mathjak107 wrote: ↑Tue Feb 18, 2020 4:42 pm
I liked joe Walsh better with the James gang I am not really an eagles fan but they do sell a lot of albums
I think the most in history. Got six minutes to the train comes. I have to get ready to embarrass my wife
I always jump up and down when it gets here. It is about 25 minutes to Manhattan
When first read here about you going to see the Eagles, I was wondering what sports team are the Eagles!??!
It was not until I got to this post did I realize you were referring to THOSE Eagles!
And, on top of that, while I was reading all of this Hotel California is playing in my headphones-- their signature song after Joe Walsh joined them.
I agree in much preferring The James Band over The Eagles. The band I managed did an extended version of The James Gang, Funk 49, throwing a few other cover songs into it. It was always the highlight song of the set.
My Eagles story.
I saw them in the summer of 1973 in one of those small theaters that also had rock band shows.
They opened for The J. Geils Band. We were all there to see the J. Geils Band and just about the whole crowd had never heard of The Eagles. Their type of music was not what would please a J. Geils Band crowd. Nowhere the unrelenting energy.
Therefore, all while they were playing, people in the audience kept shouting, "J. Geils!"
At one point it got so frustrating for The Eagles that their lead guitarist (I think or another one of them for certain) pleadingly said, "GIve us a chance!" Shortly after they played their only song that had even a modicum of excitement in it (by J. Geils standards) and the crowd finally cheered for them.
When The J. Geils Band came on they, of course, completely blew away The Eagles (as we all knew would happen). After the show I picked up a hitchhiker. I asked him if he's been at the show. He said, "Yes". I asked him what he thought about The Eagles. He said, "Oh. You mean the pigeons??!!"
!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I thought that so perfectly summed up how The Eagles came across that night to a J. Geils Band crowd - TOTAL lightweights!
Of course, was I shocked when two years later The same Eagles were now headlining HUGE arenas. Would NEVER have predicted or foreseen that from that summer 1973 show!
And, to circle back to The J. Geils Band.
Three members of the band went to Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) , where they all met. J. Geils, Magic Dick and the bass player.
First time I had interaction with the band was when I interviewed Peter Wolf, J. Geils, and the keyboard player on the radio (I was a college DJ on the WPI radio station and they'd just finished playing in the room below the station). That night I found out why the keyboard player's nickname was The Sphinx -- he never said a single word during the entire interview.
Second time I had interaction with the band was when they played at a beach club. This was about a month after the above. I went up to Peter Wolf and said, "Remember me?" He said, "Oh, yeah. You were here last time." I said, "No. I interviewed you on the radio last month." He said, "Oh, year. I'm going to change and then I'll come back and rap with you." That was the last I saw of him that night.
Tried to talk to Magic Dick but he'd never look at me, just grunting out one word answers to my questions.
Finally, J. Geils was the same nice guy he always was. He was a few years or so older than me.
My WPI class was the first year that ROTC was NOT mandatory.
I asked him how he had dealt with ROTC because it was mandatory when he was there. He said, "They gave me the shirt, I cut off the sleeves, and I never went!" !!!!!!!!!!!
My third and last time I met him was when myself and a few others were at his apartment, trying to sell him a first year issue Les Paul (an expensive and highly desirable guitar--we were trying to get at least $1,000 for it nearly 50 years ago). It was a week or so after the closing of the Fillmore East, which he had been at, and he was saying things to us like, "You should have seen the guitar that Duane Allman was playing."
Aside from him being a totally nice person and regular person the only other thing I remember was that he had a huge record collection like I did. Except there was almost no intersection between our collections. Just about all his records were blues records. His band's original name was The J. Geils BLUES Band).
I"m guessing I've seen the J.Geils Band in the 10 times neighborhood. The first time I saw them was also the first time I saw Ten Years After. J. Geils and Alvin Lee are both up there in my all-time favorite guitarists. Too bad that they both not that long ago both died too young. However, each of their music playings will last for eternity.
Vinny