Don’t look now, Mother, but I think our little George has become
\na man.<\/p>\n
After years of putting out blues-rock that espoused good times
\nand good liquor, the public seemed to get tired of George Thorogood
\nand the Destroyers. Even I – a self-proclaimed lover of the blues –
\nfell away from following the one-time roadie for Hound Dog Taylor.
\nI mean, there’s only so many times you can tell a joke about
\nwhiskey before that joke just isn’t funny anymore.<\/p>\n
But Thorogood and crew obviously took a long look at things, and
\nhave stormed back to life with
\nHalf A Boy \/ Half A Man<\/i>, a no-nonsense blues album that
\nsounds like it was as fun to make as it is to listen to. Without a
\ndoubt, Thorogood has released the best album of his career.<\/p>\n
The first thing that strikes me is Thorogood’s choice of cover
\ntunes – including the all-out party tune “Double Shot” (though I
\ncould have swore someone did it before the Swingin’ Medallions –
\nany help out there?).If there was ever a song that showed the life
\nforce returning to Thorogood and his music, this is the track. He
\ndoesn’t even have to be the center of attention on this one; that
\nhonor falls to keyboardist\/multi-instrumentalist Hank Carter. It’s
\na killer cover, and a tune I can’t stop listening to.<\/p>\n
The pure joy of
\nHalf A Boy \/ Half A Man<\/i> continues with the title track,
\noriginally penned by Nick Lowe. Again, it’s an interesting choice,
\nbut Thorogood and the Destroyers pull it off incredibly well,
\nmaking it a tune you’ll want to get up and dance to.<\/p>\n
This isn’t to say that the Destroyers always look for the party
\non this album. In fact, the blues that Thorogood and company play
\nis some of the rawest I’ve heard in some time. Tracks like “99 Days
\nTo Jail,” “I Don’t Trust Nobody” and “Nothing Now” all seem to
\nindicate a new sense of focus for Thorogood and crew – not that
\nthey didn’t have focus on previous albums.<\/p>\n
Thorogood even has the courage to take a trip into country with
\nthe track “Not Tonight (I Have A Heartache)”, one of only two songs
\nThorogood wrote on the album. Undoubtedly this one is going to end
\nup on Pete Levin’s page of funny country song titles, but it’s not
\nthat bad of a tune.<\/p>\n
Thorogood’s days of superstardom with tracks like “Bad To The
\nBone” might be gone – and in a way, this could be a blessing for
\nhim. Without the glare of the spotlight, Thorogood has been able to
\nsit back and prepare an album that features some of his best
\nplaying in years. And something tells me if radio gave tracks like
\n“Double Shot” or “Half A Boy, Half A Man” a chance, the phones
\nwould be lighting up like Christmas trees.<\/p>\n
\nHalf A Boy \/ Half A Man<\/i> is an album that reaffirms Thorogood
\nand the Destroyers’ ability to work the blues into a frenzy that
\nyou hope will never stop. It’s an album that must be experienced –
\nbut good luck getting it out of your CD player.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27679,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[7428],"rating":[5646],"class_list":["post-39055","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-george-thorogood-and-the-destroyers","rating-rating-a"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39055","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39055"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39055\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27679"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39055"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=39055"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=39055"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}