seth-justman | Outsider Rock

When I was in grade 6, J. GEIILS BAND’s Freeze-Frame album was one of the biggest albums happening, with 2 huge hits that were heard regularly. Eventually I picked this up, but I’d also picked up it’s predecessor not too long after, not knowing much else of the band. Yeah, I went back and picked up most of their back catalogue, when used LPs were dirt cheap. The earlier stuff I was less keen on, but they had some cool album covers!

Anyway, 1980’s Love Stinks would be my favorite album from the band. It was their 11th release, and 3rd album for EMI. The previous album, Sanctuary is pretty good too; it featured the hit “One Last Kiss”. Although the J. Geils Band, from Boston, originally was known for their R&B and Blues sound, and party band atmosphere, in later years they came around to a more, almost mainstream rock direction, particularly with Love Stinks. Most of J. Geils Band’s original material was written by singer Peter Wolf, and keyboard player Seth Justman, with the band doing much less covers by this point. At this point the band was also changing their image with the music, in time for the video (MTV) which came a year later. Love Stinks came in a unique cover design by Carin Goldberg, with the front featuring a seeminglyhappily married couple in the 50s, the back cover featuring childhood photos of bandmembers, and the inner sleeve consisting of various love themed pics and headlines. Pretty weird at the time.

Love Stinks starts out with 2 of the albums best tracks, the upbeat “Just Can’t Wait“, this one featuring that classic old organ and hand claps. “Just Can’t Wait” would be the 3rd single in North America, and hit the charts in Canada and the US. The next track, “Come Back” would be the album’s first single. Both songs go so well together, the latter with a more modern sound, more synths, heavier guitar, and a big drum sound. “Come Back” is my favorite here; love the instrumental section which features a guitar break, and highlights with an unusual drum section, and keyboards. The synths here and closer to the end remind me of things like Gary Numan’s “Cars”, and Alice Cooper’s “Clones”. “Come Back” would be a Top 20 hit in Canada, top 40 in the US,. “Night Time” is the a;bum’s lone cover, originally a 1965 hit for the New York band Strangeloves. The first side ends with the band’s comical track, “No Anchovies Please”, with Peter Wolf narrating a twisted tale, reminiscent of Brownsville Stations “Martian Boogie”

Side two opens with the album’s title track. Another big hit single, and like “Come Back” – a little more hard-rock. “Love Stinks” was performed by Adam Sandler in the movie The Wedding Singer (the J. Geils version appeared on the movie’s soundtrack, volume 2). It was also covered by Joan Jett, appearing as a bonus track to her Hit List compilation in 1990, as well as industrial metal band Bile, in 2002. Peter Wolf, himself would include a live stripped down version of this on his 2016 album A Cure For Loneliness. I always thought this song was meant as a bit of comedy, but it was penned following Wolf’s divorce from actress Faye Dunaway, which makes me wonder if any other songs resulated from this experience(?)

Next up is “Tryin’ Not To Think About It”, another excellent song that features a heavy riff, and a hard driring pre-chorus, but in between there’s pop, funk, blues….just a cool tune. “Desire” is the album’s ballad, again a really good memorable track that would’ve made a fine single. The album concludes with an old school J Geils type party rocker in “Til The Walls Come Tumblin’ Down”, which is perfect closer after everything else here.

Freeze-Frame came out a year and a half later. With Wolf only co-writing on half of this, leaving Justman to write most of the album, as well as produce it. I really liked the singles off it – “Centerfold” and “Freeze-Frame”, in particular, which drove the album to #1 in North America. But overall I found this album a bit more pop-ish, less guitar, and less memorable songs. A 3rd single, “Angel In Blue”, a ballad, also made the top 40, but beyond this I am much less keen on this record overall. A live album, Showtime, was released a year later. It contained 11 tracks, but omitted 2 of the band’s more recent hits – “Come Back” and “Freeze-Frame”! It made the top 30 in the US though. Soon after, internal conflict, largely Wolf disagreeing with the band’s more modern ‘techno’ direcetion, lead to his being fired. J. Geils Band continued with one more (largely forgettable) album soon after, while Wolf had a couple of successful solo albums in the 80s – Lights Out (1984) and Come As You Are (1987). The J. Geils Band broke up in ’85, but reunited with Wolf on a few occasions, even touring without the band’s guitarist and namesake., John ‘J’ Geils, who, sadly passed away in 2017.