Fire and Water (Free album)

Fire and Water is the third studio album released by English rock group Free. The album became the band's breakthrough hit, reaching #2 in the UK charts and #17 in the US, making it the most successful Free album. This is 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, generating great popularity. To this date, it is the only Free album to have seen a CD reissue in America.

Reception

Track listing

• All tracks written by Fraser/Rodgers unless otherwise stated.

Side one

1. "Fire and Water" 4:02 (UK album) 3:41 (US album)
2. "Oh I Wept" (Rodgers/Kossoff) 4:26
3. "Remember" 4:20 (A reworking of an unused song "Woman by the Sea" from the Tons of Sobs recording sessions in 1968)
4. "Heavy Load" 5:19

Side two

1. "Mr. Big" (Fraser/Rodgers/Kirke/Kossoff) 5:55 (Performed by Free on a televised session that can be seen on the Let It Rock - Vol. 2 DVD, released in the UK in 2003.)
2. "Don't Say You Love Me" 6:01
3. "All Right Now" 5:32 (Free's best known track. The version on the album is longer than the single release: the second verse is repeated and the guitar solo is longer.)

Personnel

• Paul Rodgers: Vocals
• Paul Kossoff: Guitars
• Andy Fraser: Bass
• Simon Kirke: Drums

Reissues

In 2001 the album was reissued with extra tracks, consisting 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.

In 2008 the album was issued again as a 2-CD Deluxe Edition with twenty-three extra tracks. Most of these bonus tracks had previously appeared on the Songs of Yesterday box set, but five previously unreleased alternate versions were also included.

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.

External links