George Thorogood’s illustrious career is celebrated by the new release, The Original George Thorogood, which brings together the best from the rock and roll heart and fevered brain of George Thorogood and his unstoppable, longtime band, The Destroyers.
Out now, The Original George Thorogood is available on CD, digitally, and in two vinyl LP configurations, including black vinyl and, for the ultimate collector, a limited-edition Translucent Orange LP. You can check out “Back In The USA” from the album below.
As the artist himself once put it, “I guess a good song is a good song is a good song, you know?” And what we have here is a collection of hard-stompin,’ party-down, good songs—all penned by Mr. Thorogood himself.
“It’s easy to write a song, difficult to write a good song, and even harder to write a great song,” Thorogood says. “It strikes home that I have the ability to write some pretty great songs, and there’s a real sense of achievement to that.”
In the late ’70s, Thorogood’s badass vocal delivery and grindhouse slide guitar rocketed the Destroyers onto the charts, with two platinum and six gold albums to their credit. Over the course of his 20-album career, Thorogood has won acclaim as an inspired interpreter of timeless classics by masters like Bo Diddley, John Lee Hooker, and Hank Williams. But all along the way, he kept honing his own songcraft.
For Thorogood – currently touring with The Destroyers on their acclaimed ‘Good To Be Bad: 45 Years Of Rock Tour’ – as well as for his millions of fans, The Original George Thorogood is a welcome reminder that the pen can be as mighty as the guitar. “You try to spread yourself out as a songwriter,” says George, “and I’ve always tried to do my best. We’ve been playing a lot of these songs for a long time, and some haven’t been performed live at all. I hope fans are surprised by the ones they’ve never heard before.”
The Original George Thorogood also showcases the range of Thorogood’s output, with tracks like the tour de force truck drivin’ anthem “Gear Jammer,” the heartfelt country ballad “Oklahoma Sweetheart,” and the previously unreleased “Back In The U.S.A.” Additionally, hard-hitting barnburners like “I Really Like Girls,” “If You Don’t Start Drinkin’ (I’m Gonna Leave),” and “You Talk Too Much” are served up with classic Thorogood swagger and tongue-in-cheek panache.