Free - Tons Of Sobs

The arrival of the "Tons Of Sobs" album set a further benchmark for the advance of the UK's electric blues-rock fusion in the late 1960s. A mark already begun by the likes of Cyril Davies, Alexis Korner and John Mayall, which helped to breed diverse bands like Steampacket, Colosseum, Fleetwood Mac, and Cream- with Led Zeppelin releasing their debut shortly after this 'Free' album debut.

Taking their name 'Free' from a suggestion by Korner, this gutsy blues group of talented teenagers provide an inspired rendition of Booker T. Jones/Albert King's "The Hunter" (a number that also squeezed into Zeppelin's version of "How Many More Times"), along with an eight-minute version of 'St Louis' Jimmy Oden's "Goin' Down Slow". Other than these two 'covers' the remaining eight tracks are their own, with their original studio recording of "Over The Green Hills" split in half (as "Part 1" & "Part 2") to top-and-tail the performance.

What a performance it is too, from four young artists, set-FREE and let loose to stamp their brand on the blues. Korner's young protege Andy Fraser- ex Bluesbreakers' bassist and barely sixteen; Drummer, Simon Kirke, who'd got his act and vision together in the band 'Black Cat Bones'; Les Paul guitar virtuoso Paul Kossoff, also from 'Black Cat Bones' who had previously supported the likes of Fleetwood Mac on tour; Then, of course, the naturally gifted vocal front-man and lyricist Paul Rodgers- ex 'The Wild Flowers' (which later effectively emerged, also on the Island label, as 'Tramline') and Brown Sugar. Session work on the album is by 'prog-rock' keyboard man Steve Miller, another Korner 'ex' and founder of 'Delivery', who does some great blues "piano-thumping", as it's amusingly described in his sleeve credit.

The band's short intro fades to hit you with "Worry", a track packed with rollicking blues that sets the trend, with Kossoff worrying his strings with trembling riffs that echo his development in the company of Peter Green. "Walk In My Shadow" comes next, opening with a fearsome feedback sustain and loaded with sexual innuendo "When I get you in the shadows I'm gonna lay you on the floor", delivered to perfection by Rodgers' seductive vocals. This is followed by the loping blues of "Wild Indian Woman" and its equally suggestive "You don't need your horses baby, you've got me to ride" highlighted by Kossoff's cutting vibrato guitar licks. Icing on the cake to finish side one is the cover of Oden's "Goin' Down Slow", where the band explore just about every avenue of blues without a noodle to be heard.

Side two kicks off with "I'm A Mover", hooked into Fraser's neat n' heavy bass line with Kossoff's clever runs threading away behind the vocals. "The Hunter", a blues cover that's not quite on the money against the original but inspired none the less, is followed and redeemed by the intriguingly dark and foreboding "Moonshine", which has a sound that could be a precursor to that of Black Sabbath. "Sweet Tooth" is pretty much a 'studio jam' with 'The Koss' and Miller exploring their instrumental talents to Kirke and Fraser's solid backing, while Rodgers puts in a more laid-back performance. The set quietly rounds off where it began, with the back end of "Over The Green Hills" as "Part 2" (which keen fans may wish to record and join together with "Part 1").

Listening to this album in retrospect it's amazing to think how young, yet how accomplished and talented these four musicians were at the time. When this album was released on Chris Blackwell's growing independent UK Island label it didn't quite have the marketing and distribution 'pazazz' enjoyed by blues-oriented bands signed to labels such as Atlantic and Polydor. Free survived in the shadows of the blues 'supergroups' until gaining national attention in 1970 with the single "All Right Now", which became remixed, reissued, and somewhat 'commercialized' outside of the electric blues genre. An Abbey Road team digitally remastered this album set and added bonus tracks on a 2001 CD. But, if you've not heard the band before this 'glossy' period and if you fancy hearing basic-production well-executed nitty-gritty dirty-fusion blues then give a vinyl "Tons Of Sobs" a listen. You'll become blues-hyphenated, if nothing else.