AVIDIGI

This is not only the J. Geils Band's first album, it is also one of their best. And if you're not completely satisfied by the double-disc anthology "Houseparty" and want to hand-pick the best of the band's original albums as well, you don't want to miss this one. "The J. Geils Band" features some well-chosen covers, like "Pack Fair And Square" by Walter Price, Otis Rush's "Homework", and Smokey Robinson's "First I Look At The Purse". Only their take on John Lee Hooker's "Serves You Right To Suffer" misses the mark...singer Peter Wolf can't quite pull that one off, and the band never gets a real groove going. The two instrumentals (Albert Collins' "Sno-Cone" and J. Geils' "Ice Breaker") are good without being truly exceptional, although Magic Dick Salwitz plays some fine harmonica on both.
But the real gems are the originals "Crusin' For A Love" and the two tough, swinging blues-rockers "Hard Drivin' Man" and "Wait".
"Cruisin'" is credited to Juke Joint Jimmy, a name made up by Peter Wolf for when the entire band had worked together on a song, and it is probably the finest song on the album....a delightful, piano-driven slice of classic R&B with some great guitar playing by John Geils and one of the best grooves the band ever managed to capture on tape. A very fine debut album, and the fact that the band's self-penned material was at least as strong as the cover songs promised well for the follow-up, "The Morning After", which is in fact even better.