The Alumni Magazine for Worcester Polytechnic Institute. (WPI)
Issue link: http://wpialumnimag.epubxp.com/i/114745
IT WAS THE MID-1960s. The United States had just authorized a war with Vietnam; civil rights workers were being attacked and murdered in the South; President Lyndon Johnson had declared the War on Poverty; a Presidential Commission concluded that Lee Harvey Oswald was the sole assassin of President John F. Kennedy; IBM announced the development of its mainframe computer Systems/360; and on the music scene, The Beatles, The Beach Boys, Bob Dylan, The Supremes, Stevie Wonder, and The Mamas and the Papas ruled the day. In the midst of it all, three engineering students struggled through their classes at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. One of them wasnÕt doing too well in organic chemistry. Another, crushed by the weight of differential equations, felt an impending sense of academic doom. Looking for an escape, they formed a jug band. And with that simple decision, they forever changed music history. The J. Geils Band was born. John ÒJayÓ Geils (ME), Danny ÒDr. FunkÓ Klein (CM), and Richard ÒMagic DickÓ Salwitz (EE), calling themselves Snoopy and the Sopwith Camel, began playing at local coffeehouses and fraternity parties. In a few yearsÕ time, they would pack stadiums across the country and even open for The Rolling Stones. This is how it began, recollects Salwitz: ÒI was walking across the Quad one day when I saw Jay playing an acoustic guitar and Danny playing a washtub bass, which was really cool. I had just started playing the harmonica over the summer, and since I had one in my pocket, I asked if I could sit in. They said, ÔSure.Õ That was the seminal beginning of the J. Geils Band.Ó AIN'T NOTHIN' BUT A PARTY AƂcionados of '70s rock know the J. Geils Band best as a high-energy party band playing rockiƂed covers of older rhythm and blues tunes. Though begun by Geils, Klein, and Salwitz as they agonized over WPI course work, it quickly grew to six members, including lead singer and songwriter Peter Wolf, percussionist Stephen Jo Bladd, and songwriter and keyboardist Seth Justman. By 1968, the founding members would leave WPI to pursue music full time: Geils traded his acoustic guitar for an electric model, Klein moved to the electric bass, and Magic Dick wowed audiences with his trumpet and virtuoso harmonica playing. The bandÕs rock covers of more obscure R&B; songs like the Nicholas Brothers' "First I Look at the Purse" (1971) and The Show Stoppers' "Ain't Nothing but a House Party" (1973) pushed albums like "Live Full House" and "Bloodshot" into gold status in the early '70s. The band continued to churn out records throughout the 1970s (with their album "Sanctuary" going gold in 1978) but it wasn't until 1981 with the release of ÒFreeze FrameÓ that the bandÕs fame soared into the stratosphere. At that point, no unsuspecting American could escape the reaches of hit songs like ÒCenterfold,Ó ÒFreeze Frame,Ó and ÒLove StinksÓÑall of which received generous airtime on radio stations across the country. But success and nearly two decades of gigs wasnÕt enough to keep the band together. In 1985 the J. Geils Band split up. Lead singer Peter Wolf had already left the band in 1983 due to artistic differences with the others. The group's Ƃnal album without Wolf, "You're Gettin' Even While IÕm GettinÕ Odd,Ó was a commercial bomb. For the next decade, members set off on their own projects. Then, in 1999, the group reunited for a 13-date tour across the East Coast and Mid-West. The tour was enough of a success that in 2006 all six original members met for a surprise 24 Winter 2013