Bad Company/ Free

[WS82Classics]

Bad Company is one of the 3 most famous signees to Led Zeppelin's well renown "Swan Song" record label--The aforementioned Zeppelin(plus early 80's solo releases from Page & Plant) and BadCo, plus blues-based guitarist Dave Edmunds. Of the two bands(I do not know enough about Edmunds to judge), I definitely prefer BadCo to Zeppelin.

Good as their hits are, some of their less-than-renown material is quite meaningful. Quite a few of those songs were featured on their latest live album, probably more because of the then-recent(at the time of the concert performances) issuance of the "Burnin' Sky" and "Desolation Angels" albums than anything else.

Some of my favourites: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixwgJFB6Pks
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5p1ueLiIlo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3k7mfRexxo

Aside from their most obvious song, I don't know a whole lot about the band Free.

[Jonny Come Lately]

Quite glad to see this thread revived, as I got Bad Company's debut album for my birthday. I'm really enjoying it so far! I think the title track is a classic, and I also really like Movin' On, but my favourite has to be Can't Get Enough, which I think is a terrific slice of rock 'n' roll music (great guitar by Mick and great vocals by Paul). I've already played it quite a few times, so you could say that I can't get enough of it!

As a Led Zeppelin fan it was quite funny to get the disc out of its case and see the Swan Song Records logo - especially as I'd been listening to Physical Graffiti on the home hi-fi a couple of days before. IIRC I think they were the first band signed to the label after Zep's contract with Atlantic records expired after the fifth album. All I really know about Free is that Paul Rodgers and Simon Kirke were also in that band together before forming Bad Co, and the only song.

[AlreadyGone95]

I would suggest that any one who likes Bad Company to give Free a listen. Free is more bluesy and less poppy/radio friendly, but their sound isn't much different than Bad Company. Their first album, Tons of Sobs, is almost pure blues, but by their last album, Heartbreaker, you can hear the start of Bad Company. I would recommend those 2 albums and Fire and Water as a starting point. All of their work is available on YouTube and Spotify.

WS, out of those three songs, my favorite is Morning Sun. Burnin' Sky is definitely their most mellow album. Some of the the songs from the Pau! Rodgers era I consider to be the most underrated are Electricland, Joe Fabulous, Silver, Blue, and Gold, Simple Man Gone. Gone, Gone, and Oh, Atlanta, to name a few. I think the band as whole is underrated, particularly the album, Company of Strangers. The album is my favorite Bad Co album; the title track of that is my favorite Bad Company song, and the song Where I Belong is my favorite ballad . It's not a Rodgers album, so it's very unknown/underrated.

Jonny, I'm glad that you enjoyed the Bad Company album.

I'm still (patiently) waiting for more info about Simon Kirke's new album, All Because of You. He had a release party/gig for it in July, but I haven't heard a release date nor how to order it.