Search - Free :: Fire & Water (Dlx)

FREE's 1970 3rd Album Masterpiece Given A STUNNING SOUND UPG

Mark Barry at Reckless Records, Lon | UK | 04/08/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"FREE were:

PAUL RODGERS - Vocals [ex Brown Sugar]

PAUL KOSSOFF - Guitar & Piano [ex Black Cat Bones]

ANDY FRASER - Bass

SIMON KIRKE - Drums [ex John Mayall's Bluesbreakers]



THE UK ALBUM:

Preceded by their debut "Tons Of Sobs" (recorded in October and December 1968, released in March 1969) and their 2nd album "Free" (recorded in April and June, released in October 1969), FREE's third landmark LP "Fire And Water" was delivered to an expectant public in all its 7-track simplicity and glory on 26th of June 1970 as Island ILPS 9120. Prepped by the edited single of "All Right Now" in May 1970 (Island WIP 6082), which raced up to number 2 in the charts, the album delivered what the public seemed to already know - here was a truly great British band hitting its stride.



CD:

This is the 3rd CD incarnation of the original LP, a 1986 crappy non-remaster, a far better 2001 Remaster with 6 bonus tracks - and now this - a 30-Track 2CD DELUXE EDITION issued on 18 March 2008. For fans who already own the 2001 remaster and probably also have the 4CD "Songs Of Yesterday" Box set that went before it in May 2000, for all its comprehensiveness, this 2CD set offers only 5 Previously Unreleased Tracks. So if you can buy the 2001 remaster for a fiver or less anywhere, why pay £15 for this 2CD set - the answer is threefold - the PACKAGING, the EXTRAS (4 out of 5 of them are actually great) and above all - the SOUND - which is the BEST EVER. Here's the breakdown...



PACKAGING:

The booklet contains black & white photos, reproduction of concert tickets, press adverts, in the studio colour photos and a detailed history of the albums path to number 3 in the UK charts in July 1970. The CDs themselves reflect the original `PINK' Island label design on 1st pressings of the LP and the original master tape boxes are pictured underneath the two see-through trays - a nice touch on both counts.



EXTRAS:

There are five previously unreleased versions:

Track 9, Disc 1: "Mr Big", from the BBC's John Peel Show, recorded 15 Jan 1971

(very disappointing, not a great recording, with really muddy sound; it's easy to see why it's been left off previous releases)

Track 7, Disc 2: "Fire And Water" (Backing Track)

(a really interesting `work in progress' from February 1970 mixed in 1999, Take 5 contains studio chatter at the beginning and then the band working nicely through the backing track - Kirke's drumming fantastic, but it ends oddly and abruptly)

Tracks 11, 12 and 13, Disc 2: "All Right Now" (Takes 1, 2 and 3)

All three takes were recorded as part of filmed promotional shorts for "All Right Now" and "The Stealer" in October 1970. Instead of miming, the band played live (the two videos turn up on the "Free Forever" DVD set) and these `live' takes are superb and genuinely deserve the moniker `bonus tracks" - they even include the squeaking of Simon Kirke's drum stool! Fans will have to have these.



SOUND:

Even though the outside packaging seems to be saying that the remaster is 'new', the 20-page booklet confusingly states that the remaster used is the 2001 one done by Peter Mew at Abbey Road - the same as the single disc that's been on the market for years? But the sound on this release is DIFFERENT - IT'S FAR BETTER.



FREE were a `loud' band and the recordings at the 8-track Trident Studios reflected their hairy-arsed live rock band nature - in other words the recorded results were not exactly going to win audiophile gongs. The tapes were then remixed onto the 16-track facility at Island's new studio in Basing Street. But even then, Chris Blackwell, label founder and leader, hated the results. So more mixing was done. But even to this day, the further mixing and remixing before the album was finally released still gave us a less than great sonic result. I mention all of this because the liner notes to this release talk of major audio restoration having gone into the 1999 and 2001 remastering process - and now again on this 2008 version - and man can you HEAR IT!



Take Side 2 of the original album, "Mr Big", "Don't Say You Love Me" and "All Right Now" - when I A/B the sound on my 2001 issue to this 2008 issue, the huge difference is the removal of `almost' all of the hiss that was omnipresent on the 2001 remaster which marred the listen enormously. The result is that instead of being saturated in a rough and ready hissy wall, the band suddenly explodes out of the speakers with an intensity that will thrill fans to their very core! I would describe it like this - it's as if I'm listening to the full power of FREE for the first time. With this new clarity, the opening and eventual build up in "Mr Big" to a guitar crescendo has to be heard to be believed! It's enormous and just AWESOME to hear! The beautiful "Don't Say You Love Me" is truly gorgeous now, especially when the lovely piano addition comes in, while the fantastic anthem that is "All Right Now" has you hearing Kossoff's plectrum scratching off the pick-ups - little guitar flicks before he goes into the big riff, the clarity of Fraser's bass work and other nuances that I've just never heard before. Don't get me wrong, there is `hiss' on these recordings, but the removal of even half of it has made the band come alive to my ears. Wonderful stuff!



To sum up, "Fire And Water" is a great album, and this DELUXE EDITION of it gives the great record a stunning sonic upgrade. Throw in all the live versions and alternate takes around its release, decent liner notes and packaging, all topped off with 4 out of the 5 previously unreleased tracks actually worth owning - then indeed you have something special.



There have been some stunning issues in Universal's DELUXE EDITION series (check out the Whiskeytown "Strangers Almanac" double) and this is another. Regardless of the price, FREE fans will have to own it, and the uninitiated can discover why Britain and the world went mad for the FREE and their `rawk'. What a band!



PS: Could boffins at Universal please do a DELUXE EDITION of the following albums:

"On The Boards" by TASTE (Rory Gallagher's 2nd & last studio album with Taste, 1970)

"Bumpers" by VARIOUS ARTISTS (UK 1970 Island Label 2LP Sampler)

"El Pea" by VARIOUS ARTISTS (UK 1971 Island/Chrysalis Labels 2LP Sampler)

"Bombers" by VARIOUS ARTISTS (UK 1971 Polydor Label 2LP Sampler)

"Jesus Christ Superstar" by VARIOUS ARTISTS (Tim Rice, Ian Gillan of Deep Purple & Others)

"Fotheringay" by FOTHERINGAY (ex Fairport Convention UK folk guys)

"Emitt Rhodes" by EMITT RHODES (superb debut)

"Brothers & Sisters" by THE ALLMAN BROTHERS

"Living In The Past" by JETHRO TULL

"Can't Buy A Thrill" by STEELY DAN

"Henry The Human Fly" by RICHARD THOMPSON

"Innervisions" by STEVIE WONDER

"Vagabonds Of The Western World" by THIN LIZZY

"His California Album/Dreamer" both by BOBBY "BLUE" BLAND

"Second Helping" by LYNYRD SKYNYRD

"So What" by JOE WALSH

"Sneakin' Sally Through The Alley" by ROBERT PALMER

"Anymore For Anymore" by RONNIE LANE'S SLIM CHANCE

"Cry Tough" by NILS LOFGREN

"Joan Armatrading" by JOAN ARMATRADING

"Jailbreak" by THIN LIZZY

"Songs In The Key Of Life" by STEVIE WONDER

"Stick To Me" by GRAHAM PARKER and THE RUMOUR

"Dire Straits" by DIRE STRAITS (30th anniversary in 2008)

"5" by J.J. CALE

"Raindogs" by TOM WAITS

"Solitude Standing" by SUZANNE VEGA

"So" by PETER GABRIEL

"Piece By Piece" by JOHN MARTYN

"Slave To The Rhythm" by GRACE JONES

"People" by HOTHOUSE FLOWERS

"Secrets Of The Beehive" by DAVID SYLVIAN

"Meet Danny Wilson" by DANNY WILSON

"Remote" by HUE & CRY

"Southside" by TEXAS

"Yellow Moon" by THE NEVILLE BROTHERS

"Jordan:The Comeback" by PREFAB SPROUT

"Change Everything" by DEL AMITRI

"Heartbreaker" by RYAN ADAMS and above all -

"Hats" by THE BLUE NILE (20th anniversary in 2009)



And be quick about it!"

Free at the peak of their powers

William M. Feagin | Upstate New York, USA | 04/12/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"1970's Fire and Water was Free's third album, and the one which made them international stars. They were featured at the Isle of Wight Festival that year; the liner notes to this CD tell of how Pete Townshend approached the group on the ferry over to the Isle of Wight and congratulated them on the success of "All Right Now."



And they certainly deserved it--on Fire and Water, Free are hitting on all cylinders for sure. This was the best thing Paul Rodgers ever did, bar none; closest match might be Bad Company's eponymous 1974 debut. Paul Kossoff's guitar playing shows just why Eric Clapton wanted to learn how to get the kind of vibrato Kossoff was getting out of his Les Paul (which totally floored Kossoff--hadn't everyone been saying, just a few years previously, "Clapton is God"? Talk about affirmation!). Andy Fraser and Simon Kirke make up one of the most solid rhythm sections in the history of rock 'n' roll. And the songs? And how!



The title cut absolutely smokes--'nuff said. "All Right Now" was a hit, and deservedly so; 36 years later, this bluesy tale of picking up a girl and trying to hit on her still rocks. "Oh I Wept" has enough soul to have done Otis Redding proud. The bonus tracks are nice, if not terribly essential. The remastering is crystal clear and very warm. The only question I have is this: Why has Island's UK office been the only one to step up to the plate? A&M was the band's US label (not to mention the US label of several other Island artists, such as Fairport Convention), and apart from the Molten Gold 2 CD anthology from 1993, they haven't bothered. Thank all the gods of rock 'n' roll somebody did; kudos to Island."

Don't Think Twice

Mike Butler | U.S.A. | 11/27/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"1 can argue about which lp is Free's best. But this one always did it for me. Pauls guitar crys emotion that techincally superior guitar players know nothing about. Heavy Load is the soulfull straw Mr. Rogers has been grasping for ever since. Mr Big places Mt. Frazier on the map for ever and ever. Simon Kirkes drumming is the glue that holds the landscape together, Stellar at every turn in this audio masterpiece. An incredible cd."