Rounder Years Anthology
J. E FELL | Carterville, Illinois United States | 03/24/2003
(4 out of 5 stars)
""Who Do You Love" is a summary of George Thorogood's early work with the Rounder label. This disk can be seen as sort of a companion piece to the "The Baddest of George Thorogood and the Destroyers". There are only three cuts which overlap the other set. "Who Do You Love", "Move It On Over" and "One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer". While "Who Do You Love" does not contain any of Thorogood's originals like "Bad To The Bone" the disk contains a number of high energy cover tunes. In addition only 5 (9 if you consider the live versions on "Anthology") of the versions of tunes on this 16 tune set are found on the "Anthology" two disk set. Aside from the aforementioned cuts other highlights include a great cover of Bo Diddley's "Ride On Josephine", a cover of the Strangelove's garage classic "Night Time", Muddy Waters' "Bottom Of The Sea", and a number of slashing Elmore James' covers such as "Madison Blues", "Can't Stop Lovin'", "The Sky Is Crying" and "New Hawaiian Boogie". A couple of favorites were missed like covers of Hound Dog Taylor's "I Just Can't Make It", Chuck Berry's "It Wasn't Me" and Muddy Waters' "The Same Thing" but the disk also contains an unissued live version of "Who Do You Love" from 1979. The set is about 70 minutes so it would have been interesting if more unissued live cuts were included. Thorogood's aggressive slide guitar playing is never far from front on this set. "Who Do You Love" illustrates not only the beginnings of Thorogood's career but also his influences which he wears on his sleeve. Thorogood's combination of blues and boogie is infectious and hopefully will lead people to further investigation of the original versions of some of the songs on this set."
Track Listings (16) - Disc #1