Ordinarily at this time of the year my mind would turn to my favourite holiday - Hallowe’en. Unfortunately, the pandemic has pretty much cancelled it. You may have heard that Hallowe’en is NOT cancelled, but people who say that are referring to children’s Hallowe’en. Adult Hallowe’en is most definitely not going ahead.
At least there are scary movies to watch.
Disc 1409 is…. The Question
Artist: George Thorogood and the Destroyers
Year of Release: 2000 but featuring music from 1977 to 1999
What’s up with the Cover? George strikes a pose in a snakeskin jacket, guitar in hand. If you look carefully you can also see the outline of a rearing cobra in the background, which has no doubt slithered over from its previous lair on the cover of Metallica’s Black album (reviewed way back at Disc 93 when “What’s up with the cover?” wasn’t even a thing yet….).
How I Came To Know It: I grew up with George Thorogood, who was a house party favourite in my home town as a kid. This particularly collection comes to me through my buddy Chris, who is divesting himself of his CDs and let me pick through them before they go. I got this record and about a dozen others. Thanks, Chris!
How It Stacks Up: An anthology is just a long-winded greatest hits package, and so doesn’t stack up.
Ratings: Greatest hits (and anthologies) don’t get ratings, as they are not true albums.
Usually it would be an insult to call a band a “bar band” but George Thorogood and the Destroyers are the mother of all bar bands. Their infectious brand of blues rock may be ubiquitous in small town pubs from Powell River to Prince Rupert, but no one plays it better or has more fun doing it. They’re still touring and listening to the live tracks on this anthology makes me inclined to go see them.
Just what is an anthology? An anthology is for when you really like a band. Like them even more than just their radio singles…but not much more. Just enough more that you want a few deep cuts and live tracks to go along with the hits, but not so much that you’d festoon your CD shelves with 10 albums worth of stuff. If a greatest hits record is a one-night stand, and the full discography is a marriage, then an anthology would be that girl you met back in college. You dated for a full semester and it was reasonably serious at the time, but not ultimately the love of your life.
This sums up my feelings for George Thorogood. I like him, and I have a lot of great memories of his music. Like all those times my friend Rob would me into town in his pickup truck as we cranked George out of his crappy stereo at volumes that threatened to melt the cassette tape. Did Rob shift more aggressively when “Gear Jammer” came on? You bet he did, and it was good fun, although the truck’s clutch probably didn’t appreciate the experience.
What makes Thorogood so…good? Well, like any talented rhythm and blues band, the Destroyers sit right down in the pocket and drop riffs that growl and spit. This music is gritty, and grimy and puts a strut in your step. Even the saxophone has some snarl, and at no point did I mind those horn flourishes that on other albums might have me fearfully looking over my shoulder for (shudder) a jazz run.
No such fear here. George Thorogood is all meat and potatoes, and no quiche. The guitar grinds out riffs (and occasional blues solos) and the sax pumps out flourishes while never getting uppity. They keep it simple, but they play it like they mean it.
This is music that will make you want to dance, but no fancy moves please: boring dancing only. Want to just shuffle around a bit, enjoy yourself and not have to put your beer down? This is the music for you. You can do all your favourite average dances: the Half-Twist (one leg moving is plenty), the Power Walker and everyone’s favourite, the Partly-Raised Drunk Fist (the other hand being down at your waist holding your beer by the neck so it stays cold).
Against this backdrop, Thorogood’s voice is the perfect instrument. Rough, raspy and full of gusto and late-night bourbon. When George says he’s bad to the bone, you believe him. When George drinks alone you raise your glass in solidarity, as he makes ridiculous lines like “You know when I drink alone…I prefer to be by myself” somehow revelatory.
Thorogood and his band do a cover with a zest few bands can match, He takes Hank Williams’ “Move It On Over” and John Lee Hooker’s “One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer” and makes them forever his own. I love both the originals, but the extra oomph Thorogood infuses them with is undeniable. I was less keen on his cover of “Johnny B. Goode” but even his lesser covers end up being a celebration of the classics.
He also writes some great tracks, and some of his most enduring classics (“Bad to the Bone”, “I Drink Alone”, “Gear Jammer”) are originals. These aren’t complicated songs, but they have some of the most enduring riffs in rock and roll and sound as fresh today as they did thirty years ago.
For all that, this particular anthology was too much of a good thing. At 30 songs and almost two and a half hours, it was a lot of George. Also, Thorogood’s heyday is from around 1977 to 1988 but the anthology goes well into the nineties where the classics (covers and originals alike) become harder to come by. I’m glad to have these treasures in my collection, but Odyssey aside, I’ll probably mix them in with other stuff on future listens.
Best tracks: Madison Blues, One Bourbon One Scotch One Beer, Move It On Over, Bad to the Bone, Willie and the Hand Jive, I Drink Alone, Gear Jammer, Long Gone, Who Do You Love, Born to Be Bad, Get a Haircut, Christine
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