Teenbeat XXVI - the J Geils Band

This is a rewind production, from the days I discovered this Boston, M.A. R&B group so we're pressing play today.

Way back in 1982 I tended to buy 7 inch singles and one I bought was Centerfold by the J Geils Band and that lead to me buying the cassette of the album it was from which included Flame Thrower that I played rather a lot at the time.

While the inserts remain good, sadly the black rubber pad that holds the tape against the players heads has decayed to a sticky mess which is a common problem on EMI tapes from the late 70's onward where they removed the metal supported spring pad for a block of foam.
 
I managed to get hold of the well regarded British BGO label cd from 1993 of this album recently which sounds just great.

Also in that series was Love Stinks, the 1980 release that include the U.S. hit single Just Can't Wait apart from the title track.

Back in early 1987 I joined a compact disc library that allowed you try discs first for seven days and if you liked them you'd send payment and get the cd case and booklet to keep it and this was one title I tried and copied on a TDK tape cos I thought even then it wasn't a generous retrospective of this bands EMI America era recordings.

Sadly that tape left the building some years back but I was able to get very cheaply the original US cd for some tracks I don't otherwise have in my collection.

1989 round up

Just relaxing a bit today in the heat before the expected showers and may be a spot of thundered and lightning makes its appearance.

One thing that's been on my mind  is it's been a good while since Taylor Swift gave us 1989, the album inspired by the year of her birth, a year some of us may remember other bigger themes such as the end of the Iron Curtain and its connected Warsaw Pact, the beginning of the end of the Thatcher era in Great Britain and the breaching of the Berlin Wall.
It's hard to really convey just how it felt as all the old certainties just fell like a pack of dominoes.
When it is she feels she has enough material for a new album I for one will be looking forward to hearing it not least to see if there is more of a return to 'country pop'  as someone who got to know of her from the beginning and liking at the time people like The Band Perry.
I fell more into that more modern Country Pop after the effective demise of R&B artists who had a personal influence on me such as Destiny's Child and TLC who I adored, the sentiments of such songs as Unpretty and by coincidence have released their final album simply entitled TLC this last week which I bought.
Mr. Marmalade, he that hacks into my blog account posting his feline take on things hasn't been feeling too good for the last few days, being off his food -maybe he had a bad mouse kebab? but seems to have recovered.

It's time for the Honeyz (Pre-blog)

It's time for the Honeyz I think because I've been playing their songs ever since reading about them in Blues and Soul magazine the 'urban' press and Trevor Nelson's Tv show The Lick and the Saturday R&B countdown on radio one.
Their songs like the recent Hit 'Finally Found' and others like Love of a lifetime, Summertime and End of the Line to me showcase the talent British R&B has as well as being songs I love singing along to or listening on the commute having copied it to MiniDisc.