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Free : Fire and Water : 26 June 1970 / Remastered 2001
Pure and unadulterated , "Free" emerged as keepers of the flickering flame of the British Blues in a quartet of a beautiful balance . Paul Rodgers's huskily yearning vocals , clothes courtesy of the small ads in Melody Maker . Paul Kossoff streching his timeless guitar licks with his Les Paul's sustain , teenage Andy Fraser's mile-wide bass , rock-steady Simon Kirke 4/4'ing the whole together . Their manifesto was nowhere better proclaimed than on "All Right Now" .
Alexis Korner has suggested that they call themselves Free after his own Blues trio "Free At Last" , and seemingly erupting out of nowhere , they found themselves up amongst the headline acts at the Isle of Wight Pop Festival of 1970 . Yet they were never able to build completely on that success , not least through trying to keep Paul Kossoff's drug addiction under control .
1973's "Wishing Well", Free's final single , was a heartfelt plea from Rodgers to Kossoff - he failed to heed the song's message , and was dead within three years . "Fire and Water" is the third studio album and became the band's breakthrough hit, reaching #2 in the UK charts and #17 in the US , making it the most successful Free album.
Rodgers formed his next band , "Bad Company", founded in 1973 , with Mick Ralphs, former guitarist of "Mott the Hoople". Rodgers said: "Mick and I were trying to come up with names for the band . When I called him and said 'Bad Company', he dropped the phone."
"Bad Company" toured successfully from 1973 to 1982, and had several hits .
Label : Universal Island Records – UICY-9132 Format : CD, Reissue, Remastered Made in : EU Released : 2001 Genre : Rock Style : Classic Rock
Tracks
1. Fire And Water
2. Oh I Wept
3. Remember
4. Heavy Load
5. Mr. Big
6. Don't Say You Love Me
7. All Right Now (Additional Recordings)
8. Oh I Wept (Alternate Vocal Take)
9. Fire And Water (New Stereo Mix)
10.Fire And Water (BBC Session)
11.All Right Now (BBC Session)
12.All Right Now (Single Version)
13.All Right Now (First Version)
