Expanded reissue of George Thorogood and the Destroyers’ ‘Live in Boston, 1982’ album released today
The expanded version of George Thorogood and the Destroyers‘ Live in Boston, 1982 album, which originally hit stores in 2010, got its release today.
The reissue, titled Live in Boston, 1982: The Complete Concert, features the entire set that Thorogood and his band played at Beantown’s Bradford Ballroom on November 23, 1982, including 12 performances that didn’t appear on the original release.
The show took place a few months after the Bad to the Bone album was released, and featured the band playing a supercharged set that included that record’s classic title track, and a couple other originals ,mixed in with their usual selection of vintage blues and rock ‘n’ roll covers.
Thorogood tells ABC Audio that he remembers being impressed at the solid turnout for the concert, noting that the venue was located in a section of Boston known as “the Combat Zone,” which he says was “a very dangerous area at that time.”
The crowd’s enthusiasm is audible throughout the album, and on “Bad to the Bone,” the fans happily take over for Thorogood to sing during the chorus.
Reflecting on the effect the popularity of “Bad to the Bone” had on his band’s fan base, George says, “I couldn’t say that it expanded our following, but it strengthened it by giving them new material…[W]e were more interested in sustaining the fans that we had, and if we can build on that, then that was a bonus.”
Of course, the core of the show was Thorogood and the Destroyers’ revved-up renditions of songs by Bo Diddley, Chuck Berry, John Lee Hooker, Elmore James and other legends.
Live in Boston, 1982: The Complete Concert is available now as a two-CD set, a four-LP vinyl collection and digitally.
Here’s the full track list:
Disc 1
“House of Blue Lights”
“Kids from Philly”
“Who Do You Love?”*
“I’m Wanted”
“Cocaine Blues”*
“One Way Ticket”
“One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer”
“As the Years Go Passing By”
“Spoken Introduction: The Dance Floor”*
“It Wasn’t Me”
“Bottom of the Sea”*
“Night Time”*
“New Boogie Chillun'”
Disc 2
“I’ll Change My Style”*
“Miss Luann”
“Madison Blues”*
“The Sky Is Crying”*
“I Can’t Stop Lovin'”
“Spoken Introduction: Audience Participation”*
“Same Thing”*
“Bad to the Bone”*
“Move It On Over”
“Wild Weekend”
“Nobody but Me”
“No Particular Place to Go”*
“Ride on Josephine”*
“Reelin’ and Rockin'”*
* = previously unreleased.
By Matt Friedlander
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