Coast-style classic rock by fusing Stones-fried bar boogie and guttural blues with doo-wop, urban RnB, Broadway schmaltz and the kind of streetwise jive-talking culture seen in Mean Streets. This isn't heartland rock; this is second-generation Italians, Jews and Irish from Beantown to Jersey getting down in the bell-bottomed '70s. This was their America, and it grooved like a Cadillac El Dorado.

The J. Geils Band is the best album I've heard in some time. Made by six men who have
spent the last five years learning their craft around the Boston - Cambridge area, it is a
goodtime, modern piece of rock and roll; it is also totally devoid of the self-consciousness
and pretensions that usually mar this kind of thing. In its energy, understanding, and
execution the album not only reminds me of the early Stones, but compares fav... More >

I find this gritty Jewish r&b band from Boston fun but somewhat retrogressive, which is admittedly the way I once felt about Creedence. Side two pops out of the box with covers from Otis Rush and the Contours and then slows down in style with two originals that deserve to get covered back. But the vocals don't do much for John Lee Hooker (no surprise) and the two instrumentals hobble the album's build (also no surprise, since great r&b instrumentals are almost as hard to come by as great white blues singers). (Grade - B+)