美国国家公共电台 NPR John Geils, Guitarist Of The J. Geils Band, Dies At 71（在线收听）

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

And we are remembering a musician today whose band gave us these wise words.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "LOVE STINKS")

J. GEILS BAND: (Singing) Love stinks. Love stinks, yeah, yeah.

GREENE: Yeah, that's The J. Geils Band. And their leader-guitarist John Warren Geils, well better known as J., died yesterday at the age of 71. This group was strictly a blues band when they got things started in the mid-'60s, but they would soon take on a rock 'n' roll swagger.

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

Yeah, they got this huge, massive regional fan base around Boston, slowly picking up a national following through the '70s. And by the middle of the decade, The J. Geils Band was opening for groups like The Rolling Stones and Rod Stewart.

GREENE: Yeah, and their lead singer, Peter Wolf, really was stealing the show. He would twirl the microphone stand like it was a baton, riffing between songs, I mean, like a fiery preacher. But still, the heart of the band really came from J. Geils. His guitar playing was the calm - I think you could say - amid the chaos of his more flamboyant bandmates. He described his style to station WGBH in Boston in 2013.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

JOHN GEILS: I don't care if I ever took another solo. You know, everybody's into the Guitar Hero, oh. I would prefer to just do this (playing guitar).

MARTIN: At the beginning of the 1980s, The J. Geils Band combined those guitar chops with some new wave panache. And they scored huge hits doing so. The song "Centerfold" topped the charts. This one, "Freeze Frame" got to number four.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "FREEZE FRAME")

J. GEILS BAND: (Singing) Freeze frame. Freeze Frame.

GREENE: But I mean, what band finds smashing success without some fighting within the group? Peter Wolf left to start his own career, and the band called it quits in 1985. J. Geils recorded sparingly after that. He spent most of his time restoring sports cars.

MARTIN: Geils lived in the town of Groton, Mass., for more than 30 years. After a constant rock star life on the road, he relished a more quiet life. He told The Boston Globe in 2004, quote, "everyone in town knows me. Nobody bugs me. I'm just a regular guy." J. Geils, rock star turned regular guy, died yesterday at the age of 71.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "CENTERFOLD")

J. GEILS BAND: (Singing) My blood runs cold. My memory has just been sold. My angel is the centerfold. Angel is the centerfold. My blood runs cold. My memory has just been sold. Angel is the centerfold.