George Thorogood - 'George Thorogood and the Destroyers' & 'Move It On Over'

 

By 1977, blues music was in a slump.  Many of its legends like Elmore James, Howlin' Wolf, Jimmy Reed etc. had already passed on.  Muddy Waters and John Lee Hooker were in limbo, with their career revivals a few years away.  1960s blues revivalists like Paul Butterfield and Michael Bloomfield had become footnotes in the history of the blues.  Disco and the so-called New Wave were the prominent genres.

Into the void stepped a young guitarist and former minor league baseball player by the name of George Thorogood.  Leading a ramshackle foursome known as the "Delaware Destroyers", the band was thoroughly steeped in the sort of houserockin’ blues pioneered by folks like Elmore James, J.B. Hutto, and Hound Dog Taylor.  Moving the band from Delaware to Boston, George and crew made a name for themselves on a thriving Boston blues club scene.  While in Boston, George's demo tapes grabbed the attention of Ken Irwin of Rounder Records, who would release the band’s self-titled 1977 debut album.

On George's debut, he and the Delaware Destroyers roar through ten rough and ready blues-rock performances.  Cover versions of songs by Elmore James, John Lee Hooker, Robert Johnson and Bo Diddley are inspired.  An original titled "Homesick Boy" fits into the festivities like a glove.  George's frenetic slide guitar work and the Delaware Destroyers' relentless locomotive rhythms make for a red-hot, juke-joint like performance.

George's sophomore effort, 1978’s 'Move It On Over' is in the same mold as his debut. That said, it branches out into country with the Hank Williams-penned title track and early rock ‘n’ roll with a wild cover of Chuck Berry’s "It Wasn’t Me" alongside the blues and R&B tracks of his first album.  The covers of Hank Williams' "Move It On Over" and Bo Diddley’s "Who Do You Love?" received lots of FM radio airplay.

The albums 'George Thorogood and the Destroyers' and 'Move It On Over' are both blues-rock classics and established the blueprint that George has followed on his records, for almost 50 years now.  You’ll get a couple of original tracks written in an old-school blues style, a bunch of classic cover tunes that are ramped up and amped as George Thorogood and the Destroyers do so well.

While George wasn’t the best singer to emerge from the blues-rock world, and he wasn’t the flashiest or most talented guitarist, he did however have a personality, energy, a deep knowledge of the blues, and an undeniable charisma that enabled him to perform to an audience like one of the old masters.

To my ears, these two albums sound as vibrant and energetic today, as they did in the late 1970s.  Both albums also brought the blues to a new generation of young people, jolted the music out of its late-decade doldrums and paving the way for artists like Robert Cray and Stevie Ray Vaughan and the blues boom of the 1980s.

For the freeload (both albums are 24bit, cuz sonics matter), who are your favorite blues-rock bands and artists?