J Geils, Thank You For The Music & The Joy

My favorite J Geils memory: In 1979, my friends and I struck gold. A group of us played rugby for St. John’s, we were good friends with one of John Scher’s bouncers at the summer Doctor Pepper concerts in Central Park’ skating rink space. Tony rucked for the Long Island Rugby Club. The deal: we met Tony at the VIP gate and as each of us shook his hand; he palmed the five dollar bill we each gave him. This was simultaneous with the entrance of the general admission crowd giving us access to the third row in the orchestra right behind the press and special guests. Unfortunately, this routine was cut short when Tony relocated in fall 1980. But for two years we had boss seats for all concerts.

J Geils was our band. They played Central Park the summer of 79. When we vamooshed a cocktail hour inside an apartment before the parents came home, “I’m Looking For A Love,” was our go out song from the Lp “The Morning After.” Important element for beginning a solid evening.

It rained weakly for an hour before the J Geils show. Since it was a sprinkle they let us in at the normal time. In the third row, we used our shirts to dry the rain off the seats. As I turned to sit down over the Plaza Hotel I saw a breath taking cloud racing towards us and a minute later it dumped buckets of rain. So intense, I laughed and let it run over me. A stream from my head to my chest to my lap to my feet. My Converse sneakers were squeaking, my tee-shirt and shorts were attached to me like suction cups. After a “It’s never going to stop,” ten minutes suddenly the sun burst through and pushed the cloud away. It was over but there was three inches of water under our seats. Canceled I thought.” We sat there waiting for them to tell us to leave.


Two minutes later, Peter Wolf came out on stage looked us over and the less than half filled place and started laughing then the band joined him. He looked down at us and directed us to do the canoe, as his arms went back and forth like he was traveling upstream without a paddle but thought he had one. So we did the same thing, Stephen Jo Bladd banged the drums and the band rammed into “Ain’t Nothing But A House Party.” They played for two hours and forty minutes. We did The Canoe. Life is good.  J Geils, R.I.P.

Turning Pages with Peter Wolf

I saw Peter Wolf one of my music heroes last night at the City Winery. He leaves his blood on the stage. Before he was a musician, Peter was a younger brother in the Bronx who dug his sister's 45 singles and the way she and her girlfriends danced. Later while studying art in the Boston area, he was a DJ and his first love, the music, the people who made it, haunt his live show. Peter is cut from the same cloth as the legends he reveres. He channels them and their spirits wrap themselves around him. Peter always sends me home with a shit ass grin. If you love R&B, if you love the Blues, if you love J Geils, Rock & Roll, see Wolf, he's the real thing. My life is better with Peter in it.

In “Over Her Dead Body,” my soon to be published short story included in “Have A NYC 2” New York Stories anthology (Three Rooms Press, May 2013) the J Geils Band plays a prominent role.

A memory of mine: In 1979, my friends and I struck gold in Central Park. A group of us who played rugby together for St. John’s were good friends with a bouncer at the summer Doctor Pepper concerts in the Woolman skating rink. Tony rucked for the Long Island Rugby Club. The deal: we met Tony at the VIP gate shook his hand and he palmed the five-dollar bill we each gave him. This gave us access to the third row in the orchestra right behind the press and special guests.

J Geils was our band. We started that night with a cocktail hour inside Ekis’s apartment before the Mom came home. “Looking For A Love,” was our go out song from the Lp “The Morning After.” Important element for beginning a solid evening. Light rain fell before the show. Since it was a sprinkle they let us in at the normal time. In the third row, we used our shirts to dry the rain off the seats. As I turned to sit down I looked up over the Plaza Hotel and saw a breath-taking cloud racing towards us. A minute later it dumped buckets of rain. So intense, I laughed and welcomed it. A stream raced from my head to my chest to my lap to my feet. My sneakers were squeaking, my tee-shirt and shorts attached to me like suction cups. After a “It’s never going to stop,” ten minutes, the sun pushed through and edged the cloud away. It was over, but there was three inches of water under our seats. “Canceled,” I thought. We sat glum waiting for them to tell us to leave.

Two minutes later, Peter Wolf came out on stage looked over the less than half filled space and started laughing. Then the band joined him. He looked directly down at us, six wet rats alone in the row. He instructed us to do a new dance, “The Canoe.” Wolf’s arms went back and forth like he was traveling upstream without a paddle but thought he had one. We did the same thing, Stephen Jo Bladd banged the drums and the band began “It Ain’t Nothing But A House Party.” They played for two hours and forty minutes. We did “The Canoe.” Life was good.

Ain't Nothing But a House Party: Central Park 1979

Peter Wolf is sensational. The J Geils Band is one of the top live acts ever & Peter solo blows me away. Bruce Springsteen, Garland Jeffreys, John Hiatt & Peter send me home with a shit-ass grin every time I see them perform. Each one, inspiring in countless ways.

My favorite J Geils memory: In 1979, my friends and I struck gold in Central Park. A group of us played rugby for St. John’s, we were good friends with one of John Scher’s bouncers at the summer Doctor Pepper concerts in Central Park’ skating rink space. Tony rucked for the Long Island Rugby Club. The deal: we met Tony at the VIP gate and as each of us shook his hand; he palmed the five dollar bill we each gave him. This was simultaneous with the entrance of the general admission crowd giving us access to the third row in the orchestra right behind the press and special guests. Unfortunately, this routine was cut short when Tony relocated in fall 1980. But for two years we had boss seats for all concerts.

J Geils was our band. They played Central Park the summer of 79. When we vamooshed a cocktail hour inside an apartment before the parents came home, “I’m Looking For A Love,” was our go out song from the Lp “The Morning After.” Important element for beginning a solid evening.


It rained weakly for an hour before the J Geils show. Since it was a sprinkle they let us in at the normal time. In the third row, we used our shirts to dry the rain off the seats. As I turned to sit down over the Plaza Hotel I saw a breath taking cloud racing towards us and a minute later it dumped buckets of rain. So intense, I laughed and let it run over me. A stream from my head to my chest to my lap to my feet. My Converse sneakers were squeaking, my tee-shirt and shorts were attached to me like suction cups. After a “It’s never going to stop,” ten minutes suddenly the sun burst through and pushed the cloud away. It was over but there was three inches of water under our seats.Canceled I thought.” We sat there waiting for them to tell us to leave.


Two minutes later, Peter Wolf came out on stage looked us over and the less than half filled place and started laughing then the band joined him. He looked down at us then out at the audience and directed us to do the canoe, and his arms went back and forth like he was traveling upstream without a paddle but thought he had one. So we did the same thing and Stephen Jo Bladd banged the drums and the band went into “Ain’t Nothing But A House Party.” They played for two hours and forty minutes. We did The Canoe. Life is good.


I have no J Geils button from that year but I do have The Cars & Southside Johnny buttons below. Here's Evelyn Champagne King for nothing. 1978 was pretty good too.

I Wanna Find One Face That Ain't Looking Through Me

Yesterday, I linked to Don McLean, "American Pie." It's opening lyrics reflected my mood related to seeing live music in 1978, when I was 24.

A long, long time ago...
I can still remember
How that music used to make me smile.
And I knew if I had my chance
That I could make those people dance
And, maybe, they’d be happy for a while.

But February made me shiver
With every paper I’d deliver.
Bad news on the doorstep;
I couldn’t take one more step.

I can’t remember if I cried
When I read about his widowed bride,
But something touched me deep inside
The day the music died.

Early that summer, I went to a Bad Company concert, and

sat through it like a work meeting. Bored. I was leading up to that, because the last few live shows I went to made me feel the same way. Empty. I thought I'd lost my musical inspiration.

(Bruce pix by Jeffrey Havas)

That August, my girlfriend, Yvette & I went to see Bruce Springsteen for the first time at Madison Square Garden. We got there two hours early and split an eight pack of Miller nips, watching people traffic and scoring the winners.

Inside, the energy was electric but I didn't know why yet. Then the band took the stage and ripped into "Badlands." I found religion in that four minute song. It felt like 1964, I was ten years old again, watching all the girl groups on the Clay Cole Show, watching Roy Orbison singing "Crying," and "Pretty Woman." It didn't matter it was a crappy little TV, those artists week after week tore my heart open, moved in, bought furniture and never left. Springsteen woke everybody up in there, and they haven't left me since 1978.

The next night, I went back to MSG alone, and bought a $6 ticket for $15 from a scalper. Starting from my blue heaven seat I ended up in the third row in the orchestra by the third song and stayed there crouched on the floor between two girls for the entire show including the three encores.

Tons of great shows followed: Garland Jeffreys, John Hiatt, J Geils Band, Elvis Costello, Shawn Colvin, Lucinda Willams, Mary Lee's Corvette, Losers Lounge, and on... When I die, tickets for my next live show will be in my dresser. Somebody pick them up, don't waste them!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yiGWs6jzKUg&feature=related

Ekis's Friday Night ~ 1969 ~ 1976

Having Michele Carlo on the Yorkville radio show tonight @ 9pm, reading Michele’s terrific memoir, “Fish Out of Agua,” brought back a strong Friday night memory.

Eddie Ekis’s mom worked at the local Five & Ten store, you know the ones with the mechanical jalopies and wild horses outside the store, a dime a ride. Friday night, Mrs. Ekis had to close the store at 9pm, that put Mrs. Ekis home at about 9:15pm.

Starting in 1969, every Friday the cocktail lamp was lit at 5pm and the first wave would roll in. There were eight to ten regulars, a poker game always got going, and the music blasted. J Geils, “Looking For a Love,” “Floyd’s Hotel,” Jeff Beck, "Truth," Humble Pie, “Thirty Days In The Hole,” Black Sabbath, “Paranoid,” Black Oak Arkansas, “Jim Dandy,” Jacksons, “Never Can Say Goodbye,” Led Zep, “Everything,” The Who, “Who’s Next,” “Quad,” Beatles, “Rubber Soul & Revolver”, Sly, “Everything, “Billy Preston, “Outer Space,” and every worth while 45 single from 1962 through the mid 70s.

Ekis had two monkeys, Chiquita & Toto. They loved beer and lived in the kitchen and had a terrace out the window when the weather was nice. Eddie fenced in the small tar roof of the beauty parlor under his second floor apartment that extended out the window about six by five feet towards York Avenue. A fine little terrace for everybody. If the weather was right we’d move the chairs out there and hang out with the monkeys, but if they didn’t like the music they went a little nuts and started pulling hair, so we had to watch what we played (they were not big fans of Black Oak Arkansas).

Most of the guys in the football team photo were regulars up Ekis’s. At five to nine everyone knew the drill. The brown bags came out, all the empties into the garbage, Ekis would move to the turntable for the “Go out,” song and we'd march out of the building on our way to somewhere never as much fun as Ekis's apartment.

I'm looking, I'm looking, I'm looking,

Somebody help me find my baby!

You go, Wolfman...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRezwP_znTc

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If you enjoy this blog please vote for it in Category #5 "Best Neighborhood Blog, " in the Village Voice 2010 Web Awards at this link:

http://polls.villagevoice.com/polls/nyv/webawards2010/

Nichols & May & Rock & Roll

Tonight on Yorkville radio, my guest, Jeanne Stahlman & I will salute: Mike Nichols, Elaine May & Arthur Penn. Their 1960 Broadway collaboration was brilliant. Arthur Penn, was a triple threat, directing award winning plays, TV productions and films: The Miracle Worker and Bonnie & Clyde. Nichols & May are comic geniuses.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5pXggZIr6I

My guest, Jeanne Stahlman found success in the music business and never left. Jeanne's produced amazing shows: The Downtown Messiah, The Beat Goes On, Nightbirds series at the Bottom Line, Fab Faux, Joe Hurley's Saint Patrick Celebration to name a few. To get us in the mood we're setting up the portable record player on the stoop and playing several of our favorite 45 singles from 1966.

We're also celebrating the J Geils Band, recent nominees for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. They deserve a first class trip to Cleveland. Jeanne hung out with the band in Boston right around the time of their first recording contract. She has stories.

Listen tonight @ 9pm on the Centanni Broadcasting Network to "Yorkville: Stoops to Nuts."

It's a two hour show, tonight and going forward!

http://www.centannibroadcasting.com/

Take it, Pete!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1EX6qXwtIaU

Playing Catch

Adam Wade, thank you for a terrific hour of conversation about our love for sports and J Geils.

http://adamwade.com/

Most of all, thank you for reminding me that in our lives the best moments, our greatest memories, have nothing to do with stadiums, ballparks, uniforms, organized leagues. All those things are meaningful in their own way, but as you pointed out, what matches your Dad buying you the Pete Rose book on hitting at Caldor's? Or you playing ball with an aluminum bat with the older guys, day in, day out, them letting you younger guys play for years, what tops that? Playing catch with your Dad or your brother, Matt?

My strongest sports memory today: my sandlot 83rd Street team winning the rag tag whiffle championship in 1973 at Rhinelander's Settlement House on 88th St, and having Whiffle Ball Commissioner, John Stanton, with his biblical beard present us with the Whiffle Ball Championship trophies on the ball field facing Nagel Funeral Home on 87th Street in front of half the neighborhood's kids, including a bunch of girls I'd love to date? We had ten starters, not nine, because a guy had to play the roof of the two story building in dead center, the roof was in play.

After we won the whiffle ball championship game we marched down to Carl Schurz Park on the East River with a shopping cart full of records and Eddie Ekis's stereo. We plugged the stereo into an electrical outlet at the base of a light pole near the Hockey Field and rocked out with The J Geils Band until the cops chased us out of the park around midnight.

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you can listen to last night's show ~ cut & paste the link below into your url:

mms://nick9.surfernetwork.com/CBNFiles/Yorkville 9.7.10.WMA

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You can see Adam perform next Monday night:

Mon Sept 13th 2010 ~ 7:00pm - 8:30pm

Horse Trade Presents
*Time Out New York Critic's Pick*
"THE ADAM WADE SHOW"
Special Guest: Peter Aguero
Theater Under St. Marks
94 St. Mark's Place
$5

I'm reading for We Three Productions @ Bar 82 @ 136 Second Avenue @ 8pm on Sept 13th (same night, stinky). We Three reading series was formerly at the late great Telephone Bar, R.I.P. Next week, my radio guest is a wonderful writer, Coree Spencer. Sit on a stoop and please listen in.

Yorkville Radio presents: A Bucket of Blood

Tonight @ 9pm, on the "Yorkville: Stoops to Nuts" radio show, Adam Wade and Tommy Pryor rock 'em & sock 'em. The Hatfields & McKoys break bread over a table full of Boston ~ New York sport memories. A century old bucket of blood filled with sweat, pain, joy and heartache. Victories and the long walk home.

When the sports talk winds down, Adam & Tommy pay tribute to the J Geils Band ~ a rare subject that unifies Boston and New York fans in the College of Musical Knowledge.

Listen in on the Centanni link below or come down and see the show live at Giovanna's Restaurant @ 1567 Lexington Avenue (bet. 100th & 101st Street).

http://www.centannibroadcasting.com/