![]() ![]() The combination works beautifully when he merges the staccato runs of Chuck Berry with the flagrant hyperbole of Willie Dixon on "I'm Wanted." A similar strategy converts the "House of Blue Lights" into a shrine commemorating the enduring appeal of Berry's rock 'n' roll guitar. ![]() Thorogood is better off blending rock and R&B. While you can't fault his taste or his guitar playing, "Restless" is the closest thing to a lifeless track on the album. For all the energy and excitement Thorogood brings to the blues guitar, he remains a rather stilted vocalist. He even goes so far as to mimic the bluesman's feigned stutter and brooding silences. Of the many musicians Thorogood emulates, Hooker's sinister phrasing seems to fascinate him most. Hooker's "One Way Ticket" is cast in an appropriately dark and ominous mood. The exceptions are songs by Hooker and Carl Perkins. However, the addition of Hank Carter on saxophone gives the album a rollicking mid-'50s R&B flavor. After all, Throgood was out to enjoy himself, and the party lights are still burning brightly on his latest album, "More George Thorogood and the Destroyers" (Rounder 3045).Īs expected, the names remain the same: Hooker, Dixon, James and Harpo are all represented. And no matter that Thorogood's reading of Bo Diddley's classic "Who Do You Love" sounded as if it had been filtered through the recordings of John Hammond Jr. ![]() No matter that his version of Slim Harpo's "I'm Just Your Good Thing," for example, owed more to the way the early Rolling Stones treated Harpo's music than anything the Louisiana bluesman ever recorded himself. No matter that he often sounded several steps removed from the source. His chainsaw guitar cut through a few more Elmore James tunes bluesmen Brownie McGhee and Willie Dixon were added to the song credits and Thorogood's extensive roadwork won him a still larger audience. When the record's sales surpassed anyone's expectations, Thorogood fast became the big bluesman on campus - a heavy slide-guitar alternative to the tangle of synthesized disco strings then choking the airwaves. Thorogood emerged out of the blues a few years ago with the songs of John Lee Hooker, Robert Johnson, Elmore James and Bo Diddley wedged together on both sides of his first album. Even blues fans who don't like George Thorogood will admit that the man knows how to have a good time. ![]()
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