LPCDreissues: Looking forward to the past

Originally released in 1993, ‘Haircut’ features George Thorogood (vocals, guitar); Hank Carter (saxophone, keyboards, background vocals); Bill Blough (bass); and Jeff Simon (drums) • Produced by Terry Manning and The Delaware Destroyers • The CD booklet for ‘Haircut’ features an original eight page cartoon by Peter Bagge • This is one of the most consistently bluesy of Thorogood’s ‘90s albums, with fewer of the overt goofs and ‘60s garage-band and punk influences that drove the purists crazy. Instead, it’s a big-sounding, mostly serious set, in which Thorogood covers the usual suspects - John Lee Hooker (‘Want Ad Blues’), Willie Dixon (‘Down in the Bottom’, which he probably learned from a Stones bootleg), and Bo Diddley (‘Cops and Robbers’, ditto). As usual,there are also a couple of changes of pace, in this case a solo acoustic version of ‘My Friend Robert’ (an obscure song by ‘60s folkie Patrick Sky) and Thorogood’s own ‘Baby Don’t Go’, an infectious piece of New Wave Tex-Mex, complete with the sort of cheesy organ riffs that hadn’t been heard since the late ‘70s heyday of Joe “King” Carrasco. The hit from the album, of course, was the deliberately snot-nosed ‘Get a Haircut’, but the album’s actual centerpiece is the astounding ‘Killer’s Bluze’, which is in fact a six-minute death threat set to the riff from ‘I’m a Man’. Eminem, eat your heart out track listing: 1. Get A Haircut 2. Howlin’ For My Baby 3. Killer’s Bluze 4. Down In The Bottom 5. I’m Ready 6. Cops And Robbers 7. Gone Dead Train 8. Want Ad Blues 9. My Friend Robert 10. Baby Don’t Go