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Danny Klein - J. Geils Band

Reviving an old thread to show some Danny Klein love...

Listening to some of my old albums, lot's of gems, but Danny's playing and tone really get me.

J Geils Band - Freeze Frame is a tour de force of pop-funk bass. Find it and listen now if you know what's good for you.

Recently revisited the first two albums, some seriously tight rhythm section playing, great stuff!
 
Talk about an unlikely pairing: J Geils Band opening up for Yes! This was in Flint, Michigan for Yes's "Close to the Edge" tour. I was there for Yes and while I wasn't a big fan of the JG Band I will admit they were great and they REALLY got the crowd going that night.

Yeah, Danny Klein played some great lines with a great feel througout the bands career. A very underrated player.
 
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Reviving an old thread to show some Danny Klein love...

Listening to some of my old albums, lot's of gems, but Danny's playing and tone really get me.

J Geils Band - Freeze Frame is a tour de force of pop-funk bass. Find it and listen now if you know what's good for you.

Love the bas solo in "River Blindness". I've been a Geils fan forever. I have every album (yup that one, too) and always found DKs playing and tone to be inspiring (check my influences). Highly recommended to check out his playing for anyone that wants to play down and dirty R&B. A great distillation of Chicago, Detroit and Memphis styles.
 
DK - My original inspiration for a blocked J-Bass neck mated to a Precision body.
"Blow Your Face Out" is one of the best live albums ever. Saw J. Geils in July of 1976 as one of the opening acts for Kiss at Roosevelt Stadium in Jersey City, NJ. They acquitted themselves quite nicely in an unenviable spot on the bill (last band before the headliner)
 
DK - My original inspiration for a blocked J-Bass neck mated to a Precision body.
"Blow Your Face Out" is one of the best live albums ever. Saw J. Geils in July of 1976 as one of the opening acts for Kiss at Roosevelt Stadium in Jersey City, NJ. They acquitted themselves quite nicely in an unenviable spot on the bill (last band before the headliner)

I remember seeing them at Roosevelt Stadium opening for Alice Cooper, they killed it!
 
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I remember seeing them at Roosevelt Stadium opening for Alice Cooper, they killed it!

I guess John Scher - or whoever was booking those shows back then - knew how to pick an opening act. There aren't too many bands playing R&B flavored party rock that could keep a Kiss or Alice crowd entertained. J. Geils was always a great show.
 
J. Geils Band was my favorite band when I was in high school, back in the early/mid 70's. (It was very important back then to have A "favorite band.") I only got to see them a couple of times then, both in a backup role. In 1977, though, as a sophomore in college, I drove with a buddy from Virginia to Springfield, Mass. to see them headline a show that was billed as their "10th Anniversary Concert." Needless to say, it did not disappoint.

(Side note: It seemed pretty crazy to me at the time that anyone would take a road trip of that magnitude just to see a band. But a few months later I discovered the Grateful Dead....)

Thanks for the thread. It not only brings back some great memories, but also serves as a reminder that I ought to go back and listen to some of that great stuff again.
 
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I miss J. Geils, Not sure about anyone else, but he was an underrated guitarist. Monkey Island and Bloodshot are fantastic records. Was listening to them as I was writing this post. But my copy of Bloodshot is pressed on black vinyl instead of red. Maybe it was a repress?
He also played a blue Fender Telecaster that was featured in the video for Angel In Blue. I think Concealed Weapons was played on a Fender Stratocaster through a Roland JC 120 amp.
J Geils owned a few Gibson Les Paul guitars. A 1959 sunburst Gibson Les Paul was sold in 2012, a black Gibson Les Paul, a 1977 Gibson Les Paul sunburst with strings missing and a broken neck was auctioned off when he died, and he also owned a 1954 Sunburst Fender Stratocaster that was auctioned off when he died in 2017. He also owned an orange 1936 Gibson ES-150 electric guitar, a Gibson L5 owned by Howard Alden, a Gibson ES 345, a Martin D28 acoustic guitar, a Gibson ES350, a Gibson ES5 and a lot of Fender Telecaster electric guitars, most notably in the video for Angel In Blue.
He also played Music Man amps.
J Geils were a great jazz-rock and blues-rock styled band, and even though I love Centerfold and Freeze Frame, they didn't hold a candle to Looking For A Love or Give It To Me.

Most if not all of his guitars were auctioned off after he died in 2017.

Danny Klein played a sunburst Fender Jazz Bass with a maple neck. Not sure what amps he used.
His bass playing on Come Back and Surrender is pretty good. I also love his bass playing on Must Of Got Lost:

 
When I was learning to play, I spent a lot of time playing along with their albums "The Morning After" and "Ladies Invited." Danny was playing the bass exactly the way I wanted to. I loved that stage of the band.
I also saw them opening for Yes in the summer of 1972 (Gaelic Park, in the Bronx) and on the last "open to the public" night at the Fillmore East, June 26, 1971. That night, they were wedged between Albert King and the Allman Brothers Band. :wideyed:
The whole band was tremendous-- gritty and swinging!
 
In my wild mis-spent youth, I once followed JGB across Texas for four shows, after seeing them previously in Houston once or twice. I've never seen a band before or since, that could walk out, and by halfway through the first verse had the place going bug-nuts as if it was the encore. Not flashy players, but tight as hell, stayed out of each other's way, and with Wolf fronting the thing, it would really go.

John Geils went on to own and operate a classic Euro repair shop (lot of vintage Ferrari work) and did more than a little big-jazzbox shows with Duke Robillard and others in that style, his first love. Missed.

DK, along with Stephen Jo Bladd, formed a tight rhythm section, and he masterfully rode a fine line between out and out rock while keeping the flavor of many of the old blues originals they did in the early days of the band. Rock solid.

Lots of faves, but my always sweet spot, this 90mph rework of Bobby Womack's 'Lookin' for a Love'. They usually ended with this, by which time the audience was shredded.

When I listen to a lot of music today, and start feeling like I'm just an old geez who's too old to 'get it', I sometimes dig this out and realize: THEY don't get it !



And remember the 'Warning Label' on the jacket: RECORDED LOUD TO PLAY LOUD ! ! ! Well, you heard the man . . . . . . .
 
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