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Rating: April 19, 1968: the birth of a legend.
Four young and rebellious boys, just blossomed in a fantastic era, in a world evolving ready for any change.
The son of a doctor on vocals, a boy from an agricultural background on drums, the son of a famous actor and a sixteen-year-old fresh from none other than Alexis Corner's band on bass.
This is the main formula, beautiful things almost always arise by chance, among simple and unknown people. Because Paul Rodgers discovered he had a warm and sensual voice during high school, when with his band Wildflowers he covered "Good Golly Miss Molly". Or Andy Fraser, a boy of humble origins who was expelled from school for refusing to cut his hair and whose mother toiled various jobs to support her children.
In short, by putting these four boys together in a studio, the group Free took shape instantly, so much so that they immediately recorded four or five pieces just composed. The cooperation in songwriting is indeed one of Free's greatest strengths: each had a totally different idea from the other which, assembled together, formed those pieces that still today surprise and drive so many people mad.
"Tons Of Sobs" is the first in a series of excellent records, and in some ways the freshest. All the songs are aggressively maximal, and the importance of the sexual revolution of those years is palpable in every note of the record. Just listen to "Wild Indian Woman", "I'm A Mover" and "Walk in My Shadow" to realize it; these two powerful blues are perhaps overly explicit, and Paul Kossoff's guitar intertwines with Fraser's phrases and Simon Kirke’s rolls in a sensual and very passionate progression. Paul Rodgers' voice is the cherry on top: still very hoarse compared to subsequent records, it can express even too well the lustful pleasure of the flesh, exploding in a sound orgasm in strong and almost erotic songs like "Worry" or "Sweet Tooth", a characteristic that asserts him as one of the sexiest voices around, even today.
The album also presents very intense and almost melancholic parts, like the sad "Moonshine", a haunting ballad set in a cemetery, where one watches over the grave of an adorable girl leaving the man all alone to mourn her death.
Intense is also one of the two covers on the record: "Goin' Down Slow" (Howlin' Wolf) is a blues slow and heartrending, where the call and response between Rodgers and Kossoff exudes pure genius, and of which the same guitarist would later say that with his riffs he expressed a deep anger against the tragedy of death.
The other cover is quite the opposite: the famous "The Hunter" by Albert King is a blues stretched to the limits of aggression, where the piano and organ played by Fraser himself provide excellent seasoning, and where Kossoff's primordial solos form the backbone of the song.
One of the most brilliant factors remains, however, the opening and closing of the album: the two "Over The Green Hills" are acoustic songs signed by Rodgers, which exalt the beauty of rough and wild nature.
"Tons Of Sobs" is an almost perfect debut, if it weren't for the immaturity of the arrangements, much more accurate in subsequent records.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
02 Worry (03:26)
If its the cold black night
That's eating up your heart
The cold damp sweat
Keep you and sleep apart
The ticking clock
Just watching on the table
The wind that howls
As much as it is able
Then worry baby worry
There's a reason for you to
There's a silent, deadly message
In the wind that's meant for you
And the sleeping streets
Have closed their tired eyes
The fear that creeps
Will move & slowly rise
Your beating heart
Will hammer at your breast
Your aching brain
Will cry aloud for rest
Worry baby worry
There's a reason for you to
There's a silent, deadly message
In the wind that's meant for you
Worry baby worry
There's a reason for you to
There's a silent, deadly message
In the wind that's meant for you
03 Walk in My Shadow (03:30)
Walk in my shadow
My throat is dry
My knees are weak
It's so damned hot
I can't even speak
Walk in my shadow
I can't take it anymore
When I get you in the shadows
I gonna show you what it's for
Yes I know baby
That's a shady kind of deal
I just want to find out
How you feel
Walk in my shadow
I ain't gonna take it anymore
When I get you in the shadow
I'm gonna give you what's in store
Yes I know you say I'm stupid
It just wouldn't be cool
Well I can tell baby that
I aint no fool
Walk in my shadow
I can't take it anymore
When I get you in the shadow
I'm gonna lay you on the floor
When I get you in the shadow
I'm gonna give you what's in store
06 I'm a Mover (02:56)
I was born by the river, just like this river,
I've been moving ever since
Ain't got no body to call my own you know
I've been moving since the day I was born
Life is a game just made for fun, I don't need no body
No, I don't love no one
Yes, I'm a mover baby
Now get out of my way will ya?
Don't try to stop me now
Following the footpath one fine day,
When I asked a wise man which was the way,
He said "follow you heart and look for yourself,
And come back and tell me what you have learned".
Yes, I'm a mover.
Went back and told him I'd found me a wife,
Eleven children and a real good life,
Told him I'd left this happy home,
'cause I need to return to the long winding road
Yes, I'm a mover
07 The Hunter (04:14)
They call me the hunter
'cause thats my name
Pretty little woman like you
Is my only game
I bought me a love gun
Just the other day
And I aim to aim it your way
Ain't no use to hide
Ain't no used to run
'cause I got you in the sight
Of my girly gun
The first time I saw you
Standing on the street
I said to myself
Oh! ain't she sweet
I got my love gun loaded
With hundreds of kisses
Soon as I pull the trigger baby
There will be no misses
Ain't no use to hide
Ain't no use to run
'cause I got you in the sight
Of my girly gun
Ain't no use to hide
Ain't no use to run
'cause I got you in the sight
Of my girly gun
The first time I saw you
Standing on the street
I said to myself
Oh! ain't she sweet
I got my love gun loaded
With hundreds of kisses
Soon as I pull the trigger baby
There will be no misses
Ain't no use to hide
Ain't no use to run
'cause I got you in the sight
Of my girly gun
08 Moonshine (05:04)
Sitting in a graveyard
Waiting for the dawn
Leaning on my tombstone
Till the night is gone
Oh how the moon
Hangs in black sky
Wish i could find out
The reason why
I sit here alone
And cry
My woman was so lovely
Together we were one
No sunshine in my weary eyes
Now that she has gone
Oh how the moon
Hangs in black sky
Wish I could find out
The reason why
I sit here alone
And cry
Palm trees whisper to me
From your spreading height
Tell me all the loney stories
Of the world at night
Oh how the moon
Hangs in black sky
Wish I could find out
The reason why
I sit here alone
And cry
09 Sweet Tooth (04:53)
It's like a soft caressing sea
Or making love in harmony
Or the centre of a starry galaxy
It's like the richness that's inside
The one I'm trying to describe
Or the living water stretching far and wide
Searching for a shadow in the morning sun
Playing with your woman when there's work to be done
People, won't you listen when I tell the truth
I give her all my sugar, she's got such a sweet tooth yeah yeah
It's like a sound that rests my soul
Or like a part that's now a whole
Or as something that is burning bright as gold
I want her near me everyday
Then I want to hear her say
There is somthing here between us as we lay
Searching for a shadow in the morning sun
Playing with your woman when there's work to be done
People, won't you listen when I tell the truth
I give her all my sugar, she's got such a sweet tooth yeah yeah
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