My Seventies Music

Tag: George Thorogood And The Destroyers

  • George Thorogood And The Destroyers – “You Got To Lose”, “Madison Blues”, “One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer”, “Ride On Josephine”, “I’ll Change My Style” And “Delaware Slide”

    Album cover of "George Thorogood And The Destroyers" (1977)
    The George Thorogood And The Destroyers album of the same name came out in 1977, with a track list (largely covers of blues evergreens at that stage) that included “You Got To Lose”, “Madison Blues”, “One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer”, “Ride On Josephine”, “I’ll Change My Style” and “Delaware Slide”.

    Now GD and T, as they are sometimes known, or also George Thorogood And The Delaware Destroyers, are not exactly mainstream, so you didn’t hear a lot of them on the radio where I lived.

    In fact you didn’t hear them at all, and it wasn’t till I returned to New Zealand from Germany for a few weeks in 1982 that I heard this record for the first time staying with friends in my old university town of Palmerston North, but since then it has been one of my favourites.

    I bought a copy and took it back to Germany, where I introduced it to some acquaintances of mine in a blues band.

    They probably don’t remember that, but I like to think in doing so I had a slight influence on their music…

    Whatever.

    The eponymous album, as music critics seem to like to say – meaning the name of the record was the same as the name of the artist, go figure – begins at a cracking pace with “You Got To Lose”:

    The inimitable George Thorogood slide guitar sound continues with “Madison Blues”:

    This one is nearly ten minutes long, look at the way those fingers and thumb move on the electric guitar on “One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer” – and note the “duel” between guitar and saxophone at around six minutes into the song:

    I just looovvve this one, “Ride On Josephine”:

    “Delaware Slide” is pure instrumental:

    This next one is actually from later (1982), and was used a lot in films and television – “Back To The Bone”:

    Finally, from the first album again, “I’ll Change My Style”

    Be a shame if he did…

    Paul

  • JJ Cale – “Cocaine”, “After Midnight”, “They Call Me The Breeze” and “Don’t Wait”

    Two songs from JJ Cale that stand out for me are “Cocaine” and “After Midnight”, both of which have been most famously covered by Eric Clapton.

    In fact I was just reading that it was Clapton’s 1970 cover of “After Midnight”, at a time when Cale was “languishing in obscurity” and not doing very well financially, that inspired the artist to capitalise on its success and record an album with his own version, practically kickstarting his career. Since then, many famous artists have covered his songs.

    When I come to think of it, “After Midnight” (though actually the Clapton version) is one of my favourite songs.

    I remember sitting listening to it – after midnight – in a car or van outside a gig in south Germany in the village of Sand am Main by a band I used to write stuff with in the early Eighties. It was a cassette (anybody remember those?) with Eric Clapton on one side and George Thorogood and the Destroyers on the other.

    Having said that, listening to this live version of “After Midnight” by the author himself, which is in a totally different style, I must say I like it a lot too, really funky:

    And here’s JJ Cale with his studio version of “Cocaine”:

    This live verison of “Cocaine” sounds very laid back:

    JJ Cale also wrote a track made famous by rockers Lynyrd Skynyrd, “They Call Me The Breeze”.

    I found this video of it together with “Don’t Wait” (love the harmonica – and banjo? – in that one) as sound track to a motorcycle ride along the country roads of the Channel Island Guernsey – one of my favourite places, I did this on a bicycle 22 years ago:

    Don’t wait to listen to more from JJ Cale!

    Paul

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