Free

Free emerged from the melting pot that was the British Blues scene - Where UK kids turned onto the output of long forgotten American Blues artists and rehashed it with the aid of Marshall amps. With Eric Clapton being the foremost innovator, groups following his blueprint like Free found a ready audience for their soulful but earthy blues interpretations.

The band, as all the real greats do, had an amazing chemistry. The combination of four huge musical talents combined to make something really special.

Paul Rodgers seemed divinely blessed with an amazing voice - full and amazingly well controlled, but with the facility to croon or scowl at will his voice marks him out as one of the rock singers ever.

Paul Kossoff was equally blessed with a unique, stripped down guitar style. - He played just enough, and yet in a way that seems to say "this is all you get, but it's all you could ever need". No other player except perhaps Peter Green has ever said so much with so little.

Andy Fraser - one of the most underrated players ever - also had a similarly economical style. What everyone seemed to miss at the time though , was the fact that he was Funky - probably the first funk bass player in a blues band. Where other Bassists woudl simply plod four to the bar, Andy would always find room for a tasty fill in support of Kossoff's minimalist silences.

The result was a band with real power yet which really understood the value of restraint.

No other band before or since has sounded so good with so little. Listen to "Free Live" to see how a clean drum style, funky but understated bass and bluesy but similarly understated guitar can combine with a honey drenched vocal style, giving you all you ever need from a rock'n'roll band.

Wracked by a number of personality clashes, the group had burnt out and split up by May 1971 but not before releasing four fine ablums. (Live albums and reunions still lay ahead) but in the space of three short years, they had assured themselves a place in history.

What seems a real shame however is that their real contribution seems to have been lost. - they showed that less is more, when to hold back and when to let it go, and that, if the material is strong enough, you'll only ever need bass,drums, guitar and a damn fine voice to go to the top.

Essential Albums

• Free.
This, their second album is overshadowed perhaps by the third (see below), but stands in its own right as a masterpiece. More mellow than the album that followed Rodgers complained afterwards that the album was "underproduced" but that's not the case. The production is fine and the songs are great, its just that none of them are outright rockers and therefore lack the immediacy of their later work. Ironically, the most strident it gets is in the title track "I'll Be Creepin", but throughout the album flows Free's rock solid pulse. Perhaps I can best put across its nature by saying that I had it on my bathroom CD player for 6 months straight. Let me tell you thats a lot of baths and a lot of hours listening. - turn on the taps, turn on the player, pour in the bubbles and float away to 'Lying in the Sunshine'