Free – Free At Last

Free was a great band who played heavy blues rock with a large soul contingent. They never made the US impact that their talent deserved aside from the classic single “All Right Now”. Chemistry wise the band had problems as well as the main songwriters, singer Paul Rodgers and bassist Andy Fraser were barely getting along and lead guitarist Paul Kossoff was in the throes of drug addiction. At the end of 1970 and into 1971, Free was falling apart and effectively broke up as the pursued solo careers or other band projects. However by early 1972, Rodgers, Fraser and drummer Simon Kirke decided, for the sake of their bandmate Kossoff, to reunite for what turned out to be the final album of the original lineup. ‘Free at Last’ is not a hard rock album but it is a heavy record in the way one can hear the emotional toll that these four young men had gone through in the years they had been together. “Catch a Train”, the opener, is one of the very few out and out rockers but even in the verse, it becomes a much more mellow tune. “Traveling Man” is also similar in that way as well and the album’s lone hit single “Little Bit of Love”, is a very commercial rocker and not very heavy. The rest of the music is moody and slow, again a reflection of the mood of the band. Not to say it’s all sad as Paul Rodgers wrote a song for his baby to come in “Guardian of the Universe” and both “Sail On” and “Goodbye” seem fairly hopeful as well. People coming to ‘Free at Last’ to hear the origins of the Bad Company sound might not find as much to compare to. Final estimation - a solid record by a great band barely holding on. Take a trip on the Magic Ship….you might enjoy it.

Here we have a good and loud sounding rock album by Free.

My version has a white recordlabel and round stampsticker on side A with the text "sample records no commercial value", side B also a white recordlabel with handwritten text "Free, ILPS 9192".