Monday, October 13, 2008

Our Concerts 1969-1973--Volume IV



It is September, 1973, the begining of our senior year on campus and the featured concert at Dudley Stadium on Saturday night, September 2 (Labor Day weekend) is the J. Geils Band.

I didn't go to the this concert and after doing some research on this group, I've seen them referred to several times as "one of the best party bands every assembled."

Founded in 1967 as "Snoopy And The Sopwith Camels" (I kid you not), the band was organized by singer and guitarist John Geils while he was attending Worcester Polytechnic Institute. Originally, it was an acoustic blues trio, but then the group added additional instrumentation (an electric guitar, bass and drums) to become the J. Geils Blues Band.

The Blues part of the name was later dropped and the group had some success in the 1970s with such hits as "First I Look At The Purse", then "Ain't Nothing But A Houseparty" (1973) and "Musta Got Lost"
(1974).

During this period, the group became influential for its blues rock sound before moving more towards pop in the 1980s. In fact, the Band became a favorite of MTV in its early days, especially with its mega-hit "Centerfold"....



One last reference (not verified on Wikipedia) about this group. The Allman Brothers Band (a group that played a lot of dates at Vandy parties in their early days) reportedly said the J. Geils Band was one of its favorites, pretty high praise in its day, I'd say.

So who has some memories or thoughts to share about going to see the J. Geils Band at Vanderbilt? If you do, click on the comments link below and tell us about it.

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