When I interviewed him for the piece in today's column, Paramount assistant director Eric Mallette took exception to me mentioning J. Geils Band in the same breath as Sublime. He said Sublime's contribution to the music industry doesn't compare to J. Geils Band's and that nobody can say that J. Geils Band is not a musical icon.
I didn't want to wade into a pointless argument on the relative merits of the two bands in the column. That's what blogs are for.
So, yes, Eric, I can say it: "J. Geils Band is not a musical icon."
I have nothing against J. Geils Band and I'm hardly the biggest Sublime fan in the world, but I felt confident I could find several objective measures to demonstrate that one is bigger than the other.
Round One: Song recognition. J. Geils Band has three songs anyone can remember: "Love Stinks," "Centerfold" and "Freeze Frame." Sublime has four: "Date Rape," "The Wrong Way," "What I Got," and "Santeria."
Advantage: Sublime.
Round Two: Ablum sales. "Freze Frame" went platinum, and four other J. Geils Band albums went gold. "Sublime" went platinum five times, "40 oz. to Freedom" went double platinum and they had one more platinum album and three gold albums.
Advantage: Sublime
Round Three: Legacy. Sublime is number 81 on KROQ's top 166 artists of 1980-2008. J. Geils isn't on the list. Wikipedia credits Sublime with reviving interest in ska. It doesn't credit J. Geils Band with anything.
Do a Google search for "influenced by J. Geils Band" (but without the quotes) you get 144,000 hits, but the entire first page are sites talking about who influenced J. Geils Band. Do the same thing for Sublime, you get 4.7 million hits, and the very first page is a list of bands influenced by Sublime. Naturally, they are all bands I've never heard of.
Advantage: Sublime
Round Four: "Rock Band" recognition. "Centerfold" is available for "Rock Band 3." Sublime has ... nothing.
Advantage: J. Geils Band.
So, I'd say Sublime carries the day with a score of 3-1.
We now return you to your regularly scheduled programmming.
ehm, Sublime? What is that? Perhaps i'm not getting the joke (in case this isn't serious), but at least we know and appreciate the J. Geils Band in Europe. Whatever the name of the other band is (see, i already forgot it) J. Geils Band is still on the radio in Europe! And some of us are still hoping for an European Tour!
Posted by: Harry Schiltmans | 07/19/2011 at 07:15 AM