Free : Heartbreaker : 1973
Please watch the video above for the full review.
Another in my series looking at the albums by the band Free.
As you know I love this band and especially guitarist Paul Kossoff.
I talk about the album, the effect it had on me and look at the vinyl album and best CD remasters.
Original Track listing
1 Wishing Well
2 Come Together In The Morning
3 Travellin In Style
4 Heartbreaker
5 Muddy Water
6 Common Mortal Man
7 Easy On My Soul
8 Seven Angels
See also
Free Songs of Yesterday Box Set Review
How many highs have you taken me to?
Cares unfolded that had been compressed,
The battle against sadness
So exquisitely expressed;
It was good to know
That it was something I could share,
The realisation of what it was
Made it easier to bear;
And even now, with the battle won,
With love and happiness found,
I have come through it all
But remain haunted by the sound;
It is many years since that hero spoke
With finger pressed on fret,
But the magical notes created
Still reverberate yet
Poem by Paul Reed
Phil Aston | Now Spinning Magazine
‘Yet another example of what makes Now Spinning so great. You never run into textbook territory and repeat what we already know in a matter of fact kind of way. It’s all from the heart. Your passion and love for the music is what we all relate to. I’m sure we all have similar tales to tell of how we first got into certain bands. Listening to you talk here, I started to think of the albums I grew up with, and the ones I still feel most passionate about. And I think that’s the beauty of your channel. The human – almost spiritual – connection to the music. What it meant when we first discovered it. What it still means to us now. How the music has travelled with us throughout the years. And always on a personal level. Regarding Free, Wishing Well has always been my favourite track of theirs. Listening to you talk about some of the other tracks here, I’m now keen to revisit the whole album. Tears welling-up in the speakers? Wow! The power of music, indeed! ‘ Clive Snowden
I would like to contact Phil myself as our musical tastes are very similar. I do not have Facebook or twitter so could I email him? Thanks
Hi, you can reach me on phil.aston@nowspinning.co.uk
I understand your love of this album and had it on cassette, vinyl and the 2002 remaster on CD. Surely time for a revisit in a deluxe edition, hopefully with the band’s original mix that was rejected by Chris Blackwell as disastrous (I wonder why?). It’s a CD that seems to be played weekly and my favourite Free album; a fitting album to bow out.
However, for an album that was so good, the live concerts that accompanied it (from bootleg recordings) seemed to show a band bereft of ideas and obviously destined for the scrap heap. The two soundboard recordings that are readily available, from Bracknell and Redcar, are so woeful it’s hard to believe it is Free. In the Redcar recording, Kossoff sounds like he had only started learning the guitar a month earlier he is so out of it and after his disastrous performance on Wishing Well either Rogers or Kirke are heard muttering f***ing little w***ker. A sad end to a great live band and a great guitarist.