REPOST: George Thorogood & The Destroyers - Haircut (1993) + Bonus Tracks

(U.S 1974–present)
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To call George Thorogood a mere devotee of 1950s electric blues does the man a disservice. He lives and breathes the stuff. Thorogood's catalog is saturated with John Lee Hooker boogies, Chuck Berry rockers, and Elmore James shuffles, and he peels off slashing licks, both with slide and without, just like those of his hallowed heroes. 

When George writes a swaggering one-chord anthem like 1982's Bad To The Bone, it comes out sounding a lot like vintage Bo Diddley or Muddy Waters, full of piss and vinegar and voodoo vibes. Inspired by seeing John Hammond in a 1970 concert performance, Thorogood, born February 24, 1950 in Wilmington, Delaware, placed his dreams of playing major league baseball on the back burner to concentrate on playing big league guitar.  

George Thorogood 1993

He put together his original Destroyers in 1973, and then relocated his crew to Boston. An impressive cache of demos got Thorogood and the Destroyers signed to Rounder Records, a Cambridge, Massachusetts based indie label specializing in all forms of roots music from folk to bluegrass to blues but hardly geared to breaking hit records. 

Yet George's rocking 1978 revival of Hank Williams' "Move It On Over", from his second LP of the same name earned so many FM spins nationwide that the album actually went gold—an amazing accomplishment for everyone concerned. With bassist Billy Blough, drummer Jeff Simon, and saxist Hank ‘Hurricane' Carter comprising his Destroyers (they've been a remarkably consistent lineup; Simon arrived in 1974 and Blough in '77, and they're both still with George to this day; Carter stayed from 1980 to 2003), Thorogood continued to bang out ballsy three-chord rockers, most of them culled directly from ‘50s blues and rock and roll. 

Billy Blough

'Bad To The Bone' was an exception, a Thorogood original that provided the title track for his first album on EMI America after the guitarist completed his Rounder stay. The album, which cast Rolling Stones keyboardist Ian Stewart as a guest, sported the usual Hooker, Berry, and Jimmy Reed covers alongside the Isley Brothers' rocker Nobody But Me, but MTV played the hell out of the video of Bad To The Bone, exposing its legion of youthful viewers to its seething, blues-drenched rhythmic throb and Thorogood's snarling axework and vocal. It quickly became his signature theme.  Thorogood scored a chart single for EMI America in 1985 with a revival of the Johnny Otis Show's Willie And The Hand Jive, and Get A Haircut did well for him in 1993. George and his Destroyers are still rocking houses wherever they travel.   [by Bill Dahl]

You wouldn't expect any changes from George Thorogood, whose pile-driving rocking-blues and boogie have maintained their appeal despite the emergence of numerous similar-sounding ensembles. Thorogood's rough-hewn singing and always tantalizing playing on 'Haircut' are on target through the usual mix of originals and covers (this time including Bo Diddley and Willie Dixon). Besides the bonus of major label engineering and production, Thorogood's work has never lost its edge because he avoids becoming indulgent or a parody, and continues to sound genuinely interested in and a fan of the tunes he's doing.

Jeff Simon

Get a Haircut and Get a Real Job

At the mid-point in his career, now 40 years strong, George Thorogood released an unlikely hit - "Haircut".

In 1993, during an era dominated by grunge, with plaid flannel shirts and long, greasy hair the signifiers of a new rock generation the same way paisley print and bell-bottom pants (and long, greasy hair) had been that of the ’60s, there was little room for a blues-rock anthem.

Yet, "Get A Haircut" became Thorogood’s new calling card, a tune as beloved now as the other big hits in his catalogue — Bad To The Bone, and his classic reboot of Bo Diddley’s House Rent Blues/One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer — and one that, unlike many of his hits, he penned himself.

“We just got incredibly lucky with the timing,” Thorogood said in a recent phone interview. “The grunge rock/garage thing was big at that time. I said, ‘Eventually, Neil Young is going to write a song like this. And he’s going to give it to Nirvana or Alice In Chains or someone like that.

“Actually, the song is the same song as Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young when they sang, ‘I almost cut my hair.’ Sometimes, something is so old it’s new. But what really thrilled me is that when we did it, the song went to No. 1 requested and No. 1 most played song in Canada on FM radio. Not in sales, but you take a No. 1 for what it is. ‘Well, Canada is our place! We’re going to play Haircut for the rest of our lives up there.’”

Although the song has been part of his live arsenal for decades, there is a good reason why Thorogood hadn’t recorded the song until now.

“I’ve been singing it since 1970,” he said with a laugh. “But I’m not a flat-picker, that style that Hubert Sumlin and Eric Clapton play. I’m a finger picker — I can never get that lick down. Actually, it’s a variation of the Whole Lotta Love lick. I could never play that.

“But next to Howlin’ Wolf, nobody can do Howlin’ Wolf like I can.”

Although Thorogood is slinging an unlikely golden Gibson Les Paul on the ICON album cover, on the back he is showing off a classic semi-hollow body Gibson ES-125, the guitar on which he built his signature sound. (Thorogood has two of these that have become legend, White Fang and Blacktooth.)

“There I am looking like a tough inner-city rock punk,” he said with a chuckle. “That was the energy I was trying to portray anyway. That’s the rock thing, isn’t it?” [extract from George's Website]

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This post consists of FLACs ripped from my CD copy of his 1993 album, and includes full album artwork for both CD and Vinyl.  Although this is not his best release (just love his first two releases from the late 70's) this is still an impressive collection of hard to the bone tracks that have his trademark boogie/blues signature clearly evident.  As a bonus for this repost, I'm also including some radio promo edits of  "Get A Haircut" along with a '92 remix of their hit from 1978 "Who Do You Love".
Oh, on a final note, the title track brings back 'fond' memories when my ol' man would say to me "Get a haircut son, and get a real job".

Improved RIP and Bonus Tracks

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Tracklist

1. Get A Haircut (4:10)

2. Howlin' For My Baby (5:11)

3. Killer's Bluze (6:07)

4. Down In The Bottom (4:00)

5. I'm Ready (3:35)

6. Cops And Robbers (4:47)

7. Gone Dead Train (4:05)

8. Want Ad Blues (5:03)

9. My Friend Robert (2:27)

10. Baby Don't Go (3:24)

11. Get A Haircut [Bonus Radio Edit]  (3:39)

12. Get A Haircut [Bonus Shorter Radio Edit]  (3:24)

13. Who Do You Love [Bonus '92 Mix]  (4:19)

The Destroyers were:

George Thorogood (Guitar & Vocals)

Bill Blough (Bass)

Hank Carter (Keyboards, Sax & Backing Vocals)

Jeff Simon (Drums)

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Haircut Link (415Mb) New Link 04/08/2025

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George Thorogood And The Destroyers - Selftitled (1977)

(U.S 1974 – Present)
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George Thorogood was born on December 31, 1950 and was raised in Naamans Gardens, Delaware, where his father worked for DuPont. He graduated from Brandywine High School in 1968. Thorogood played semi-professional baseball, but turned toward music after seeing John P. Hammond perform in 1970.
Thorogood formed the Delaware Destroyers in 1973, and moved the band to Boston where they became familiar faces on the East Coast blues circuit. During this time, Thorogood continued to play baseball, touring with the band during the off season. The band recorded a demo tape in 1974, which would later be released in 1979 as the 'Better Than The Rest' album.

Thorogood's scorched-earth live performances with the Destroyers brought the band to the attention of Rounder Records, which released the band's critically-acclaimed, self-titled debut in 1977 (Note: Stockade released this album in Australia).
The album sold extremely well for an independent release, leading to the 1978 release of Move It On Over, which I will post at a later date.
In the 34 years since the release of this debut album, George Thorogood and the Destroyers have forged a career of exceptional durability. Delivering guitar-driven roadhouse rock and houserockin' blues, the blueprint established by that debut has been followed by the band ever since, and songs from that album like "Madison Blues" and "One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer" are crowd-pleasers still played by Thorogood and the Destroyers to this day.
This basic blues-rock sound has brought Thorogood criticism from blues purists even while it's made Thorogood and the Destroyers one of the most popular blues-based bands on the road and in the studio.

 Over the course of 15 live and studio albums – two which have gone "Platinum" for a million units sold, and six that have been certified as "Gold" – the hard-working trio has become known for signature songs like "Bad To The Bone," "Move It On Over," "Born To Be Bad," "Get A Haircut," and their raucous cover of Bo Diddley's "Who Do You Love?" [ extract from wikipedia]
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Thorogood's association with Chess Records
George Thorogood has been essaying the Chess repertoire since his 1977 debut album, which included songs by Elmore James and Bo Diddley that originated on the label. He has cut 18 Chess covers over the years; three appeared on his last studio release, 2009’s 'The Dirty Dozen'. On 2120 South Michigan Avenue, he offers a full-length homage to the label that bred his style with interpretations of 10 Chess classics.
Chess’ studio spawned timeless ‘50s and ‘60s recordings by Waters, Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, and Howlin’ Wolf, which served as inspiration for the Stones and their blues-rocking brethren, and then lit a fire under their successors George Thorogood and the Destroyers.
Thorogood recalls:
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"I remember as a teenager reading about Mick Jagger meeting Keith Richards on a train. Jagger had a Chuck Berry record, and he said he wrote to Chess Records and got a catalog sent to him. Just out of curiosity, I took out one of my Chess records, got the address, and I wrote to Chess Records. And they sent me a catalog of the complete Chess library, and I started buying up these Chess records. I bought every single one of them I could possibly get.
“And I remember reading the backs of those Chess records and seeing the address, 2120 South Michigan Avenue, and I said, ‘That’s the same address as the Rolling Stones’ instrumental!’ And I started putting one and one together and coming up with a big two.”
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Over time, Chess’ catalog and artists became the sources of Thorogood’s higher education in music. “That was my school, the college that I had to learn my trade in,” he says. “I had to figure out how these people did these things.”

His latest album also celebrates the performers who shared stages with Thorogood and the Destroyers and encouraged them when they were just coming up on the East Coast blues scene.
He says, “The people who helped me out were all the guys in Muddy Waters’ band, all the guys in Howlin’ Wolf’s band. They were wonderful to me, and they wanted to help me. They saw what I was trying to do.” [extract from Thorogood's Website]
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Album Review
Break out the bottles of booze and crank up the volume... gritty guitarist George Thorogood and his tight backing Destroyers blow-out ten raucous, John Lee Hooker and Chuck Berry inspired songs to throw back shots into the early morning hours throughout the 1977 hard rockin', blooze-based LP. Opening with the quick-hittin' "You Got to Lose", the self-titled album rolls behind raw tracks that features the lengthy "One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer", plus the get-down stomp of "Madison Blues", "Can't Stop Lovin'", and set closer "Delaware Slide".
This is like the best bar band you've ever heard. People who talk smack about George Thorogood are really missing the point. By playing such cranked-up versions of their music, he has undoubtedly introduced more people to Bo Diddley, Chuck Berry, Elmore James, and John Lee Hooker than any SBS documentary ever will.
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If you want to collect Thorogood, his first two albums (this one and 'Move It On Over') are his best. He sold more copies later when he switched to EMI, but the records just aren't as consistent or fun. An unfortunate consequence of the label change is that both of the compilations put out by EMI miss out on classic material from the first two records, stuff like "Ride on Josephine", "You Got to Lose", and "It Wasn't Me".
This album was everything that I wanted it to be, high energy, raw and considering how long it took to record, amazing quality. No matter that it had only two George Thoroughgood written tracks, it transformed some of the other tunes into something I could relate to. Thus Bo Diddleys "Ride on Josephine" and Earl Hookers "You got to lose" were headed in a direction that I could understand. Some 35 years later I still get the buzz that I had then when I first heard the album played at a Uni party.
Surely that's the test of a great album?
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This rip was taken from my virgin vinyl (ripped at 320kps) and includes full album artwork. This 'Stockade pressing' is something special I can tell you - it sounds almost like a direct to disc recording. Crystal clear and super sharp acoustics make this a 'kick ass' blues and boogie album, So enjoy!
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Track Listing
01 You Got To Lose
02 Madison Blues
03 One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer
04 Kind Hearted Woman
05 Can't Stop Lovin'
06 Ride On Josephine
07 Homesick Boy
08 John Hardy
09 I'll Change My Style
10 Delaware Slide
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Band Members Are:
George Thorogood (electric and acoustic guitars, harmonica, lead vocals)
Jeff Smith (Drums)
Billy Blau (Bass)
Ron Smith (Second guitar on some tracks)
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George Thorogood Link (104Mb) New Link 27/02/2024
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