Free - Fire And Water

Details : 1970, CD, Island

Even today, nearly 38 years after its initial release Free’s “Fire And Water” stands as a benchmark album for blues based hard rock. From the opening bars of the strutting title track to the closing strains of one of rock music’s best known songs it remains an outstanding piece of work.

Kossoff’s tone, Rodgers perfect voice and the throbbing rhythm section of Fraser and Kirke have near perfect chemistry on “Fire And Water” itself, a track I’d promote as one of the great album-opening numbers. The contrast between this confident opener and the superbly laid back “Oh I Wept” works well too, establishing the band’s hard rock credentials to proving their ability to still deliver beautifully melodic blues across the space of the first two numbers. Paul Kossoff’s wonderfully economic solo also acts as something of an early album highlight in this track to boot.

That a song as accomplished as “Remember” remains overlooked on the album speaks volumes for the material surrounding it. A fine song in its own right it suffers somewhat by being succeeded firstly by the piano lead mid-tempo groove of “Heavy Load“, a fine song with a great lazy vocal and more superb understated guitar, which in turn gives way to the massively confident “Mr. Big” complete with its mesmorising bass line and another superb guitar solo that builds to a huge crescendo amid Roders strained cries. A great song and again there is a fine contrast in styles too as “Mr Big” is followed by the more mellow “Don’t Say You Love Me“. From classic raw rock voice to perfectly smooth delivery the evidence on this album proves why Rodgers was considered such a phenomenon when Free emerged and why he remains a revered frontman still.

It’s not easy today to sit and comment on album closer and Free’s most famous track “All Right Now“. It is of course one of rock musics true classics and consequently has also become one of the most overplayed songs of the genre. In the context of the album though it’s a stunning finale combining everything that has come before it. The pulsing, melodic bass line and insistent rhythm coupled with a great vocal and a wonderful, certainly not overplayed, lead guitar all combine in what on release would have seemed a magical conclusion.

Currently I only possess the 2001 Universal reissue and “All Right Now” is the reason that the vinyl version remains high on my “wants list”. Why? Well the “Additional Recordings” that flesh out the CD apparently didn’t have much in the way of unreleased tracks to pick from. Free followed up this album with “Highway” about six months later so in addition to an alternate vocal take of “Oh I Wept” and a new stereo version and also a BBC session recording of the title track you get no less that three further versions of “All Right Now”. The “First Version” is interesting in plotting the evolution of the song, the BBC take an interesting curio, but the single version is surely un-required by all but the completist. Never a satisfactory edit once you are familiar with the album track its surely superflous when three superior versions are already present?

In summary then, “Fire And Water” remains a genre-defining album in it’s original seven song guise - and here a 5/5 for that very reason - but in its expanded format with three further versions of “All Right Now” making up tracks 11, 12 and 13 its becomes something of a test of patience. Free are about more than one song after all!

Highlight: Fire And Water

Score: 5/5

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A TV performance of what has become the album’s highlight for me… “Fire And Water”.

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BL

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