Fire and Water
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| Fire and Water | ||
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| Studio album by Free | ||
| Released | June 1970 October 2001 (reissue) |
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| Recorded | January - June 1970 | |
| Genre | Rock, Soul | |
| Length | 61:39 | |
| Label | A&M | |
| Producer(s) | Free | |
| Professional reviews | ||
|---|---|---|
| Free chronology | ||
| Free (1969) |
Fire And Water (1970) |
Highway (1970) |
Fire and Water is the third studio album by English rock group Free. Unlike their previous albums Tons Of Sobs and Free it was a huge success, reaching #2 in the UK charts and #17 in the American, making it the most successful Free album. This is largely due to the album containing the hit single 'All Right Now' which they later played to a crowd of over 600,000 people at the 1970 Isle Of Wight Festival, which generated them huge publicity. To this date it is the only Free album to have seen a CD reissue in America.
Contents |
[edit] Line up
Paul Rodgers - Vocals
Paul Kossoff - Guitar
Andy Fraser - Bass
Simon Kirke - Drums
[edit] Recording
The album carried on the Fraser/Rodgers writing partnership that characterised the bulk of the Free canon, with five of the seven tracks being credited to them. The album was made very much with the intention of gaining the band a hit single: the band only had one song ('The Hunter' from Tons Of Sobs) that would generate the ecstatic reaction they desired from an audience and they badly needed another. This commercialised ethos is immediately obvious: many of the tracks seem to be intended to be listened to individually rather than as a coherent whole and as such the relationship between the songs is less distinct than on the band's previous albums. The tracks are arranged in a fairly basic form of alternating fast songs with slow ones.
Like their previous album there is little that could be called hard rock such as their debut album had contained, with the album continuing the fairly lightweight soulful sound of their previous album. There are also no blues songs, that being a genre where the band had their roots. The production is considerably less polished than their previous album as Fire And Water had been produced by the band themselves, a fact that Island Records boss (and the producer of the last album) Chris Blackwell later regretted.
[edit] Reception
The album and single were a massive successes, catapulting the band to near-iconic status. Fees for live shows rose to £1000 (a considerable amount in 1970) and they began to be featured in mainstream music magazines. Commercial success brought with it accusations of "selling-out" which the purist Kossoff took badly: he took a defensive stance in one interview, stating that "obviously 'All Right Now' is part of us, but it's a frivolous part, it isn't what we want to be remembered by. We're generally more serious" (quoted in Phil Sutcliffe's album liner notes).
Nevertheless 'All Right Now' is indeed what the band are remembered by; it is estimated that the song has been played somewhere in the world every day since its release in 1970, especially since it was remixed Bob Clearmountain and re-released in February 1991, being discovered by a new generation of fans. Since then, it has frequently appeared on generic budget rock compilation albums. Free are somewhat regarded as a one-hit wonder in the USA and if it were not for this song it is doubtful how well any more of their catalogue would be known.
[edit] Track listing
(All tracks written by Fraser/Rodgers unless otherwise stated)
[edit] Original tracks
1. 'Fire And Water' 3.57
The title track of the album is a mid-tempo rock song that deals with the standard theme of an attractive yet untrustworthy woman. With its memorable riff the song was a popular one among fans and became a staple track of their live shows.
2. 'Oh I Wept' (Rodgers/Kossoff) 4.26
An extremely slow song that is nevertheless guitar driven, this is one of their better known ballads.
3. 'Remember' 4.23
'Remember' is a reworking of an unused song 'Woman By The Sea' from the Tons Of Sobs recording sessions in 1968. It is rather more lightweight than its sombre parent, but possibly due to it having been written at a time when Kossoff was granted much more freedom it features a long and memorable guitar solo.
4. 'Heavy Load' 5.19
Another slow ballad, this was rarely performed live being as it is piano rather than guitar driven. It remains popular however, Phil Sutcliffe calling it one of their best songs. Its title was used by David Clayton and Todd K. Smith for their biography of the band Heavy Load: The Story Of Free in 2002.
5. 'Mr. Big' (Fraser/Rodgers/Kirke/Kossoff) 5.55
A slow-paced yet aggressive rock song, this features an extended bass guitar solo from Andy Fraser, and therefore is a good example of his musicianship within the band. Like many of the tracks on this album it was individually popular and like the title track was a mainstay of the band's live shows. They performed this track on a televised session that can be seen on the Let It Rock - Vol. 2 DVD released in the UK in 2003.
6. 'Don't Say You Love Me' 6.01
Another extremely slow song, this little-discussed track has been described by some as being like a lullaby. Despite a strong vocal performance from Rodgers, it arguably remains the album's least remembered track.
7. 'All Right Now' 5.32
Free's best known track, this is a pounding riff-driven song that has become a classic of the genre. The version on the album is longer than the single release that people are familiar with: the second verse is repeated, and the guitar solo is longer.
[edit] Extra tracks
Unusually the album's extra tracks consist only of alternate versions of songs already on the album. They include an alternate vocal take of 'Oh I Wept' and a remix of 'Fire And Water' to correct many of the production deficiencies that the original contains. This version of the song does not fade out; instead Simon Kirke's final drum solo is performed to the end resulting in this version being twenty-one seconds longer than the album version. A BBC Session of this song is also included.
The extra tracks also include three different versions of 'All Right Now': one is a BBC session recorded at the same time as the one for the title track; one is the edited version that was released as a single. It runs at 4.18, one minute and fourteen seconds less than the album version: the final verse is gone and the guitar solo is heavily cut down, a fact that Kossoff disliked. The final version of the song is an early take that was never used.
[edit] References
- Clayton, David and Smith, Todd K. Heavy Load: The Story Of Free. Moonshine Publishing 2002
- Strong, Martin C. The Great Rock Discography, 6th edition. Edinburgh: Canongate Books 1994, 2002. pp. 392-3.
- Sutcliffe, Phil. Notes to Fire And Water by Free. Universal Island Records Ltd. 1970, 2001.
[edit] External links
| Free |
| Members |
|---|
| | Paul Rodgers • Paul Kossoff • Andy Fraser • Simon Kirke |
| Discography |
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Studio albums: - Tons of Sobs • Free • Fire and Water • Highway • Free at Last • Heartbreaker |
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Live albums: - Free Live! |
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Compilation album: - The Free Story • The Best of Free • Free And Easy, Rough And Ready • Completely Free • The Best of Free: All Right Now • Molten Gold: The Anthology • Free: All Right Now • Songs of Yesterday • Chronicles • |
