As is my lot in life, I was traveling the first half of the week, in the service of my Corporate Overlords. A grueling planes, trains and automobiles odyssey through America’s homeland, well without the trains. Cheap motels, bad food and long car rides where it all starts to blur together. Luckily I was with some good people and they made it a lot more enjoyable. However, as seems to happen lately, whenever I take a trip for work, a rock star seems to die. I’m starting to feel some Catholic guilt about my travels. I may need to look for a job that keeps me home more…

Most people, when they think of the J. Geils Band, think of “Freeze Frame,” or “Centerfold,” the late period, more pop oriented music they broke through with. Some may remember their first big “hit” if you will, “Love Stinks.” Personally, I became aware of the J. Geils Band when I heard the song “Must Of Got Lost” for the first time. The J. Geils Band was so much more than their latter day pop hits.

The J. Geils Band was an old fashion, touring, bar band. They celebrated rock and roll every night, night after night, on stage, sweating in small halls and bars. They spent the entire decade of the 70s toiling on the road but never found great success until the dawn of the 80s and then they couldn’t hold themselves together when they got the success they so richly deserve. Peter Wolf ended up leaving the band after “Freeze Frame.” In a lot of ways, the J Geils Band was like the American version of The Faces, well, maybe without the booze. Loose on stage with an oddball sense of humor, they never could recreate that live sound in the studio. And like the Faces, J. Geils Band had their lead singer leave for a more lucrative solo career.

All of this is much more bittersweet as the J. Geils Band missed out on being inducted into the Rock Hall of Fame this year. I was sorry to see Yes inducted merely a year after original bass player Chris Squire passed away. Looks like the J. Geils Band will suffer the same fate… which could have been avoided. I read somewhere this week that J. Geils Band should be considered the Rock Hall of Fame’s official bar band. Anybody who doubts J. Geils Band should be in the Hall or that J. Geils isn’t a great guitar player needs to put on “Give It To Me” one of their earlier great, great tunes. It starts as almost a lilting reggae thing, but the band jams to the fade for the last 3 or 4 minutes… J. plays a mean guitar on that jam. Very impressive. His legacy as a guitar player could stand on that one tune, but there’s so much more to his guitar playing legacy…

I would urge any of you unfamiliar with the J. Geils Band’s early 70s work to seek out one of their two monster live LPs, “Live: Full House” from ’72 or “Blow Your Face Out” from ’76 (the same year as “Live Bullet” and “Frampton Comes Alive”) and you’ll get one of the greatest educations in rock and roll, soul, R&B, funky blues that you’ll find anywhere.

RIP J. Geils. Rock n’ Roll with the angels, baby.

It’s a long dark ride, enjoy it while you can.