Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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45 of 46 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good Anthology Of The Original Bad Company, November 18, 2001
Bad Company was the band Paul Rodgers formed after the breakup of the highly underrated band Free and his decision to decline the invitation to join Deep Purple. This 2 cd set contains music from only the original line up (not the mid eighties line up without Rodgers) with the addition of four new tracks by the original members. The original line up consisted of Rodgers and drummer Simon Kirke from Free, Mick Ralphs on guitar from Mott The Hoople, and Boz Burrell on bass from King Crimson. The band was a supergroup of sorts. The band's music was much more commercial and less blues oriented than that of Free. Bad Company's music also had a more polished, less chaotic feel than that of either Mott The Hoople or King Crimson. Rodgers was in excellent form while Ralph's guitar playing while not flashy was economical. Kirke was always a powerhouse drummer while Burrell's bass playing was solid.The band gained immmediate acceptance when they hired Peter Grant of Led Zeppelin fame to manage them and released their first and best lp "Bad Company" on Led Zeppelin's own Swan Song label. This lp contained many of Bad Company's best songs such as "Can't Get Enough", "Rock Steady" "Movin' On" "Bad Company" and "Ready For Love" which Ralphs originally wrote while in Mott The Hoople. Other familiar cuts include "Feel Like Makin' Love", "Shooting Star" and "Rock And Roll Fantasy". The set also contains a few rarities such as alternate takes, unissued tracks, and a few non-lp b-sides like "Little Miss Fortune" and "Easy On My Soul" which was originally written by Rodgers while in Free. The four new tracks sound like classic Bad Company with a slightly more updated sound. Some personal favorites include "Good Lovin' Gone Bad" and "Burnin' Sky" among others. There are a few reasons why I did not give this set a definitive 5 star rating. The first reason is the disk length. The first disk is approximately 66 minutes while the second disk is around 71 minutes. This extra time could have been used to add such essential cuts as "Live For The Music", "Young Blood", "Gone Gone Gone", and "Electric Land." However, this remastered set is the most representative anthology available for the hugely popular Bad Company. It also provides a good summation their sometimes erratic albums. Fans of Paul Rodgers and seventies era arena rock will find much to savor.
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15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent compilation, September 3, 2003
Unless you're a very devoted fan, this is pretty much all you'll ever need from Bad Company.
"The Original Bad Co. Anthology" collects twenty-three of their best singles and album tracks. It draws from all their records, yet the compilers have wisely chosen to lean heavily towards the group's first two albums, which were also their best.
Their eponymous debut album is represented by no fewer than six tracks (out of eight!), and five are culled from "Straight Shooter". Elektra Records have even managed to find two pretty good songs from the awful "Rough Diamonds" album, and it's actually very hard to find anything to say against the track selection, which is one of the best and most thorough I've ever seen.
Six B-sides and unissued songs are also included, as well as four brand new songs which make their debut here...and believe it or not, they're really good!
Most of this is lean, mid-tempo rock music, bordering on hard rock. Bad Company had the ability to combine cruchy hard-rock riffs with great melodies, and they had a magnficent front man in Paul Rodgers, and a fine lead guitarist in Mick Ralphs.
This music is somewhat less bluesy and more mainstream than Paul Rodgers' previous band, Free, but it has a timeless sound that makes you wonder just why Bad Company ended up being lumped in with all the stale 70s rock dinosaurs, and all but forgotten in later years. They certainly deserve better, as this collection demonstrates.
Highlights include the slow, groovy rockers "Ready For Love" and "Feel Like Makin' Love", the tough, guitar-driven (but exquisitely melodious) "Movin' On" and "Rock And Roll Fantasy", the ballad "Shooting Star", the bluesy hard rock of "Deal With The Preacher" and "Rock Steady", and Bad Company's remake of Paul Rodgers' "Easy On My Soul", in a funky rendition that blows the Free version out of the water.
And the new tracks! Well, it's such a rare thing for a thirty-year old band to come up with truly credibly new material, but just listen to the swaggering blues-rock number "Tracking Down A Runaway" and the blustery rocker "Hey, Hey". They won't take the place of "Ready For Love", sure, but they're really good.
Almost everything is worth a listen, actually, even though the material on the first CD is slightly stronger than on the second.
"The Original Bad Co. Anthology" is a fine collection for the fan who wants a little more - and it virtually eliminates the need to pick up the group's original albums.
4 1/4 stars - definitely recommended.
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Missing SEVERAL gems - could have been MUCH better, November 16, 2004
Where in the heck are some of their other best songs? One of the best (if not THE best) songs they recorded was LIVE FOR THE MUSIC, which is not present on ANTHOLOGY. Some other great missing tracks include: SIMPLE MAN; SWEET LIL' SISTER; CRAZY CIRCLES; GONE, GONE, GONE; LONELY FOR YOUR LOVE; ELECTRIC LAND; PAINTED FACE. With a total running time of less than 138 minutes on ANTHOLOGY, they EASILY could have added just about all of the above tracks, and even left out some that they did put on ANTHOLOGY. Do like I did and copy all the remaining tracks on their first 6 CDs, that are not on ANTHOLOGY to 2 CD-R's and file next to your original of ANTHOLOGY. Now that is a great collection...
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by Bad Company 
