Unavailable in CD
Reached No.8 in UK Albums Charts of 1976

Vinyl Rip - Cool Edit - Ape by tracks - EAC. Mac 3.9.7
Covers from Lp.

This was the album that started it off for me back in '76. I went to Leeds University to see Lofgren that year using my freebie guest pass not knowing much about him. He played a set I'll never forget, including most of this album. He electrified me. It was bouncy, rocking Rock in its truest sense. Guitar, piano, vocals, gymnastics, the whole picnic! Despite the accolades of his first album, it's Cry Tough that stands out for me. Starting with the haunting guitar on the title track through to the cheek of Jailbait, I find it without fault. Highlights are For Your Love, originally a Yardbirds hit (written by Graham Gouldman later of 10CC !), Mud In Your Eye, a classic that has all the hallmarks of Lofgren's style as has You Lit A Fire. I think it's endemic of the era that its 37 minutes was probably so very well worked out with its running order having had just as much care and attention given to it. (Soapbox: if only the multi-track albums of recent years spewed out by reckless record companies could give as much attention to detail on producing an album.) If Cry Tough was one track longer it would miss the point. I find, even now, that it's magical 36 minutes and 42 seconds makes me want more!
Info

Line Up:
Nils Lofgren - guitar, clavinet, organ, synthesizer, piano and vocals with....
Tom Lofgren - guitar
Chuck Rainer - bass
Jim Gordon - drums
Wornell Jones - bass
Aynsley Dunbar - drums
Scotty Ball - upright bass
Emil Richards - percussion
Al Kooper - keyboards
Paul Stallforth - bass
Holden Raphael - percussion
with backing vocals from The Ron Hickling Singers, Ralph Molina, Billy Talbot, PP Arnold, Claudia Lennear and Buddy Miles

Produced by Al Kooper and David Briggs

Recorded at: Record Plant, Sound City, Los Angeles; Record Plant, Sausolito; Bias, Church Falls, Virginia


1 CRY TOUGH 05:06
2 IT'S NOT A CRIME 04:12
3 INCIDENTLY...IT'S OVER 03:18
4 FOR YOUR LOVE 05:22
5 SHARE A LITTLE 05:13
6 MUD IN YOUR EYE 02:40
7 CAN'T GET CLOSER (WCGC) 03:43
8 YOU LIT A FIRE 03:16
9 JAILBAIT 03:52
Total: 36:42