Rounder Records/Concord Music GroupOn Tuesday, June 16, a stripped-down original mix of George Thorogood‘s debut album, 1977’s George Thorogood and the Delaware Destroyers, will be released on CD and as a digital download. The raw version of the album, which initially was issued as a limited-edition vinyl LP in April as part of the 2015 Record Store Day event, features tracks from the 1975 sessions the veteran blues-rocker made with an early Delaware Destroyers lineup before bassist Bill Blough joined the group and later was overdubbed onto the recordings.
Many of George’s fans likely will enjoy the stripped-down version of the record, which also includes snippets of studio banter between tracks. However, Thorogood tells ABC Radio that he wasn’t even that pleased with the low-fi production of the originally released album.
“Someone came to me and he said, ‘Well, that’s the charm of it…It was refreshing because you weren’t fresh,'” Thorogood notes. “It was like seeing something really cool on TV, but the reception’s bad and you gotta whack the TV — boom! — to get the picture. And they thought we were doing that on purpose, which we weren’t.”
An aspect of the reissue that Thorogood says he is happy about is the cover photo, which is the one he wanted to appear on the original version of the album but was rejected by the record label. George says the pic, a shadowy image of him playing guitar, reminds him of cool debut albums by other artists he respects, like Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.
“It kind of looks like Mick Jagger playing a guitar,” he says of the reissue cover photo. “I said, ‘Well, that’s who I am. That’s what I do. That’s my thing. You take [the Rolling Stones album] December’s Children and you throw in ‘Bad to the Bone’ and that’s me.”
George Thorogood and the Delaware Destroyers features a number a classic Thorogood tracks, including his covers of John Lee Hooker‘s “One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer,” Bo Diddley‘s “Ride On Josephine” and Elmore James‘ “Madison Blues.” The reissue also includes a previously unreleased version of another James tune, “Goodbye Baby.”
Meanwhile, Thorogood tells ABC Radio that he thinks The Destroyers — the “Delaware” was dropped from the group’s name long ago — are a much better band now than when they recorded his early albums.
“We play better venues. We play a lot of the same songs, but we play them much better. Now is when you want to come hear us,” George maintains. “[Back then,] everybody enjoyed it for the rawness of it or the non-slickness of it. My feelings were we could do a little slicking up.”
Fans wanting to hear Thorogood and the Destroyers now can catch them on the tail end of a tour with Stray Cats frontman Brian Setzer. The trek wraps up this Saturday with a show in Saratoga, California. George says he’d tried to organize a tour with Setzer for years, knowing that the double bill was one that rock fans would love.
“Promoters jumped right on it,” he tells ABC Radio. “I said, ‘Well, what do you want? I mean…Brian Setzer and George. One is brilliant, one is bad, you know? They both rock. And everyone knows who we are, and they know what they’re gonna get.'”
Here are Thorogood and the Destroyers’ remaining tour dates with Setzer:
6/16 — Albuquerque, NM, Sandia Resort & Casino
6/18 — San Diego, CA, Humphreys by the Bay
6/19 — Lincoln, CA, Thunder Valley Casino
6/20 — Saratoga, CA, Mountain Winery
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