Book Review: Waiting on the Moon by Peter Wolf

Peter Wolf as I remember him

As the full title attests, Waiting on the Moon: Artists, Poets, Drifters, Grifters, and Goddesses, Peter Wolf's memoir is less about his career than it is about the famous and interesting people he has encountered along the way. It is a tribute to Wolf 's generosity of spirit that this is one of the warmest and most self-deprecating memoirs that I have ever read. Wolf renders loved ones as indelibly as he does show biz icons. I was a fan of the J. Geils Band back in the 1970s. Their records were uneven, but onstage they were one of the best bands of the era. Wolf only addresses one slim chapter to his time with the band. He is still haunted by the band's ouster of him after the success of the Freeze-Frame album and its single, Centerfold. This proved to an extremely ill-advised mood for all concerned, right up there with the sacking of Mick Jones by the Clash. Wolf prefers to offer fond reminisces of his musical heroes: ranging from Muddy Waters to Merle Haggard.

He also encounters an astonishing array of cultural figures, but I would not be reviewing this book on this blog if Wolf did not have numerous brushes with the film world. Wolf had the pleasure of being married to a humdinger of a film star, for better and worse, in Faye Dunaway. Wolf survived hurricane Faye, but barely. They were divorced in 1979 and the subsequent J. Geils album was entitled Love Stinks. Along the way, Wolf meets a fascinating array of film folk: from Nicholson to Hitchcock to George Cukor, Marilyn Monroe, and David Lynch. The book is a rich feast and the best rock memoir since Dylan's Chronicles.    

                                           

Peter Wolf and Faye Dunaway on their wedding day in 1974