PETER WOLF

(1943 - )
MUSIC: ::: RHYTHM & BLUES :::GRAM :::

ON GRAM PARSONS

The "Woofa Goofa" was spitting rhymes long before anyone called it rap. Best known as the electrifying frontman of The J. Geils Band, Peter Wolf built his career on an encyclopedic love of American rhythm & blues, soul, gospel and rock & roll. A graduate of what he jokingly called "The College of R&B Knowledge," Wolf was as much historian as performer, absorbing the music of everyone from Howlin' Wolf and Muddy Waters to Little Richard and Van Morrison before transforming those influences into one of the greatest live shows in rock history. During the 1970s, only Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band rivaled the J. Geils Band for sheer intensity onstage.

Wolf's curiosity led him far beyond Boston. Over the decades he crossed paths with Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, David Lynch, Faye Dunaway, Van Morrison and countless blues, soul and country legends, becoming one of American music's great storytellers and connectors. Like Gram Parsons, Peter never believed musical genres belonged in separate boxes. Rhythm & blues, country, soul and rock & roll were simply different dialects of the same American language.

That shared philosophy brought the two worlds together through "Cry One More Time." Written by Peter Wolf and Seth Justman for The Morning After (1971), the song was later recorded by Gram Parsons on his debut solo album GP, introducing one of the J. Geils Band's finest compositions to a country-rock audience. It was a perfect choice. Just as Gram had spent years introducing rock listeners to Merle Haggard, George Jones and the Louvin Brothers, he recognized that Peter Wolf's songwriting belonged in the same conversation. "Cry One More Time" stands as another reminder that the greatest American music has never recognized the boundaries between rhythm & blues, country and rock & roll—it has simply followed the song.