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89. 'Fire And Water' - Free (1970)
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In 1970, Free pushed the boundaries of Rock by incorporating vast amounts of Groove and Soul into their breakthrough album ‘Fire And Water’. Departing from the heavy use of modern technology in favour of a raw album and focussing on tight musicianship as opposed to virtuoso passages, ‘Fire And Water’ would become Free’s breakthrough album whilst boasting one of the most famous rock songs of all time: All Right Now.
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Transcript
Introduction to Podcast and Free's 'Fire and Water' Album
00:00:01
Speaker
Hello and welcome back to another episode of the Long Live Rock and Roll Podcast. In 1970, Free pushed the boundaries of rock by incorporating vast amounts of groove and soul into their breakthrough album, Fire and Water.
The Raw Production and Musicianship of 'Fire and Water'
00:00:14
Speaker
Departing from the heavy use of modern technology in favor of a raw album and focusing on tight musicianship as opposed to virtuoso passages, Fire and Water would become Free's breakthrough album whilst also boasting one of the most famous rock songs of all time, all right now.
00:00:30
Speaker
Joining me to discuss this album is my co-host, Mr. Felipe Amarin. How are you doing, man? I'm doing great, man, and you? good Yeah, very well. Thank you very well. it's this escape I had to put my light on today because it's getting so dark nowadays, isn't it? It's dark, man. It's been dark since early afternoon, isn't it? It's four o'clock now in the UK, and it's almost dark. like and i know It's crazy, because this happens every year, yet it still surprises me. I'm still there. You guys are still shocked when it snows, when it rains, when it gets too hot, when it gets too cold. And you're the Brazilian in the UK, and you're like, this is fine. It's been like this for the last 10 years for me. And I'm there as the Brit, 30 years into my British life, like, what? It's too dark. It's too dark. You've got to moan about something. That's exactly what British culture you have to know.
Excitement and Formation of Free
00:01:14
Speaker
Anyway, as I said in the introduction, today we are doing Freeze Fire and Water album, which I'm actually really excited to do because guess what, bro? I loved it. I thought it was brilliant. Amazing album, amazing album. um As usual, I'll start off with some of the little details. So the album was released on the 26th of June 1970, recorded between January and June of the same year at the Trident and Island studios in London.
00:01:39
Speaker
The genre could be considered hard rock, blues rock. We'll discuss this a bit later. It's just over 35 minutes long, released on the Ireland label and the producer was or the producers was the whole band.
00:01:52
Speaker
um So there we go. Why don't you give us a bit of background information about it? Well, the ah well the thing with ah Free is they were like a proper rock band. They were playing clubs, playing small clubs and kind of ah getting tighter and tighter and becoming ah um ah like recognized by their live performances. So that's, I think, how a rock band should start. You know, you write your songs and then you go perform them live and then you go put them in the album so the other way around. And I think they were doing this for a couple of years.
00:02:19
Speaker
They were really young, that sort of thing. I think Paul Rodgers was 21 by the time they recorded his album, which is their third album, by the way. so And when the band started in 68, Andy Fraser was 16. So he'd have been 18 or 19 when this one came out. Exactly. So yeah, it's like he was really, really young and a great, great musician.
Dynamics of Paul Rodgers and Andy Fraser
00:02:38
Speaker
The thing with them is the ah ah um their personalities were quite different. are different um I think Paul Rogers, or it was an Andy Fraser, one of them said that they were like Andy Fraser and Paul Rogers, they were fire and water.
00:02:54
Speaker
So that's, so that's ah um I don't know if the name of the album yeah comes exclusively from this, but they said they they were the two songwriters really. And based on their personalities, I think it was Andy Fraser who said, I was water and Paul Rodgers was fire. So that was it. Did they ever clash or was it just that they were different? Apparently they never clash when it came to play music. They had their personal like conflicts and stuff, but not not none of that happened when they were playing music.
Influences and Unique Sound of Free
00:03:21
Speaker
They were really happy with everything that that they produced together. um Paul Rogers describes the the the time where he met Paul Kosoff, the guitar player, as a life-changing experience. ah said He said, we shared the deep love of the blues and we're listening to the same records even before we met. So they were into the same kind of those two were into the same kind of music like American ah Blues and so and one of the albums that Paul Rogers mentions is Born under but Under a Bad Sign by Albert King. If you guys listen to this album it does have a lot to do with what Free was playing at the time. One second just pause when I say for any new listeners and viewers you will find a dedicated playlist for the episode down in the show notes um which is a playlist full of all the songs from this album and any other songs we mentioned.
00:04:07
Speaker
So should I put in Born Under A Bad Sign, the title track? Yes, the title track is a great reference. That's an amazing album. Yeah, if you guys have the time to listen to the whole album, we should go over the album one day. It's a really good album. Oh yeah, for sure. The Albert King version. Albert King version. That's him. And so, amongst other influences, they were listening to the band, which we both love, right? The band is great. Loads of Motown artists.
00:04:29
Speaker
artists writing, ah so they were into American soul music, Paul Rodgers said they were into American black music, so basically soul, blues, our motel, R and&B, that kind of stuff, which is having that as the main influence is unusual for for a rock band. you know Yeah, especially considering the um sort of rock if yeah umm I'm generalizing here, but rock generally came from the blues. yeah um So to have... and But the soul and Motown and other stuff, like ah but and for me, it's above the blues in there and there. I just find that the blues, it branched off, and in one way you had sort of country come out of blues, another way you had R and&B and soul, the other way you had rock.
00:05:12
Speaker
It's very like you said, it's very unusual to hear such a um especially in the 70s for such ah an established and known rock band who played rock music to to delve so much into a soulful aspect of it. And this has been my favorite part of it, man. I mean, do you want to talk more background or? Yeah, just one more thing, because apparently they were like getting together consistently for, um it says 18 months on my note here, I found this information somewhere. It probably it was probably for a bit longer than that.
00:05:40
Speaker
around two years, I would say, they were playing together um and writing stuff
Songwriting Focus and Album Cohesion
00:05:45
Speaker
together. They used to get together on Mondays to go to Andy Frazier's mom's house to listen to records together. That's just such a cool experience that most people don't do nowadays anymore. Let's listen to this. You know, I found this album was really great. Let's listen to it. So they were writing stuff based on on music they were sharing.
00:06:02
Speaker
ah with each other. um That's such a lovely um moment because I remember I had an experience with my best friend where a metal band we liked back in the day, a band called Bullet for my Valentine, they had a new album come out.
00:06:14
Speaker
And I remember back in about So I remember that getting home that day and we both got to mine and we just opened the Amazon package and the album was there. We put it in the CD player. We just listened to it three times. So yeah, I know. Can you imagine? But do you know what? Just I'm so glad that I was able to experience that because I was born in 1995. So I just you know, in terms of when I came to start appreciating music, I just missed the Well, the vi I got the end quite of the vinyl era. I got the end of it. You did. Yeah. But i still got I still got physical music. I was still able to wait for a CD, put it in the thing. So I'm so glad that that moment happened because it does mean a lot, especially when you look back at an album, even if you don't like the album now compared to when you listen to it. just having that moment with your mate and just listening to a song for the first time that none of you's heard on YouTube or Spotify, just originally, organically, it's such a lovely moment. Yeah, I had a friend in school, we used to go or to his place after after school and put his dad's CDs on ah you know um the CD player and listen to the 70s rock stuff. So imagine the guys from 3,
00:07:21
Speaker
doing that at home listening to your albums together and and talking about we should write a riff like that or or lyrics based on that sort of feeling. And the one last thing I want to say about this background before they recorded the album and is that they were into recording albums, they didn't care about singles. That is I think ah an important piece of information.
00:07:43
Speaker
They were not focused on singles. They didn't want to have a hit song. They wanted a hit album. The whole
Recording Style and Guitar Impact
00:07:51
Speaker
thing about this album, I think, is that it came from that necessity of writing an epic album. Nothing to do with having the number one single. In this case, they got a number two single, isn't it? It may as well be a number one though. It could have been a number one. Cool. Recording process. Did you want to talk a bit about that?
00:08:11
Speaker
Yeah, do you if you know anything about it. Oh no, I don't. I thought you yeah thought you said you were sort of... What I know about ah so but about the record is they didn't do too many sessions, right? okay it wasn't It wasn't that kind of... ah there There's overdubs in it, of course. But you can hear, um again, you can hear a lot of echo, a lot of the sound of the room. Yeah. I don't know which album we're talking about. I think it was Cream that we're talking about that you have that sort of, it's just the band and the room. It's almost like the room is another member of the band. And the guitar player actually said that they felt every time they were playing together, they felt like there was a fifth member of the band there, like an entity.
00:08:50
Speaker
that was like keeping them together. Like it's a feeling of something like ah you know like like a fifth member was there guiding them through through the whole thing. So I think the album was done in a very organic way. ah One thing about the production is they didn't want the producer who did the the previous album, ah they they said it sounded too clean.
00:09:11
Speaker
so so they didn't like it. They wanted to be a bit more raw, they wanted to be more like a rock band. It's funny because the compositions are not that typical rock music but they wanted the sound of the album to be rock music. um So my my general feeling about that is that they they really focused on doing something that could have been performed live because you don't hear much overdubs. Sometimes you've got two guitars but most of the time you can hear one guitar, maybe maybe have layers of the same guitar but you have one guitar line, main melody going on and one bass and drums and vocals. There's not too many like backing vocals or anything fancy in terms of production ah a production. It sounds like a band rehearsing or playing live. That's how how I feel about it. ah the the The other thing is um
00:09:58
Speaker
I think ah the fact that they could play, ah like any phrase that could play the piano really well as well is is something that helped with the album because it doesn't play only bass on the album. but So they didn't hire anyone from outside the band to play in the album. i think I think when you hear it, when you hear the album, it is so obvious that yeah like the band, um there is just such a cohesion, such a cohesion in the music,
00:10:27
Speaker
between the members, even like the the relationship between um Paul Rogers' voice and Paul Koskov's guitar. um did i Did I get a surname right? It is. I think it's Kosov. Kosov, not Kosov. Kosov, yeah. um The bands sound like they're just on fire, the whole album. It doesn't sound like there's one moment. um Well, maybe maybe one, and I'll get there later. but um With respect to that, here's there's three things I want to talk about in terms of the music of the album.
00:10:58
Speaker
Groove, soul and space. And I'll start with the easy one, space. The amount of space there is on the album. And for the listeners of viewers who have been listening, was it said episode 89 now? um For most of you who've been listening for like the past 89 episodes, you'll know my favorite quote in music in terms of playing music is, it's not the notes you play, it's the space you leave. That's what makes a song. And the album is littered with space. There are so many moments where one member of the band is not doing anything. And I don't mean the singer, because that's obvious, you know, during a solo, he wouldn't sing. But so many moments where Andy Fraser could overplay or could play more notes than he's choosing to play. Just look at Mr. Big, like that unusual bass part at the end, which is unusual for the time. I think it's too, like, I was shocked. Where are you going now?
00:11:54
Speaker
And he come back. Where are you going now? Like a fishing roll. Bring him in. He goes too far from from whatever concept has been going on there. And it's brilliant. Yeah. But I think then there's other moments where he just holds a note yeah and it's perfect. But all of them do it, man. All of them do it. yeah All of them have that moment.
00:12:16
Speaker
I think with that space you know the the relationship between the rhythm section is unbelievable just constantly playing off of each other and you and me know from being a bass player and a drummer that what we did in this scenario is we always made sure that right if Felipe is playing a really busy part here I'm not going to ah crowd this with notes because it's going to be too much it's going to clash and you always said okay I know that Laz is playing a busy bass line here so I'm going to just bring it back yeah this is just Rhythm section 101. Rhythm section perfection. How about
Instrumental Interplay and Groove
00:12:49
Speaker
that? Yeah, ever yeahp it is. ah there's There's some points where um I think it's heavy load at the beginning. There's a drum roll, like a build up like drum roll. And it's it's almost like the whole band stops. They don't stop, but they leave so much space for that drum roll to yeah choose choose to stand out. you know And I think it's the same for every instrument and in every song. There's always space. You can hear the details.
00:13:12
Speaker
because it's like they are listening to each other really well. Yeah, and and they all know what the song needs, but we'll come back to that when we talk about the band members. Yeah, I want to ask you one thing. Sure. What do you think about the vocal mix in this album? I felt like the vocals are buried in the mix. Didn't you feel like that? Yes, I did. But I don't have an issue with that. I am a believer of if you If you're talking pop music, I get it. The vocals have to be far and beyond above the the rest of the mix because the normally the pop star is the voice. With rock music, I'm happy for it to be like that because I i don't believe anyone is more important than another.
00:13:58
Speaker
in a typical rock setting. What are we talking about? Rock music, heavy guitar, thumping bass, good old slamming drums and a great vocalist. I don't believe that one should be above the other. So I actually enjoyed, I have to say, I enjoyed that it felt like you were, it didn't feel like Paul Rogers was being held on a pedestal here and like, okay, all right, hold on. Yeah, let's turn our instruments down so you can have the verse. Well, you can see the picture behind me. He's not even in the center of the stage. Exactly. And I felt that's respective of the album.
00:14:27
Speaker
Yeah. did did you what Did you find that an issue? Did you not like that? I found it unusual. i found it like well with this since like In a certain way, it forced me to pay attention to the vocals.
00:14:39
Speaker
as an instrument right yeah exactly because you can't hear him breathing between the lines it's not that loud so you you really have to pay attention if you want to hear the dynamics and he's he's quite good at the use of dynamics as well you know yeah with vocals which is normally nothing let's add that to the one of the aspects dynamics throughout the whole album from every band member They just know exactly when to bring it down. Let's look at that that um the middle bass section of all right now. yeah Wow. yeah It's just, you know, the ready and it just pop yeah goes all the way down and the bass. to do do do do do do doooo do do It's just the the best word. One of the my favorite words when I studied classical music was, I can't remember which composer it was, but I read the score and the call and the score. You know when it gives you um instructions on how to play the note. One said play
00:15:30
Speaker
uh play flirtatiously ah yeah as if you're flirting and that was I want to use that word wherever I can in terms of this all throughout the album there are flirtatious moments where the band just really brings it down and either give if Paul Rodgers in the mix didn't have that above and beyond stand-out-ness then the band gave it to him when he needed it how did they do that they played softly yeah it's it's just brilliant man it's absolutely brilliant um that's almost like it's like you're having a conversation with someone is respectful to to shut up and listen yeah yeah and that's what they do they respectfully playing with each other uh musical in a way that no one wants to no one wants to shine more than everyone and anyone else in the band and no one deserves to shine either yeah no one deserves to shine more than anyone else so yeah it's almost like a rock band without an eagle but
00:16:26
Speaker
you never know yeah excellent um so the ah the only other the last part i'm going to talk about about the music was the soulfulness and you mentioned in the background i didn't do any background research i just listened to the album over and over i must have listened to it five or six times it's brilliant Um, so I'm glad you did the background research on this one. Um, but to hear they did that, uh, that they they were taking inspiration from the soul in Motown. No surprise to me whatsoever. And songs like, uh, Oh, I wept, um, really gives up, maybe it's his vocals because his vocals are very soulful on their own, but the songs and the parts they're playing half the time, you know,
00:17:05
Speaker
Andy Fraser, I feel I'm going back and forth because I'm going to talk about the individual members in a bit, but some of Andy Fraser's lines, you could have translated them to horns. yeah Some of some of some of um Paul Kosoff's guitar lines you'd you'd expect here on ah on an organ in like a Motown song, yeah but they've translated it stunningly and the song Oh I Wept gave me massive soulful singer-songwriter vibes from the 70s. Jim Crosh, Jackson Brown, James Taylor, those kind of right
00:17:38
Speaker
sing a song right i think so i'll find it i'll find it if you isolate the vocals and you think only about lyrics and melody i think it's even more evident isn't it oh for certain yeah and even like some of the um uh the i'm the put sorry i'm gonna put a jim cross on the playlist for everyone um uh we'll be saying yeah ah The chord progression as well. yeah yeah Some of the chord progressions were not very rocky. Remember, I've got a really cool one, isn't it? Bro, I've got it here. i've got yeah really as well yeah Brilliant. It's just got that. ah Two or three times in the album, you are cemented in a rock feeling and then suddenly a new chord comes along and you're like, hold on. like that That's not rocky. The chord choices are three minutes 30 of heavy load.
00:18:26
Speaker
I just remember, again, you sat there for three and a half minutes going, this is good. And then suddenly this call comes along, not rocky, but impactful. Yeah, yeah, it is. It's it's interesting. They never get too heavy. um yeah You know, it's never too much rock, you know, in ah in a way. I think that the the interesting thing is the consistency of of the the style they're playing throughout the album. Because for me, like,
00:18:50
Speaker
They were sticking to a formula, but the problem with that is you can get repetitive and boring if you if you follow the same formula. So um for is it seven songs, isn't it? Seven. So for six out of seven songs for me, that's that formula. But it gives the album consistency instead of making it boring because they're good at what they're doing. Yeah. so And then the seventh song for me is just not it's it's almost like it's not part of the album.
00:19:19
Speaker
my opinion. We'll talk about that in a second. yeah Yeah, just sticking with the soul thing, that don't say you love me, another beautiful, soul-y song. I just felt the guitar tone and the general production made the song sound massive. And what I mean by that is, I don't i don't want to I don't want to blame it or blame. I don't want to give the credit entirely to the mix. It's also the playing. um yeah i've so I've said the guitar tone, the dynamics at the end are fantastic, brings so much power and triumph to a song that started off a little slow and soft. My last point is I would argue that this song does as good of a job as sounding big as a soul band with a six piece horn section.
00:20:00
Speaker
I listen to Don't Say You Love Me and I think you've done enough there to convince me this is a soulful song than a 13-piece band has done doing a soul song. I would say that if it wasn't for All Right Now and for some of the instrumental parts, I would call it a soul album.
00:20:20
Speaker
it's Would we call it Soul Fusion because it's sold done on rock instruments? Yeah, maybe, yeah. No, I'm inclined to agree with you, bro, and I don't think i do also don't think we discussed Groove.
00:20:31
Speaker
Yeah. How groovy is the album? But but well we did kind of touch on it because of the drum and the bass relationship. Do you know, do you know what, um especially the first song Fire and Water, do you know what it reminds me of? It reminds me of the band. Yeah. It's that groove, that half time vibe. And it's it's sort it's a bit of it's it's a shuffle kind of vibe. So you carry that shuffle feeling that comes from ah blues and jazz. Yeah. But you have elements of of a funk in it and and it's ah Well, I was going to say it kind of reminded me of Grand Funk Railroad, which was a little bit of this, isn't it? But amazing stuff, man. um Well, so I got about the songs. Just little things like that tiny drum solo at the end of this first song. Oh, yeah. How brilliant is that? There's so like out there, it's like, oh, you know, give the drummer some at the end of the song. As it starts to fade out as well. You know what I think? What if what they they've played for long enough and they they thought they were just like starting to fade out and the drummer went for it and they decided to keep it. You know, I like to think that that's what happened. you know
00:21:35
Speaker
but yeah and it reminds me a lot of Ringo Starr's solo in in the end by the Beatles because you have the bass drum playing a consistent rhythm and the toms phrasing on top of it so it sounds a lot like the Beatles. Excellent and that's in the playlist also. um I mean I don't really have any more more to say about the songs, I suppose musically Rock was still finding its way You know, we have to remember, you know, this transition from blues to rock had happened at the end of the 60s. The last episode we did was Cream and their debut album, 69. You've got Zeppelin 1 and 2 coming out, um Deep Purple making making tracks in the rock world.
00:22:14
Speaker
so i thought i feel like rock was still finding its feet and this feels like a fallout album coming from soul so whilst the zeppelin albums feel like a fallout of the blues yeah or cream food feels like a fallout of the psychedelic side and the blues yeah um this is very much you know sort of rooted in that soul um long song lengths but they don't feel long do they No. I feel like the musical sections are drawn out but to such an extent that you're forever wondering where's this going next and you're not sad they're going okay I'm bored now. Now the fade out actually makes me feel sad I'm like come on guys keep going please.
Band Member Contributions and Dynamics
00:22:50
Speaker
give him more good I want to do more of that drum solo.
00:22:54
Speaker
Who doesn't want a drum solo? Oh, it kills bass players, don't it? Right, let's talk about the musicianship, because each member bought something absolutely incredible to this. So I'll kick off with Andy Fraser, being you know me being the bass player.
00:23:09
Speaker
the majority of the album the bass is so heavy and thunderous and it does its job as a bass player really just you know as I've said before on this show for me perfect bass playing is taking the rhythm from the drums marrying that with the harmony choices of the vocals once you've done that you've got a perfect idea of bass playing so technically what he's doing doesn't fit into my mold of what a perfect bass player is. But there's no way I'm complaining because what he does, you know, I read someone say free at this point were like a power trio on drugs because they're a power trio, but just with a singer, an added singer instead of the guitarist singing. And it sounds like this. And it's very interesting that we did cream last week because um you've got this idea that sometimes when Paul Kosov is holding a chord, you've got Andy Fraser taking the lead.
00:23:58
Speaker
yeah It's brilliant. I could copy and paste this sentence for all of the musicians, but playing for the song each and every time. Some songs, I don't feel like you notice Andy Fraser's there because he's doing such a brilliant job of holding down the groove, just keeping that root note in. It's just brilliant. I've already said about the dynamics. He plays such a big part in this sound. The aggressive end of Mr. Big, where he plays that really staccato phrase compared with the soft and delicate middle section of all right now.
00:24:27
Speaker
It's just the perfect perfect um spectrum of yeah light and soft, hard and aggressive, but both contributing to the overall sound of the album. Yeah, I would say that for me, the star of the album is Andy Fraser. I think he's just is he is the man. He not only wrote most of the songs, I guess. i I'm just going to read a quote from what Felipe sent me yesterday. Felipe sent me yesterday.
00:24:53
Speaker
listening to the album for tomorrow's episode, I really want to know what sort of drugs Andy Fraser was into. Which is, it's perfect. I don't know if it was into anything, but it just sounds like it's into something that no one else in the world has ever tried. Or no bass player at least. No bass player, yeah. But yeah, just to finish off the bass playing, you could hear this melodic redefinition of the bass, influenced people in later years, Geddy Lee, John Deacon, you know,
00:25:20
Speaker
innumerable bass players influenced from the fact that he started to actually add unusual parts to a song. Yeah exactly and he was classically trained so is he had the music knowledge to to go beyond off what most ah rock musicians would do and and as ah as I mentioned before he plays the piano in heavy load and it's a its beautiful piano playing very like soul ah bluesy as well and and that you see the musicianship there when you hear the piano intro and as I said there's a space the drum roll comes in the whole band it's like it's the whole band comes together after the piano after the drum roll as they always waiting for the right moment to to to shine let's put it like that and I think yeah Mr Biggs by far the the most interesting song in the album in my opinion
00:26:09
Speaker
um vi is my trade isn't It my favorite the first time I've listened to it. so I've listened to the album three times over the the last week and the first ah listen was yeah I think this song was my favorite and then I think Fire and Water became like but became one of my favorite songs since we started the show. There's something about, yeah you know, interesting thing about that one. um Joe Bonamassa covered that song in a live album. And he did pretty much like the original, so super cool. I didn't know about that until today. And um but there's an interesting cover of it, which I sent to you. Yeah, which which we we might talk about. Yeah, I did talk right now. cliff ford Yeah, yeah. So they were big fans of Wilson ticket, right?
00:26:58
Speaker
um And they wanted to write something that would be suitable for him, that would be his sort of music. So they wrote Fire and Water. And he covered it. So that means they won't write about it. Yeah, his version of it is proper, proper soul, proper American soul music. Yeah. You know, and it's it's worth listening to it. The Bono Massa version is really cool, because it's really respectful to the original. I ah recommend people to listen to that one as well. Do you want to talk about Simon Kirk's job? Well, I think I mentioned the drum roll. The other thing about him, apart from the grooves that reminded me of the band, this low funky beat, which is let's put a lot it like this. It's really easy for drummers to impress by playing something fast. I think that can be said about loads of instruments. But if you go on Instagram today and you want to look at drummers, you're going to see the fastest drummer on earth and that kind of stuff.
00:27:54
Speaker
right And everything he plays, apart from a couple of drum rolls, is extremely slow. To keep the beat at a slow tempo and make it groovy is not an easy task. know and And the drum fills are really empty in a way. They remind me a lot of Nick Mason, Ringo Starr and Phil Collins.
00:28:12
Speaker
that those guys, they would never play a, well, not never, never is a strong word, but they would avoid busy drum fills because that gets in the way of the vocals, depending on what kind of music you're playing. If you're playing a prog rock or prog metal, heavy metal in general, you want a busy, loud drum fill, you know, using the whole kit. yeah But when you hear his fills, there's a lot, a lot of space. And again, he is loud enough when necessarily, but keeps the dynamics under control most of the time, which is Which is impressive. Really good. i really good job Well, I'll talk about Paul Kostov then and then you can talk about Paul Rogers. yeah um I thought Paul Kostov's guitar tone was very standout. I actually have to say I'm not a fan of the guitar tone. I find it quite abrasive. Whenever the solo comes up, I'm just a bit shrilling places. Sometimes a note hits and it's just the tone, it just kind of rubs me the wrong way. Having said that, it's iconic.
00:29:04
Speaker
And we know the solo in all right now. It's just the iconic, even from the tone, the like just those little notes, those little motifs. It's iconic. His playing is very emotive in this album. And there's once I think it's actually is it a penultimate song? What do we say? Don't stay there. Don't say you love me. It reminded me of Albatross by Fleetwood Mac. Just with such the soft playing. Really emotive. But at the same time,
00:29:33
Speaker
I suppose actually they go hand in hand, restrained playing. So many solos he does in this album where you could imagine how Jimmy Page or Richie Blackmore would have played it, but it's nothing like that. It is soulful. It's about the vibe, the feel, the note choices, not playing things at 60 miles an hour, which is, I'm not accusing of Jimmy Page and Richie Blackmore of only being about speed, but we know they like to show off what they could do in a solo.
00:29:59
Speaker
Whereas just as I said with Andy Fraser and just as we've said with all four of them, it feels like Paul Kosov is playing for the song and only for the song. Yeah and it's and it's really hard to create an interesting guitar part with without being a riff or a complicated solo, isn't it? So yeah he plays and also you can't, eat there's not too many overdubs.
00:30:20
Speaker
in but that sense so So a lot of guitar players would go down the route of motor layering guitars. So you have five, six tracks of guitar because that's how you fill the gaps. I think he just decided to leave the gap there. So there's a gap and so what. you know Isn't it funny that like, you know, because we imagine, as we said, when when I leave a gap for you to play, you take the gap and you fill it and vice versa.
00:30:45
Speaker
I feel like we've found an album where everyone's leaving gaps and no one's filling them, but it's perfect. yeah It doesn't need to be filled, does it? No, no, no not at all. And I think it's like, yeah as I said, like if you have too many layers of guitars, maybe you maybe the bass and the drums, they they get buried in that. in that ah you know, wall of guitars, you know, you don't want that. Yeah. No one wants that. Do you want to talk about Paul Rodgers? Yeah. I mean, a soul singer in in a rock band. Can we say that? I think that's fair. I think that's fair. Yeah. yeah And it's not it's not trying. to So it's impressive that he's not trying to sound like the iconic singers of that era. He could just he could have been a copy of of of ah Robert b Plant or or Ian Gillen or
00:31:31
Speaker
he's just doing his own thing and he found his voice. I think if you listen to a Bad Company, if you listen to him with Queen as well, it's great isn't it? Is there a Bad Company song for listeners to check out? oh man and any Any of their songs, it's just like I think when he was singing with ah with Bad Company, he probably had a ah more established like style. right So um i'm not I'm not that familiar with their albums. like i'll just want track in so anyone yeah but but But I'm saying like i've I've listened to their stuff. I remember playing some of that stuff.
00:32:09
Speaker
ah when he was younger and and I was really impressed by the technical quality of his vocals. So it feels to me that like he established his style and somehow with free he was literally free. He was like trying stuff out and and you know singing some longer phrases, not necessarily trying to impress. I think there's there's not a single moment in the album that his vocal technique is, um how can I put it? Virtuosik. Yeah, or or the technique is noticeable. It's not about... Okay, it all feels normal for him. He's technically, he's technically flawless. Yeah. But you don't know, that you don't you don't perceive him as a technical singer. I think the that's perfectly put man. I find his tone to be unbelievably soulful.
00:32:58
Speaker
When you hear him sing those soft songs, his voice is so soothing. which is what I think that's got you got to that's got to be a staple of soul singing because soul is meant to bring goodness to the heart. But he has the power and delivery of a rock singer, of a a theatricality about him yeah where he can deliver that long note.
00:33:15
Speaker
and sort of shout a bit and make it sort of rather expressive. And like I said, theatrical, but it's all with that underlying soul voice as his base. Exactly. Excellent. Cool. um Well, shall we move on to the end the standout thing of this album, which is the so the final song of the album called All Right Now.
Analysis of 'All Right Now' and Its Impact
00:33:34
Speaker
um I'd like to start with the Lazz Unleashed, which we haven't done in a while.
00:33:39
Speaker
i think I think you can guess. I knew that would happen. I think you can guess it. i think You don't like the song. Love the song. It's brilliant. However, it's the worst on the album. Good point. I wouldn't disagree. Do you agree? Yes. Laz and Felipe unleashed. I wish that song existed on its own like a single, yeah it does like an album or one song. Bro, no I thought I was going to come here and I thought I was going to have to defend myself in this position. I thought you loved it. It's a great song. Let's get that straight for listeners, viewers. It is a fantastic song. One of Rock's greatest songs. But it's the worst song on this album. It feels clunky.
00:34:17
Speaker
when every other song is grooving and soulful and spacious. Don't get me wrong, there's space on this song, but it just feels too straight. It feels too simple, too easy.
00:34:29
Speaker
did What do you think? Well, it it became a hit because it it was probably as slightly more predictable than the other songs in the album. ah That song could please ah any audience, any rock fans anywhere in the world and even people who don't like rock music. you know yeah it's It's so easy to get into that that catchy ah chorus and the groove.
00:34:50
Speaker
And um I love playing that song. I've played it a few times. I love listening to it. And ah it is a great song. It's it's again, it is um one of the probably one of the most iconic songs from the 70s. It's just I wouldn't say well, you said the worst song in the album. I would say just like it just doesn't belong to the album. but It's just that for me.
00:35:16
Speaker
how long this But I think so its it's quite, it's a surprise to have it at the end. And I actually liked listening to it in the context of the album somehow. That's really interesting. Because first me the the album is a build up for that song somehow, although it doesn't belong there, if that makes any sense. I feel like, yeah, no, it does make sense. But I feel like Don't Say You Love Me has this epic triumphanness about it at the end.
00:35:40
Speaker
either put all right now in between remember and heavy loot. I don't know if just to take a break. I don't know what the reason was, but that was actually the last song they wrote for the album. It wasn't meant to be there. It's more like they finished the album, you know, still some space for a song. theyve And so I've got this one. yeah Let's do it. Well, it's a short album anyway, isn't it? Yeah, exactly. they Probably needed another song. yeah And it's five and a half minute long. So they yeah they came up with that one. They recorded it. And the label said it's too long for the radio. And that's going to be they probably agree that that that should be the single because they're not interested in singles, but, you know, commercially you need one. And they probably understood that that that song was the best one for for a single. But I highly recommend that you listen to the radio edit. It's in one of the ah reissues of the album.
00:36:27
Speaker
and they edit around two minutes. Man, if you if you if you have the time to check this, around two minutes they edit the song. It's so bad. they oh bad ok The cut they made to connect, because they skip I think a whole verse and a little bit of the guitar solo. Oh, I've heard that i've heard it before, yeah. The cut is just like, what what what did you do there? like just like It's almost like it skips a beat. It's really bad. Four minutes, 15 single version.
00:36:54
Speaker
but Yeah, but out of around two minutes of the song. Oh sorry, two minutes, okay, sorry about that. Two minutes into the song you can hear that cut, which is awful. ah But they they knew, they didn't like that, they were really pissed off with the fact they had to edit now, but they understood and in the end it worked for them, you know, it was was the song that, you know, yeah ah made them a successful band. so Well, it's iconic, it's a rock anthem that has lasted and stood the test of time for nearly 60 years.
00:37:23
Speaker
ah sorry, 50 years, um reached number two in the UK and number four in the US. s yeah Globally, it was a massive success. And I think the the one that, listen, I get it, I get why people would pick this song from this album to be the standout one. I just, as I said, I just don't feel it fits that well. And for that reason, because it doesn't have that emotion to it, it doesn't have that character to it that the other songs do. And because of that,
00:37:47
Speaker
that's why I'm using the moniker of the worst song. It's still a fantastic song and I get why people love it. The driving guitar riff, the bog standard so soulful vocals, the sing-along chorus, that everyone knows how to sing that song. I mean the lyrics are in the title and then you're done, you've learned it haven't you? um But then other than that, you know, you've got the iconic solo and you've got that bass line that comes in halfway that just really sort of breaks it up, gives it a bit of different and re-inject some of that free characteristic to it. So it is a great song, um but you can tell why it's been successful, right? Yeah, yeah, you can. Man, I lost you for a few seconds and my connection was unstable. That's good. i saw I saw you freeze and I thought I'd carry on. I'd say a few more sentences. I'd love to see this on YouTube when I'm not moving for a while.
00:38:33
Speaker
I can just do it right now and pretend. I thought you were just enamored by what I was saying about all right now. No, I missed it. I missed it all. That's it. Whatever you said, I agree anyway. It's fine. She did amazing. That was great. Basically, I was explaining why I think, what I was basically explaining that I understand why it was a success. Do you? Yeah. Yeah, I do. I do. I do. ah um I mean, forget about the band, forget about the album. This song is great. It's a great song. If you listen to it, there's no way you're not going to sing the chorus. Second time the chorus comes, second time around you're like, oh wait a minute, I know the lyrics now. It's just all right now. It's easy. I can sing along. So you can sing along. Also, it's not like a silly kind of love song.
00:39:16
Speaker
It's a bit like I'm not going to fall for your bullshit kind of lyrics. It's interesting. It's an interesting songwriting piece in terms of lyrics and melody and groove. It's all there. It's great. You can't point to a flaw in that song. There's nothing there's nothing about the song. It wasn't well done. it' just Again, as I said, it doesn't sound like a part of the album. On the other hand, I do feel like the album is a build up to that song somehow, although the song wasn't written at the time they finished the other one. so
00:39:52
Speaker
who knows Who knows? Right. Excellent. and All right. Well, let's talk about the legacy album. I mean, just a few little points, you know, the song all right now set a template for rock anthems. You know, after that, people knew what you had to do. Get a great opening guitar riff, make a sing along chorus, stick a great guitar solo in there and bang you done it. um the the The influence this song had on a bunch of different sort of music styles is quite It's early. i wouldn't I wouldn't say this album is responsible for this genre being created or this one, but you can hear parts like the the riff driven style, influencing hard rock bands, um big sound with minimal instruments, inspiring bands like Bad Company and even production wise.
00:40:36
Speaker
I read something about someone saying even inspired a heavy metal a little bit. And my first of all, I was like, I don't really see that. But in terms of production, there is a band called Machine Head and they released an album called The Blackening. And The Blackening is one of my favorite albums of all time. And there's a reason for it. The reason is all through the album, all you ever hear are the two guitarists, the bass player, the drummer and the vocals. No overdubs or sorry, no overdubs, no multi layering. Yeah.
00:41:05
Speaker
the the the You get guitar one in your right ear, guitar two in your left ear, the bass and the drums in the middle and the vocals, but that's it, man. There's no moment where there is more instruments than they play live. And because and that's what and that now I see that. I made that link earlier. I was like, right. Because All Right Now Free have kind of done it with this album and I see how that could really a time in the 60s where the Beatles were messing around with recording techniques and backwards taping and layering and multi-tracking and vocal harmonies, eight-part vocal harmonies. Three kind of just said, right, that's all brilliant, but let's just we're going to take it back to its original thing. you know Yeah, exactly. Just like four four blokes in a studio playing, making some music and enjoying the sound. yeah yeah I've got some final thoughts, just a couple of sentences before your monologue.
00:41:55
Speaker
um So I'll just say, you know, first, the first thing I want to say is I just imagine saying so. ah If someone asks me what do I think of this album, I want to say, right, imagine this. If All Right Now is the worst song, imagine how brilliant the rest of the album is. The whole album has an air of easy going and laid back vibes throughout it. The music, the production, even the album cover is just so like, guys, let's chill out. Let's just take this how it goes. It reminded me of albums like these Han Portis to have a good cohesive band because the songs technically are easy to play, but it's not at all easy to emulate the feel and the vibe that's going into the music.
00:42:34
Speaker
In a time where development and complexity was being injected into rock music, Frees sought to bring it all back to its simple raw foundations and for this reason it stands out.
Success and Challenges Post-'Fire and Water'
00:42:44
Speaker
Each musician brought so much to the table but knowing where to hold back, where to let the music breathe and um where to give the space is what makes this album a standout album of 70s rock.
00:42:55
Speaker
Yeah, and it's the album that put them in the same place as all the the biggest names in the industry at the time. ah So they played at that year because of this album, they've played at the Isle of Wight festival was a third time the festival happened. And they were, you know, sharing the bill with Jimi Hendrix, the doors of the who so Wow.
00:43:16
Speaker
Yeah, so but if imagine playing a small club in London and the next day you're playing with Hendrix The Who, The Doors. So it's it's great, isn't it? about It's amazing. yeah well Would you like to finish us off with your monologue? Yes, excellent so here we go.
00:43:32
Speaker
You know, I'm getting used to this. Forgive my English. i'm Here we go. Monologue by Felipe. See? You even signed it off. There's only two people here and we have very different accents, but you needed to sign it off. In case you don't know. Love to, yeah. me right Here we go. Soulful vocals, slow and funky grooves, incredibly creative bass lines.
00:43:56
Speaker
and just the right amount of guitar riffs. Four young men from the UK have combined their efforts to put together a remarkable album that would eventually become a blessing and a curse in their lives. The unique songwriting partnership between um Paul Rogers and Andy Fraser gave birth to Fire and Water, the album that would put free on the spotlight amongst all the rock gods of the 70s. But they were not trying to be like the others and they were certain that there was a place for them in rock history. All right now became a massive hit and immediately took free from small clubs to world tours.
00:44:32
Speaker
They were somehow capable of bringing the heart and soul of American music into the context of England's rock scene. The album never seems to pick up a fast pace or to get heavier than the first track. Paul Rodgers' voice makes us feel every emotion expressed in the lyrics, and the band makes us pay attention to every clever detail detail carefully played by each instrument.
00:44:55
Speaker
and then out of the blue just like magic that classic riff comes through the speakers and starts a five and a half minute journey that contains everything rock music is about a rocking ending to an album full of soul free has made history with fire and water and i wonder if they knew that it would never happen again amazing very nice my favorite part was what you said was when about the part of um these four british guys taking the heart of American soul music and injecting into British rock. Yeah. Which is true and incredibly unique, because when we look at what the what American music did in the lead up to the 70s, it's obvious, you got blues, you got the blues and cream, you know, you've got stuff like that. To actually hear the American influence in rock bands from the 70s onwards was so much lower compared to how it would have been in the 50s and 60s. And this is you're you're right, this is the moment, this is one of the moments where
00:45:55
Speaker
it's like It's like bridging the gap, isn't it? Between the experimentation of the 60s and the establishment of rock in the 70s. I think i think um the British bands had already created a British blues genre. Yes, British blues at that time. yeah So it's no longer an exclusively American style, but soul music still american wasn't like it hasn't been turned into part of english culture in in an original form as they did excellent man great point yeah cool all done yeah yeah one more one last thing shout out to my friend rihanna who recommended me the album so thanks a lot there you go thank you rihanna
00:46:37
Speaker
Thanks and cool, well thank you for joining us for another episode of the Long Live Rock and Roll Podcast. If you're listening to us on Apple or Spotify or any of your podcasting platforms, scroll down, give us a review, hit the five stars, write a little sentence about us and just the world of good because it'll take us up the algorithms and be seen by more people. If you're watching on YouTube, make sure to hit like and subscribe so you stay up to date with all our new content. Thanks for joining us and we'll see you next time.
00:47:01
Speaker
Thanks for being with us one more time. Keep on rocking everyone and don't do anything that you can do. And as usual guys, take care and long live rock and roll.