Search - Free :: Highway - England

THE SUPERSTAR ALBUM THAT WASN'T!

Michael G. King | LOUISVILLE, KY United States | 04/25/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"HIGHWAY should have been the follow-up album, after FIRE AND WATER, to make FREE the superstars they were destined to be. The recording sessions that produced HIGHWAY were among the easiest and most confident of Free's recording career. HIGHWAY, released in December of 1970, reached only #41 in the UK and #190 in America (compared to #2 and #17, respectively, for FIRE AND WATER). Although FREE were at the height of their fame having had an international smash hit with ALL RIGHT NOW. Highway's Recording Engineer, Andy Johns, said he knew the album was doomed as soon as he saw the pallid record sleeve with no conspicuous display of Free's name. It was further reported that reviewers and disc jockeys were saying things like "... good band this Highway, they sound amazingly like Free".There's a pair of strutting sexy songs, RIDE ON A PONY and THE STEALER, which competed for the role of follow-up to ALL RIGHT NOW. THE STEALER, sporting lyrics "I'm the stealer, come to steal your love", failed to even enter the UK Top 75 and a few weeks later it stalled at #49 in America.There were three weighty love songs, LOVE YOU SO, SOON I WILL BE GONE, and BE MY FRIEND, that captured Free's established approach to romance as serious business. BE MY FRIEND was actually described by Paul Kossoff as "the best thing we've ever done", a statement that this writer agrees with. The song is absolutely wonderful.There were three mellow, more typical Free, songs in ON MY WAY, SUNNY DAY, and BODIE.The opening track, THE HIGHWAY SONG, is a piano-and-drums-led shuffle with an improbably agrarian storyline evident to the lighter tread and sinuous polyrhythms of The Band's Music From Big Pink influences on Rodgers and Kossoff.History emerges with no account of the startling commercial failure of Free's HIGHWAY album. The music it contains should have made them superstars. Instead, Free began their descent down the road of destruction and ruin that would break up the band and ultimately lead to the drug induced death of one of Rock's greatest guitarists, Paul Kossoff.Only now, we have posterity and here we are.The additional tracks, MY BROTHER JAKE and ONLY MY SOUL, are welcome additions to the HIGHWAY line-up, as are the BBC performances of RIDE ON A PONY and BE MY FRIEND. MY BROTHER JAKE was a mono single released in April 1971 which made #4 in the UK charts. Additional track 14, RAIN, is another take on the song which first appeared on the box set SONGS OF YESTERDAY and is previously unreleased, until now. Remastering was performed at Abbey Road by Peter Mew, and is excellent! RECOMMENDATION:
5 STARS ALL THE WAY!
The time has come to appreciate HIGHWAY the way it should have been appreciated in 1971."

Went with the time so well and still sounds good

Jerry Fry | Freeman, MO USA | 08/24/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I was just 14 when "All Right Now" was playing. It was my favorite song. After I started to hear songs from Highway, Free was my favorite group. "The Stealer" has to be one of the best songs I've ever heard, the words and sound are erotic, "I said, hey good lookin won't you come with me. She said yeah, I'm the stealer, come to steal your love". "Bodie", "Soon I will be gone", these songs have got style and Paul Rodgers sings them as well as anyone could. I was surprised to find this CD, had to be luck. I've had it about 10 or 12 years. I plan to always have it. Songs like "The Stealer" can definitely turn a person on to rock & roll. I know exactly what the other reviewer means. I was in a Best Buy once and this CD was in the "Highway" section, a non-existent group. I dutifully took it and put it in the "Free" section. In a way its sad, I remember listening to the radio on school nights waiting for "The Stealer" to come on and remember how great it sounded, now some people don't know the name of the album from the group."

Untitled

William Wood | Sydney, New South Wales Australia | 01/03/2003

(4 out of 5 stars)

"One theory has the initial poor sales of this album blamed on the fact that the name "Free" did not appear on the front cover( although that did not seem to affect sales of Led Zeppelin 4) but whatever the reason there is now no excuse for not owning this wonderful disc. At their best Free were a group who went beyond the music and into the emotions of the songs.The sonwriting team of Paul Rogers and Andy Fraser were simply one of the best ever to come out of England.
Emerging from the English blues boom to develop a style unlike any other,from the blues - rock sound of "the stealer" to the delicate jazzy blues of "be my friend" ,Free were four young guys on a mission.With the added tracks this disc is great value and deserves a place in any collection."