Art & Creativity Quote by George Thorogood

There is a quiet humiliation baked into this line, and that is why it lands. George Thorogood is admitting that his bar for “good” wasn’t some abstract ideal of originality or genius; it was the blunt, public standard set by other people’s hits. If you built your early reputation on revving up old blues and rock staples, covers aren’t just repertoire - they’re a measuring stick. They carry instant credibility, a pre-tested groove, a lineage. Trying to match them means competing with songs that already survived the cultural marketplace.

The intent is pragmatic: he wanted originals that could sit in a setlist next to “Move It On Over” or “Who Do You Love” without feeling like a dip in energy. That’s not an auteur fantasy. It’s a working musician’s problem: keep the room lit, keep the band tight, keep the audience from drifting to the bar.

The subtext is even sharper. Covers can be a hiding place, a way to borrow authority from the canon. Thorogood’s statement frames originality not as sacred, but as risk. To write “as good as the covers” is to aim for songs that feel inevitable - simple enough to be mistaken for standards, sturdy enough to be played loud in a crowded club. It’s also a sideways defense against the snob reflex that treats covers as lesser art. He’s saying: the goal wasn’t to escape tradition; it was to earn a place inside it.