Years ago — in 2011 to be exact — we wrote the following in a listing for a very good sounding domestic pressing:
Solid bass, present vocals, plenty of energy — the only thing missing here is the Tubey Magical richness and sweetness that only the British originals (in our experience) have, and in spades by the way.
But try to find one. Over the last two or three years I think we’ve managed to get hold of exactly one clean copy.
Fast forward a number of years and we’ve only had a few since then. I have seen the original Pink Label British pressing of this album sell on the web for more than 1000 dollars, which might explain why we rarely have them.
But if you want to hear this record in all of its glory, the UK Island pressings are the only game in town.
Both Pink and Sunray labels sound good, just make sure they are from the UK.
And don’t buy any later label pressing from any country if you want the best sound.
- More hot Stamper pressings of exceptionally Tubey Magical recordings
- More Hot Stamper pressings with exceptionally Tubey Magical acoustic guitars
- More reviews for our most Tubey Magical Demo Discs
If you’ve got the full range dynamic speakers to play Tons of Sobs good and loud, you will discover, as we have, what a powerful British Blues Rock album this is. No hits, just heavy electric blues played with feeling, months before Zeppelin would come along and take the genre to a whole new level.
What We Listen For on Tons of Sobs
- Energy for starters. What could be more important than the life of the music?
- Then: presence and immediacy. The vocals aren’t “back there” somewhere, lost in the mix. They’re front and center where any recording engineer worth his salt — Andy Johns in this case — would have put them.
- The Big Sound comes next — wall to wall, lots of depth, huge space, three-dimensionality, all that sort of thing.
- Then transient information — fast, clear, sharp attacks, not the smear and thickness so common to these LPs.
- Tight punchy bass — which ties in with good transient information, also the issue of frequency extension further down.
- Next: transparency — the quality that allows you to hear deep into the soundfield, showing you the space and air around all the instruments.
- Extend the top and bottom and voila, you have The Real Thing — an honest to goodness Hot Stamper.
Side One
Over the Green Hills (Pt 1)
Worry
Walk in My Shadow
Wild Indian Woman
Goin’ Down Slow
Side Two
I’m a Mover
The Hunter
Moonshine
Sweet Tooth
Over the Green Hills (Pt 2)
AMG 1/2 Star Rave Review
Although Free was never destined to scrape the same skies as Led Zeppelin, when they first burst out of the traps in 1968, close to a year ahead of Jimmy Page and company, they set the world of British blues-rock firmly on its head, a blistering combination of youth, ambition, and, despite those tender years, experience that, across the course of their debut album, did indeed lay the groundwork for all that Zeppelin would embrace.
That Free and Zeppelin were cut from the same cloth is immediately apparent, even before you start comparing the versions of “The Hunter” that highlight both bands’ debut albums. Where Free streaks ahead, however, is in their refusal to compromise their own vision of the blues — even at its most commercial (“I’m a Mover” and “Worry”), Tons of Sobs has a density that makes Zeppelin and the rest of the era’s rocky contemporaries sound like flyweights by comparison.