Customer Reviews

Bloodshot

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I prefer the J. Geils Band's gritty R&B-albums from the early seventies to their latter-day mainstream albums, and "Bloodshoot" from 1973 is one of their best.

John "Jay" Geils and his band may not have been the most original ensemble touring the US during the 70s, but they did put out a handful of really funky rock n' roll records with a bluesy edge and a lot of great hooks. And there is no need to program anything out here - "Bloodshot" has one of the strongest track lists of any J. Geils Band album...perhaps even the strongest. Great songs, and great arrangements, too, particularly Magic Dick Salwitz's harp blasts and the organ and piano playing of Seth Justman.
The highlights include "(Ain't Nothing But A) House Party", "Make Up Your Mind", "Back To Get Ya", "Southside Shuffle", and the relatively unknown gem "Struttin' With My Baby" (delightful R&B-piano playing on that one, and one of the deepest, funkiest grooves the J. Geils Band ever managed to capture on tape). But literally everything is worth a listen.

If you want more than just the double-disc anthology "Houseparty", this is one of the first J. Geils CDs that you should pick up, along with their self-titled debut album, and 1971s "The Morning After". Classic, good-time rock n' roll - good enough for 4 1/2 stars or there about.

BLOODSHOT is a great white R&B album, with deep roots in the Memphis-Chicago-Muscle Shoals-St. Louis-New Orleans-Detroit-New York-West Coast blues-rock-R&B axis. Most of the songs here are top notch, with "(Ain't Nothin' But A) Houseparty", "Southside Shuffle", and the reggae-tinged "Give It To Me" standing out as particular highlights. Any serious fan of rock and/or R&B should own BLOODSHOT.

Though front-man Peter Wolf's manic live performances may have been the band's visual signature, their albums offered up the sort of well-schooled rock/blues/R&B that only comes through countless nights on the road. This, their third studio LP (and fourth LP overall), was a peak moment, combining a well-picked cover of The Show Stoppers' "Ain't Nothin' But a House Party" with eight originals. The balance towards original compositions (their first two studio LPs had more covers) shows the band to have absorbed their influences, rather than aping them. The songs range from all-out rockers to funky shuffles to emotional ballads. Throughout the band provides terrific support, perhaps most of all from the harp of Magic Dick, reaching many a soulful groove.

This lp rates three stars in relation to 'Ladies Invited' (5), Nightmares (4) and Full House (4) and is on par with their Hotline. As there are Amazon music samples for this album I won't comment much on their sound but to say that their sound was the definitive 'House Band' music for industrial Northeastern and Midwest America during the 1970's. It was full on R&B honky tonk soul rock and roll for blue collar and college party USA and it is a great sound. Anyone who saw J. Geils in their day will speak of the event with mist in their eyes for they apparently had a live act like few others. This album captures a lot of that energy which is kinetic. It's likely that you'll have heard at least one of the tunes contained on this album somewhere along the line even though the band's music doesn't get radio play anymore because when one of the J. Geil's band's songs hit it right their sound was timeless and outtasight.

iF YOU HAVE THE fever there is more than enough COWBELL in this one. christopher walken seal of approval JAM ON

I've owned numerous copies of this album since the early '70's. I just recently got back into vinyl & this is a truly collectable album. I want to once again thank my seller for this & also Delaney & Bonnie & Friends on Tour w/Eric Clapton. Also, thanks for the inner & outer protective sleeves. I couldn't be happier.

I bought this album back in the day and had to replace it with a cd. All of the songs are good and worth listening to over and over and over. We'll never have good music like it was back in the 70's!

This album is a decent album with a few filler songs but the classics are (Ain't Nothin' But a) House Party, then you have skip track #2 to track #6 to get to the good stuff, Southside Shuffle is one of my favorite songs by the bluesy bad boys. Hold Your Loving is one of the boy's underrated gems and now for the best, the closing track called Give it to Me, an FM radio staple which has a great sing along chorus as well as a distorted guitar solo and it could've been easily done by Beck Bogert Appice (whose album also came out around the same time).

If you're a diehard classic rock fan, then you should get this album.

First of all, it needs to be said immediately that Bloodshot is an album that my parents believe is absolutely great. It was one of their favorite albums back in the 70's, and apparently they loved to either rock out or dance to most of the songs, and used to play it frequently. Well to me, it fails to deliver in the "rocking out" department, but I suppose a good portion of it is pretty danceable.

Also, I need to mention something else. I better mention this right away because it's been bugging me like *crazy* for over 20 years and I finally need to get it off my chest.

There's a song on here called "Don't Try to Hide It" and the lyrics in the chorus go something like "Don't try to hide it, you know I'll bite it".

Anyway, my parents used to seriously humiliate me when I was about five years old back in 1986, and would make me sit on the couch as they started dancing on the living room floor and singing the chorus and pointing at ME whenever the "Don't try to hide it, you know I'll bite it" line came on, and let me tell you- this is no joke- THIS song used to make me blush and feel absolutely embarrassed as a result of my parents doing that.

This little stunt (which happened on three or four different occasions) has seriously scarred me for life because this song ALONE is the reason I avoided Bloodshot for so many years. All I could ever remember is being forced to sit on the living room couch and persevere utter humiliation on the part of my parents. What they believed was innocent fun was in fact an example of making fun of ME, and the memories are too strong to shake away or think objectively so I really have no other choice but to declare "Don't Try to Hide It" one of the worst songs ever recorded. Don't blame me for hating it! Not even a snake could wiggle away from the mess I was forced to endure!

Anyway, the rest the album contains some okay tracks, and some forgettable ones. Actually there's definitely three very good songs, which is why I'm giving the album 3 stars. Those would be the great party atmosphere and harmonica blues of "It Ain't Nothin' But A House Party" (I believe it was a big hit too) the steady and catchy rhythm work and vocal melody of "Back to Get Ya" and of course, the classic "Give It to Me".

What I love about "Give It to Me" is that the harmonica work is quite beautiful (and "beautiful" is not a word I normally associate with the harmonica) the vocal melody is either intentionally or accidentally really emotional (I was never really sure which one) and the guitar jam... finally, the only melodic guitar jam on the entire album, and it's a good one indeed.

Other songs like "Make Up Your Mind" try to connect with the listeners emotionally but it's too generic and predictable for THAT to happen. "Start All Over Again" sounds exactly like an Aerosmith ballad, which definitely isn't a compliment.

The rest of the songs are either tributes to the early old fashioned 60's style of rock and roll, or perhaps cover songs of some sorts. I really don't know. Either way, they don't impress me. "Struttin' With My Baby" and ""Southside Shuffle" are completely forgettable songs if you ask me.

Overall, I don't even know if the J. Geils Band has anything better than this, because I've never really heard one of their albums the entire way through. I know one thing though- I prefer when the J. Geils Band focuses on songwriting or poppier material similar to their big hits from the early 80's, and would probably be more interested in hearing that period of the bands career over the jamming/bluesy phase that Bloodshot offers.

this makes for a hot album of good tunes with strong cohesion...they pulled off a solid search into their world and came up with a house party