I’ve loved the striking star striding LP cover of Free since before I knew why. I remember flicking through a friend of my parents’ record collection* and happening across it when I was about 8 and thinking ‘wow‘.
I still think ‘wow‘, even though I now think that Ron Raffaelli’s photo looks as much like an attempt to upskirt a galaxy, than a groovy embodiment of cosmic freedom.
It has to be said the cover art for Free is a huge improvement on that for their debut Tons Of Sobs, but is the album?
Kicking off an LP with a track as cocksure and loaded as ‘I’ll Be Creepin” is a great move. Right from the off we get that superlative Simon Kirke/Andy Fraser** rhythm section just locking in, Free were such a wonderfully soulful combo. The music is actually very spare, but beautifully melodic and heartfelt, Paul Rodgers selling every line, while Paul Kossoff’s sharp solo is great. It’s a brilliant opener, if you overlook that whole coercive control thang they have going on^.
Free turn damnably funky on ‘Songs Of Yesterday’, in fact the opening few bars are really close to Gil Scott Heron’s ‘The Revolution Will Not Be Televised’, which came out 2 years later. It’s a fabulously self-contained blues/funk/rock workout.
The bucolic ‘Lying In The Sunshine’ is another great cut, I’m all for anyone actively advocating for impromptu laziness in this manner, particularly when it leads right into the big-nuts strut of ‘Trouble On Double Time’. It’s a great one and you have to love that clean solo from Kossoff. The sweetly pastoral ‘Mouthful Of Grass’ finishes the side with an optimistic air.
Free hits us with the dirty, lowdown^* ‘Woman’ and by god it’s just sexy and brilliant, even if it sounds like they forgot to write any proper lyrics for it.
‘Free Me’ may well be one of the best songs the band ever waxinated. It’s a stunningly heartfelt slow blues lament, absolutely minimal, quiet and clean; everyone playing at their zenith. Paul Kossoff does that thing that only he did, letting slip the notes of his solo with all the gentility and sensitivity of a man floating rose petals on a pool of clear cool water. It is utterly superior stuff.
‘Broad Daylight’ is fine, but the weakest cut here, needing a better tune and lyrics. This tune is an object lesson in a great band rescuing a bang average tune with a good performance. ‘Mourning Sad Morning’ is a much better affair, Rodgers’ phrasing is perfect and the unexpected touch of Chris Wood’s flute gives the band an interesting melodic counterpoint throughout this restrained lament.
And that’s all you get on Free, which is in the manner of 1970 only 35 minutes long and beautifully formed.
As with all the great British bands of the era I am just dumbfounded at how hard they worked. Free was released only 7 months after Tons Of Sobs, although the self-indulgent slobs waited a whole 8 months before releasing Fire And Water; all presumably whilst playing 438 shows annually, including matinees.
People don’t talk enough about Free, they tend to get eclipsed by the other big hitters of the era, which is utterly wrong. Individually as musicians they were all amazing, as a collective they were magical; spinning straw into gold before our very, umm, ears.
Free is absolutely of a level with Free’s very best, maybe a touch better song writing is wanted in a couple places to elevate the LP to the Olympian heights, but let’s not try and pretend I’m remotely objective about Free.
Don’t free me.
1308 Down.
PS: There is just so much to love in this clip – Rodgers’ trousers, Kossoff’s lovely soft-looking hands, Simon Kirke looking really pissed off that he’s not allowed to hit things harder on this track, Fraser’s facial expressions. Oh, and the flawless, soulful rendition of the song.
*this being a common occupation of hippie kids of my generation bored by adult talk. It is a potential reason why you’re reading this right now.
**still only 16 when Free was recorded.
^and I’m not being flippant about that; ‘If you’re trying to screw me, babe, don’t play around /’Cause when I get to you, baby, I won’t make no sound’ may have been less remarkable in the late 60’s for a band honed and steeped in the blues tradition but it clangs today. I put it down to the tenor of the times and the fact that the band were all still teenagers when they began recording Free.
^*dirty and lowdown being the only flavours of feminine available on early Free tunes.
Up to your high standards as usual. You almost broke my jazz jag (that you sent me on with the Ellington, Roach Mingus take) with this one.
Thank you CB, these guys are well worth it.
I don’t know Free very well, just heard Fire and Water a little bit. Someone told me to model my bass playing on Andy Fraser, so I should listen to this.
Uh and oh. Free have never really clicked with me, I like odd tracks when I hear them, like “Fire and Water” and “Wishing Well” but I’ve never sat down with the albums. But they don’t bring on my troubles like L** Z****** so can I stay this time? Which album would y’all recommend I start with to convince me?
Hmm, you’re teetering on the brink of thoughtcrime there Tim. They never quite made an indispensable classic LP – cull the best cuts off the first 4 LPs and then chuck in ‘Wishing Well’ is my advice.
Any long-haul record collector who features four albums by the same artist has clearly the serious hots for a band. Riding your enthusiastic coat tails yet being little more than lukewarm on the British blues-rockers, I pulled out a neat 5 CD Free album collection and am listening now.
I’m reminded how good a singer Paul Rogers was, and how well the quartet meshes together. There is also more light and shade than I remembered, which is welcome. But it never quite reaches escape velocity; there’s simply not enough originality in the song-writing, despite the musicianship being first class. In that regard they remind me of Humble Pie.
Still, I’m certainly grateful for the invitation to spin “Free” again and am very happy to gaze up the cosmic skirt.
Thank you Bruce. Everyone in Free was just superb and together they were more than that. I never quite get Humble Pie personally, although I know folks who worship them.
The great lost founding band. More soulful than all the rest, solid and Rodgers was the better singer than his peers maybe with the exception of Ian Anderson but different styles. They had all the swagger in the world.
I have always included Free as one of the Founding Fathers of Heavy Metal but of the five I pointed out, they seem to be the least known, in spite of their hard work.
You’re totally right, they were so great. So many bands stood on their shoulders.
A batch of great songs on this but the first two albums never grabbed me as much as their other stuff. Will need a revisit. Love the “upskirt a galaxy” line!
I love ‘em all, they were just four gods as far as I’m concerned. I’m not so sure which of the first three albums I’d stick at the top of the pack.
The photo guy became quite a renowned erotic photographer apparently. There is an urban legend that the cover model was Linda Blair (of Exorcist and Playboy fame), it wasn’t.