The Allmusic Blog made my day by posting about Peter Wolf’s Lights Out, the 1983 solo debut by the former lead singer of the J. Geils band that is now out of print. I never bought the album back in the day–times were tight, thanks to my $5-a-week allowance–but Tim Sendra’s description of it as “soul music for a soulless time” and comparisons between Wolf’s attempts to rap and Debbie Harry’s run at MCing on “Rapture” are more than a little intriguing. Plus, the dorkily muscular title track soundtracked one of my favorite videos on after-school MTV, probably in part because Wolf’s dancing was just as spaztastic as my own attempts. [YouTube / Allmusic]
Peter Wolf Turns On The Radio Of Love
August 28th, 2008 // 4 Comments
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My sister and I used to call Wolf “The Dancing Spaz” thanks to this video.
You and I clearly read the same blogs–I too loved that AllMusic post yesterday. And this song has aged a little better than I would’ve guessed. Its chanty vibe, which struck me as weird at age 12, now sounds prescient and almost prefigures white hip-hop crossover while being totally un-self-conscious about it.
Come as you are…or don’t come at all.
I’m guessing I’m the only Idolator-, uh, -er (Idolatorite?) who saw Kid Rock at MSG. He brought out Peter Wolf for two songs. The dude can still do the spaz (and he still wears the exact same outfit)
I cherish my 1998 J. Geils Band tour shirt from a Detroit show (of course).
And if you haven’t rocked out to their amazing double-live album “Blow Your Face Out” from the ’70s needs to remedy that situation–stat!
And I’ll give Kid Rock mad props for rolling with Peter Wolf. The “Wooba Gooba with the green teeth” is still one of the livest rock frontmen ever…