Fire and Water (Free, 1970)

What goes round come around. Back on the first day of the year we looked at the Earthquake Album released by Rock Aid Armenia. I noted Free's contribution of "All Right Now" and lamented the fact (or at least demonstrated) that they were woefully underrepresented in my collection. Soon after I made good on plans to remedy this and picked up their best-known album, Fire and Water (by virtue of "All Right Now", of course).

The band was in pretty good condition around 1970. Their sound was considerably more "spare" than others of the era, with a nearly live-in-the-studio sound. Since Paul Rodgers largely stuck to vocals only, Andy Fraser often elevated the bass from a rhythm instrument to a lead instrument, resulting in some pretty cool sounding guitar/bass duels with Paul Kossoff. Additionally, Free was much more about musical prowess than Rodger's later work in Bad Company, which featured much tighter songwriting. Song structures for Free were relatively flimsy, but they weren't the focus either.

Not long after this album, Free went off the rails during their next album's recording session, triggering a breakup, quickly followed by a brief reunion, then continuing without Fraser, who apparently couldn't stand Paul Rodgers anymore. Kossoff was so messed up on drugs that the band had to shore up the guitar role by adding a keyboardist, another guitarist (briefly), and handing Rodgers a guitar. Needless to say matters for Free were pretty awful from here onward.

Another thing that bugged me about the Earthquake Album was that so many of the songs were needlessly edited, including (to my horror) "Smoke on the Water '90" (Rodgers' verse was cut out) which was supposed to be the big selling point of the compilation. "All Right Now" itself had a good couple minutes removed from it (half the bridge and most of the conclusion). Sure you got the riff and hooks that most people want, but it was a truncation, no two ways about it. So, finally, after nearly 10 months, the entire "All Right Now" finally has its day! Free did pop up on another compilation seen here (Island 40 Volume 4) with a live "Mr. Big", so here to match is the studio version. Singer Paul Rodgers and drummer Simon Kirke already got extensive coverage with the review of Bad Company not too long ago.