Customer Reviews

Fire & Water

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Free's one true gem "Fire and Water" is also one of the best hard rock albums of the early 1970s, raking along with "The James Gang Rides Again" and Deep Purple's "Machine Head." And this is not just because their biggest hit, "All Right Now," appears on the album. The songs are uniformly excellent, though such cuts as "Mr. Big," "Do You Remember," and "Don't Say You Love Me" really stand out. It is too bad that lead singer Paul Rodgers's subsequent band, Bad Company, could never achieve this level of mastery.

Free was nothing if not the proof that less is more; what distinguished them from their bloozerocking peers was the point that they didn't need to shove themselves into overdrive to make their point. Minimalists in the best sense of the word, they set a legitimately funky rhythm section behind the strikingly simple but gripping guitar playing of the late Paul Kossoff and the thrusting vocals of Paul Rodgers and delivered as singular a hard bloozerock attack as could be found during their brief but bristling existence.

"Fire and Water" was their best selling album and still the album on which their reputation rests (though the predecessor, "Free," was no less effective). The title track impressed Wilson Pickett enough to make a striking soul hit out of it. And "All Right Now" remains a masterpiece of pure rocking R and B fire; never mind Rodgers's only too classic lyric of predatory obsession-compulsion (so he doesn't get the girl in the sack, she's too smart to fall for his jive, but you know damn well it isn't going to stop him from hunting fresh prey and probably landing one less gullible), the chunky verse playing is relentless, and that classic midsection, piano and bass nudging Kossoff to his most memorably melodious solo (that's saying something considering his consistency), is impossible to resist. The album cut has long since buried the hit single version (which contained a different rhythm guitar sound, shortened up that midsection a little bit, and eliminated the second verse coda entirely; it's available on the new anthology of the band, and it's worthy in its own right), and you probably know a few dozen "classic rock" bar bands who give it a whirl at least once a night and get a guaranteed round of applause with it after they've cranked out a little Bad Company to whet the appetite a bit.

Bad Company, in fact, seems to have forged a career out of trying to recapture that lightning and exercising the frustration involved when they see it but don't quite capture it. Though they outpointed Free for commercial endurance, they never really did get their hands around "Fire and Water"'s lightning long enough, notwithstanding that ("Straight Shooter," especially) it was occasionally fun to hear them try. Essentially, Bad Company was Free if you imagined the band merely replacing Kossoff and bassist Andy Fraser with former Mott the Hoopler Mick Ralphs (who lacked Kossoff's subtleties) and former King Crimsonite Boz Burrell (who rumbled where Fraser would have rocked) and turning their elemental flame into arena rock cliche (though Rodgers and drummer Simon Kirke never really did lose their hop), but they only serve to make Free look that much better in retrospect.

This is one of the all time classic British Blues Albums. "Alright Now" is only a culminating incidental to this recording. A grinding rythem guitar sound coupled with solid bass and drums underlays the meaningful and soulful vocals. Transferring a ton of emotional energy, the lead guitar work just sings on its own almost negating the necessity of even words to the songs. It is rare when lead guitar work sets a mood changing a song into a tapestry of tone poems. I love every song on the recording.

Becareful not to think that this band is a just a precursor to Bad Company. This band had it's own life. I feel that this recording is a necessary part of any classic rock collection.

Today Free is best known for their huge classic rock anthem "All Right Now" which still gets played daily on classic rock radio. The song is indeed an all time AOR classic and is the closing track on the "Fire And Water" album. Free got fairly big in the years that they were together, but have been somewhat eclipsed by the subsequent success of Bad Company which morphed out of Free after the original band called it quits. Of course both Free and Bad Company were fronted by one of the great rock vocalists of all time Paul Rogers, and he is in fine form throughout this release. "Fire And Water" was the band's 3rd album and one where they really gelled together to form the backbone of what would become the patented AOR sound of the 70's. There are lots of good songs here including the title track, "Mr Big", "Oh I Wept", "Remember", "Heavy Load", and "Don't Say You Love Me". The music is blues based rock with Rogers soaring vocals up front and lots of tasty guitar from the underrated Paul Kossoff who would unfortunately pass away not long after the band's demise. Rogers and Kirke would go on to fame and fortune with Bad Company. Free is one of those classic rock bands that often go overlooked, but if you were ever a fan of the more popular Bad Company you might want to check out Free. This album in particular is one of their best.

I recently caught up with "Fire and Water" after a gap of about 30 years and was amazed that it had lost absolutely none of its soulful, emotional power. For those who know Free, this review will be preaching to the converted however, younger rock/blues fans who are unfamiliar with the band must get hold of this album. Every single track is brilliant, from the title track opener, with Paul Rodgers' smouldering vocal, Paul Kossoff's powerchord riffs and police siren lead, through to the close of the band's anthem, "Alright Now". "Oh I Wept", "Heavy Load", "Don't Say You Love Me" are all slow paced, moving soul ballads, the latter two building steadily to concluding crescendos of Rodgers' desperate, Otis Redding-like pleading twinned with Kossoff's crying leads - glorious, heart-rending songs. "Remember" and "Mr Big" are both slow-paced, powerful rockers, the latter climaxing in a breathtaking guitar duel between Kossoff's lead and Andy Fraser's bass. This is such a brilliant, mature album that it is impossible to imagine that all of the band were teenagers at the time and that this is the same Paul Rodgers who would later churn out so much tedious corporate rock with Bad Company. Although Free's last three albums, "Highway", "Free At Last" and "Heartbreaker" would all have sublime moments and are all worth getting hold of, the band's internal tensions and Kossoff's drug problems would prevent them from ever fulfilling their true potential or from putting together a work so consistently superb as "Fire and Water". This was when it all came together for Free, resulting in what is surely one of the top ten all-time great rock albums.

Free was the best (and only) practitioners of blues minimalism. Kossoff peeled off his guitar licks like kung-fu chops. Catch that little bit of vibrato he wrung our toward the end of his lines. Impressive... And Paul Rodgers was at his greatest at this time, probably the best vocalist in rock. Proof that you don't have to break the notes-per-second record, or create an avalanche of feedback to make a lasting impression.

All Right (now) Free were my favourite band: Kossof has to be one of the best "feel" guitarists ever, and one who plays less notes than the new guys, but who says more in that one note than anyone........
Andy Fraser is one of the most under-rated bass players..... and Paul Rodgers is a "singer's singer"... so what more do you want??

Well, music that still stands where a lot has succumbed to the ravages of time. Okay, the lyrics are still 1970's (but some songs better than others) and for blues/rock affecionados, this is the real thing in a morass of pretenders.

If you haven't heard Free, start with this album, then do Free At Last. A much better band than Bad Company, really, who were in it for the money (and actually made some), but Free are still one of the beacons in rock as far as I'm concerned.

Back when rock was still cool, these guys broke it down to its basic components and spit it back at us. Oh so fine.

Free sounded unlike any other band in the world when they released this gem in the early 70s. While others were trying to push the tempo envelope farther and faster towards metal, these guys were working at a much more mysterious, soulful pace. But these songs are not lightweight by any means. The drums and guitars are right up front and they growl with an intensity that pulls the listener into the room with them. And Paul has never sounded better or more intense vocally. I highly recommend this album to young and old.

FIRE AND WATER is Free's best studio album because it contains their three most important songs ever- the title track, "Mr. Big", and the epochal "All Right Now." Recommended even more strongly is their double-disc anthology, MOLTEN GOLD. Get this one.