One of most enjoyable
Cambodian pastimes is to visit a karaoke club - taking a luxurious private room
with a group of friends, plied with alcohol and food, whilst a huge book tempts
with a mountain of Western and Khmer song
classics. On one such visit, I chose "Centrefold", and was delighted
that my fellow volunteer Jena, joined in with relish.
The J Geils Band, named their guitarist (similar groups
named after non-singing members include Van Halen & Fleetwood Mac), were
originally a hard working blues group of 1970s. By the early1980s, they reinvented themselves as a successful US new
wave group with the "Freeze Frame" album.
The key track
"Centrefold" is overwhelming and hooky with the nanana refrain and
pounding beat. The synthesiser, drums, guitar, and always the harmonica, sound
like a hit single before even the first words are uttered.
The singer,
Peter Wolf, reminisces about his schooldays' crush ("homeroom angel"),
so beautiful ("baby-blues"), so innocent
("pure like snowflakes"),
but he was too shy ("I turned
away / Before she caught my eye").
Years later
he is horrified as he spots her in a "girly magazine", and his
earlier dreams are shattered ("My blood runs cold / My memory has just
been sold"). However he seems to accept it very quickly, and his thoughts
turn lascivious as he imagines a future meeting in a motel room (very classy!).
I have always thought "Centrefold"
is more tongue in cheek than heart-breaking, as he comes to terms too quickly,
and there is also the obvious hypocrisy of him buying the magazine, but she
cannot appear in it?
The song was
written by band's keyboard player Seth Justman, and was always destined to be a
hit single. But it was magnified by the provocative video (directed by
Justman's brother), featuring the band and a bevy of scantily-clad models. It
would be incessant repeat on the emerging MTV, as well as radio.
It was such a huge hit, six weeks at number 1 in the
US, but it was a brief mirage, Wolf left within two years due the inevitable
"musical differences".
Hear Now - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqDjMZKf-wg
Hear Next -
I have not heard many other J Geils songs, but "Freeze Frame"
seems to be their most famous album.
