1969 Orig FREE TONS OF SOBS Hard Blues PSYCH Jams

$

33

1969 ORIGINAL FIRST ALBUM                                         

ELECTRIFIED BLUES BURNER!!!!                                        

                          FREE

                TONS OF SOBS

                    USA - (brown) A&M RECORDS - SP 4198

Free was still two albums away from the song that would put them into their little corner of rock Valhalla, “All Right Now." This is the starting point for the great unsung British rock band.

A quick listen to all three albums shows the same influences, but their execution is completely different. Jeff Back’s group was never totally cohesive, and even the “live” blues on their first album was a studio effort with overdubbed audience. Zeppelin I sounds huge, massive, as if somehow, even from the first notes of "Good Times, Bad Times," Page and the rest had already shed the remnants of The Yardbirds in a single tour and were already a completely different entity. Tons of Sobs puts us front and center at the club show of a band that exploded from the first rehersal. Free , in fact, would be amazing live, and the records would only carry part of that weight. Lets listen in

Tons of Sobs opens and closes with a fragment of a song, "Over the Green Hills," and bleeds straight into "Worry," with Kossoff’s repeating guitar triplets letting us know that we walked into the pub in the middle of the performance. As the guitar solo ends, Kirke’s drums and Fraser’s menacing bass stalk in and we know that we’re in a whole different space. “If it’s the cold black night/that eating up your heart/the cold damp sweat/keeps you and sleep apart” sings a young Paul Rodgers. Free isn’t pretending to be anything other than what they are: a young blues playing their favorite music.

"Walk in the Shadows," and "The Hunter," show just how good and tight a band they were. Both have Fraser, whose bass was both melodic and inventive, locked in with Simon Kirke’s drums, riding the back beat while Kossoff alternates between riffing and some absolutely incendiary fills and solos. Rodgers is in amazing form already at the age of 18, putting real edge to such lines as “When I get you in the shdows baby/I’m going to give you whats in store.”

"Going Down Slow," sounds like it should be on Beck’s album, and sounds like it really is live, a full band that doesn’t need the studio to make the thing work. "The Hunter," is uptempo from Zeppelin’s version, with some great guitar work, and, without the bolero ending that Page and Plant grafted on the end, sounds a lot more like Howlin’ Wolf then either of the band’s could manage.

In fact, Free was as preoccupied with getting some as Robert Plant or Howlin’ Wolf were. Two of the songs, "Wild Indian Woman," and "Sweet Tooth," have more double entendres than anything that the 60’s had run across in a long time; “You don’t need you horses baby/you’ve got me to ride/you don’t need your bed/I’ll keep you warm inside.” Lets spend the night together indeed. Sung in Paul Rodger’s most seductive voice, gliding on the back of a rhythm section that knew how to swing, one shudders to think of how well this worked for him in the pubs of North London in 1968.

Loose and loud, Free has plenty swagger, and style, their hard rhythms on TONS OF SOBS always tight and punishing hard...       

Over The Green Hills Pt. I

Worry

Walk In My Shadow

Wild Indian Woman

Goin' Down Slow

I'm A Mover

The Hunter

Moonshine

Sweet Tooth

Over The Green Hill Pt. II

CONDITION: The cover is solid, no seam splits, no bends and no writing but does have light shelf wear, so VG(+) that should not bother a good number of collectors as it is just light.

The vinyl is all glossy clear, clean: VG++ to "EX" (excellent) expect to play very enjoyable without interferance.

      A cool addition to anyone's music library!

SEE: SELLERS OTher items for similar cool sounds for "head" people...

EFFICIENT/CAREFUL GRADING

All imperfections are noted both cover & record