Music today has been one of the lesser-known Free albums, Highway (1970), recorded after the release of their hit album Fire and Water (also released in 1970) and after the success of All Right Now and their Isle Of Wight performance. But it just didn’t happen and only reached number 41 on the UK chart, whereas Fire and Water reached No. 2. The cover art was blamed, the choosing of the wrong single (The Stealer) was blamed but in the end, there were no hits and they split. Free Live! was released in 1971 and also in 1971 a stand-alone single, My Brother Jake, made it to No. 4 on the UK chart, not appearing on an album till The Free Story (1973). The band had reformed for Free at Last (1972) that spawned the hit single Little Bit Of Love (No. 13 on the UK chart). Guitarist Paul Kossoff’s demise was ongoing and after the next album Heartbreaker (1973), the band split up for good despite the single Wishing Well (1972) reaching No. 7 in the UK chart. All of Free’s albums are great (Tons Of Sobs and Free were both released in 1969). They were all so young, just teenagers and in their early twenties when they broke up. Kossoff died in 1976 at the age of 25, one of the great guitarists whose sound was in his fingers.

Music Of The Daze

The musical musings in this post are an excerpt from my daily blog, TO WHERE I AM NOW, featured on my main website. Read the full blog post here.