Free Story [Import]

Free | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (April 9, 1990)
• Original Release Date: 1973
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import
• Label: Island UK
• ASIN: B000006YTK
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  DVD
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #210,825 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. I'm A Mover

2. I'll Be Creepin'

3. Mourning Sad Morning

4. All Right Now

5. Heavy Load

6. Fire And Water

7. Be My Friend

8. The Stealer

9. Soon I Will Be Gone

10. Mr. Big

11. The Hunter

12. Get Where I Belong

13. Travelling Man

14. Just For The Box

15. Lady

16. My Brother Jake

17. Little Bit Of Love

18. Sail On

19. Come Together In The Morning

Editorial Reviews

Reissue of 1973 two LP anthology on one CD. Contains all but one of the tracks ('Heartbreaker') that appeared on the original release. 19 tracks total, including the hits 'All Right Now', 'I'm A Mover' and 'I'll Be Creepin''. Also features the original cover art & the original liner notes. The tracks span the years 1968-72.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Superb collection, June 15, 2003

By 

"tomislavrocker" (Rijeka, Croatia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Free Story (Audio CD)

This is generally the 'second greatest' Free collection, after "Molten Gold: The anthology". It is by far superior to the later "All right now - best of" which has an awful remaster treatment - the songs was sounding like late eighties, not early seventies (wow, what a mistake!), and was suffering in song selection.
Anyway, this was originally double LP compilatiaon-album, and here on CD you get almoust 80 minutes of classic Free numbers. It covers all of the albums (I'm only missing here more stuff from the first album, and offcourse, "Wishing Well" from the "Heartbreaker" album), and you also get two live cuts, "Mr.Big" and "The Hunter", both concert stamples. Maybe would be better if they included album version of "All right now", which I prefer much more than the single version. But single is single. You'll anyway have to get "Fire and Water" album!
And maybe the sound qualitiy isn't so good, but this is probably the best way to get into Free, the classic early seventies rock band, which could be one of the biggest groups around if they had lasted.
But don't stop here, get "Fire and Water", and then superb 1968. debut "Tons of Sobs" (That's for start).

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars great tracks... only that sound, July 16, 2002

By 

Gab Mo "gabrmo" (Alphen aan den Rijn, Zuid-Holland Netherlands) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Free Story (Audio CD)

Actually I rate this one with three and a half stars. The tracks are great, but the sound dry, boxy and thin. This was the first album I heard of Free, which since then became one of my all time favorite bands. It's too bad that the soundquality is poor. I have an old vinyl single of Allright Now that sounds the same or even better as that classic on this CD. However, most of the classics are here like Allright now (the single version, I prefer the longer LP-version), Come together in the morning, The Stealer (much underrated), Heavy load (with that typical slow bluesrock-sound of the Free), Little bit of love, Fire and water (my personal favorite) and Travelling man. It's a pitty that two of the greatest tracks of the Free: Wishing well and Heartbreaker are missing on this anthology. Mr. Big and the Hunter are here present as the live versions from the 1971 Live! album. Each track on this album is far better sounding on the individual Free-albums or on the anthology Molten Gold. The remixes of Bob Clearmountain on 1991's The Best of are even sounding as if coming from another planet.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Free styling mix of blues and rock on classic anthology--this is the one to get, July 20, 2008

By 

WTDK "If at first the idea is not absurd, the... (My Little Blue Window, USA) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Free Story (Audio CD)

Over look the stupid cover artwork and you'll find a terrific album. Free had a history that was as far removed from its name as one could imagine. When the band first formed their record company rejected their name initially feeling it wasn't too commerical but lead singer/songwriter/guitarist Paul Rodgers, bassist/songwriter Andy Fraser (who would later go on to write the Robert Palmer hit "It Takes Every Kind of People"), lead guitarist Paul Kossoff and drummer Simon Kirke (who would go on to join Rodgers in Bad Company and briefly join Kossoff in the spin-off group Kossoff,Kirke,Tetsu and Rabbit)stuck to their guns and still managed to generate three massive hits ("All Right Now", "Stealer" and "Little Bit of Love"), record six powerful albums before the band fell apart (for the second time)due to the pressure of stardom, egos and drugs.

"The Free Story" is THE BEST anthology to get because it features the original mixes of the songs ("Molden Gold" has all been remixed by Bob Clearmountain sometimes to good effect but more often than not diminishing the originals) and even their remaster discography (which liberally uses No Noise to elimiante all tape hiss--it also effectively makes the album sound like all the air was sucked out of the room and that a blanket was thrown over the speakers).

Duplicating the exact order of the original two record vinyl set (minus one song that couldn't be included for time reasons--whcih is too bad because it is a stunning live version of "Heartbreaker". The sound quality is extremely good and what it might lack in clarity compared to "Molden Gold" it makes up for because the original mixes the band intended to release are included.

The booklet includes all of the original liner notes touching briefly on Kossoff's problem with drugs that sidelined him and his eventual death on a plane flight from a drug induced heart attack. The selection of songs is excellent including one track from the spin-off KKTR (with bassist Tetsu Yamauchi and keyboardist John "Rabbit" Bundrick eventually joining Free after Fraser departed upon completion of their album "Free at Last"). "Heartbreaker" is woefully underrepresented here but, aside from that, it has MOST of the essential tracks from this terrific band that had a tragic history.