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Friday 27 May 2022

"Classic Rock" - Free

 


2022 Charity Shop Purchases 27 - Free -Walking in My Shadows-  The Free Collection

Some more Bluesy Rock this week for the final "Classic Rock" purchase picked up in Sue Ryder in Newton Stewart.

Free were a band from London who were on the go from 1968- 1973 consisting for the most part of that period of Paul Rodgers on lead vocals and keyboards, Paul Kossof on guitar, Andy Fraser on bass and Simon Kirke on drums.They released 6  studio albums and one live album during this period, When they broke up Rodgers and Kirke went on to form Bad Company. 

Walking in My Shadows is a double CD in one of those old fashioned cases which take up about the space of 3 CDs on your shelves. Such things can determine whether it is a keeper of not (the jury is currently out). Released in 2007 by Spectrum, who seem to specialise in this sort of thing, it contains 34 tracks with all the ones that you will be familiar with.

After a slow start they struck gold with All Right Now leading to an appearance at the 1970 Isle of Wight Festival and super stardom thereafter. All Right Now was their only singles hit in the States.They did considerably better in the UK charting 7 times including an All Right Now remix.
Here are their top ten hits (peaking at 2,4 and 7) in the order that they were released




6 comments:

  1. Free were on of those blues rock dinosaurs from decades ago and very popular at our place. You selected their highlights. Thank you for it Stevie.

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  2. Like two of these songs but have never liked All Right Now,, back then or now. Don't think it's even the lyrics, just feels like a really masculine song (all songs have a gender, doesn't matter who they are sung by - I'm more a fan of female gender songs).

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    1. That could be a series - masculine and feminine songs!

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  3. Their first album was a tour de force. I like saying 'tour de force'; I don't say it enough.

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  4. Sorry, but I can't let Walter's comment go unchallenged. Free were never blues rock dinosaurs then or even now. When the mighty Fire and Water alb came out in 1970, Paul Rodgers and Simon Kirke were 21, Paul Kossoff (20) and Andy Fraser a mere diplodocus at 18!!! From debut Tons of Sobs in 1969 to final alb in '73 they managed 6 albums and burned so brightly in their 4 or 5 years together. Calling rock and prog rock bands of that era, dinosaurs has become a lazy generic. You'll never hear the fans of those many and varied bands using it to describe their favourite bands.

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    1. English is not Walter's first language Spence.It looks as though he likes them so your issue may be with Google Translator

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