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Rating: At the dawn of the seventies, Free and Led Zeppelin, the two best rock blues acts around, had almost the same idea for their respective fourth album: an anonymous cover in the inscriptions and modest in appearance. The Zeps even omitted the record’s serial number, as well as the title and the band's name. Free merely omitted their name, thus making the album's title misleading and, in collaboration with the pale and elusive cover containing their barely recognizable faces, led many to believe they were in the presence of a debut group called "Highway" rather than the follow-up to the acclaimed and magnificent "Fire And Water," released just six months earlier.
Ah, if only they had waited another six months!, enough time to compose and embellish the album with two or three more "strong" songs.
The rush to follow up their previous success and the incoherent, unjustified low graphic profile took their toll objectively: the commercial step backward was clear, and there were then no circumstances for a consistent comeback, as Free's career entered self-destructive issues (starring the extraordinary guitarist Paul Kossoff, a notorious drug addict) and rivalries (starring the two roosters of the coop, singer Paul Rodgers and bassist Andy Fraser), leading to increasingly less significant works, systematic lineup changes, and an early swan song.
Thus, this and the aforementioned "Fire And Water" (both from 1970) remain the two best works of Free, the most charismatic and influential British Blues band of all time (keeping Led Zeppelin out of the ranking, since they are much more than British Blues, enough to be included, and be seen winning, in the most vast and heterogeneous possible rankings!).
Like the Zeppelin, Free was a voice/guitar/bass/drums quartet comprising three outclass members, with the difference that the only "normal" musician in Free played the drums, not the bass. Simon Kirke is a solid and powerful drummer, very straightforward, very well-suited to the sparse and cadenced music, yet powerful and visceral, put together by the group. His rhythm section partner Andy Fraser was instead a real genius, the true driving force of the group. At fourteen, Andy was already playing on London stages, performing blues with the greats; at seventeen, he founded Free, at nineteen he imprinted his personal touch on this fourth album of the band. His two standout qualities were: great songwriting abilities (the main riffs, the harmonic ideas of the band's great rock blues frescoes were his), as well as clear and authoritative creative execution on his instrument. Helped by the presence of a very economical guitarist in his interventions, a metronomic and essential drummer, and the typical syncopated flow of the music, mostly conceived by him, his bass had enormous sonic space in which to move slyly and unpredictably, highly indifferent to the drum kick or other typical reference points for bassists, happily and creatively roaming within the rhythmic and harmonic fabric of the pieces.
The young Paul Rodgers in these grooves displays his precise voice from heaven. He was indeed born with his sexy and extremely mobile timbre, and the fact that he was only twenty here made no difference: his is a masculine, seasoned, mature, convincing singing style, especially in the two great pieces that ennoble the album, the super rock of "The Stealer" and the blues ballad "Be My Friend", sung with heart in hand, skirts tucked and testosterone glancing. From my very unsuitable perspective as an adult and hetero male, I attempt to say I find nevertheless irresistibly feminine the swaggering progress of this great singer amidst the bouncing and infectious riffs of the former, or the touching invocations scattered among the arpeggios and stops of the latter (a blues masterpiece, probably the greatest Free song).
Oh yes, Fraser, Rodgers, and Kossoff could have gone much further, further than anyone, had they been able to coexist for a good ten years. Rodgers found a sufficient alternative to Kossoff in his future Bad Company (with Mick Ralphs, an equally economical and inspired guitarist, just less heartfelt and exciting), but he never found someone like Fraser, a better songwriter than he and a uniquely styled bassist.
Fraser's low profile post-Free is unheard of, until he tried (not much) in the music business. A musician who gave his best from fifteen to twenty!
Kossoff passed away at twenty-six, struck by a heart attack, overdosed on cocaine. He was eighteen when he happened to give a couple of guitar lessons to then twenty-four-year-old Eric Clapton, at the time in Cream and already legendary, who approached him saying, "Hey, kid, show me a little how you do that fast vibrato, I want to use it too!" A unique musician, a phenomenal touch, one of those who can kill you with three notes, without the need for speed, complexity, sticking to the blues scale, the pentatonic, and sending you into ecstasy. It wasn't what he played, it was how he took it, how he "entered" it. Legions of guitarists still study his sound, his phrasing, his tumultuous approach with the six strings so stark, so fiery; each note a brushstroke, a jolt, a thrill. A talented junkie, like many of that era, unfortunately, one of those who didn’t survive, what a pity!
Great Koss! Even this album is in the pages of your passport, never expired, to immortality.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 The Highway Song (04:17)
So we started in the cornfield
And I know we did not slack
We got everything in order
But we forgot to bring the bucket back
The foreman he went crazy
And ran around the field
Said we must be lazy
Had to be seen to be believed
Seen to be believed.
But it was a long way
From this highroad
It was a far away from here.
The farmer had a daughter
And she worked at the wishing well
Put one leg in the water
'til she found the mission bell
The old man went crazy
And ran to get his gun
We had a bad time explaining
We were just having drunken fun
Just having drunken fun.
But it was a long way
From this high road, Oh!
It was a long way from here
So we walked along this road
Just tellin' stories as we go
We just walk along.
Well the farmer had a daughter
And she did not speak a word
We used to kiss her in the orchard
Till one morning we were overheard
The old man he went crazy
Running around the field
Said we must be crazy
Had to be seen to be believed
Seen to be believed
02 The Stealer (03:17)
I went down to the centre of town
And my feet was a burning ground
She stood on the corner merrily as can be
I said hey good lookin won't you come with me
She said yeah
I am the stealer
Came to steal your love
The sun was shining
The world was right
I said "tell me baby wha'cha doin' tonight"
I'm goin' round the corner
Where the music's loud
I'm tired of the city
Won't you come on round
I said yeah!
I'm the stealer
Come to steal your love
Steal your love oh yeah!
Goin' round the corner
Where the music's loud
I'm tired of the city
Won't you come on round
I said yeah
I am the stealer
Come to steal your love
Steal your love
Steal your love
Steal your love
I am going to steal you love away
I am going to steal you love away
Steal your love
04 Be My Friend (05:48)
Mmm...mmm...
All i need...
Is a friend
Someone to give me, a helpin' hand
When i'm afraid, in the night
Someone to squeeze me
And tell me, it's all right
You know i worry
huh
Such a lot
And i would give, all i've got
Just to have, someone believe in me
Just to do that, and put me back on evenly
Listen...
Baby, baby
Be my friend
Baby, baby
Be my friend
Baby, baby
Be my friend
I will love you, till the very end
Whoa, oh, ooh, ooh
You make me feel
A stronger love
Than anyone, i've ever known
Oh, i need, someone like you
You give me something, so strong and true
Oh, baby, baby
Be my friend
Baby, baby
Be my friend (yeah yeah)
Baby, baby
Be my friend
I will love you, till the very end
Won't ya, Won't ya baby, baby, baby, baby
Be my friend...
I will love ya, i will love ya, till the very end
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah...
Baby, baby, baby, baby
I will love you
I need your lovin' baby
M-na m-na m-na m-na...(fades)
06 Ride on a Pony (04:19)
Baby won't you tell me
What you're tryin' to do
You don't mean to say
That our love is through
Because I love you
Yes I do
And I've go to see it through
I lives on the moutain
A hundred mile from town
That's a long way to go
Baby now
But soon I'm gonna be around
Because I love you
Yes I do
And I've got to see it through
Baby now
I'm gonna steal you baby away with me
I want to love you
Because you see
I am riding on a pony
In the middle of the night
I'm gonna be there in the morning
And I hope that it's all right
Sometimes when I am loney
I think about your face, baby
So I get on my pony
And I ride over your place
Because I love you
Yes I do
And I've go to see it through
I wanna take you, far away
I wanna love you, no matter what you say
Because I am riding on a pony
In the middle of the night
I'm gonna be there in the morning
And I hope that it's all right.
I am riding on a pony
In the middle of the night
I'm gonna be there in the morning
And I hope that it's all right.
I am riding on a pony
In the middle of the night
I'm gonna be there in the morning
And I hope that it's all right
09 Soon I Will Be Gone (03:01)
Watch my hand
Writing this last letter
Watch my hand
Knowing I won't forget her
No I won't forget her
Take my things
Every thing is over
All my things
Leave behind my love
Leave behind my love
La la la
La la la
La la la
Now lighing a cigarette
Now knowing I will regret
The way our love had to end
In her room
Standing alone
All alone
Soon I will be gone
Soon I will
Soon I will
Soon I will be gone
Soon I will
Soon I will
Soon I will be gone
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