Tons Of Sobs: The Best Blues Rock Debut LP In History

If you were to rely on Kerrang! (especially the magazine’s 666 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die special issue) and a few other so-called esteemed rock publications, you’d be under the impression that Free were an OK British blues rock band that managed just one great record: 1970’s Fire and Water. You’d be wrong. Of course.

Because Free, with all due respect to Kerrang!, were in no way also-rans. Neither were they inferior to the likes of Led Zeppelin, The Jeff Beck Group or Cream. In fact if I were forced to rate those four bands based only on the sheer fucking awesomeness of their debut albums, my top to bottom order would read: Free, The Jeff Beck Group, Led Zeppelin and then only, Cream.

History has not been kind to Free. Today, if they’re remembered at all, it’s for being a one hit wonder. But All Right Now, in spite of how good it is, is a poor representation of what Free were. For the real story you’d have to delve into Ton of Sobs, an album recorded and released by four teenagers who had no right to understand the blues as well as they did.

Rock history is full of stories of the daring/nerve/audacity/defiance/ambition of youth. How kids with instruments incited revolutions of sound. And yet, while everyone talks of Steve Winwood, Björk and Booker T. Jones, few make mention of the fact that Free’s drummer, Simon Kirke was 18, frontman Paul Rodgers and guitarist Paul Kossoff were both 17 and bassist Andy Fraser was a mere 15, when the four of them wrote and recorded arguably, the greatest blues rock debut of all-time.

If you’ve never heard it, know this: Tons of Sobs is all killa, no filler, from the 50-second curtain raiser Over the Green Hills (Part 1) all the way to the end, some 38 minutes later. It’s drenched in sweat and reeks of yesterday’s now-stale cologne with songs that focus on the only thing teenage blues hounds are interested in: booze and sex! There’s pre-Bad Company, pre-The Firm, pre-Queen Rodgers bellowing about wanting to ride a Wild Indian Woman; there’s Kossoff, seven years prior to an untimely demise, providing a masterclass in blues vibrato and there’s the swaggering, driving rhythm section of Kirke and man-child Fraser.

The sad fact is that despite strong follow-up records, a legendary Isle of Wight show that blew the speakers to shreds and yes, even Billboard No. 4 smash All Right Now, Free would never again sound as stunning as they did on their debut. There was also the small matter of there only being place for one mammoth blues rock band in 1970s Britain, a position was soon filled by Led Zeppelin. Still, Tons of Sobs remains for anyone who cares to take a listen. Go ahead, I dare you.