Songs like “Monkey Island,” “Surrender” and “Wreckage” are good (and different) ideas that are well executed, suggesting that The J. Geils Band was a working group whose songwriting was quickly catching up with their live performances. In an era when most popular music was pre-fabricated crap, the working bands were the underdogs. They’re musicians’ musicians, they write good songs in a variety of styles, they pay homage where it’s due (how many rock bands would invite Cissy Houston to sing their opening track?) and their live energy spills over into the studio. ![]() After listening to Monkey Island, I’m beginning to understand why rock critics liked these guys. Geils Band consisted of countless hours spent listening to Freeze-Frame and a compulsion to say the words “Love Stinks” in a low voice whenever the aforementioned song is playing on the radio. ![]() Up to this point, my connection to The J. It contains the ballad “You’re The Only One” (a minor hit), a swell remake of The Marvelows’ “I Do” and seven more solid tracks of R&B-based rock & roll that some have compared to The Rolling Stones (not my comparison) and which I would file alongside Mott the Hoople, Graham Parker, Steve Miller Band, Blue Oyster Cult and the smarter 70s rock bands who respected their R&B roots. Monkey Island is generally regarded as one of Geils’ better efforts. So if you’re thinking of writing a concept album and know a thing or two about monkeys, the field is still wide open. I bought this disc because I thought it might be a concept album about monkeys.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |