“While writing these chapters, I experienced both joy and sadness— the exaltation of rediscovery combined with the realization of the profound loss of the many people who played such important roles in my life.”
What does a 19-year-old girl from Los Angeles know about Peter Wolf?
Until I read his new memoir, not much—not even that it was his voice blaring through the speakers of my dad’s car when the J. Geils Band’s “Centerfold” played. Living in Boston now, though, I became intrigued by the towering rock star and radio personality, and so I picked up “Waiting on the Moon: Artists, Poets, Drifters, Grifters, and Goddesses.”
Wolf is best known as the expressive multi-talented lead vocalist of J. Geils, which hit its peak popularity across the country through the ’70s and beyond. The band split in the ’80s, with Wolf pursuing a solo career and releasing classics like the 1984 album “Lights Out.” His life had already been extraordinary; at one point, Wolf was roommates with filmmaker David Lynch, and was married to Faye Dunaway. But as we learn in his book, things only got more interesting from there.
Looking back on the Boston music scene he helped create as someone my age decades later, I wanted to know about the man who, as Rolling Stone recently put it, “Literally Knew Everybody” (Wolf posed on the cover of the magazine’s March 4, 1982 issue). Thankfully, the author delivers. “Waiting on the Moon” opens with the long-awaited explanation of why he wrote a memoir in the first place, and why he put it out now. It’s clear: this is not a self-indulgent diary, but rather a passion project that has been suggested—even demanded—by many people around him.
“Over the years I have found myself regaling others, either at intimate dinner parties, in backstage dressing rooms, or during concert performances, with stories of the fascinating range of people, both known and unknown, I have encountered throughout my life,” Wolf writes.
“I have remained as true to the events and encounters as my memory allows. In recounting the dialogue, I have tried to convey both the tone and essence of the conversations with as much accuracy as I can recall.”
The cast of characters, from the first lady to Scorsese
The memoir is at its core a collection of stories, not unlike those of Eve Babtiz or Patti Smith, two other personal narratives I recently read. Most chapters are dedicated to a figure in Wolf’s life, with the first describing an encounter with a certain Hollywood legend in an old art-house theater in the Bronx. Titled “I Slept with Marilyn Monroe,” it’s a captivating introduction—with a funny twist. It also sets the tone, with notable figures from pop culture serving as touchstones.
These stories have been in Wolf’s back pocket. In writing about First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt coming to his primary school or attending a dinner party hosted by Julia Child, his imagery is strong despite some of the events happening more than half-a-century ago. He’s been telling these tales forever; now; he’s immortalized them in print.
Knowing almost nothing about the subject before reading the book, I figured it would focus on Wolf’s life in the J. Geils Band. That experience, however, is only really explored in one chapter, which primarily covers the breakup. Wolf describes the split as messy, and the lack of information on this front seems fitting. Wolf is the ultimate insider; he’s willing to take us on most of his journey, but some things he is keeping to himself. Or maybe for another book.
Aside from the breakup piece, J. Geils and its milestones are otherwise mentioned as setups for major events. The memoir is less about Wolf himself than it is about the people around him. It’s all in service to the memoir’s theme of how humans shape one another, whether intentionally or not.
“Ed’s unwavering dedication to educate me had opened my mind to the written word,” Wolf writes about his literary mentor, Ed Hood.
Some chapters explore how interactions with his own musical idols guided him, turning Wolf into the artist we recognize today. The part about Muddy Waters tells the tale about how the two met while also highlighting Wolf’s long-term admiration for the artist. Setting the scene with Wolf’s first introduction to the blues god, the chapter evolves into a saga.
“After so many hours spent staring at the record cover, I was mesmerized at the sight of that familiar face come to life,” Wolf writes. “His playing and singing were even more powerful onstage than they were in his recordings.”
Wolf crafts the timeline of this relationship with respect and admiration showing the progression from idol to friend—all of which turns a musical icon like Waters into a real person for readers.
There’s also one about Wolf’s failed audition with director Martin Scorsese, and vignettes from hanging with major names like Van Morrison, Mick Jagger, and John Lennon. These megastars pop up with such startling frequency that one can only ask, How could one man know so many famous people? But in the case of Peter Wolf, who started rubbing shoulders with giants as an “all-night DJ on the fledgling FM rock station WBCN” years before he became famous himself, he really does.
While there’s no shortage of name-dropping, Wolf isn’t clout chasing. His connections to the many famous people in his book are thoroughly detailed. If you needed more evidence, there are photos in the beginning and end of each chapter with Wolf and his friends. He writes about them in a clear and sincere manner, mostly portraying them in a positive and admirable light. Even when he touches on sensitive topics, like his marriage to Faye Dunaway, it doesn’t feel like he is passing judgment.
“When I hear Hank Williams sing ‘I Can’t Help It If I’m Still in Love with You,’ I am right back on that New York City sidewalk, an invisible observer of the woman I once loved,” Wolf writes.
Overall, the eccentric stories make these superstars feel less like names and more like human beings. Suddenly, they’re not just singers or actors who I have heard of, but real people with their own quirks revealed through their genuine relationships with Wolf. None of this comes from orchestrated interviews, and that’s where this book shines.
An inspiration for another generation
In an age where networking is everything, I find Wolf inspiring. Any chance he got to meet someone, he took it. He always seemed to be in the right place at the right time during these encounters. And the right place for him was Greater Boston.
“Back then, Cambridge was still a vibrant cultural outpost for writers, painters, and musicians,” he writes. “The combination of bohemian and academia eased me into a calm state of mind.”
For readers who grew up with J. Geils, seeing the New England powerhouse perform regularly, “Waiting on the Moon” is a chance to get to better know your musical idol. For others, it’s an education on arts and the counterculture in the ’60s, ’70s, and ’80s—with an outstanding teacher in Wolf.
At a time when the media is cashing in on nostalgia with biopics like “The Complete Unknown” or shows like “Daisy Jones & the Six,” “Waiting on the Moon” feels new, fresh. It covers those eras, but in a more genuine way, through refreshingly unscripted voices.
In his chapter dedicated to the Rolling Stones, Wolf writes, “When we played our first Stones show, in 1975, my rock-’n’-roll dream came true at last. We performed for a crowd of fifty-one thousand fans at Liberty Bowl, in Memphis, on a scorching hot July Fourth weekend.” His descriptions are all told in the voice of someone who was really there.
I didn’t grow up listening to Peter Wolf. At this point, I mostly only know him through his memoir, and that is to say I know quite a bit. An ode to the arts and a love letter to human connections, it’s worth a read, whether you’re a longtime fan or just reading about him for the first time right now.
For more info on “Waiting on the Moon: Artists, Poets, Drifters, Grifters, and Goddesses,” check out peterwolf.com
This article was produced for HorizonMass, the independent, student-driven, news outlet of the Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism, and is syndicated by BINJ’s MassWire news service.
