Free - Tons of Sobs (1968)

If you were to ask me what the best debut LP ever was then this is the one.
The year 1968, me 14 years old.
Out of the British Blues boom grows the Bluesrock scene and, no, Free weren't the first to arrive.
John Mayall, the Godfather, went through his Bluesbreakers personnel faster than a McDonald's franchise but he delivered some great names.
Clapton to Cream, Page to Led Zeppelin, Keef Hartley to his own band, Green/Fleetwood/McVie to Fleetwood Mac, Mick Taylor to the Stones. I could go on.

Free's bass player Andy Fraser played a couple of gigs with Mayall. He was 15 years old then and dated the daughter of Alexis Korner,another British legend. It was Korner's recommendation that got him the Mayall gig.
It was also Korner who got Andy Fraser together with the other future members of Free and helped them to their recording contract with Island Records.

Guitarist Paul Kossoff and drummer Simon Kirke played in a standard blues band called Black Cat Bones and recruited singer Paul Rodgers. Free was born.

Tons of Sobs opens and closes with Over the Green Hills a subdued acoustic affair. If you want to hear the full version then I'm afraid you'll have to get the 5 cd boxed set Songs of Yesterday...
From then on it's full strut, male oriented blues rock with Kossoff's guitar shining in all the songs.
Worry, Walk in my Shadow, Wild Indian Woman, I'm a mover.
Koss' masterpiece however is a cover. The Hunter written by Booker T and all his MG's.
For a long while this was Free's live showstopper with Koss' Gibson wailing like a derainged and derailed freight train.
Look up a live take of their version and be prepared to fall flat on your ass.


In this day and age the cd version of Tons of Sobs comes with eight bonus tracks. Visions of Hell is particulary worthwhile as this was intended to be included on the album but was replaced with The Hunter at the last minute.

If you think Allright Now was all Free ever did you're wrong. That was probably their worst song.
Tons of Sobs is the place to start I assure you.